Notes from the Road

Rick Steves' go-to tip for avoiding pickpockets

Pickpocketing is one of the most common ways a trip can go sideways, especially in crowded tourist areas across Europe. Travel and Leisure shares veteran travel writer Rick Steves' simple, practical tip for keeping your valuables safe without ruining the experience of exploring a new city.

Worth a quick read before your next trip: Rick Steves' Tip for Avoiding Pickpockets.

Opt in to Touchless ID to skip the ID check

If you have TSA Precheck and are flying Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, or Southwest Airlines, spend a few minutes opting in to Touchless ID to bypass the ID and boarding pass check at participating airports.

The Points Guy put together a great step-by-step guide to TSA PreCheck Touchless ID that walks through enrollment and which airports currently support it.

Plan ahead for delays this season in the EU as the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) ramps up

The EU Entry/Exit System (EES) is now fully operational across 29 participating European countries. It has officially replaced traditional manual passport stamping with a digital system that automatically records a traveler's entry and exit dates, along with biometrics like fingerprints and facial scans.

You may have seen some news articles describing the impact on travelers. Some of this news is exaggerated, and some delays are due to poor implementation at airports, train stations or ferry sites that are not well run anyway, but you should plan ahead for potential impacts.

That means adding some buffer time at your arrival and departure to accommodate potential delays. Anticipate some extra processing time at the airport when you schedule ground transport — you may not make it if your schedule is too tight....

New Tool: Your AI-Powered Travel To-Do & Packing List

We just launched a tool we've personally wanted for a long time — a smart, customizable packing and pre-trip to-do list built specifically for slow travelers, expats, and digital nomads.

Here's what makes it different from a generic checklist:

It knows your trip. Enter your destination and time of year, and the tool instantly pulls up a tailored briefing — projected weather and climate conditions, visa requirements for US passport holders, and any other key things to know before you go.

It's built for long trips. The default checklist goes well beyond "don't forget your toothbrush." It covers preparing your home for a long absence (mail forwarding, subletting, pausing subscriptions), financial prep (travel-friendly bank cards, no-FX-fee credit cards, setting up auto-pay), health logistics (building up a 3-month medication supply, scheduling pre-departure checkups), and packing essentials vetted from multiple long-term travel resources.

It adds activity-specific items via AI. Planning to scuba dive, hike, attend a wedding, or work remotely? Describe your activities and the tool adds a custom section with items you'd actually need — not just generic fluff....

Demand pricing is getting annoying.

We took a short trip via Amtrak to New York City last month, and wanted to head home earlier on our last day. Checked the schedule using the Amtrak app, and found an earlier train at a good price. So I canceled my return ticket and want to purchase a new one. The price doubled within that 5 minute period. I assume that the app saw that I did not have a current return ticket and Amtrak decided to squeeze me as much as it could. I was angry for quite a while about that incident.

This type of pricing undermines trust, and damages the reputation of the company. Amtrak is generally insulated from the impact of this since they don't have competitors in the rail space, but that type of behavior can drive people to finding other non-rail alternatives. When airlines do this, it undermines brand loyalty, and makes consumers focus on price, which is not likely the desired goal of such a system.

Travelers are going to see more and more of this AI-based dynamic pricing. We need AI tools to enable us to fight back and counter it.

Take a 14 hour flight, or shorter hops?

I hate overseas flights.

I dread getting on flights longer than 6 hours. I get sore from sitting that long, and burn out on reading or watching videos for any long period. It is tough to get to sleep, unless my body clock is after midnight, which is also why I have grown to hate overnight flights arriving in the next morning. The next morning from the US to the EU is usually around 3AM US time, so if I fall asleep at 1AM US time and arrive at 9AM EU time, I've slept around 2 hours total for that night.

We are planning a trip to Japan in the fall. A 14-hour flight from the US east coast. Ouch. Business class tickets are around $5000. Premium economy around $3000. Coach around $1400....

Don't get a new dog

Our dog has become a big impediment to being free to travel.

We inherited a 10 pound female Havanese a few years back. We love her, and enjoy having her as a companion, but she really limits our ability to leave home. She does not like to be left alone, and will sometimes howl for 30 minutes or so after we leave, even to go to a grocery store (confirmed by spying on her with the security cameras). Even something as small as an overnight road trip requires us to find a hotel that will accept dogs and pay the additional $75/night, and then can't leave the dog in the room while we are out, so we have to find dog friendly locations and take her along. It's like having a toddler. That makes trips much less attractive.

We used to have relatives who were happy to watch her while we were away, but they enjoyed the experience of having a canine companion so much they adopted their own dogs, who are not compatible with ours....

We love the Chase Lounge in Philadelphia

One of the best perks of paying extra for a travel oriented credit card was always getting access to the airport lounges. We even got to the airport early if the departure airport had a decent lounge. Breakfasts at the departure lounges, or some quick drinks during a layover, were usually a great respite from a hectic airport experience.

We have been flying less in business class since we have to pay for it ourselves (or can't use points for an upgrade), so many of the airline lounges are no longer available. But we have credit cards that get us into the Priority Pass lounges for free, which made layovers much easier to take.

Priority Pass was great a few years ago, but recently this perk has gotten too popular, causing lounges to be too crowded to find a seat, or even overfilled at busy times, causing these locations to implement a waitlist for entry. Quality has also dropped for a number of these lounges....

Check out our travel map tool on the tools page.

We are playing around with creating online tools for travelers, using AI.

Here is one that may give you some inspiration. This tool displays a map with popular expat and slow travel destinations identified, and allows you to zoom in and see other popular destinations. You can click on a destination to get an overview of why it is highly rated, based on an AI search of travel publications and user comments.

For example, zoom in on Portugal, and Lisbon is prominent, then Porto appears, and zoom in more and links to Faro, Sintra and Evora are suggested, along with other nearby destinations.

We like this tool as a way to get ideas of where to visit when we are in a particular region — what other destinations are a reasonable driving or train distance that we may want to plan to see.

Welcome to the 89 Days Away ongoing thread — a running log of quick observations, news bites, tips, and thoughts from the road and the research desk. We'll be adding short posts here regularly. Bookmark it and check back often.