1:30 is not a layover.

It's a mad rush between gates.

Remember, practically all flights board at least 30 minutes prior to departure, and on large aircraft it's often an hour or more ahead of departure.

This means that once you land, you'll have time to run to your departure gate in time to board, and if you're lucky, hit a restroom on the way.

Do not plan anything.

If you get to your departure gate before they leave (most likely due to a delay), then look for something in that immediate vicinity to do--such as a cafe for cup of coffee, or a gift shop to browse.

An hour and a half is not time to be a tourist--unless you intend to miss your flight.

There's no way you can get to the capital and back and make your flight.

1 hour 30 should be plenty of time to get to your departure gate.

Keflavik is a well laid out airport which has all the gates within about 15 minutes walk.

If I remember there are less than 40 gates in the entire place.

My suggestion would be to explore the shops in the departure lounge.

Yeah, 1.5 hour is not much time.

I had a similar layover in Reykjavik to Amsterdam before too.

I killed some time by having some coffee and looking around some shops at the airport.

There is a souvenir shop with interesting things like Icelandic troll figures.

There is also a nice sculpture, which I saw a video of on my flight on Iceland Air.

It is a just a bit annoying buying anything there because you get change in Icelandic kroners.

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned it, but Reykjavik is at least 1 hour's drive away from Keflavik airport, so I don't think sight-seeing is on the cards.

just got back last weekend from doing a similar layover in Iceland - the area where you get off the plane after customs drops you right into a crowded waiting area, so go explore the airport past the waiting area and you'll find lots of shops and a nice place to get a great coffee, Kaffitár.

I wish I changed some money because I like having a couple bills in foreign currency as souvenirs, but didn't need to by paying for everything with the card.

I think you'll find an hour and a half is barely enough time.

You need 20-30 min or so getting off the plane and going through customs.

Queueing for the next leg, you'll want to be boarding at the gate 40 min before takeoff.

This only leaves you with a half hour for that coffee.

Assuming everything is on time.

As mentioned, Reykjavik is 40 min by bus, and then only every hour.

Take a full day for your stopover (especially since Iceland Air doesn't charge anything extra)

next time - visit the blue lagoon and Reykjavik then - totally worth it!

An hour and a half isn't enough time to go touristing from any airport, of any size, anywhere.

You need to be back at the airport for your onward flight at the absolute minimum one hour before its scheduled departure, and often an hour and a half to two hours.

Add to that the time it takes to get off the plane, get through immigration, travel to the city and travel back to the city and you need a layover of multiple hours before you can consider doing anything outside the airport.

Question: My friend and I are travelling to Amsterdam via Iceland Air and have a 1h30m layover there starting around 9am. Is there anything interesting to do to fill that time? This is not limited to the airport - if it is possible to get into the city quickly enough, we wouldn't mind the trip. Anything interesting inside of the airport would also do just as well.

Anything to do in Reykjavik airport at 9 am during a 1h30m layover?

Reykjavik is at least 1 hour's drive away from Keflavik airport, so I don't think sight-seeing is on the cards. Have a coffee or go to a gift shop in the departure lounge to browse. There is a souvenir shop with interesting things like Icelandic troll figures, and also a nice sculpture in the area.

A stopover of one and a half hours is not enough time to leave the airport, especially as Reykjavik is an hours drive away. There are cafes and shops at the airport to pass the time between flights.

One and a half hours is actually very little time at an airport. Just enough time to change planes.

There are a number of things to do at the airport: have a coffee, look at the shops.

Reykjavik is at least an hours drive from the airport, It would be impossible to get there and get back for the next flight in one and a half hours.


Needs of a domestic flight: check in check luggage go through security board plane Additional needs of an international flight: valid passport check at check-in visa check at check-in to ensure you have the rights to enter the destination country (not every country) exit passport control - outbound stamp, check (not every country) departure forms need to be completed, checked

(cynically, you could argue extra time allows more spending at duty free) While not always the case, international flights are more likely to have more people, more luggage to load, food to load, and additional paperwork, refueling and checks.

Of course, most of that can be done while you're processing land-side.

The rule is actually 60 min for domestic, 120 min for international.

Some companies, like Delta, even require 3 hours for international flights.

That could have a series of motivations, mainly due to convenience.

Bigger planes imply more luggage to load, more people to wait, more people to get on board.

It seems reasonable that they don't want the plane to get delayed with people who came barely earlier than 30 min.

And they obviously need to admin on board everyone who came before the stipulated time.

From personal experience - and anecdotal evidence chatting with airline desk staff - this has to do with immigration formalities that can cause delays.

Several things play a role.

Others have mentioned passport control and immigration but this shouldn't be overstated.

US-based passengers might mistakenly assume that the only thing that matters is whether the flight is domestic or international but it's just one factor among others.

In Europe, it's not uncommon for non-EU non-Schengen flights to have short recommended check-in times even though passengers need to complete all the usual formalities and the distinction is really between intercontinental/long-haul flights on the one hand and shorter flights on the other hand.

The layout of the airport, terminal used, size of the aircraft (and consequently the number of passengers and amount of luggage), etc.

presumably all play a role.

Therefore, it's not uncommon to have different recommendations for each airport , specific requirements for sensitive flights or different recommendations for different airlines at the same airport (I have occasionally noticed shorter minimum check-in and boarding time for local airlines).

From Europe, US-bound flights in particular seem to have a longer lead-in time than other comparable destinations (possibly because the airline needs to communicate the passenger manifest to the US authorities?).

Technically, you can also find flights that are intercontinental, yet domestic, e.g. flights between mainland France and Martinique, Polynesia or la Réunion.

They typically use large jets like the Boeing 747 and follow the same check-in rules than transatlantic flights and other long-haul routes (incidentally, there is a passport check but on arrival).

An intercontinental flight takes more people and has about the same amount of entrances as a continental flight.

Naturally, you'll need more time to get everyone in the plane.

Many countries in Europe don't even have any domestic flights at all, and even in countries that do most people don't have a concept of "domestic" versus "international" flights like the US for example does.

Nowadays with most countries in Schengen, the EU or both, flights within Europe however have the character of domestic flights like in the US.

So the main distinction, as it exists in Europe is "continental" versus "intercontinental".

And since the major intercontinental destination is the US the rules for intercontinental flights are adapted to the requirements of the US.

Unforseen delays can make anyone late.

The difference is if you miss an intercontinental flight, you lose a lot of money.

This is just friendly advice, not airline policy.

Actual check-in cutoff is much closer to departure.

Eg, JetBlue is 30 minutes for domestic, 60 minutes for international.

Delta's are similar, although it lists a few cities where it strongly suggests to arrive really, really early.

The check-in time assumes that you will check luggage (and not fly with carry-on only).

For long-haul super-jumbo aircraft (B747, A380, B773) more time is required to process luggage.

For international flights, checked bags undergo more rigorous security screening, which takes more time.

Perhaps more importantly, on international flights, airlines are required to verify that each checked bag is matched to a passenger who is on board.

If the airline finds that a passenger checked luggage but didn't board, the airline must retrieve that passenger's bags from the hold.

That's why, on international flights, you may hear some passengers being repeatedly paged in the airport, at the gate, and on-board ("If passenger xxx is on board, please ring your flight attendant call button.")

Question: For intercontinental flights I am advised to be at the airport two hours before the gate closes. For intracontinental flights one hour is enough. Why is there a difference?

Why do I have to wait 2 hours instead of 1 for intercontinental flights?

Some companies like Delta actually require 3 hours for international flights. The waiting time can be explained by the time needed to process and screen luggage as well as boarding passengers and verifying that each checked bag is matched to a passenger who is on board. If the airline finds that a passenger checked luggage but didn't board, the airline must retrieve that passenger's bags from the hold. Immigration formalities also take a lot of time. Flights within Europe take a lot less time to process than to other destinations, so there the main distinction is "continental" versus "intercontinental".

There could be many reasons why the lead-in times for intercontinental flights are longer than those for domestic flights. Loading baggage, stricter baggage checks, loading passengers and immigration formalities are all possible reasons. Flights to the US may also need more time to transmit the passenger manifest.

The rule for arriving at the airport is 60 minutes for domestic flights, 120 minutes for international. This may help to avoid passengers arriving at the lest minute.

Bigger planes are used on intercontinental flights and they hold more passengers and more luggage which all have to be boarded. Also, baggage checks are more thorough and if passengers do not board their baggage must be removed.

Immigration formalities may be a reason for the extra time.

In Europe, flights to the US have longer lead-in times and this may be because the airline has to transmit the passenger manifest to the US.


They have the holes because of the machines that made them (check DavidG's answer), anyway this ice cubes with holes are better for planes for a few reasons: Because they are lighter (believe it or not, every gram in the aviation business counts, plus the ice is not made onboard, it is loaded prior to departure just like the food)

They cool things faster due to larger area of contact with the liquid They also will allow more liquid to be filled in the already small airplane cups.

Last thing, they do not tend to stick together in the ice bucket, so cabin crew won't need to smash it to break it down.

It's because the machine that creates the cubes has metal prongs that the ice 'grows' around.

In the retail drinks trade (pubs, bars etc), machines that make these hollow ice cubes are often* used where there is not much room to store large quantities of ready-produced ice (such as in a much larger machine).

The larger surface area to volume ratio means fresh ice cubes can be made more efficiently and quickly to meet demand - by the time one batch is used, the next is ready.

The ice machine only needs a small storage capacity at a time to keep up.

*Of course, in warmer climates where ice is used in larger quantities, or in establishments where drinks depend on more ice (cocktail bar versus English pub), they will usually have larger capacity machines, but even then the hollow cube is common.

Typically those are used to identify ice cubes made from drinkable water.

Restaurants use them in most parts of the world and those are not limited to planes.

Actually, we were at a steakhouse just yesterday and my smallest daughter asked exactly the same question.

She probably was bored too.

The comments to your question are interesting because they outline several advantages of these.

Risk of choking being reduced is a great one.

Obviously cost saving and efficiency are important too.

The surface area is bigger when it is hollow.

More the surface area means that it helps cool the drink faster.

Question: It could be due to boredom that I notice this, but it seems that only on airplanes ice cube have holes. Why is that?

Why are there holes in ice cubes in airplanes?

The holes come from the metal prongs in the ice machine that the ice 'grows' around. These are not limited to planes, and are used in restaurants around the world.They are lighter than solid ice, which actually matters in a plane, and the greater surface area and hole allows more liquid to be added to the small cups and cools the drink faster. Lastly, they are less likely to stick together.

Hollow ice cubes are used on planes because they are lighter, easier to serve and they cool drinks faster. Moreover, they are faster to make and therefore you do not need so much storage room. Hollow ice cubes indicate they were made with drinkable water and they are used in restaurants around the world not just on planes.

Hollow ice cubes are lighter and faster to make so you do not need to make and store them, you can make them as you need them.

Hollow ice cubes cool drinks faster as they have a larger surface area. Also they do not stick together so they are easier to serve.

Hollow ice cubes identify the cube is made from drinkable water. They are made by a machine with prongs.

They are not limited to airplanes, restaurants around the world use them.


If you're looking for deepest place on the surface it would be the Dead Sea which is -427m deep.

If you're looking for the Ocean one there is a tourism organized by Deep Ocean Expeditions , which you can pay a pretty penny but explore like James Cameron down to the depth of the Mariana Trench...

If you're looking for something more or less reasonable as far as prices are concerned take a look at R.I.D.E.

What you are probably looking for is this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Earth#Elevation

Which tells us that, apart from the dead sea, lowest human-sized point underground is 3.9 kilometres (2.4 mi)[1] below ground at the TauTona Mine, Carletonville, South Africa Google shows the entrance at about 1700m which would make the bottom 2.2km below ground you would have to go to sea to beat that as Karlson suggested.

If you also mean the deepest point underground: The deepest natural cave is the Voronya/Krubera Cave in Abchasia near Georgia/Russia with an estimated depth of over 2000 meter (6500 ft).

The entrance is in 2200 m height so you are still over water.

I have used this as background in a RPG game and searched photos for it.

It contains very long shafts, an underground river...

it is quite a fantastic cave.

Deepest human accessible point in the world is the bottom of Kidd Mine in Timmins, Canada.

Kidd is 9,889 ft (3.014 km)

deep and the city itself is only 100m above sea level.

I don't think it's the deepest, but the LKAB Visitor Centre in

Kiruna/Giron , Sweden, is easily accessible by daily buses, and is, if I recall correctly, 345 metre below the local surface.

Not nearly as deep as caves posted in other answers, but a lot more accessible for the average tourist.

The mining is currently 1385 metre below the surface, but is not open to regular visitors.

Question: There is  the Kola Superdeep Borehole  and  the Mariana trench  but both are not accessible to average humans.   What is the deepest point on earth I can reach?

What is the deepest accessible point on earth?

The deepest place on the surface would be the  Dead Sea  which is -427m deep. The deepest natural cave is the Voronya/Krubera Cave in Abchasia near Georgia/Russia with an estimated depth of over 2000 metres (6500 ft), while the lowest human-sized point underground is 3.9 kilometres (2.4 mi)[1] below ground at the TauTona Mine, Carletonville, South Africa  In the ocean, you can join a tour organised by Deep Ocean Expeditions to explore the Mariana Trench.

There are a number of places on earth that are deep and you can visit. The easiest is probably the Dead Sea. For real depth, there is Deep Ocean Expeditions that will take you down to the Mariana Trench.

There are a number of deep places on earth you can visit. The Dead Sea, Kidde Mine in Timmins, Canada and the Voronya/Krubera Cave in Abchasia near Georgia/Russia.

In the seas, Deep Ocean Expeditions organises trips down to the Mariana Trench.


No need for converters, your charger accepts anything form 100V to 240V.

It is safe to use it anywhere in the world.

Note that the output of AC-DC adapters will always be the same regardless of the input voltage.

Your laptop and phone chargers are designed to operate at a voltage between 100 - 240

V.

Your electric shaver on the other hand may not be able to handle the different voltages and will not work in the USA.

Unfortunately for the electric shaver, you are stuck with 220V. The best way to make sure is to check on the device or its power supply.

An example of how this is written is shown below.

This is from a phone charger.

You should do this check for any electrical device you wish to carry.

Devices with a higher wattage requirement (>500W) typically do not feature cross voltage usage due to a requirement of larger power supplies.

Sometimes, smaller devices such as electric toothbrushes, electric shavers, curling irons, hair dryers must be checked as well.

An induction cook-top for instance will almost never support cross voltages.

If you want to absolutely use your electric shaver in the US, you are looking at spending about $30 for a step up/step down transformer or a special travel adapter for the same purpose (usually has a lower wattage rating) .

Without this, you can plug it, but your expensive device will not charge at an appropriate rate and you risk spoiling your battery due to overcharging, cutoffs and trickle rates.

Also charging on a lower voltage for devices not designed for that voltage means waiting for 3 days for an electric shaver to charge.

Believe me I have done this before.

Take note that you will require one which allows enough wattage for your device, so I do not recommend going for cheaper options.

If you don't wish to take your electric shaver, the other two devices are designed for operation on different voltages and will not have any issues.

You will only need an adapter for your plugs, as US sockets are not equipped for either of the two plugs used in India.

The adapters for the two pin Euro plugs are easy to find, the three pin a bit more challenging, but probably readily available in India before you leave.

If by chance you plan to be in the US for a couple of years of study, many laptop power supplies have a replaceable cable that goes from the power supply to the wall socket, so if it is a major brand you maybe able to find just a replacement cable in the states with the proper plug and not worry about forgetting or loosing your adapter.

For your mobile, replacement chargers are a dime a dozen in the box stores and electronic shops in the states.

Likewise USB ports that plug into wall sockets are widely available in the states, if your mobile or tablet or other toys use a usb power connector.

As others said, most advanced electronic devices (laptop, phone & camera chargers) typically work with a wide range of voltages, 100-240 V (check the label!), so no voltage converter needed, only a wall plug adapter.

Some simpler appliances such as shavers, hairdryers, kitchen mixers, etc.

don't usually work automatically with a wide range of voltages.

But many of them will have a switch that lets you switch between ~110

or ~220

V. It'll look like a standard slot-type screw head and it will be labelled

110 / 220 V. Check your device.

If the device doesn't work with 110 V, then in the vast majority of cases

it's not worth bothering with it.

Voltage converters are unwieldy, inconvenient, heavy and might not be able to handle enough power to support your device (e.g. a hairdryer---a typical thing that doesn't work with multiple voltages---draws a lot of power).

Stuff that doesn't support multiple voltages is almost always cheap enough that it's much better to buy it in the US.

Even just considering the cost to carry it with you.

Each charger/power supply/device will have an input voltage/frequency rating that you have to check individually.

There is no generic " will/will not work" answer as all power supplies can be different.

If the input rating is supported you can expect about the same performance as at your home location.

Generally there are two broad distinctions between power supplies:

A Switching power supply and a "classical" pure transformer based Power Supply .

The classical are often simpler and more robust, but are usually bulkier (due to the transformer) and only support a fixed ratio between input and output voltage (based on the transformer windings).

Switched power supplies work based on switching the input voltage on and off in high frequencies (and then smoothing the lower voltage output) and thus need only a smaller (and sometimes none at all) transformer, making it often even fit into a little bigger mains plug.

Due to this way of constructing it, they support a wide range of input voltages and frequencies, while maintaining the same output voltage and current.

That said you absolutely must check the rating written/imprinted on the power supplies you are going to use for your own and the devices safety For those that will not work with other than 220/230V input voltage, you should either use a converter (mentioned in other answers) that converts from 110V to 220V, or depending on the plug type that goes into the device, buy a universal adaptor based on a switching power supply that will have the same or a better output voltage/current rating of the device you need.

If you don't know if a given voltage/current rating is a sufficient one, go find someone who does

(I have no idea if retail in india is a good idea to ask) .

If properly formulated in terms of electronic design, you might get more knowledge in answers from http://electronics.stackexchange.com

Question: I am going for my higher studies to USA. Since I am from India, my laptop, electric shaver and mobile charger all run on 220V.  Power rating of laptop charger:65W (100V - 240V ~ 1.5A)  What are some good converters, that can run all the above mentioned appliances?

In USA, do I need a 220V to 110V voltage converter for my India 220V laptop?

You don't need a converter for your laptop or most advanced electronic devices, as your charger accepts anything from 100V to 240V. Your electric shaver might not be able to handle the different in the USA though. Voltage converters are unweildy and may not provide enough power to support your device, but fortunately an adaptor plug or replacement cable should be all you need.

When travelling to the US with electronic devices the major issues is plug adapters, as sockets in the US are different. If adapters are not available, replacement plugs can be bought cheaply in the US. Converters for voltage are not needed as most electronic devices will work on anything in the range 100V to 240V. However, small electric devices, like shavers, may not work.

Most advanced electronic devices accept 100V to 240V, thus no need to by a converter.

The shaver may not work but voltage converters are not reommended as they are heavy and unwieldly.

The main things required for the US are plug adapters. However, it is also possible to by replacement chargers, usb plugs etc in the US very cheaply.


I believe the answer is no.

I made a booking on the Trans-Siberian in 2006.

The booking agency arranged the documentation for my visa which I took to the relevant office (in London) for my visa application.

The visa was issued.

My "accommodation" in Russia was listed as the train itself.

I did not have my tickets for the train because I was due to pick them up in Moscow, three days after I arrived in Russia (I spent 3 days in St Petersburg first).

I kept copies of that paperwork for when I entered Russia by train from Finland

but they did not ask me for it.

I have been told this "hotel booking" requirement is simply a formality from the old USSR days.

As far as I know, on crossing the Russian border you do not need to tell the exact address where you will be staying.

Before crossing the border, you should fill in a migration card - there will be a field for the name of agency which issued an invitation.

After arriving in Russia you have 7 days to register you place of living.

If you stay in a hotel, hotel staff should prepare documents for you.

If you stay with a friend - ask him to register you.

If you stay less than 7 days in one place you don't need to register.

Migration cards look like this:

When I went to Moscow on January 2015, the staff who were extremely angry-looking females asked me with a really bad English that what the purpose of my stay, how long I will stay and If I have a confirmed booking on a hotel but did not want any paper of proof for hotel confirmation or even travel insurance papers.

So it was easy to pass that exam :)

I crossed from Estonia in 2012, and only showed my visa.

My sponser was a travel agency, and I never booked a hotel (couchsurfed).

Nobody ever asked where I was staying

and I didn't have any problems.

You don't need to provide any proof of your hotel booking.

If someone ask you for address, just tell them the address you have written in your tourist voucher.

Same address you need to fill into your migration card.

In case you don't have address in your voucher (Usually it's there):If you going for less then 7 days

then you can tell and write your real place of stay, any.

If you going to stay longer then 7 days then tell address, where you going to be registered.

(Hotel, host etc.)

Question: A Russian-based company issuing tourist visa invitation does not seem to care about me having a hotel booking, nor do they say it will go on a visa. They only ask for a hotel name, and claim that this is just for formality. Upon attempting to entry Russia - do the border staff ask for exact address place of stay in Russia, and does it necessarily have to be a hotel, or can it be a private home (despite the fact that one is travelling on a tourist visa)?

Does going to Russia on a travel visa require providing the proof of hotel booking at the border?

This is considered to be a formality and hangover from the old USSR days. Generally speaking, you will not be expected to give details and proof of your accommodation.

No hotel booking is needed when you enter Russia. You may be asked where you are staying, however, no proof is required. This requirement is a hangover from the USSR days.

A hotel booking is not needed when you enter Russia, That is a formality left over from the USSR days.

Some people have been asked where they were staying but not obliged to show proof.


Even though the people who walk past are unlikely to be want to buy a suitcase right now , they are still the target demographic.

How many other locations are there in a city where you can open a store where 100% of the people that walk past are people that travel by air, and thus the type of people that will be in the market for your products?

How many non-airport locations around an area like the San Francisco Bay Area would you need to open a store in order to pretty much guarantee that every person who flies internationally at least once a year walks in front of your store?

A dozen?

A few dozen?

How about if you do it in an airport?

Perhaps 2?

(eg, SFO has 2 international terminals).

Some of the luggage shops you find in airports are for a particular brand.

eg, there is a Tumi store in Newark airport.

Even if that store was to never actually sell a single piece of luggage, they are building their brand and allowing people to see and try their product range before going home and ordering the same pieces from their website or from another store - all of which works in their favor.

The remainder of the stores generally sell high-end luggage which they would likely be able to ship to a home location if someone purchased something and was unable to take it with them or collect on their return trip.

At the end of the day, don't think of these as luggage stores, just think of them as high-end retail, marketing to a demographic that frequents airports (high wealth/travelers).

Setting aside the people who suddenly need more or different suitcases, an airport is one of the few places where you feel dissatisfied with the suitcases you have.

While they're sitting in your closet, they're fine.

You've used them for years and they work.

But for the hour or two after you've packed them, lugged them from the car into the airport, and checked them, you know everything you hate about them: they're too big, they don't hold enough, they're too heavy, you don't like the wheels, the handle is too short, the color is old fashioned or the same as everyone else's, you name it.

And you're surrounded by other people's suitcases to feel jealous of.

And now you have an hour to kill and nothing to do except pay too much for coffee or use up some of your reading material, and here's a store full of glorious suitcases.

Maybe they have one that you were ogling somebody else use just moments ago.

You can lift them, open and close them, work the handles, and compare in your head to the hated suitcase you just checked in.

Maybe you'll buy on the spot and have them shipped home to await your return.

More likely you'll take notes and order them online when you get back.

If the store is part of a chain, they don't care which you do, this location can be more of a showroom than an actual selling things store.

Of course, if you're carrying multiple carryon bags that you don't like, you might actually buy a replacement on the spot and swap things out and throw the old ones away.

But the chain can make a ton of money if you never buy a full size suitcase there, as long as you buy one eventually.

Heck, even if you don't go it, if you walked by and saw the name and saw that the suitcases didn't appear to be crap, they may have a financial case for that being worth it.

Suitcases may fail in transit.

That's a built-in market for replacements.

Not sure this fully explains it but the shopping area has certainly become an important revenue stream for many airports.

I know several airports that have been redesigned to force passengers to pass in front of as many shops as possible, with S-shaped corridors and no short-cuts.

Consequently, they sell a lot of things that most people don't need right there (and people buy them!).

They are designed as a shopping location, not as a way to provide necessities so whether passengers already have a suitcase is not particularly relevant.

My local airport even advertises a service by which they keep what you bought until you return.

As a matter of fact, I happen to know that they do sell a lot of bags so that in itself explains why these shops are profitable.

Presumably, it works because airports are places where many affluent travelers have to wait or at least walk through every day.

It's straightforward ...

people have an old, rubbishy, carry-on or roll-on case...

They stop at the samsonite shop, they buy a fancy new cabron-fiber one...

they transfer their stuff to the new one and throw out the old one, or, just take both.

If you watch the shops in question, you'll see this happening all the time.

Also very commonly (I've done this, actually a number of times)

someone will have no roll-on with them; you might be carrying say a couple of paperbacks, a shopping bag, and a laptop or something - so you go right ahead and buy a new cabron-fiber roll-on.

Note that the shops you describe only sell carry on styles.

If they sold hold-luggage, then just as you say it would be illogical!

Question: It seems that in almost every airport I'm in, there are luggage stores behind security. How often do people get to the airport carrying handfuls of clothes and needing something to put them in? I realize that there are limited cases in which they could be useful, but why are they so prolific and how do they remain profitable?

Why do they sell luggage in airports?

While  a few passengers will want to replace their luggage, on the whole this can be considered worthwhile even if nobody buys any luggage. 100% of the people that walk past are people that travel by air, and you can  pretty much guarantee that every person who flies internationally at least once a year will walk in front of your store. What's more, an airport is one of the few places where people may feel dissatisfied with their luggage, and more likely to notice flaws.

Luggage shops in airports serve a number of purposes. Firstly, they build the brand to a target audience. Secondly, they serve customers who are unhappy with their current luggage. Finally, they provide roll on bags for people who have too many things to carry on.

Luggage shops in the airport at not as botheredabout selling items as building their brand, with a target audience.

Many people feel dissatisfied with their luggage at the airport and want something that looks better, is lighter, etc.

Many people by roll on bags on the spot when they have brought too many hand bags with them.


You could dry the pages with paper towels as much as possible, then hang it to dry on a string with the pages spread out or separated by bits of paper towel- don't leave them in contact with each other wet or they may stick together.

Change the paper towels for dry ones periodically as it dries.

You could also put it in a container with some silica gel, but buying that tends to be a bit of expedition even if you live in the place you're looking

(some craft stores sell it for drying flowers).

Or put it in sealed container with (uncooked, of course) rice, but always keep wet pages from spending too much time in contact by using paper towels.

I dried out a passport and entire wallet contents this way with little trouble

(the cell phone didn't fare as well, unfortunately).

Be sure to inspect any unused visas to make sure they've not been damaged.

I've found that passports (Canadian ones anyway) are amazingly resilient-- despite being soaked with water or sweat they're still usable with just a bit of wrinkling on the cover to show for it.

A substitute for silica is rice - that is more easily available.

Submerge your passport in rice with all the pages separated.

One very fast and reliable way it to simply leave your open passport next to a fan - put a fan onto a table and put the passport onto some raised object in front of the fan.

Once the pages closest to the fan dry out

(which is like in half an hour)

you can proceed to other pages.

Alternatively you can interleave the pages with something like pens or similar size objects so that they are separated and then the process will go much faster.

I've used tinfoil to separate the pages and stood it on the radiator this worked a treat : )

I just now found out that if you wash your passport and live in west Texas, you can just let it sit on a table in the back yard at midday.

That moisture will disappear by the time you finish your second Shiner Bock.

Put paper towels between each page and a large pot with heavy cans inside to flatten the covers.

Question: I'm sure I'm not the first traveller to experience this, so here goes...  Hostel last night I had my passport in my laptop case with my laptop.  Unfortunately this was under the aircon unit, which leaked overnight, creating a nice pool of water, soaking said bag.  Laptop is wet but works.  Passport is not soaking but definitely has water seepage throughout.  What's the safest way to dry the passport without damaging? I don't want to risk making it unusable.

How to dry out a wet passport?

While passports are less vulnerable to water damage than before, you could dry the passport with paper towels between each page and hang it up to dry. You can also use silica gel or rice to soak up some moisture. In addition, you can dry it with a fan. Finally, you could separate the pages with tin foil and dry over a radiator.

Paper towels and rice are highly recommended for drying out a wet passport. Silica gel is another suggestion but more difficult to acquire. Other reliable methods are a fan, a radiator and the midday sun in Texas.

Paper towels can be used to dry out a wet passport.

Put a wet passport in a container with silica gel.

Submerge a wet passport in a container of rice.

The midday sun in Texas, a fan and a radiator are alternative drying methods.


You've just seen a reason why to avoid tourist trap restaurants in the centre of Prague.

Just today there is an article published in Czech newspapers about these service charges in the centre of Prague.

They write that English speaking inspectors got these additional charges 5-15 % in many restaurants they checked.

That never happened when they spoke Czech.

In one of the restaurants the staff didn't return enough change back.

Source (in Czech): http://www.novinky.cz/ekonomika/343108-jsi-cizinec-mas-priplatek-uctuje-ho-vetsina-kontrolovanych-restauraci-v-praze.html

My own experience is somewhat different from Jan's, I would say for a dinner or evening beer drinking we usually tip around 10 % and even more (but also less) if it is convenient when rounding.

Of course we go to our favourite places so the service is good

(it wouldn't be a favourite place otherwise :) ).

When the bill is high the percentage tends to get lower, even considerably.

For a lunch in a fast-food restaurant I do not tip at all, of course.

I am not aware of any "common" rule around here except that tip is almost always given by rounding the price up to next multiple of 5 or 10 CZK.

Which makes the usual amount depend on the price quite a lot, considering that normal pub where commoners go to lunch the lunch costs around 100 CZK.

Tip is not mandatory.

It is quite common, but usually not that high.

It would only reach 10% if you were really satisfied.

Often it ranges around 2-8 CZK for 100 CZK depending on the rounding.

Tipping isn't mandatory by definition.

Gratuities may be added under certain circumstances as menus often explain in advance (e.g., for a table with unusually many guests), but that is part of the bill, which is mandatory – at least, this is how it works in the USA.

My experience with the Czech Republic is limited, but when I tipped a waiter in Brno a few years ago, he seemed pleasantly surprised.

A local hostel employee had accompanied me at the time, and explained that tipping is somewhat unusual there.

I see from @pnuts' link that tipping may be more expected than my hostel friend thought though – maybe especially in Prague where tourism is more common and people are more accustomed to receiving or even relying on business from foreign customers.

It's still tipping though; it's not mandatory .

I'd still tip at the rate I'm used to in the USA if I were lucky enough to return today, but only for satisfactory service.

The most commonly used rule for tipping here is: Between 5 and 10 percent.

I think that it's necessary to provide some background to the prices as well

: Most restaurants have large profits on drinks, not only on meals, therefore you quite often pay even for plain water, because they don't want to lose their profits.

However, no tips are included in the prices (this may differ if you pay by card).

Sometimes, there's an extra payment for service, but this is mostly in places you don't want to visit for a generally bad price/quality ratio.

Can you give no tips at all?

Yes, of course, especially if you weren't satisfied.

Can you give larger tips than 10 %?

Yes of course, especially if they were willing to fulfill your special wishes, were really friendly etc.

It doesn't hurt to give some feedback, especially if something was extremly good or bad.

As always.

Everywhere I've been which isn't the centre of Prague, the most common tipping practice is to round up 10 to 19 crowns.

If you've spent LOTS of money (say 2000kr)

then you might consider a little more.

Tipping is a demonstration of satisfaction and politeness, not of wealth.

I have had arguments with waiters because I tipped too much

and they thought I was showing off my wealth.

Not surprisingly this situation is becoming less and less common!

In the centre of Prague, tip as you would anywhere else (in a European capital city).

The Czechs have learned fast. :(

Here's what I do as a long-term resident: If the restaurant is self-service (e.g. McDonalds)

I usually drop a few 1-2 crown coins into the tip jar, if I have any.

If the restaurant is on the cheap side (less than 10 euros for a full meal), I usually round up to the closest unit of 10, and then add another 10 crowns.

E.g. I would pay 200 for a bill of 183 CZK.

If it's a fancy restaurant, I usually pay a 10% tip and round up to the closest unit of 10.

All of the above is optional and no one would give you the stink eye for paying your exact bill, but people are grateful if you do leave a tip.

Question: Is it mandatory to tip in Czech Republic? I went to a restaurant and in the end I was shown a ticket with the bill and an handwritten paper with extra 10%.  I read somewhere that tipping is usual but the service was so bad that I was decided not to tip.   What is the general practice?

What is the rule regarding tips in Czech Republic?

While tipping is not mandatory, it it common to tip between 5 and 10 percent, or to round up 10 to 19 crowns. Tipping is less common in fast food restaurants. In the centre of Prague, tip as you would anywhere else (in a European capital city).

Tipping is not mandatory in Prague. However, if you do leave a tip around 5% to 10% of the bill is considered acceptable. In central Prague. Do as you would in any European capital city. It is unusual to tip in fast food restaurants.

Tipping in Prague is usually around 5 to 10% of the bill. In central Prague the amount of the tip is the same as any European city.


PS:

I am a Hongkonger which often goes to Mainland China and I am living with two friends which are Chinese and Hongkongers who often live in Mainland China First of all, plan on no access to Google services, not just Google search but also Gmail, and other service, even for Google Play store.

Other western social media like Facebook and Twitter are not accessible.

Microsoft seems to be in the good graces of the authorities.

There is no problem to access Microsoft services like Hotmail, Bing and Skype.

Most IM software are accessible in China, including Whatsapp and Skype.

In China the most popular IM software are Wechat and QQ, the first one is like Whatsapp and the second one is similar to ICQ.

However, Line is not accessible in China.

Actually the "height" of GFW depends on the "sensitive" day(敏感日), more website will be blocked when closer to these days, like 4th June which is the day of Tiananmen massacre.

You would expect more "western" website like Wikipedia will be blocked on those days.

Finally, VPN is not 100% blocked.

Many Chinese local use VPNgate to access prohibited websites.

VPNgate is free but the connection is not good.

On the other hand, you may purchase VPN services, which costs around 10 USD per month, depending on the speed and the amount of data.

Finally, there are some recent blog entries which may help you: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/05/11/internet-in-china-staying-connected-while-traveling/ http://rapidtravelchai.boardingarea.com/2015/04/05/an-update-on-internet-in-china/ http://travellingtheworld.boardingarea.com/2015/05/bypassing-website-location-restrictions/

I'm a Chinese student who just came back to China from US a month ago.

As most VPN protocols have their own characteristics, GFW is able to detect VPN connections and reset/block VPN connections.

Although VPNs can be blocked, if you use your own server and don't have a very heavy traffic, you might still be able to use it.

One of the most popular methods in China now is Shadowsocks , a SOCKS5 proxy developed by clowwindy.

It's harder for GFW to detect as it obscures the pattern in packets.

Shadowsocks is very easy to deploy on your own server and there are also many people selling shadowsocks service online.

There is also a project called GFWList .

It records blocked websites and is used to achieve autoproxy switch.

A pac file generated from GFWList with hostnames can be find here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clowwindy/gfwlist2pac/master/test/proxy.pac

I haven't been to China, but I have visited Iran and the filtering technology is similar.

For the entirety of my world trip, before arriving in Iran, I was using a personal VPN from AnonyProz to secure my connection when eg using public Wi-Fi.

I was surprised to find that this VPN did not work at all in Iran, despite being run over port 443 (HTTPS/SSL).

This means that they deploy Deep Packet Inspection to detect the protocol being used rather than just blocking per-port (443 is needed for much of the web so is not blocked overall).

The one thing that does seem to work wherever you are is Tor .

I highly recommend you make sure you have a copy before you go, and then use it to bootstrap whatever other VPN solution you can find that works.

Note: The following was true when I was in China in July 2013.

The information has probably changed since then, as the Chinese government continually revises their internet access policies.

In general, the big social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) are blocked from within China.

This applies to mobile devices too.

(I'm not sure about Whatsapp, I didn't try it when I was there last year, and it might have changed since then anyway.)

Gmail worked, and most other web-based email provides probably will too.

Most foreigners who spend a lot of time in China set themselves up with a VPN of some kind, which essentially tunnels their web traffic to somewhere outside of China before it hits the Internet.

If you Google for "VPN china" you will find a wide variety of choices.

The Chinese government seems to allow these VPN connections (and not try to block them), probably because most Chinese citizens wouldn't have a way to pay for them in any case.

The big credit card system in China is "UnionPay" which is accepted almost nowhere outside China.

Foreigners would be able to pay for VPN service somehow and the Chinese government isn't terribly interested in blocking foreigners' access to the Internet.

Finally, if you've got an unlocked cell phone then it's pretty easy to get a local SIM card with data service.

For example, for 100 RMB (about 12 €), you can get a prepay SIM card and with some amount (maybe 100 MB) of data.

Then you can top it up by buying additional credit.

The providers have systems that interact in both Mandarin and English.

(I think I had a SIM from China Unicom.)

My experience is that social media and major news sites are normally blocked.

Likewise, Wikipedia.

You can usually get the news from a newspaper's website that isn't one of the big newspapers, although the filter will sometimes decide a certain page isn't to be had even then.

Note that I have also encountered an internet cafe that was running something that rendered Google useless and redirected you to Baidu--which would do a very poor job when given English search terms.

Edit: Since I wrote the above things have gotten worse.

The last time I was there nothing Google worked at all.

No Google, no Gmail, no Recaptcha

, I feel like there was something else that was gone

but I don't recall.

Here is a list of blocked Alexa Top 100 domains: https://en.greatfire.org/search/alexa-top-1000-domains

You can also test your URL using there tools.

The IM you can use:

Skype iMessage

wechat

Question: A friend of mine is going to China for almost a month until mid August.He want to know what kind of outside communication he will be able to use to communicate with his family/friends.   We already know that Facebook is blocked but is it also on mobile devices?Also what about Whatsapp that belongs to Facebook now?  Please if you have any resource online that you can link here that will be great. My Friend is from Central Europe.

Going to China - The Great Firewall

Expect western social media like Facebook and Twitter to be blocked, as well as much or all of Google services and major news sites, but email and many IM software is available. VPN is not 100% blocked, and many Chinese people use VPNGate or Shadowsocks, a SOCKS5 proxy developed by clowwindy. Finally, if you've got an unlocked cell phone then it's pretty easy to get a local SIM card with data service.

Communications in China can be complicated. Google appears to be completely blocked now whereas Microsoft services are accessible. Most IM services work. Many people use VPNs, which are not all blocked. A local sim is an option if you have an unlocked cellphone.

Most social media and news sites are blocked in China. Google also now appears to be blocked.

Microsoft services, like Hotmail, Bing and Skype, work, as do most IM services.

VPN is used by many people and the Chinese government does not block foreign VPN services.

With an unlocked cellphone, you can use a local sim card.


Your source is confirmed by the US embassy in the Netherlands : Voedsel dat men kan meenemen naar de V.S : ...

Kaas (alleen vacuum verpakt en gepasteuriseerd; geen kazen gemaakt van rauwe melk).

De meeste Nederlandse kazen zoals Goudse, Edammer en Leerdammer zijn toegestaan.

Translation:

Foods that one can take to the US: ...

Cheese (only vacuum sealed, no raw milk cheeses).

Most Dutch cheeses such as Gouda, Edammer and Leerdammer are allowed.

The most relevant restriction would be "vacuum sealed".

An Edammer cheese is small enough to be sold whole, and would be unlikely to be vacuum sealed.

Gouda on the other hand is typically produced as a large wheel, and a wedge is often vacuum sealed.

My mom brings cheese back from France frequently.

She declares it and tells them what it is if they ask.

Vacuum sealing hasn't come up in the past.

I don't think cheese from Holland will be handled any differently than cheese from France.

The customs people are mainly concerned about non-aged unpasteurized whole milk cheese (eg.

Camembert).

Her cheese purchases have been noticed a few times by the sniffer dogs.

I call them cheese beagles. :-)

The handler will ask to see the cheese, but won't take legal ones.

A cheese shop in a big city may be able to vacuum seal purchases for you.

There is a whole bunch of news articles w.r.t the cheese issue: Food Safety News

The Complete Patient NY Times and the list goes on.

At issue is the cheese made from Raw/Unpasteurized Milk which is currently considered to pose a potential health risk based on the FDA/Health Canada Report and another one so the concern is that if the cheese is made from an unpasteurised milk it may not be allowed into the country even though the regulations (see tables 3-14-6, 3-14-7) don't say anything about the hard cheeses to be disallowed.

I just came back from Amsterdam with a small block (about a pound) of local cheese that I bought in Haarlem.

The shop vacuum sealed it for me and put it in a bag with the receipt.

It went in my carry-on.

No problem at Schipol * I declared that I had food at US customs.

They asked me what it was then sent me through.

No problem.

Then I had to go back through TSA security because I was transferring to a domestic flight.

Still no problem.

Note: At Schipol I was so concerned they might take away my cheese that I forgot to remove a can of shaving cream from my bag.

That landed me in the bag search line.

So remember to remove all fluids.

I strongly recommend declaring it at customs.

It took an extra 10 seconds for them to ask me what kind of food I had.

Best to just be honest upfront and avoid a possible fine.

If you take it along with you declare it as dairy, that way worst case scenario

they will just take it away from you.

If you don't declare it they might charge you a $800 US fine for bringing a dairy product into the country and not declaring it.

Question: We are going to visit our relatives in the US. I'm thinking of getting sweets, cookies and old Dutch cheese as small presents, but I'm not really sure about cheese.  I found  this  that says it is possible. However, all my friends suggested to not take cheese with me.

Can I bring cheese to the US from the Netherlands?

Most Dutch cheeses such as Gouda, Edammer and Leerdammer are allowed, but you will need to declare it to avoid a fine and you will not be able to bring cheese made from raw/unpasteurized milk. Cheese should also be vacuum sealed, which may be possible at a cheese shop in a big city.

Cheese can be imported into the US if it is vacuum sealed. Most Dutch cheeses are allowed. However, it is notpermitted to take raw milk cheeses. Cheese can be vacuum packed when you buy it. On arrival in the US, it is better to declare your cheese than risk a large fine.

It is better to declare cheese at customs than risk a large fine.

Most Dutch cheeses are allowed. Ome French cheeses are allowed too. The main problem area is cheese made from raw milk.

The items need to be vacuum sealed. This can be done by the shop where you buy it.


Yes, I have experienced this quite a few times on intra-Schengen flights.

As said in the link from the comments Lufthansa probably is the most prominent case due to the extreme amount of automation, but I have flown with a number of airlines and from/to a number of airports and can tell you it depends on the airport/airline combination.

Routes I have flown within the last two years without having passports checked (note that routes listed are strictly one-way, I will list return flights separately if they were without checks): PSA-CPH Norwegian, BCN-PSA Vueling, PSA-BUD Ryanair, STR-FLR Meridiana/Air Berlin Note that I have been checked on other routes/return legs on Vueling, Ryanair, Meridiana - and I can't judge in the case of Norwegian.

Thus the answer to your question is - yes, some airlines, on some routes do, but passport checks are still very much the norm, even within the Schengen area.

For the US specifically, the Transportation Safety Authority website states:

Adult passengers 18 and over must show valid identification at the airport checkpoint in order to travel.

And has a list of acceptable forms of ID which includes obvious things like passports and residence permits, but also drivers license and some traveler cards - full list here .

I fly frequently on domestic flights in New Zealand (both Air New Zealand and Jetstar), and don't recall the last time I was asked to show identification.

For Air New Zealand, from Domestic Check-in : Please remember to carry proof of identity with you as you may be required to present this at check-in.

A driver's licence, passport, Airpoints or Koru card, credit card, birth certificate or Community Services Card are all suitable forms of identification.

and for Jetstar domestic :

It’s worth noting that all passengers, including children and infants travelling with an adult, need to provide current and approved identification.

We may ask to view this ID if necessary.

So it appears that there is a requirement to carry ID, but in practice the airline is not required to verify it.

In my experience the strict requirement for ID on domestic flights seems to be an American thing.

In the UK, I have travelled a few times with Loganair - Scotland's regional airline.

Not once was I asked for an ID, not even when I purchased the tickets in person at the airport in Kirkwall.

Note, of course, that their island hopper planes sit 9 passengers and don't even have a dedicated cockpit, so the pilot simply sits in the front row of the plane.

Maybe security isn't really their biggest problem.

It's one of these aircraft:

If flying with British Airways (BA) domestically within the UK, you can use your British Airways Executive Club card as ID .

(BAEC =

the BA frequent flier program).

If you're not a member of the BA Executive Club, you have to show some form of photo ID.

I believe that BA still suggest you carry some photo ID with you when doing this,

eg in case of being asked by police, but you can (and I have) flown with them domestically just using your loyalty card as ID.

Virgin Australia recommend that you take government ID with your when flying within Australia, but were happy to accept my Virgin Atlantic frequent flier card as proof of identity.

Like the BAEC card, neither has any photos or anything like that on it.

I have taken six domestic flights during my latest trip to Japan with three different airlines and wasn't asked for my passport (or any other ID) for any of them.

It may be related to the fact that Japan does not issue national ID cards as some other countries do (the closest thing is a driving license, but it is expensive and troublesome to get).

The airlines don't state this as a requirements on their websites either (see ANA , JAL ).

(However, all foreigners in Japan are required by law to carry ID at all times—passports for tourists and residence cards for long-term residents.)

Question: It seems that pretty much every airline requires at least one form of government identification for flights, even if it's a local flight within a single country.  Does any airline in the world form an exception to that rule? I was recently surprised to learn that  some airlines  still allow smoking on-board, so I'm sure there are also exceptions to the documents policy.

Does any airline in the world allow air travel without government identification?

Domestic flights in some countries like New Zealand and Japan, or flights between Schengen countries, are sometimes possible without a passport check, even though they are still very much the norm, even within the Schengen area. The strict requirement for ID on domestic flights seems to be an American thing.

Although in the US ID is required on domestic flights, in many parts of the world this is not the case. Airlines flying domestic routes in Japan and NewZealand do not check ID. Flights within the Schengen area are also not subject to ID checks.

Many domestic routes do not carry out ID checks. This includes flight in Japan, New Zealand and the Schengen area.

Strict domestic ID requirements seem to be an American requirement.


Your ONLY path here is to ask the company you travelled with.

They'll be the only one with his details, IF you booked under your names for the trip.

Even then, they likely won't give you his name for privacy reasons.

However, if you impress upon them the gravity of the situation, they might be prepared to contact him on your behalf and see if he's willing to have his contact details shared with you.

Contact the coach company:

the man you lent the book to might have handed it in as lost property at the end of his journey.

It's unlikely that they'll be willing to give you his details because that would be a violation of his privacy.

Would they even know who he was?

Do they have your details, for example?

Would you have any way of telling them which of the however-many people on the bus you're trying to contact?

If you can pin down a specific person, you might be able to convince the company to give him your details.

It's also possible that he handed it in as lost property either at the bus station where he got off or to the police.

You could try contacting bus and police stations on the rest of your coach's route.

Does the important document that you've lost identify you?

If so, it's possible that he will find the document, realise its importance and try to find you to give it back.

Otherwise, as suggested in other answers and comments, newspaper ads and social media might help.

But do bear in mind that all of these ideas are long-shots.

Go to the same coach, on the same day of the week, at the same time.

There's a very good chance he uses it to commute.

You'll probably see him again.

In India Government store the name and other detail only if coach is reserved and not for general people.

If you paid for a reserve seat a call to Rail department will certainly help you.

If it was general coach then you need to take help of Newspaper by publish the ads.

Try putting a personal ad in local newspapers that are sold in the towns of origin and destination for your journey.

Maybe you could include TinyURL links (or equivalent) to your Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

It's a long shot, but it may be worth trying if the paper is important enough.

Question: A few days ago, I travelled on an Indian train.  Near my seat there was a guy to whom I have given my book, but forgot to get it back.  There is an important paper inside that book which I need.  How can I find his name and contact number?  Even the name will work as I will search for him on Facebook.  It's entirely my fault - he asked me to wake him up and take it from him and I completely forgot.

How to find out the name of a fellow Indian train passenger?

It is unlikely that the bus company would be willing to give you his details because that would be a violation of his privacy. However, you could contact them or the police stations on the rest of the coach's route in case it was handed in to lost property.

Contacting the train company is the recommended method for finding a person you traveleld with. They are unlikely to give you the personàs details but the person may have handed your item into lost property. Other options are contacting the police station or putting an ad in a local paper.

Contact the train company to find a person you travelled with. Alternatively contact police stations.

The man who has the book may have handed it in to lost property. The train company is unlikely to give you his details.


No , a standard 22" rollaboard suitcase won't fit in a CRJ overhead bin.

In my experience, most airlines that fly the CRJ and similarly sized regional aircraft use a "gate check" system: luggage that is of "carry-on size" (i.e. would fit in a larger airliner's bin) but doesn't actually fit in the bin on the aircraft in use will be taken from you at the gate, put in the plane's cargo bin, and returned to you at the gate after landing.

You won't need to check it at the ticket counter or claim it at the carousel.

However, this means that priority boarding gains you nothing as far as carry-on space.

As a CRJ200 pilot, I can tell you a 22” bag will fit.

However, the CRJ200 is very sensitive when it comes to weight and balance.

Due to the nose being heavy, all roller bags have to be gate checked and added to the cargo bin in the back to help balance the plane.

So, just get the size you need and gate check your carry-on.

You’ll be fine without it since CRJs are usually used for short flight, ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours max.

It depends on the size of your rollerboard.

The overhead bin allows for a 52.5" × 14" × 9.5" bag, but, if memory serves, Delta makes passengers check all roll-aboards on the CRJ-200 since they reserve the overhead space for soft-sided bags and jackets.

Given that policy, the seat upgrade wouldn't give you any early boarding advantage so you should probably save your money and skip the upgrade.

They did gate check the roll-aboard though, so you probably won't have to to pay the checked bag fee or wait at baggage claim when you arrive.

No.

My backpack (that fits under the seat in front of me on a normal airliner) barely fits in the overhead bins on Delta's CRJs, let alone my rollaboard.

As others have said, they will collect such bags at the gate, put them in the cargo hold, and then return them to you in the jetway (or on the ramp if you're not using a jetway) as you get off the plane.

These aircraft are much smaller than a standard DC-9 or 737 class aircraft.

At 6'1", I have to duck the exit signs walking down the center aisle on these things.

Personally, I avoid them where feasible.

After a lot of inconclusive research on the same question, here is a photo of a Rimowa Salsa Deluxe business trolley in the overhead of a United Canadair CRJ-200.

photo by author photo by author

It fits -- just barely -- into the space, and the overhead lid just barely closes over it.

The dimensions of the Rimowa case are 16.1" x 16.1" x 8.1".

But those dimensions need to be adjusted for (1) the wheels which don't fit exactly through the opening

(they have to be carefully angled into it then the case slides in), and (2) the tiny bit of height clearance you see above the case.

So taking these factors into account, a more precise estimate would be: 7.5" high, and 15.5" deep for the United CRJ-200

There is plenty of room on length, as you can see, and you will note from the side-view that the key issue is the opening height, because the inner space is a little larger than the opening because of the ramp.

This takes into account the wheels, overhead clearance, and handle height for the Rimowa case.

I've traveled on CRJ's plenty with this case and have never been asked to check it in because it's a half-height.

For others considering the Rimowa approach, I also have the aluminum Topas Stealth Business Trolley

but I would not recommend using it on a CRJ:

it's slightly larger and unlikely to fit, and I have no desire to gate-check an anodized aluminum finish case.

I recently measured the overhead bins of the Embraer 145 and the CRJ 100 because I got tired of gate checking bags.

I found a bag that is 19" tall, 13" wide and 7" deep.

I took it on a 5 day trip recently on which I flew YVR-SFO-ORD-ICT-YQT-YYZ-YVR on several different small regionals including a Dash-8 100 and it fit into every bin-

no gate checks req'd.

I have found that regardless of bag size AA will not allow any roller bags.

They will gate check.

My computer bag is not small looking, but fits under the seat.

I have been with others whose bags are half the size of mine, but due to them having rollers, have been forced to gate check.

This is their policy and no measuring is considered.

I would like to confirm B.Nettleton's answer, based on a flight on 11/5/2018.

However, the flight attendant was kind enough to let me take my 'squeezable' roller bag on board; it barely fit.

Travel Pro Crew 5 and Luggage works bags fit on CRJ 200s and ERJ 135/145.

That is what most air crews carry on small regionals.

AA won’t let you bring them on, and UA sometimes will not let you bring them on though.

They will tell you they don’t fit, even though I have put my Luggage works bag in the overhead of hundreds of those planes.

Question: I've got a flight coming up on a CRJ-200. I know this is a smaller plane — is there room in the overhead bin for a rollaboard? I usually prefer to fly with carry-on luggage, even paying the upgrade so that I can be sure to be first on the plane and more likely to get overhead bin space. I don't want to pay the extra money if there isn't space.

Is there room for a rollaboard in a CRJ-200 overhead bin?

A 22” bag will fit, but not a rollaboard suitcase of that size. AA won’t let you bring any roller bags on, and UA sometimes will not let you bring them on.

Only certain sizes of rollaboard bags will fit in the overhead bins on CRJ200 planes. One of these is TravelPro Crew 5. However, many airlines will not allow passengers to bring these bags onboard as hand luggage.

There is some debate about what size of rollaboard bag will fit in the overhead bin on a CRJ200. Travel Pro Crew 5 and Luggage works bags are used by cabin crew and they definitely fit.

Many airlines will not allow rollaboard bags as hand luggage on CRJ200 planes.


First time I've heard of this,

and I think it's nonsense.

There is a strong social convention that people should give up their seats (not just the designated priority seats) for elders, very young kids, the disabled/injured and pregnant.

Nobody will be offended or think you rude for doing that.

They might call you out if you don't.

The recipient most likely will say "sumimasen" which literally implies indebtedness, but that's just a set phrase.

Of course, you are effectively declaring the recipient infirm, which they might take objection to - there's a big gray area where age is concerned, which the Japanese themselves are unsure about and sometimes debate.

In fact, even the very elderly will often reply "

I'm not that old" and reject an offered seat at first, but the expectation is for you to insist that they take it - quite similar to what happens during gift-giving.

In some cases, people might feel uncomfortable about not being able to go through this routine when offered a seat by a foreigner (who's not expected to speak Japanese).

The only case where offering a seat might really be considered rude (or at least awkward) is when the recipient clearly is young and healthy.

Why are you doing it then?

If it's a woman, are you making a pass at her?

Even then, should be OK if you're in a similar age range and doing it in a charming manner, not so if you're much older or being creepy.

I live in Japan and every day commute with trains and metro.

And can assure you that nobody will think you are rude by offering the seat.

From my personal experience: I have a rule to always give up my seat to Disabled/injured people Pregnant women

(in Japan they wear a badge like this http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41977000/jpg/_41977426_baby_japan203.jpg )

Elderly women and man People with huge bags; often you'll see women with gigantic, heavy bags they carry from shops The only thing is that I will confirm - many elderly people turn down the offer.

Sometimes because they go out in the next station, sometimes they just don't want to.

But in any case they will give you a polite response.

I actually feel more pressure to stay near the seat I've given up, because Japanese will thank you many-many times after taking the seat

and I feel shy of such attention for such a trivial thing.

So long story short - feel free to show your kindness and don't over-think about some people seeing it as rudeness.

Especially in Japan where people are usually very polite.

I live in Japan (Tokyo) and no one gives up their bus or train seats unless the standing person is clearly incapable of standing for long (old, injured, pregnant).

Then they are fairly good about it.

What's really entertaining is watching two elderly people with canes / walkers etc.

arguing about which one of them need the seat more.

And it's the "good" argument: "No, you should take the seat."

-> "I'm fine, I can stand until Daitobunkadaigaku.

You should take the seat!"

And on it goes.

I give my seat pretty often in Tokyo.

I can tell that it is never rude .

On the contrary they are very grateful, so much that usually I prefer to keep a distance afterwards.

Also sometimes they won't accept it to avoid bothering you, so I insists and say that I will get off soon anyway.

No, I do it regularly.

There are even spaces on trains and buses that are marked for the elderly, pregnant, disabled, etc.

where the able-bodied may sit but are to give up their seat if anyone in greater need of it shows up.

It is not uncommon that the person you are giving the seat up to may initially refuse your kindness because it is polite to be slow to accept certain forms of assistance -- and occasionally you might want to give your seat up to someone who really doesn't feel like sitting (they may have already been sitting all day) -- but it is never rude to offer, unless the way in which you offer it is particularly nasty.

I suppose this idea could have come from the custom of sharing hardship.

For example, if you meet a friend walking in the rain and he has an umbrella and you don't, he may close his to share the rain with you instead of being the only one dry.

Its the same with eating in front of someone who has no food -- its considered rude.

But that's not at all the same thing as giving your seat up to a stranger.

Nowadays, overtly “giving up one’s seat” risks abuse almost everywhere † .

So, don’t do so, and not just in Japan.

Instead just get up and walk away, if you can, otherwise just stand up.

There is no need for “really this is my seat

but I am prepared to let you have it”.

† Example here for Pune.

That is most likely true in most situations.

However, the general idea is to give up your seat to someone else that may need it more than you such has pregnant women and older people.

Also, there are certain sections in the train that are reserved for those people.

If the train is too crowded then you may face a situation where those people cannot get to those seating areas, then you should definitely offer your seat at least.

Give them the option to decline.

Lots of good thoughts here.

To which, I would add, anyone who seems to need it more than you do.

I've given up seats to people holding infants, pregnant women, the elderly, people with canes or braces / casts on body parts, people traveling with small children, and so on.

And I always consider myself the 'winner' in the transaction since it just feels good.

And I happily accept any similar offer made to me!

Question: I heard that in Japan it may be considered rude to give up your seat for someone else while you are on a train or bus, because it would make the other person feel in debt with you. Is this true? (Of course "priority seats" like elders or pregnant women are another matter)

Is it rude to give up your seat in Japan?

There is a strong social convention that people should give up their seats for elders, very young kids, the disabled/injured and pregnant. Nobody will think you are rude for offering, but this is usually just for people who are clearly incapable of standing for long and there is a large grey area where age is concerned. It may be that the person thinks that you consider them infirm or they may actually want to stand, but it is not rude to ask.

It would seem that people do not give up their seat in Tokyo in the bus or train. However, nobody would consider you rude if you did it. It is important to remember you are basically saying the recipient is infirm. It is also not uncommon for them to refuse, at least at first, as it is considered polite to be slow to accept kindness.

It is socially acceptable to give up your seat in a train for someone less capable of standing.

Nobody will be offended if you offer them your seat.

Be aware that you are declaring the recipient infirm and be prepared for them to object at first.

Nobody gives up their seat in Tokyo on the bus or train.


It's true that you can often see details of the aircraft on the website now, so you could have some expectations or think you have a contractual agreement to be flown on that aircraft.

But in practice, airlines merely promise a best effort to bring you somewhere and can and do do a lot of things (switch airplanes, reschedule, cancel a flight outright, change the itinerary or even the means of transportation, etc.)

that impact the conditions in which you will travel.

In this particular case, if you check Turkish airlines' conditions of carriage , you will read that Carrier undertakes to use its best efforts to carry the passenger and his or her baggage with reasonable dispatch and to adhere to published schedules in effect on the date of travel.

That's really pretty vague, they don't promise much beyond getting you to your destination (or, in fact, merely trying to get you to your destination).

Even regulations on monetary compensations for significant delays or the right to be informed about the name of the airline operating the flight (not the actual aircraft or aircraft type but simply the name of the airline) are relatively recent so it does not seem they have to do more than that as far as the law is concerned.

Note that in the EU, there are strict rules about compensation for delays

so it certainly seems rational for the airline to bring you as soon as possible to Madrid in a slightly less comfortable aircraft rather than wait for the other one to show up and possibly be liable to pay some compensation to all passengers.

Airlines have the right to change aircraft as they see fit.

It is a quite common occurrence.

Sometimes because of mechanical issues, sometimes because the passenger load would be better handled by a different aircraft, sometimes because they need to aircraft originally assigned somewhere else, etc etc.

While this time you got an older aircraft, it is just as likely that the change could be a newer aircraft.

Just the luck of the draw.

And when these changes occur all bets are off on seat assignments, as the airline has the right to move people around as they see fit, no guarantees of retaining your originally chosen seat and no recourse or legal channels to follow up afterwards.

Yes, airlines can and do change the aircraft to be used for a particular flight (often referred to as an 'equipment change') for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to: The scheduled plane is down for maintenance.

The scheduled plane is delayed in arriving from another airport.

Some need came up for the scheduled aircraft to be used for something else.

Their expectations on how many seats would sell were not met, so a different aircraft size ended up being more appropriate for the given passenger load.

This usually doesn't occur at the last minute, but it can happen long after you book your ticket.

None of these generally entitle you to a refund or even to keep the same type of seat that you originally had (aisle/window/middle, front vs. back, etc.,) though they generally will try to make it something as similar as reasonably possible.

The only situation I can think of where this might entitle you to some kind of compensation or refund is if you booked your ticket in a higher class and they did not have enough seats in that class on the newer equipment, forcing them to downgrade you to a different class.

I'm not certain how any given airline would handle that particular case, though.

Specifically in the case of Turkish Airlines, all I found on their website about it is just this FAQ entry : What happens to my seat if Turkish Airlines has a schedule change or an equipment change ?

You will be informed about the change and a new seat selection (same or similar to the previous one) will be made.

Yes, you purchased transit by air, not a particular style of it.

Actually, depending on whether it is an IANA governed flight or not, you may have purchased a specific weight and volume of transit space to utilize, and not actually the guarantee of personal transit.

(Which is how airlines can refuse boarding to over-large passengers or require they purchase more than one seat.)

Only if your purchase agreement states that you are guaranteed a flight on a particular craft

do you have a promise of that craft.

This will usually only happen on charter/private flights.

You're in luck.

Last time I flew from Alicante the airline had forgotten to schedule one

(yes, they really had failed to plan for an aircraft to be there for the trip) and aircraft and had to rent one from another company in order to get us from there to Amsterdam.

Result was a 6 hour delay while an aircraft was sought and found from a wet lease agent in Denmark, flown to Amsterdam to receive Transavia cabin crew, then flown to Alicante where it had to wait for a gate slot before we could board for the trip.

I'd rather not have had a rule that they're not allowed to use an aircraft not scheduled for that specific leg

or I'd still be stuck at that airport several years later.

Or the time in Amsterdam when the scheduled aircraft was struck with mechanical trouble in Malaga and we had to wait several hours for another one to take us out.

The one that went tech was grounded for several days...

Same happened in London once, got lucky BA had another aircraft ready to take us to Amsterdam from there that just needed towing to the gate and fueling up.

Still want a law that prohibits airlines from using aircraft other than the specific specimen originally scheduled to fly a leg?

For people who choose a specific flight and time based on the scheduled aircraft it can sometimes be a disappointment, but such people are far less common than those who choose a specific flight based on its timing and destination.

And of course many carriers won't disclose the specific aircraft scheduled until shortly before departure (though they usually do list the scheduled type on their schedules).

Question: In a recent flight between Istanbul and Madrid, the carrier (Turkish Airlines) changed in Istanbul the aircraft that should get to our destination before leaving. They argue that it happened due a delay in the route Madrid-Istanbul (the aircraft is not there, so they have to delay our flight or give another aircraft).  I'd like to know if this is allowed or not, because in that particular case the “new” aircraft was a very old one, smaller and more uncomfortable than the previous one.

May an airline change the aircraft from the scheduled one?

While airlines will do their best to adhere to published schedules in effect on the date of travel, they have the right to change the aircraft and you paid for the transit by air, not a particular style of it.

Airlines are allowed to change the aircraft as they like. The customer purchased the trip not the type of aircraft.


USAToday actually wrote an article on this a while back .

The key points were: Keep it in its box, safe and secure.

(It may actually make it clearer on an xray)

Avoid wrapping the box.

Security may ask you to unwrap wrapped packages.

Attach a small note - eg "Engagement ring inside, please be discreet".

Put it in a clean sock or similar, as an extra visual layer of protection, but will still be easily identifiable on an xray Put it in your carry-on (you don't want your checked luggage going missing with it)

Fill the rest of the bag with books, magazines etc -

but NOT toiletries or other items that may prompt a security search Keep an eye on security, and if they stop your bag, try and distract her with a task while they check it (get her to find something, or buy something)

In terms of dollar value being a problem, it may be worth keeping a receipt to show value in case of any doubt (some countries limit the value of gifts or items you bring in).

I would say worry only about hiding it from the recipient - keep it somewhere

that person won't look - and if you happen to get a customs search, and they're clearly going to look in your bag and find it, one of two things will happen.

If your beloved is with you, ask the customs officers to give you a moment, and then propose right then and there.

After you get your yes, ask the customs officers if you can show them (and your beloved) something from the bag -

they will probably allow it - and get the ring.

Then take your lumps with the customs guys (having the receipt with you will help), though perhaps if your now-fiancé(e) is obviously going to wear the ring back out of the country you won't have any lumps to take - and enjoy the great story the two of you will now have about where you were going to propose (top of the Eiffel tower, picnicking in the English countryside, Mount Everest base camp) and where you actually did instead (secondary inspection at whatever airport.)

Can't be beat!

If your beloved is not with you because you're being dealt with separately even though you're travelling together, tell the customs officers as soon as you can that you have an engagement ring with you that you have not presented yet.

Tell them whether the ring will be leaving the country or not, and as before take your lumps when it comes to duty etc.

Once again the receipt will be handy.

If you have to pay duty but can get it back if the ring leaves the country, you will have to tell your beloved some time after proposing but before getting to the airport

"we need to stop by customs to show them the ring is leaving and to get the duty back."

Shouldn't be an issue.

Security is not an issue, a ring in a pocket of a backpack or briefcase would not raise an eyebrow from the security examiners.

If you are going somewhere that absolutely requires you to declare everything in your possession to customs or somewhere that you think might do a customs search, you can always write a note to pass to the inspector while your fiancee-to-be is distracted, telling the inspector where the ring is, its value and the fact you are trying to keep it secret until the right moment.

Most inspectors are human beings and likely would understand.

But most importantly, do your homework and determine if you even need to declare personal jewelry at your destination or keep that factor in mind when selecting which country to pop the question in.

I avoided this particular issue by having it made at the destination.

That may not be an option for you, but it worked out for me.

In any case, good luck!

and she said yes! ...

after initially thinking I was dragging her through an elaborate joke; me not realizing it was actually April Fool's Day.

The lesson here is to consider more than just the ring when it comes to planning.

I actually did this over a fairly large journey (UK to NZ) and had absolutely no problems.

It was in my carry on alongside my laptop

- this was a mistake as everytime

I took my laptop out

I'd have a panic about the ring falling out.

If it's inside your carry on

it's unlikely to cause any issues.

What surprised me about the other post is that while countries may levy duty on returning residents’ jewelry purchases, they generally allow visitors to bring in (as long as they take out) reasonable amounts of personal property.

Not just jewelry, but also computers, videocameras, etc.

In some cases a bond is required, or at the least serial number registration at entry and exit to show that the articles are not for re-sale.

I get the feeling

the passport and residence statuses of the other poster were complex.

In general I don't think the likelihood of either airport security (a ring is a pretty obvious shape on an X-ray or customs is at all high.

Most of the people I have seen pulled out of the "Green Line" through customs

had appliance boxes or enough luggage to live out of for a decade.

Use Federal Express to deliver it to your destination.

Question: A related  post , made me wonder how you can hide a ring from a "special one" traveling with you to a place where you will propose and yet get it legally through security or customs?You don't want the surprise to be killed by a bureaucrat.

How do I get an engagement ring past security/customs in an airport without alerting my significant other?

You can send the ring by courier or have it made at the destination, but personal jewelry is usually not a problem and may not need to be declared. You could pass a note to the inspector to tell them where the ring is and its value if you are required to declare it though.

When travelling to most countries a ring is not an issue at security. However, it is recommended to research the destination to avoid a problem at customs. To avoid issues altogether, the ring could be made at the destination or it could be sent to the destination by Federal Express.

Security is not normally an issue for a ring.

If a ring needs to be declared, pass a note to the customs official. It may be better to research the destination and go somewhere a ring does not need to be declared.

Have the ring made at the destination or send it be Federal Express.


Airlines have a pricing strategy known as "yield management" or "revenue management" - they charge less for some seats than others, and expect these seats to be bought a long time in advance.

They know that only a certain percentage of their customers are able to buy seats well in advance, and that those customers wouldn't fly if they couldn't get inexpensive seats.

A speculator could buy a $100 ticket and then offer it on eBay close to the flight date for $200.

If more than half the seats this speculator bought were sold this way, the speculator would be making money.

But the airline, which wants to sell seats close to the flight date for $500, would not.

In fact very quickly the speculator enjoying selling 75% of tickets for $200 would see it fall to 0% because of another speculator selling them for $150, and then later another for $110 and so on.

This is just how reselling markets tend to work.

By insisting that a ticket is not a commodity to be bought, traded, resold, and passed around from hand to hand, the airline is able to keep its complicated pricing structure in place.

Overall, this is a good thing, because those last-minute high-price tickets cover a LOT of the cost of the flight - their existence is what keeps the long-advance-notice tickets so cheap!

Another factor--sometimes life happens and you can't fly.

In the old days you could simply sell your ticket to someone else, now you either have to eat a hefty change fee or lose it outright.

That's money in their pockets that they didn't use to get.

Airlines aren't just in the business of selling "tickets" to seats.

They are selling tickets to seats on different days.

It's the "different days's" part that means that the same seat will sell for a lower price "in advance" and a higher price closer to the flight date.

If you could re-sell the ticket to a friend, you could (theoretically) get the advantage of the "different days.

" More to the point, speculators could do the same.

The airline doesn't want to allow this opportunity.

The best solution is for the airline to refund your "cheap" ticket, so they can re-sell the same ticket at a higher price on a "different day" to another passenger.

Many airlines will do this.

Some will not, because they don't value customer service/relations enough.

This may result in an abuse situation.

You can think that a non-registered travel group bought so many tickets with different names on a certain flight, then start selling the tickets but for larger price.

Unchangeable tickets will get rid of this situation and only registered travel companies can have legal deals with the airlines.

Another reason might be that airlines tend to overbook planes, if they can.

They expect a certain percentage of passengers to cancel their flight and want to prevent empty seats.

If everyone found a replacement, there would not be enough seats on the plane for everyone!

I realize there's already an accepted answer about "yield management" but, while their price discrimination strategy certainly exacerbates their rationale, I think that misses the point.

I think the bigger reason is quite simply that they can get away with it.

Let me expand on that.

When most people book an airline ticket

it's because they're planning to fly themselves

so they discount the chances that they'd want to transfer the ticket to someone else.

This means when most people book a flight they're completely willing to agree that the seat they're buying can only be used by them even though objectively that's an unreasonable condition of the sale.

There's frequently this assumption that speculators being involved means gouging, well they will certainly try to gouge people

but there's no guarantee they'd be successful.

There's certainly a guarantee that buying a group of plane tickets that are refundable will be a profitable strategy since any tickets that can't be sold for a profit will be refunded the original purchase price.

However, most tickets are nonrefundable and, as such, this strategy wouldn't work out so well.

Well, if the airlines change their policies, remove restrictions and make the tickets transferable, this would create a whole new market niche for resellers.

If this happen there would be many complications related to liability of the resellers, quality guarantees, safety rules and more.

It would be virtually impossible for the airlines to operate within the same legal terms, as the do now.

When I read the original questions and then the answer that explains "yield management" or "revenue management" I'd asked myself would I fly on the ticket I bough through an auction website?

I would not.

Question: Airlines usually either don't allow the transferring of tickets to another person after they've been purchased, or they do it at an extremely inflated price. What is the reason for doing this?  One idea I came up with would be to allow authorities to do background checks, but one could buy a ticket at the airport shortly before the flight. Of course, it would be more expensive and there would be the risk of a fully booked plane, but it is not impossible.

Why are airlines against the transferring of tickets to other persons?

This allows the airline to keep its complicated pricing structure in place, as well as preventing a market niche for resellers.

If airline tickets were changeable, resellers could make a lot of money and airlines wouldnot have expensive tickets to sell near the travel date.


I wouldn't worry about Ebola in India, and neither does the Economist .

There is a small Indian diaspora in West Africa (far smaller than the one in East Africa, mind you), but compared to India's sheer population the amount of passengers traveling between the two is pretty minuscule.

Now add in that Ebola transmission requires direct contact with a patient's bodily fluids, and all told, you're considerably more likely to be killed by a roller coaster .

PS.

You might want to worry about hepatitis, typhoid, malaria, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, bubonic plague, chikungunya, leptospirosis, schistosomiasis, meningitis, rabies, cholera and dysentery though ;)

Based on your comment you should be scared to go back home because if i compare to current situation, India don't have a Ebola case yet

but USA have.

Jokes apart

i think you are safe to go to Delhi, Just make sure you drink packaged drinking water and you should be fine.

Stay and eat in any 5 star hotel if you don't like local food and its hygiene.

According to the latest news there no problems reported with Ebola in India.

There are only a few cases outside of the African continent itself, e.g. in Spain and the United States, but not in India.

As others have noted, the chances of contracting Ebola in India are so close to zero that they are literally not worth worrying about.

Even closer to zero if you practice hygiene precautions at a paranoid level already, as you suggest that you do.

There are worse places to be overall-health-wise than India, I suspect.

I've visited LA, New Delhi and Chennai, amongst 'quite a few' other places.

The chances of dying from gunshot or car accident or being mugged or having my lungs (slightly more) eroded by air pollution in LA would make any dangers I faced in Chennai or ND more attractive.

I'd love to spend more time looking around LA, but given the choice if I was offered a free one week trip to any of the 3, LA would be last on my list.

[I'd probably choose ND and take a quick trip to Nepal].

FWIW people 'under watch' for Ebola have a finite or low chance of actually having it.

In China I met a young couple who were unwise enough to try to cross Vietnam-China at a less common border crossing during one of the bird flu scares.

He had been carrying her pack and it was a hot day and ... .

Would you come with me, please, Sir, or equivalent.

Some weeks were served in a Vietnamese hell-hole (didn't have to be that way, it's just what the authorities decided to do) with some very illogical actions along the way before being sent on their way.

How is that relevant to you?

In this way ....

When you rush to the departure gate all hot and bothered on a hot Indian day, take a moment to calm down, walk slower and wipe your brow with an alcohol wipe as you approach the IR scanner - or you may be closer to people "under watch" than you are at all happy with.

Note:

What do you do for a living?

If electrical/electronic or about anything "technical" (I learn real fast :-)), then if you ever want somebody to attend a conference in India on your behalf, all expenses paid and a modest per diem, please advise.

Any time :-)

I am currently in Hyderabad,India (making some business) and it is quite safe here related with Ebola.

Less secure currently is in USA and EU.

Question: I'm a fairly paranoid traveler. I'm in Chennai at the moment, but I can't wait to get back home to Los Angeles. Because of the general lack of hygiene here and, well, the way they handle things like food, I do not want to be in India at all.  I've been reading that New Delhi has the most West African expats in the country. I have to go there for a business meeting. What is the general chance to catch Ebola in New Delhi?

Is New Delhi, India, safe to travel to? (Ebola Scare)

Ebola is barely an issue in India, and it may be less secure in the USA and EU. If travelling to Delhi, make sure you drink packaged drinking water and stay and eat in any 5 star hotel if you don't like local food and its hygiene.

Travellers are very unlikely to catch Ebola in India. Infact the risk is probably greater in th US or the EU. Precautions recommended to protect against diseases in general include drinking bottled water and staying/eating in a 5 star hotel.

There is very little chance of catching Ebola in India.

There are more cases of Ebola in the US and the EU than in India.

Precautions to protect against catching diseases include drinking bottled water and staying/eating in a 5 star hotel.