It is always full of excitement and anticipation, ready to do something new when I arrive somewhere. Here I will explain the airport experience, but the procedure is relatively similar to a train station or a bus terminal.
Things to do upon arrival
Arrival is when the rubber hits the road. I have all the information I researched, and now I’ll find out if it is correct or not. The only goal is to find the bags, get through immigration get some money and find a ride to my destination.
It sounds easy, and for the most part it is, but sometimes the unexpected can happen.
It was in Dublin when I was invited into an office right after I cleared immigration to show my guide dogs papers. I thought it was an easy process, but they wanted to see all the travel documents, vaccinations, asked all kinds of questions and wrote a bunch of stuff on my papers. I was about to get annoyed, but it also turned out that the official wasn’t looking into making my life difficult, this was just the process, and she gave me quite a bit of helpful advice, also including how to get a passport for Baldwin so next time I can enter easily. I will write more about this later, because traveling with a guide dog is worth a few posts.
If Baldwin’s papers don’t clear, there’s no trip. It hasn’t happened yet, but this is the most important thing. Usually I don’t have too many issues with customs and immigration.
When I leave from the US, I don’t exchange money in advance, it is just a process that’s not worth my time. If I can, I check the prices at the airport. Usually I have someone helping me navigate through the airport, I ask them to read the exchange prices to me. If I like it, I exchange all the money I need, if not, only a few Dollars just to have enough for the day. I tend to have a very good idea about how much the currency is worth and for how much could I expect to exchange it. Sometimes the airport is the best deal, other times the hotel reception or a nearby bank. My best exchange rate ever was in Bucharest. They didn’t exchange money at the hotel reception, but a guy took my money, took it to the bank, and got me Romanian Leis together with the receipt. I was impressed. I still don’t know how I just trusted somebody with cash, though this is why I like to stay at hotel chains so that I know I can trust them. My loyalty is their loyalty as I often found.
Once I have the money I need I am ready to find a ride. I had to learn from my mistakes, often I didn’t have cash to pay for my trips, and they didn’t take a credit card. Several times I had to check into the hotel, get some money and pay the driver. If nothing else, I carry enough Dollars to pay, fortunately it is a good currency.
If at all possible, I like to take an Uber. I am familiar with the app, and I don’t need to deal with cash. However, if I don’t speak the language it can be difficult to understand where I can find an Uber as they can’t just pick me up anywhere at an airport. I usually know if it is not an option, and I ask about a taxi. At this point, I can only hope for the best. Airport taxis are often overpriced, and unless I have a ride arranged for me, there isn’t much to do about it. Maybe I can research before the trip what would be a reasonable price to pay, but the reality is, if they charge me twice as much, I still need to get to town. It makes matters even more interesting, when Uber or Lyft is not available, for example in Hungary. When I prepare for the trip, I check into this, so it is not a surprise. However, a local version of a ridesharing or taxi app may or may not be accessible with my screen reader, and at that point, there is nothing I can do. If the application is not usable, I have to take a regular taxi, even if ride sharing would be cheaper. Being blind is sometimes expensive.
Of course there is always the public transportation option which is usually much cheaper, but blind people have one hand on the road to carry stuff. The other is busy with the cane or the guide dog. Though not at all impossible, it takes more logistics to drag bags on trains and buses, especially if I have to transfer or navigate a large station. This is partly why I use rolling and stackable suitcases or backpacks, but as long as I can afford it, I try to use a car.
Once I’m in a car one would think it is just a matter of time to get to my destination.
Usually I go to my hotel, though sometimes I started at work or at a museum when I have an appointment.
Based on a few instances I have learned that it is a good idea to track if I’m going to the right place. Before the trip, I always put my first destination into my GPS, and once in a while a track it.
Once on a snowy winter day, flight to Boston was delayed some 8 hours. Instead of the afternoon, we took off around midnight. I still had to take a cab from the airport to another town which was some 30 miles away. Those days Uber wasn’t allowed to pick up at the Boston Airport. I was thinking about taking a taxi to the nearest store and call an Uber, but it was late and cold and I was tired, not to mention that I had to be ready to teach at 8 am and it was already 2 am. So, I gave the driver the address, but we had a hard time communicating. A few minutes later I checked the distance to the hotel, and it was farther than originally, and the distance just grew. When I asked the driver, finally I figured out that he understood something completely different from what I said and he took me in the other direction. I still have no idea how did he match the exact same address in another town, but probably he didn’t either. I got driving directions for the taxi driver, I never thought a blind passenger needs to navigate. When I showed the phone to him, he took it out of my hand and he said that he will keep it. I got pretty nervous, it was the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, and I had no idea if anything happens what would I do, so I tried to negotiate with him that I will just give him the directions. Fortunately nothing went wrong, and I was in bed by 4.
I can never just rest once I arrive. I have to be very tired to go to bed, unless it is late at night and I have to get up early. It is time to do what I came for.
The first thing is to gather information. I ask many questions during check-in, the layout of the hotel, places to eat near and far, about the hotel facilities, etc.
At this point I also try to memorize the area as much as I can.
After I check into the room, the first thing is to feed Baldwin, and lay down his blanket. This is how he knows it is home. This is important, because when he has to find our room, it is much easier for him to find the place where his things are and where he is fed. I’m sure he couldn’t care less about my suitcase, but he will always remember where his food is.
Then I find a place to take him out, and by then I already have an idea of what I want to do based on my previous research. But it is a good idea to validate if my research was correct.
I was excited when I got a hotel in Bangalore because many places were some 2-3 hundred feet away. It turned out to be an impossible venture because I had to cross a busy road. Other times, I need to cross parking lots and grassy areas.
In an ideal case, I try to book hotels where I can walk to other things, but it is hard to know. Even if I can get walking directions, I don’t get information about the quality of the roads, sidewalks and the difficulty of intersections.
And there is always the unexpected that one can never prepare for. But those are also the things I will remember for years.
Hi Tom, this is an interesting piece, so many travel obstacles are those all of us have but multiplied. It is good to hear that you have had positive experiences with people helping you exchange money, that must be stressful trusting people like that. The biggest thing I learned was that Baldwin had to have a passport!
I try to exchange money at official places. You would think they are all official… But an exchange office at the airport, or a bank is safe. Hotels are different, in most cases you get paperwork about the exchange, but I have experienced cash for cash. Generally larger hotel chains are safe. All I have to worry about if I get the exact change, but let’s face it, they have much more to lose if they chat me with a few Dollars.
Regarding the passport is an interesting story, and it would be worth a separate post. You can get travel documents in the US for each trip, as of this August it was some $200, with the discount for a guide dog. But if I get a chip and passport in Europe, I can use it to travel between the US and Europe for a year, with some conditions. So when I was traveling often it made sense to extend the passport at the end of each year in Europe. But ultimately they made traveling with a guide dog so terribly difficult that it is really not worth it for me outside of the country.