Everyone who travels has accumulated a few horror stories that they recycle among friends and family. You know the ones that start with “You’ll never believe what happened when…” and end with “… and that’s the last time I ever do that again.” Often it’s through our own (and others’) misfortunes that we gain the most valuable travel tips.
So where does that leave Peter Greenberg? Most of us know Greenberg as the intrepid travel editor on NBC’s “Today” show, CNBC, and the Travel Channel. The 57-year-old “travel expert” says he logs about 400,000 miles a year and has compiled more than 300 file folders worth of travel tales.
Over the years he has shared the information in those files with the world in his series of Travel Detective books. His latest The Complete Travel Detective Bible hits store shelves next week. It contains 640 pages of travel tips, tricks, tales and more. (Several of the websites he works for released portions of the book last week.)
The book is a great information source for travelers who love lists. Greenberg’s new book is chock full of lists from organizations that run “volunteer vacations” to airports that provide free wireless Internet connections.
There’s also a section devoted to travel trivia. For example, Greenberg explains why the abbreviation for Chicago’s O’Hare airport is ORD and not something more logical, like LaGuardia’s LGA? According to Greenberg, ORD comes from the airport’s old name, Orchard Field.
There’s also guide on travel terminology. For instance, did you know a “direct” flight is not a synonym for a flight that travels from point A to point B without stopping? Rather, it means there is a stop, but you stay on the same plane.
Very informative. However, the part of Greenberg’s books that interest me the most are his travel tips. The Travel Detective Bible is packed with winners such as:
• Beware of the glasses in your hotel room. Greenberg suggest you wash your hotel water glass in hot water before using it. He reasons that since housekeepers clean as many as 16 rooms a day they often run out of time and neglect to fetch fresh glasses. “You never know if your room was first … or 16th!” he writes.
• If you voluntarily allow an airline to bump you from an overbooked flight and agree to accept the compensation, make sure you don’t give up your seat until you get confirmed seating on a later flight. If not, you could be put on standby and be stranded.
• Never trust the airport’s departures board. Rather, to determine whether your flight will be leaving on time, look for the departure gate number on the arrivals board and see if the incoming plane is delayed.
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