From the category archives:

Travel Tips

Cost blow-out: How to avoid a $2000 mobile phone data bill

This post is all about how to avoid a $2000 mobile phone bill This post just goes to show, despite your best planning to prevent things going wrong, they can, and will. This is the Black Swan event which is a very interesting topic in and of itself. After the absolute debacle of 2009, where I returned [...]

by Tim M

Mobile Phone Data Roaming Tips for France (Reader Help Needed)

One of my first posts on this site was this one about Mobile Roaming Data tips. As with anything in the IT and Telco space, things change, so an update is warranted. After I returned home to a AUD$2000 mobile phone bill I had a look around for an international data roaming cap plan from the Australian [...]

by Tim M

CO2 Bike Canisters on Planes: Emirates says ok

Thanks to Chris H for sending me the following heads-up via email: Emirates wrote to advise Chris that they would allow him to take a maximum of 2 x CO2 canisters inside his bike case. Chris says there is plenty of discussion on bike blogs about whether it’s ok to take these on planes, but [...]

by Tim M

The Airline Baggage Racket

Caveat Emptor – buyer beware – most of us know the meaning of this. But Lufthansa’s recent boning of paid-up tickets really takes the cake. We’ve paid for an around the world ticket of 2 x 23kg thus: MEL->LAX->FRA->TLS / stop / TLS->FRA->HKK->MEL. I logged into Qantas Frequent Flyer the other day and noticed our Toulouse-Melbourne [...]

by Tim M

Tour de France Travel Tips – Practical Travel Tips

Thanks to Ashley M for his suggestions for a new post. Although these are general best practise in general travel, I thought I’d cover them here as well. In this post I discuss:

Travel visas
Insurance
Document Protection

by Tim M

Tour de France planning case study: me 2010

I thought it would be an interesting case study to look at how we have planned our 2010 trip to Le Tour and L’Etape. I basically have followed the same planning methodology described in the Cycling Through France Guide and in the other posts on this topic…

by Tim M

BikeStyle Tours (Oz) releases Etape tours: my comments

So BikeStyle Tours (Oz) have released their L’Etape du Tour tours. This year we have two options: Etape-only: AUD$450, no support, this is bare bones entry only Guided tour: AUD$2350, 20 people only, 5 days/4 nights, Etape transfers, Etape support (see the rest below)

by Tim M

L’Etape du Tour 2010: suggestions

Ok, so after last year’s D-E-B-A-C-L-E – read more here – I thought I’d save you the hassle and lay my thoughts down for the 2010 edition. I am a hardcore logistics man and hate stuffing about, so trust me on this. If you are travelling with team support (wife, husband, girlfriend, whatever) [...]

by Tim M

Getting to France – a cost breakdown

Cost breakdown – getting to France for the Tour I thought I’d post a cost breakdown from our 2009 trip to France for Le Tour and L’Etape on suggestion by Liz at Corsica Journey. So, the damage from 2009, including airfares, accomodation/carhire (campervan), fuel, tolls, food etc is listed below. All prices are in Australian dollars, convert to your currency here. Costs were shared between 2 people. We had an extra 15kg free baggage allowance on Malaysian. If you want a detailed cost breakdown, as well as tips on how to minimise these costs, you need to check out Guide to Cycling through France I wrote.

by Tim M