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Registered Traveller in the UK

October 9, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

I just received an email from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CBP informed me that the United Kingdom now operates an expedited entry program called Registered Traveller. Registered Traveller is a new service launched by the UK Border Force to give faster and more convenient entry to the UK for nationals from the United States.

If you travel frequently to or through the UK, it might be a good investment for you. If you are already registered with the Global Entry program in the U.S. you are eligible to apply for membership in the UK Registered Traveller service. Membership in Registered Traveller costs £70. Complete details of Registered Traveller eligibility and availability can be found online at http://www.gov.uk/registered-traveller.

Membership in Registered Traveller include the following benefits:
· Access to ePassport gates at airports across the country
· Use of the UK / European Union queue at airports across the country
· A dedicated Registered Traveller lane at Gatwick Airport
· Not needing to complete a landing card on arrival to the UK
· No credibility interview with a Border Force officer

Apply for the Registered Traveller service to get through UK border control faster. You won’t need to fill in a landing card.

You can apply if you’re 18 or over and you’re a national of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand or the USA.

One of the following must also be true:

*you’ve got a visa (but not a Tier 5 concession (Creative and sporting), EEA family permit, discretionary leave or leave outside the rules)
*you’ve visited the UK 4 times in the last 52 weeks eg for business, education, tourism, education or medical treatment

You’ll be able to use the:

*ePassport gates if you have a biometric passport
*faster entry lanes at Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, London City, Luton, Manchester and Stansted airports, and Brussels, Lille and Paris Eurostar terminals

It costs £70 to apply to use the service for 1 year. If your application is unsuccessful you’ll get £50 back.

If you’re already a member and you get a new passport, you’ll need to pay £20 to update your passport details. Updating your visa information is free.
You can apply for Registered Traveller online now at http://www.gov.uk/registered-traveller.

PLAY is an international language

October 6, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

My daughter Ellie who is traveling with me around Spain is 4-years old. I am always delightfully amazed when I see the international language of play. My daughter, despite knowing only so many words in Spanish, will just start playing with kids.

Ellie and a new friend in Chinchilla

Ellie and friends on the playground at port of Malaga

I have been been trying to teach her, but Spanish is not natural for me, I learned it in college and manage not to get slapped ;-).

Ellie on a playground in Albacete

Ellie splashing around in the fountains of Seville with other kids

Today we ended up on two or three playgrounds – as I try to keep her as happy as possible on our lengthy tour through Spain (and Morocco). One of the first thing I ask our hosts to tell us is where the best playgrounds are located.

At the beach she walked up to me and said “would you ask that girl if she wants to be my friend?”. On the train the other day, she spotted a girl as we were getting on (hadn’t even spoken to her) and asked if we could move seats to sit with the girl (we did). This evening she met a girl on the playground and a few minutes later they were sharing snacks.

I am very happy that my girl is not a turtle inside of her shell, but rather a beautiful bud beginning to flower. Here are my favorite memories of her ‘playing around Spain’. She is showing me that kids are kids, no matter what language they speak.

Oh and my daughter had her first sleepover at someone’s house and she stayed there the whole night. It wasn’t a long time friend – it was a friend of a friend in Spain. 😉 WOW!

Best local restaurant – in Barcelona

October 6, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

Ellie and I dining at Toyo

As someone who advocates for home and hospitality exchange, I find so many reasons for not staying in a hotel. One of of the most important for me is finding where the locals eat. There’s nothing worse than being sucked into some tourist trap restaurant. Tonight I took a recommendation from my hosts here in Barcelona and had dinner at Toyo. Toyo is a little Japanese restaurant tucked into one of the old streets that my friends tell me used to be part of an old village. The restaurant didn’t open until 8:30 and by 8:10 there was a line forming outside. My 4-year old and I patiently waited as more and more people came.

As we were directed into our seats at the buffet (you know – one of those conveyer belt buffets) – I realized we were in the best seats, at the beginning of the buffet. I was ravenous and quickly snapped up delicious dish after dish – from grilled asparagus with sesame seeds to all kinds of sushi and chicken teriyaki. Even my daughter was satiated!

Dinner is only 15€ buffet for adults and 10€ for children. If you are in Barcelona – I highly recommend Toyo, it’s located at Torrent del’Olla 10-12. Thanks to my home exchange hosts, I was saved from another bad tourist meal. GRACIAS!

STAYING IN SPAIN FOR FREE

September 2, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

Getting so excited for our impending trip to Spain. As you may know we are very experienced at hospitality and home exchange. We have hosted over 300 people in our home and love every minute of it. On this trip to Spain we will stay with people we have met through home exchange sites like HomeExchange.com and HomeforExchange.com.

We arrive in Madrid and are going to stay in a hotel for 2 nights. I could have stayed with some friends there but I do not sleep on planes, so I opted for a hotel for 2 nights to recuperate.

I AM going to use my new SPG AMERICAN EXPRESS card that gives a 30,000 points sign-up bonus! I also get 3x points for using the card to pay for the room! Starwood has great deals going on for a week in many properties around the world for less than 30,000 points. Crazy, a one-week stay for free! Check out a great blog, Million Mile Secrets, he has great info about these programs on Starwood.

From Madrid we will go stay with Karin and her 9-year old son. I love staying with families because my daughter has someone with whom she can play. It also presents a FABULOUS cultural and language interaction that can’t be had in hotels. We have never met this family but I proposed a hospitality exchange instead of a home exchange. She was taken aback but then trilled at the idea. I have been looking at her Facebook page and she looks amazingly nice.

From there we will fly to Marrakesh, Morocco for a week. I thought, it’s so close, never been and I gotta go. I tried endlessly to do a home/hospitality with no luck. I ended up finding a great deal on Booking.com. I got the cheapest price on any site for a week at the Aqua Resort, my daughter will flip when she sees this place. I am going to have guides take us around to see first hand the amazing landscapes and sites. It will be fun anyway.

From there we go to Malaga to stay with an AMAZING family who stayed with us a couple of weeks ago. We had so much fun together and became fast friends. It was mom, dad, daughter 9 and uncle. Ellie and I are both so happy to be seeing them again! Now they will show us all around their area in Spain. STAY TUNED…

That’s not all, from there we head to Barcelona, maybe with a stop in Valencia. In Barcelona we will stay with a family who did a hospitality stay back in February. The Gomez family was fantastic too! I know, it sounds so cliché. BUT TRUE! Our daughters did everything together. When mine woke she would ask “is Claudia awake?”. They were inseparable.

Navy basketball with our friends from Barcelona

We will stay about 10 days in Barcelona and live with friends that we met through websites. As I keep saying, I am always looking for friends I just haven’t met yet.

You should try it. It really does open your eyes to totally different experiences. It’s like staying with family, only better 😉.

Hungry in Hungary (with a Baby)

August 9, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

There was an article by Rick Steves in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun. I found it informative and interesting but there are definitely some things I could add, having been there recently.

Ellie and I dining alfresco in Budapest

Ellie and I on the Hop On Hop Off Sightseeing Bus

I did a 6-country, 28-day tour of Europe alone with my 10-month old. I did have an amazing time and Budapest was one of my favorite stops. Ellie and I stayed at the Budapest Marriott right in the heart of the city. It sits right on the Danube River and every room has a view – an amazing view – of the castle up on the hill. Every night in my room I would open the curtains and just stare at the amazing vista before me.

One of my biggest frustrations with Budapest, and most of Eastern Europe, is the lack of family friendly restaurants. In several of them I couldn’t get a high chair because they only had a couple and they were taken (if the restaurant had any at all). My most frustrating problem was finding a restaurant with a changing table. I ended up having to change her on a pad in the bathroom floor or on a park bench.

There was only one restaurant that I found and that was a fantastic place for a nice dinner with a child. Vakvarju is a good restaurant and walking distance from the Marriott. It was the only restaurant I have ever seen (in the world) with a gated play area for children. They had books and all kinds of toys for children to play while parents enjoyed a meal. Why don’t more restaurants have this? They of course also had plenty of high chairs and a changing table in the restroom.

Even if you don’t have a child I would still recommend it, the food was delicious and the prices were reasonable. And of course, I definitely recommend putting Budapest on your bucket list. I am definitely going to go back with my husband some day and Ellie so she can remember it this time. 😉

Oh, and by the way I do recommend buses like the Hop On Hop Off. I really enjoyed getting a break from the elements, learning about the area and history all in a comfortable setting where my daughter could sleep.

Riding the Rails

August 1, 2015 by Laurie Deppa 3 Comments

Ellie and I at the Bucharest train station

Ellie on the overnight train Bucharest to Budapest

I recently blogged about renting a car in Panama. As I stated, I almost never rent a car when I travel outside the US. I love taking trains, particularly in Europe. I find them very reliable, fairly comfortable, safe and clean.

When my daughter was 10 months old, she and I took a train trip across Europe. We visited 6 countries in 28 days – Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany. We used trains to get between the countries and it worked well.

Just two things I would like to share in particular. The train stations in Eastern Europe did not usually have elevators. I had to often ask for help as I had a baby, a stroller, two suit cases and two carry-ons. As you can see from my photo, I got it down to a science. I actually had a crib in one of the suitcases.

When I was doing hospitality stays (3 countries) there was always someone to greet me and help! Priceless! Another great benefit for staying with people!

One other thing to mention. I always dreamed about an exciting overnight train ride in a sleeper car. On the same trip above, I booked Ellie and I an overnight ride from Bucharest to Budapest. It wasn’t as wonderful as I had imagined. We got in one car and just as we were settling our porter said we could move to a bigger private cabin at no charge. Of course I moved! The rooms are like my old bunk on my navy ship, only smaller ;-0. It as very difficult to sleep with the loud noises of the train. When I finally passed out there was banging on the door, it was Romanian Customs looking for my ID at the border. Then as I fell back to sleep I was awakened by Hungarian Border Patrol looking for my passport. Finally, I was free from ID checks and at 5 was awakened by my porter. He said I had to move back to my original car. UGHHHH!

Next time I do a sleepover car it will be in a country where I don’t have to cross borders. Lesson #59

Hospitality Exchange – Better than Hosting Family!

July 26, 2015 by Laurie Deppa 1 Comment

Peter, a gentleman from Amsterdam, contacted me a few months back through Home Exchange. He asked to exchange homes for a week but as usual, I was not able at that time. I offered a hospitality exchange instead, one where he and his family would come and stay with us in our home, then sometime in the future we would visit them. We are fortunate that we have four bedrooms and an office with a futon, so we can accommodate several guests.

With our guests at Chesapeake Beach Water Park

With our Dutch guests at the Maritime Museum Concert

At a party with our guests

At first Peter was surprised by the concept and peppered me with questions… “will you be there?”, “will we have free reign of the common rooms in house?”, “what is the interaction between us like?”. These were all great questions. I say, “yes”, “yes” and “however you want to interact”.

They arrived last Thursday and right away we were pleasantly comfortable with our new friends. We had many meals together, breakfast on weekends – one day we cooked our favorite banana-chocolate chip pancakes and the next day they made us their famous savory and sweet Dutch pancakes. We all chipped in helping to prepare or clean up and enjoyed great company and conversation. They loved sitting in our backyard and we introduced them to s’mores in our outdoor fireplace. We also enjoyed some dips and conversation in the hot tub.

We took them to a fantastic party, to our favorite restaurants, to Chesapeake Beach Water Park and to many local outdoor concerts – really giving them the experience of being with locals. We even got them out on the water for a boat ride – one of their biggest requests. My daughter really loved the dad Peter, he has a company that does theater for children. We really were very sad to see them go.

If you ever done a home exchange, try hospitality exchange – it really does take the whole cultural experience up about 10 notches!

Au Revoir (Again)

July 15, 2015 by Laurie Deppa 5 Comments

The whole gang at the Towne Center concert

Raphael contacted me through Facebook. He and his family – mom, dad and two siblings stayed with us two years ago. They were a LOVELY French family from Lyon whom we met through Couchsurfing I believe. Hard to keep track sometimes.

Raphael and his friend came to tour the area and spent the weekend with us. We had a great weekend catching up with Raphael and hearing all the updates on family members. We had a great time at our favorite Friday night summer hangout – dinner and concert at the Annapolis Towne Center. Then Saturday, we had an engagement party to attend and we invited them along. They had a wonderful time and got to meet more locals and enjoy a lovely event!

Definitely going to Lyon sometime, been to France many times – but never Lyon!

🙂 Au revoir amis

Sister Cities, Counties and States

June 25, 2015 by Laurie Deppa 1 Comment

Have you ever heard of sister cities, counties or states? Sister Cities is an international organization started by President Eisenhower in 1956. Eisenhower wanted to create a network that would foster international peace and cultural understanding. This network has continued to grow and now includes 545 cities counties and states, with 2121 partnerships in 145 countries.

My city Annapolis has official relationships with Wexford, Ireland; Rochefort City, France; Nithsdale, Scotland; Changsha, China; Newport, Wales; Banjul, Gambia; Tallinn, Estonia; and Marsala, Italy.

I was once the Sister Cities Program Manager for both Columbia, Maryland and Annapolis, Maryland. I took a large group from Annapolis to visit 2 of our cities in 2001. I placed an article asking who from the community would like to go with our group. I organized everything myself and the 2 week trip was $1500 all inclusive. It was amazing if I say so myself. We had one night hotel at the beginning and the end, but otherwise we were all placed with locals for accommodation. Some were “given” rooms in bed and breakfasts, some in homes and I myself was in an apartment at the back of a pub (cool). Too bad I don’t drink!!!

Needless to say we were given the royal treatment, tours, parties, performances, etc. – all free thanks to our relationship with the city. I became good friends with two of the travelers on my trip and to this day, we still talk about that trip.

I tell you about this because it’s ONE MORE WAY to stay like a local and stay FREE. Navy Football played Notre Dame in Ireland a couple of years ago. Well they were charging a fortune for the “charter trip” so I worked my magic. I organized a 2-week trip to Dublin, Belfast and Scotland and for my three-person family it was maybe $2500 at the very most. We could have done it even cheaper but splurged a little on dinners and a last minute trip to Edinburgh.

Exactly how did I do it?

I contacted several people on my usual networks of home and hospitality exchange. I found an amazing couple in Dublin (through couchsurfing) and we hit if off immediately – communicating regularly before the trip. I set up a one-week stay in our sister city of Dumfries, Scotland. When I was Director, I hosted the entire Dumfries Male Voice Choir here in Annapolis, organized homestays and hosted a party for all at my home. I contacted the family who stayed with us and asked if we could come stay with them. Of course.

With the Dumfries Male Voice Choir in Scotland

We ended up scrambling a couple of weeks prior because our “friends” in Dublin lost jobs and had to move to Belfast. I got back online, and found a woman through www.homeforexchange.com who was willing to just “give us” her appt. She couldn’t come to US and I said to let me know if she ever made it this way. It was a great apartment on the River Liffey, walking distance to all sites and to the football stadium! We bought groceries, ate breakfast at home and carried snacks. Because we were saving so much we splurged on eating out while we were sightseeing. We could have packed lunches and eaten dinner upon return for the evening if wanted to save more on the trip.

Laurie, Brian and Ellie at Navy football game in Dublin

After Dublin, we took the train (very reasonable and close to the apt) to Belfast. We were greeted by our host Carolyn who immediately took us on a tour and her husband had dinner ready when we arrived! We had a beautiful room with a view of the Irish Sea. We had great conversations over breakfasts and dinner and ate lunch in town while seeing Belfast (walking distance). It was perfect!

Ellie with our fabulous hosts in Belfast

From there we took the P&O ferry to CairnRyan, Scotland. Our sister city friends John and Nina drove about 75 minutes to pick us up and drove us to Dumfries. It was a great time to catch up on our lives over the past ten years. We spent several nights in the rural town seeing the beautiful countryside, walking the cute little town and enjoying great hospitality and company. One night our host took my husband to the pub for boys night out :-). It really was a spectacular stay. Cost nothing.

I am trying to show you that you can have remarkable travel memories for much less than you ever imagined. Isn’t that what traveling should be about?

Travel Tips – Make a Local Friend

June 20, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

Make a local friend in the area you will be staying. Use sites like Couchsurfing.org to find local residents who enjoy playing tour guide in their hometown or just meeting a new friend for coffee. I once met a young lady (Cristina) from Italy through Couchsurfing. She was staying in Annapolis for a month or two as her husband was working and she joined him on the trip. She couldn’t work, had no car and had all day, everyday, to herself.

Cristina trying her first cheesesteak in Philly

She contacted me and asked if I wanted to meet for coffee. I was fairly flexible with my schedule at the time and we ended up spending LOTS of time together. She was just like me, a world traveler who loves meeting people and experiencing cultures. I gave her the personal tour, had them for meals, taught her how to make apple pie, took her to Philly for an overnight, etc. We really had the best time together!

She invited me to come to her town in the Piemonte region and so we did! See my blog “Red, Red, Wine” for more about our trip to “surf” with her.