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I’m probably dating myself, but does anyone remember when Banana Republic used to sell safari wear? Absolutely everything was white cotton, linen or khaki, and looked like it belonged in the rucksack of a photojournalist. (”Rucksack”? Talk about dating myself.) In those days, their catolog was illustrated with watercolor and pen sketches, and the “cargo” of cargo pants didn’t refer to Blackberrys or iPods.
Always a sucker for marketing, I wanted to date a photojournalist because of those early BR images. The excitement, the danger…the frequent flyer miles. For all my romanticizing, the closest I ever got was an English major named Marcus with a zoom lens and a Filson duffle bag.
Myself, I’ve nowhere near decided what to get my FI as a wedding gift. With a year until takeoff, I’m shelving that decision for a good six months. But I can sit back and offer emphatic suggestions to my co-brides. And Emphatic Suggestion #1 is, you guessed it, Filson luggage.
merican Airlines Group & Meeting Travel (TM) offers a discount for your wedding guests:
AmericanAirlines Group & Meeting TravelSM has developed a unique wedding travel package that offers a 5% discount off the lowest applicable air fare, plus complimentary wedding invitation inserts to inform your out-of-town guests of the discount. These special discounts are available when 10 or more out-of-town guests travel to your wedding on American Airlines.
You may submit a request for a group wedding discount online or by contacting our Wedding Services Desk at 1-800-545-8193.
You can see all details here. The 10 guest minimum doesn’t mean all 10 guests have to be traveling together or even flying into the same airport. For example, my discount code applies for flights into any of the various LA and OC airports, including LAX, Ontario, Burbank, Long Beach, and John Wayne.
I can’t begin to count the number of times that my luggage has been lost at the airport. You’re grimey, you’re grumpy and you have no clean clothes. I’ll be damned if I’m not prepared on my honeymoon for utter disaster!! Urban Aid has an “Arrival Survival” pack that is perfect for someone with my luck.
You read earlier that I procrastinated on getting my vaccinations until yesterday. Well Mr. Bee picked up my passport today too - and we’re leaving for Costa Rica on an 8 am flight tomorrow! I swear I was just too busy! 
For those of you looking to get your passport expedited, here’s the low down on the process I went through. I tried to get an appointment at the New York Passport Agency (which happens to be within walking distance), but they were all booked. So I researched a couple of different passport expediting services in New York, and many of them recommended It’s Easy Passport.
There were two forms I downloaded from the site and filled out - the passport application, and an authorization letter for It’s Easy to process my application. Then I took the forms, two passport photos, my old passport, a copy of my e-ticket, and headed to their office. Once I was there, I simply submitted all the requisite documentation, paid the fee and I was out of there in 5 minutes.
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Thanks so much for all your great feedback on vaccinations! I decided better to be safe than sorry and get vaccines of my own as well.
Mr. Bee filled his typhoid vaccine and anti-malaria prescriptions this past weekend. Our pharmacist didn’t tell us that the typhoid vaccine needed to be refrigerated (although it was posted on the medication direction sheet), so we left it aside and it was ruined. That sucker cost $65 because it wasn’t covered by insurance! 
I decided to go ahead get prescriptions for the same vaccines, and went into my doc’s office yesterday. It was already too late to start the typhoid regimen (as it was for Mr. Bee as well), so she only gave me a prescription for an anti-malaria medication and cipro (a traveller’s sickness treatment… only to be used in case of).
The weird thing is, she checked my bloodwork from a recent physical I had, and it showed that I had no antibodies for Hepatitis A & B. I know I got those vaccines, because Hep A is a three shot course over six months. Perhaps I got a weak batch? As a hypochondriac, that’s actually pretty disturbing. Anyway I got revaccinated for Hep A&B yesterday, which is recommended for travel to Central America.
Luggage forwarding is a pretty dreamy travel indulgence. Here’s how it works: You call up one of any number of luggage forwarding services, they come directly to your house, pick up all your crap, and then a few days later it’s waiting for you (usually all stacked neatly in a pile) wherever you are going. No shlepping any heavy bags…no long lines at those annoying luggage carousels…you just get on the plane, jet off to your honeymoon destination and, voila…your luggage is waiting for you in your room.
Since you are basically shipping your luggage, prices vary greatly depending on where you are going, how many bags you have and how much each bag weighs. International destinations are, of course, more than domestic ones.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mr. Bee had a doctor’s check-up recently, and told his doc that he was travelling to Costa Rica. She was very familiar with the country so she gave him Tetanus-Diphtheria and Hepatitis A vaccinations, along with prescriptions for Chlroquine (an anti-malaria medicine), and a Vivotif Berna (a typhoid vaccine).
I then did a little research and came across MD Travel Health, which recommends all the above meds for people travelling to Costa Rica. I got my Tetanus and Hep A vaccines a couple years back, so I’ll just ask my doctor for anti-malaria and thyphoid prescriptions.
People on travel messageboards also recommend that you take the prescription drugs Cipro or Levaquin, which treat traveller’s sickness aka diarrhea. I had a friend plagued with a horrible case of traveller’s sickness when he visited Europe some years back, and it almost ruined his entire trip. Will good old Imodium AD will be enough? I’ve taken the stuff before (diarrhea seriously hits me at the most inopportune times) and it really works! I’ve purchased the economy size for this trip. 
Are you getting any vaccinations for an international honeymoon? Or do you have any vaccine suggestions for international destinations you’ve travelled to?
Ebags is offering 20% off everything in stock through today only! I picked up a 3 pc packing cube set ($19.99), a Jansport backpack($19.92), an SLR camera bag ($15.99) and a Pack-it-Flat Toiletry Kit ($23.99) for our upcoming Costa Rica trip. I also used Google Checkout to get an additional $10 off!
I’m super obsessive, so I usually begin packing a couple weeks before a big trip because I don’t want to forget anything. I’m actually almost done - what can I say, I’m a freak. 
I have a couple of different “Things to Pack” excel checklists that I have saved. I thought you guys might find it handy, so I thought I’d share - things-to-pack.xls.
I’ve updated this form to include some things specific to our Costa Rica trip. Some notable things include:
Happy packing!
Let my procrastination be a lesson to you.
Due to the new passport regulations that went into effect last month, the State Department has been swamped. Of course I completely forgot about that, and put off renewing my passport until now. Even with expedited service, they’re telling me that it’s going to take at least 3 weeks to get my passport. So now I have three options:
On another note, some countries require that your passport be valid for up to 6 months after you leave the country you’re visiting, so be sure to check each country’s regulations.
Have you ever gone into the passport agency or used an expediting service? How long did it take to get your passport?
I just booked our flight to Costa Rica, and bought a Lonely Planet guide from Amazon. We’ll be there March 1st - 5th (the 5th is our anniversary), and I can’t wait! We still haven’t decided which cities to visit, but let the obsessive research begin!
Miss Apple, who’s visited Costa Rica before with Mr. Apple, reminded me that we need to take a great bug repellent. When Mr. Bee and I visited the Philippines in November ‘05, I got devoured by ginormous mosquitos, and was truly miserable. And when I went camping at Rudd Pond last year, I got over 50 mosquito bites (my friend got over 100 8O) despite using tons of Avon’s Skin So Soft.
So this time I’m going to be prepared. I came across this Slate article that rates 9 different bug repellents based on ease of use, practicality, effectiveness, and natural ingredient bonus. They gave Off! Botanicals Lotion the highest rating, but it was difficult to locate except on this Canadian site. Still this repellent contains DEET, which is a super strong ingredient that has toxicity concerns (in high doses).
For those of you actively planning your honeymoon, be sure to check out http://www.kayak.com/. This site is your all-in-one vacation trip planner, which I found especially helpful for finding the best bang for my buck when purchasing airline tickets.
When you conduct a search using the days and locations you’ll be flying to and from, Kayak searches hundreds of airline sites and other discount sites to bring up a comprehensive list of airline tickets, which you can customize to view by prices, airlines, departure times, flight lengths, or number of stops. Below the lowest price Kayak has found, it lists the places you can purchase the tickets from for that price (directly from the airline, cheaptickets.com, aa.com, among others), as well as other vendors’ prices for the same ticket. You can choose where you ultimately end up buying your tickets, and Kayak redirects you to whichever site you pick. Happy Kayak-ing!
Starting tomorrow, new passport regulations will go into effect, so make sure your passport is current if you’re flying to any of the following countries.
Beginning January 23, 2007, ALL persons, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda will be required to present a valid passport, Air NEXUS card, or U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document, or an Alien Registration Card, Form I-551, if applicable.
The passport requirement does NOT apply to U.S. citizens traveling to or returning directly from a U.S. territory. U.S. citizens returning directly from a U.S. territory are not considered to have left the United States and do not need to present a passport. U.S. territories include the following: Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Swains Island, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
(via US State Dept)
Mr. Bee and I are going to jump on the Miss Kiwi bandwagon, and go to Costa Rica for our 2 year anniversary! Woohoo! We asked our friends Marc and Christina who honeymooned there last year for some advice, and this is what they said:
“Good timing¢¢â€š¬¦ we went in Feb, which is the very beginning of the dry season, and we still caught a tiny bit of rain. March is right in the middle of the dry season so it’s got a nice combination of good weather and healthy looking (not totally dried out) plants.
Where to go/things to do:
- stay away from the capital, San Jose ¢¢â€š¬” it’s not that it’s dirty or dangerous¢¢â€š¬¦ it’s just boring ¢¢â€š¬” no real reason to bother with a visit.
- Liberia is where it’s at ¢¢â€š¬” it’s in the northwest part of the country (away from the capital city and right near some of the most beautiful Pacific beaches in the country)¢¢â€š¬¦ It has a new ¢¢â€š¬…”international¢¢â€š¬? airport (a tin roof and a few runways, but it does the job ¢¢â€š¬” you can fly direct from Newark). I’d plan at least half of the trip in one of the resorts along the beaches in that area (we stayed at Paradisus Playa Conchal and loved it, but there are many others that are probably great)
Hi everyone!
Mr. Bee and I flew into LA last night to visit my family. Today I’m headed to meet with some of the LA weddingbee bloggers. Wow it’s a lot colder here than I expected! 
I packed quickly for the trip without giving a second thought to the liquid restrictions for carry-on items. When we got to the screening area, there were signs everywhere indicating that all carry-on liquid items had to be 3 oz. or smaller, and fit inside a quart size ziploc bag.
Quart size ziploc bags are handed out for free, so I placed my full-size face lotion and conditioner inside them. They went through the scanner where they were immediately seized. I could have gone out and checked my bag if I wanted to keep the items, but I didn’t have enough time.
So if you’re travelling on your honeymoon anytime soon, be sure not to carry on liquid items that are larger than 3 oz, and be sure that they all fit inside a quart-sized ziploc bag.
Well gotta run now… hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!
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