The first time we traveled to a third world country (Thailand, 2003), Bob’s sweet Aunt printed out the US State Department warnings for Thailand and presented them to us. Among other things, the state department recommended against riding in tuk-tuks (the three-wheeled motorcycle taxis). While we blatantly ignored the tuk-tuk advice and lived to tell the tale, as first time “third-world” travelers, it was handy to have a list of safety concerns (that apparently we could promptly dismiss) while on the road with our young children.

Today, the State Department offers travelers the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP provides access to the latest travel information, warnings, and alerts for the country in which you will be traveling. Sign up and choose the countries you are interested in, and the State Department will send you an email whenever they update information about those countries. Enrolling in STEP can also help US citizens while traveling abroad. Now this was news to me. US consular officers can assist Americans with finding legal and medical assistance abroad, and can provide LOANS TO DESTITUTE AMERICANS. I wonder what the interest rate on those loans would be? I also wonder just how destitute a traveler would have to be? By enrolling in the STEP, it is also easier to get help abroad if your passport is lost or stolen.

Before Egypt started experiencing its recent political unrest, Bob and I were thinking about going to Cairo this coming fall. Out of curiosity, I pulled up the State Department’s information on Egypt. Not surprisingly, the warnings for Egypt discussed political unrest, complete with detailed info on recent problems and specifics on violence that has occurred. Egypt’s special circumstances of note also include warnings against photographing any Egyptian sites that can be broadly interpreted as military or “sensitive”. It also provides valuable information on health issues and medical facilities. I’m not an overly anxious traveler (as evidenced by ignoring the aforementioned tuk-tuk warnings), but it’s great to get a clear, concise and current picture of what is happening in a country when making plans to travel there.

Allegiant Air announced last week that it will begin flying from Medford, Oregon to Oakland, California twice a week, beginning in April. Its promotional price? $29 each way (taxes included)! This is great news for Rogue Valley travelers who wish to fly to the Bay Area for the weekend. A quick check of United Airlines’ fares into San Francisco (they don’t fly from Medford into Oakland) shows the lowest price of $192 each way, and Alaska shows $120 each way. Once the promotional price is gone, experts suggest the regular Allegiant price will likely fall somewhere in line with the Eugene/Oakland fare, which is about $60 each way. Still a great deal right? Well kind of.

After getting really excited about this, and mentally planning several trips this summer to see family in the Bay Area, I took a closer look on Allegiant’s site (www.allegiantair.com) and found several additional fees that get tacked on to this $29 one-way price. Are you making your reservation on line? Add $10 per person, each way. Are you making your reservation by telephone? Add $25 per person, each way. Do you want to select a seat when you make your reservation? Add anywhere from $0 to $25. Allegiant allows one carry-on bag and one personal item, just like most other airlines, but if they determine that your carry-on is too big at the gate, or if you want to stroll your baby to the gate then check your stroller? Add $35 for a gate-checked bag. Allegiant will also be flying the Medford/Oakland route just two days a week, Thursdays and Sundays.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m delighted another airline is adding destinations out of our little Medford airport. And the price is very good. With limited service though, I won’t have as many options for travel dates. Sure I can save on reservation fees, but I’ll have to drive to the airport and buy my ticket directly at the counter to do it (who does that anymore?). I won’t get to choose where I sit on the plane (which likely means I’ll end up in the back, next to the smelly bathroom). I’ll also have to plan my weekends to begin on a Thursday and end on a Sunday. Still worth it? Maybe. The truth is, the $120 it costs in gas for us to drive our comfortable car to and from the Bay Area for the weekend is pretty hard to beat. It takes a hair over five hours to drive from our house in Ashland to my family’s home in San Leandro (slightly farther than Oakland). By the time I drive from home to the Medford airport (25 minutes) arrive about an hour early (60 minutes), fly one hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes), then drive 15 minutes to my parents’ house (15 minutes), it’s already three hours. Oh well, Interstate 5 here I come, again.

I love my husband. I’m lucky enough to have found someone that I enjoy spending time with, and in fact, want to spend the rest of my life with (19 years and counting!). I’m not however, big on Valentine’s Day. I don’t need flowers, cards or fancy dinners to know that Bob loves me, nor do I feel the need to give him any of these items. Never have, never will. I guess I should be grateful I don’t live in Japan. Valentine’s Day in Japan is a holiday for women to give men candy. That’s right, it’s for women to give candy TO MEN. That’s because in 1978, the Japanese formed White Day, which is March 14, the day for men to give candy in return to the women who bought them candy on February 14. White Day was founded by, you guessed it, the National Confectionery Industry Association. White Day is also observed in South Korea. Read more about white day here.

While I might not be a huge Valentine fan, I’m happy to live somewhere where people CAN celebrate this day of love if they so desire. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Because it is a pagan holiday, stores are prohibited from displaying and selling red items beginning a few days before February 14. This includes red roses, red wrapping paper, teddy bears, and any symbols of love.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It is also illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia.

I may not love Valentine’s Day, but I do love chocolate. In Italy, Valentine sweethearts often exchange Baci Perugino, chocolate wrapped in love notes. The chocolates first arrived in Italy in 1922, and in the 1930’s the chocolates started coming with paper scroll love notes. Wondering what kind of chocolate and wine personality you have? Take this quiz from Perugina and Sutter Home and find out! Baci is also sponsoring a trip to Italy contest. Enter here before February 14 and you might win a trip to Italy’s most famous city of love.

Robert Fulghum once said; “We’re all a little weird. And life is weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.” I couldn’t have described my relationship any better. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Bob and I try to get our family out hiking in and around the Rogue Valley several times a year. We’ve also had some great treks on our travels: in Switzerland, France, and even Thailand. Some of our favorite rambles, however, are close to home. We’re fortunate that Southern Oregon is home to lots of fun trails. Much to the delight of our teenage daughters, we encourage them (drag them really) to a couple of our favorite spots every year in the spring, summer or early fall. Lower Table Rock, just north of Medford, is always beautiful in the late spring, when the wildflowers are blooming. We always take a picnic lunch and sit on the edge, enjoying both our meal and the breathtaking bird’s eye view of Central Point and Medford.

On Top of Grizzly Peak (with Bob growing a tree out of his head)

Grizzly Peak, which we can see from our living room windows, is another favorite. The remnants of a large fire about 10 years ago showcase just how the forest can rebuild itself at the top of this peak.

Our latest favorite, however, is the Castle Lake to Heart Lake hike in the Mt. Shasta region of Northern California. The hike itself is not too strenuous (2.2 miles roundtrip, with a 600 feet elevation gain), and the views of Mount Shasta and Castle Lake are outstanding. Our friend Jim introduced to this hike several years ago, and on our most recent visit, he and his wife joined us for a fun day of hiking, canoeing, and swimming. We ended the day by eating an early dinner at an Italian restaurant that time forgot. While Mt. Shasta’s old school Piemont Restaurant isn’t the finest Italian food I’ve had, the ravioli were very good, and it sure made me more than a little nostalgic for the Italian eateries I ate at as a kid. Soup, salad and an antipasti plate all served family-style followed by a main course and followed up with dessert and coffee included all for one very attractive low price.

A View of Heart Lake with Mt. Shasta in the Background

We began our family hiking adventures on many of these local trails when our girls were quite young, and my only hope is that Sarah will one day be blessed with children who when she is hiking with them will ask her over and over again to be carried. Payback, as they say, is a bitch.

2011 has drawn to a close, and if you’ll spare us a few moments, we’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on a few of the things for which we are thankful. Ashland, Oregon is a great place to live and operate our small retail store. We have the wonderful Oregon Shakespeare Festival right here in our little town, offering outstanding theater to those of us fortunate enough to live here and to those who travel from near and far to see live theater at its very best. We are delighted to support OSF in all its endeavors.

We’re thankful that although travel isn’t always easy these days, a person can still get halfway around the world in less than a day. That is pretty darn amazing when you think about it. We’re also thankful for the stunning array of fabulous food available from the many cultures of the world. Need I say more?

Finally, and most importantly, we’re thankful for YOU, our customer, who has supported our family owned travel store for 19 years now. We know you can buy luggage, travel friendly clothing and accessories at many different places, and we are grateful you choose Travel Essentials for your travel gear needs. We’ll keep offering high quality merchandise and high quality customer service in 2012, and we’ll hope to see you in our store or on our website again soon. Thank you. We appreciate your support, and wish you all the best in 2012.

While many cellphones work overseas with both voice and data packages, some can be extremely expensive and beyond the budget of most travelers. In addition, certain phones don’t work overseas at any price.

Here are some technical details:  In order for a cell phone to work abroad, it must have the proper GSM frequencies. In most of the world, carriers use the 900 and 1800 networks. In the USA and Canada, some carriers rely on the GSM system while others use CDMA. To make matters more confusing, the GSM frequencies that we use in the US and Canada are 850 and 1900 and therefore not all GSM phones are compatible to work internationally. If you are an AT&T or T-Mobile customer, there is a very good chance that your phone will work internationally. If your carrier is Verizon, Sprint or someone else, your chances are slimmer. In order to ensure that your phone is capable of functioning abroad, your best bet is to either research the features of the handset model online (www.gsmarena.com is a good resource), or check the user guide or call customer service.

If your phone does work overseas, the good news is, well, it works overseas. The bad news is that using your phone with your current carrier’s service can be very expensive. In fact, in some countries, your carrier will charge you about $5.00 per minute to make or receive a phone call. However, there is a much better solution. If you are traveling to a single country, say Italy or France, you can purchase a local SIM card for that single country and you will pay the same cellular rates that the locals pay. While rates vary depending on the carrier and the country, an across the board average is about $0.25 per minute for international calls and about $0.10 per minute for local calls. All incoming calls are always free. You can purchase SIM cards once you arrive at your destination or prior to your departure by ordering online from a reputable US based e-tailor. Some of the advantages of ordering prior to your departure include A) you have the SIM card and phone number in hand and ready to upon arrival, B) all instructions and customer support are in English and C) you will generally get the best SIM card in terms of rates for the needs of the international tourist. A good source for SIM cards as well as cell phone rentals is Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com)

One small caveat is that your cell phone must be unlocked. This makes it capable of operating with other SIM cards. Fortunately this is easy to do. Simply call your carrier and ask them for the unlock code. If your account is in good standing, they will, in almost all circumstances, provide you with the unlock code and your phone will work with any SIM card.

What about data? Most smart phones, even those offered through non GSM carriers like Sprint or Verizon often have GSM capabilities and are able to work for data needs overseas. Using data while roaming can be incredibly expensive, particularly with phones such as the iPhone that are continuously using data. There have been instances where customers, unaware of the roaming expenses, have run up bills literally in excess of $200,000 in one billing cycle. While those are (hopefully) isolated cases, in every case, data roaming is expensive! Here are several money saving tips for those who need to rely on data for checking emails, maps, web browsing or other data related activities.

- Most carriers offer international data packages. These packages are moderately expensive but certainly a great deal cheaper than not signing up for a package at all. Contact your carrier and see what plans they have. Be careful of exceeding the data package as it can be a costly mistake.

- Turn off data roaming on your phone and use wifi. Depending on where you are traveling, wifi, even free wifi, may be available. In Europe, many cafés offer wifi. You may have to sit down and grab a cup of coffee or a sandwich but there are worse things to do when traveling! A word of caution; if you have sensitive documents on your computer, you may not want to expose yourself to the risk of someone else accessing your computer when using a “public” wifi service.

- Use a country specific or local SIM card. Many pay as you go SIM cards for international destinations offer incredible deals for data. For example, Ortel, a German carrier, offers unlimited data on your cell phone for only 8 Euros (about $10) for 30 days. There are other similar deals for other destinations as well.  Visit http://www.cellularabroad.com/data.php for more information and other deals.

If you want to use your computer or an iPad to access the internet, consider renting a mobile broadband hotspot device. These are often referred to as “Mi Fi” and when paired with the correct SIM card create your own personal and portable mobile hotspot. The device is about the size of a small cell phone and the battery life can last several hours between charges (several days on standby). With “mifi”, you can use up to five wifi enabled devices simultaneously. This is perfect for travelers who need internet service any time and any place and for those wishing to use multiple devices.

 Sebastian Harrison is the president of Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com), founded in 2002.

I recently returned from a girls’ weekend in San Francisco spent mostly in search of one of my newest big city favorites, mobile food carts. Gaining in popularity in cities up and down the West Coast, food carts offer a wide range of gourmet offerings, down-home cooking, and ethnic dishes, all for a reasonable price. My girlfriends and I were lucky enough to visit San Francisco on the last weekend of the season for “Off the Grid”, an organized gathering of more than 25 food trucks at Fort Mason Center. The food vendors parked their trucks in a large circle, and put chairs in the inner circle for eaters to sit. There was even a live band playing while we were there. The star of the show however was the food. The three of us decided to share all our food so we could sample more trucks, and boy, were we happy. We ate delicious spicy pork marinated in Korean seasoning at Hiyaa, fabulous pork and chicken steamed buns from Chairman Bao and outstanding Filipino tacos from Hapa. The dishes ranged from $4-$9 and were all great.

Portland also has a great food truck scene, and I’ve been lucky enough to sample a few dishes in this foodie city as well. I’m a fan of tandoori chicken from New Taste of India, and beef pho from Mai Pho Vietnamese, but my favorites to date are the pie holes (mini-pies) from The Pie Spot. We’ve sampled marionberry, lemon, and pecan, and found them all delicious. Whenever I’m headed to Portland, I peruse the latest news in food carts on the excellent online guide to Portland’s food carts, www.foodcartsportland.com.

Food carts are not restaurants. Thus there is often no seating, there are no bathrooms, and menus are limited. On our San Francisco trip, after seeking out Chairman Bao’s food truck on a downtown street for lunch, my girls and I wondered if food carts have to abide by the same parking rules as all the rest of us, when they’re parking in metered spaces. According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, they do. Many argue however, that food carts are stealing business from restaurants, and paying far less in permits and rent to do it. I certainly wouldn’t be happy if someone parked a truck outside Travel Essentials and began selling luggage. But perhaps there’s some compromise here, because lord knows, I want to keep visiting Portland and San Francisco and continue sampling the delicious and amazingly varied wares of the food trucks.

My daughters and I spent a long weekend in October visiting the happiest place on earth, with a college visit thrown in for good measure. Disneyland is one of my favorite places, and since my girls will be leaving home in a few years, I’m running out of time to visit. (Can adults go to Disneyland without kids and not seem odd? The jury is still out on this one.)

Disneyland truly does have appeal for kids of all ages. When my girls were little, they were enchanted by princesses, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and such. On subsequent visits they graduated to the older kid rides, and now, it is roller coaster city baby. We learned a few tricks this visit that helped us avoid some of the longest lines in the park. Here are our secrets.

We got to Disneyland at opening time, 8am, and walked quickly to get a fast pass for Indiana Jones, our vote for the best ride in the park (a fast pass allows its holder to return at a later time and bypass the main line for a much shorter line, or in many cases, no line at all). As soon as we got the fast pass, we went on the ride in the regular line, because there was no wait (it was 8:05 a.m., and most families weren’t even out of their hotel rooms yet!). Then we saved our fast pass to go on the ride again later in the day, when the lines got long. We also noted the time we could get a fast pass to another ride (listed at the bottom of the fast pass ticket), and as soon as we were able, we got fast passes for other popular rides. At one point in the day we had three different fast passes in our pockets. Click here for more information on fast passes at Disneyland. We also took advantage of rides that offered single rider passes. If you’re willing to ride separate from your group, you can walk to the front of the line and get right on, saving yourself anywhere from 10 to 75 minutes. In almost every case, we still rode right in front of or behind each other. Not all rides offer single rider passes, check the Disneyland map to see which currently offer this time saving option.

We booked a hotel in Anaheim through Priceline.com, winning the three-star Doubletree for just $61 a night. Although Priceline only guarantees beds for two people (something to keep in mind in other cities), we’ve never had a problem getting a room for four in Anaheim, likely because most Anaheim hotel rooms are designed for families. The Doubletree even offers free parking and free shuttles every half hour to and from Disneyland—a great deal.

We rented a car through Alamo for one day to visit Pomona College, a beautiful campus in the lovely town of Claremont (Can adults who already have a college diploma go back to college and not seem odd? Because I want to go to school here, not so much to study, but to take advantage of Pomona’s many offerings. The jury has ruled on this one, and the answer is no, I can’t go back to college, mostly because I can’t even afford to send my children to college, let alone myself too. I’ll just have to live vicariously through Emily.) We also took Super Shuttle from LAX to the Doubletree on our arrival. We reserved in advance online (http://www.supershuttle.com/) for $16 a person, and the ride took about 40 minutes.

Bob and Chef Ranjana

by Nancy Bestor

On a recent trip to Chicago, Bob and I had the delightful (and delicious!) opportunity to attend an Indian cooking class taught by Chef Ranjana Bhargava. We learned how to make samosas, daal, saag paneer, raita and a few other Indian specialties. But more than just learning how to make Indian food, we got to spend time with Chef Ranjana, which is a delightful experience in itself.

Ranjana Bhargava has been teaching her authentic Indian vegetarian cooking classes in Chicago for more than 30 years. In addition to cooking and raising a family, Ranjana also has a 30-plus year career in social services, working for Chicago public schools, the Chicago public library, founding Apna Ghar, a shelter for Asian women, and much more. To say that Ranjana is fascinating would be an understatement.

Chef Ranjana offers her classes (www.indiancookingclass.com) in her home, a house in the historic Jackson Park Highlands district of Chicago’s South Shore. I thought it might be a little awkward to take cooking lessons in a private home, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Upon our arrival, as we removed our shoes and coats, we were immediately put at ease by Ranjana and her husband and their wonderful hospitality.

The class began with Ranjana offering tea to Bob and I and the five other students in our class. After I asked a few leading questions, Ranjana told us a little about herself (Spend any time around me and I’ll ask you a leading question. Some call me inquisitive, others just plain nosy). Ranjana came to the United States from India in the late ‘60s, to marry her husband in an arranged marriage. At the time she did not know how to cook, as growing up in her home children did not spend time in the kitchen. So she taught herself, and what an amazing chef she has become.

Everything Ranjana and the rest of the class cooked, we ate. And if someone asked about a particular dish, and Ranjana happened to have the ingredients in her refrigerator, she was happy to switch gears and add another item to the day’s menu. In one case, because one student did not eat processed sugar, and we had made a sugary dessert, Ranjana got fresh strawberries out of her fridge so he could eat something sweet. We learned about Indian spices, chutneys, and many vegetarian dishes (Ranjana and her husband are vegetarians, and she only teaches vegetarian cooking), all authentic and all delicious.

As a group, we also talked about our lives, our families, our careers, the types of food we like, and more. It became less a class and more a gathering or dinner party, people cooking together, eating together and socializing. Chef Ranjana and her hospitality are what made it so delightful. If I lived close to Chicago, I’m certain I would take more lessons, to learn how to cook more Indian dishes, and to spend more time with Ranjana Bhargava.

As regular travelers to far off countries and time zones vastly different from our own, Bob and I like to think we know the best ways to prevent jet lag. We take No Jet Lag tablets, drink lots of water, avoid alcohol on airplanes, and try hard to sleep and wake according to our new time zone. Take our most recent trip to Barcelona for example. We arrived in Barcelona at 8am, local time. We both slept a few hours on the plane ride over, and then stayed awake that first day until 10pm. That night, our first night in Barcelona, we slept 11 hours, waking at 9am. We felt pretty darn good and patted ourselves on the back, thinking we had the whole jet lag thing licked.

Then we got to the second night. I’m pretty sure I got to sleep about 5am, having gone to bed about midnight. And Bob didn’t fare much better.  My brain just wouldn’t shut off. Because we only had a limited time in Barcelona and we knew that sleeping in the daytime would only prolong our jet lag misery, we were up by 9am, and “ready” to roll on about three hours sleep.

Now before I had children, I would have said that I simply could not function on so little sleep. I was always the person who required nine to 11 hours. Then I had children. When they were babies, adorable as they may have been, they wreaked havoc on my sleep schedule. The end result however, was that I learned I CAN function on much less sleep, at least for a few days at a time. (On a side note, they’re teenage girls now, and one of them drives, so now I stay awake worrying until they are home!)

But back to the jet lag. I know that jet lag is caused by our body’s inability to immediately adjust to a different time zone, due to the altering of our circadian rhythm or 24 hour cycle. I also know that the primary cue to our body’s adjusting is daylight. But here are a few things I didn’t know:

• Evidence suggests that it is more difficult for us to travel west to east, as opposed to east to west.
• A general rule of thumb is the number of time zones you cross equals the number of days it will take you to adapt to your new time zone.
• One of the symptoms of jet lag is irritability. My children might argue I am always jet lagged.

After researching jet lag for this story I’ve learned there are a few more things I can do to avoid jet lag in the future. In the weeks leading up to a trip, I can try and partially adapt to my new time zone, an hour a week. According to a doctor’s article on the web, this will save my body the shock of adjusting all at once. Studies have also suggested the use of melatonin to aid in sleeping, and, according to some studies, fasting may also help adjust your body clock (although I can tell you right now I am NOT going to go without food to help me sleep, I’d rather be sleepless).

In the end, for me, one mostly sleepless night was more than worth it for a week spent in a fabulous city almost halfway around the world. I’ll give up a good night of sleep for travel any day.

Read more tips and advice about avoiding jet lag here.