Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
Flying in a Lightning Storm
By Lee | 
2 Comments » 
Last night I flew back to New York from Jacksonville, Florida and the weather in Florida couldn’t have been better. However, as we made our way up the east coast it started to get a little bumpier. All of a sudden you could see lightning blazing through the clouds. A truly awesome sight if you’re not the one who is in the plane. It can actually be quite terrifying and several people on plane were totally freaking out.
(more…)
Bookings With Travel Agencies
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
The past few weeks I have spent numerous hours researching a trip I am going to take this summer in a region that I didn’t know too much about. Central Asia, aka “The Stans”, is a tough region to get around because of the route, the language, the beaurocracy, diplomatic relations between those countries, governmental restrictions, the costs and most annoyingly-the sponsorships and visas. So in order to determine my route, get the visas where I need a sponsoring company and to make my life easier in general-I decided to call a Central Asian travel agency that was recommended by both another TCC member and Lonely Planet.
(more…)
Adding Passport Pages
By Lee | 9 Comments » 
If you have a new US passport with the new electronic chip in them, you are probably aware that they no longer allow the 48 page passports. I don’t know the reason for this. It really makes no sense. If you are a frequent traveler and have a bunch of visas, stamps, amendments, etc. then you will fill up a regular passport very quickly. That means that you have to get additional pages put into your passport which requires going through an annoying process of sending your passport to a passport agency and paying for express mail each way. Also, if you want expedited service, meaning a few days, you have to pay $60 more because normally it takes 4 weeks-which is ridiculous. On my first passport, I had to put more pages in three times in addition to the original 24 pages that were in it so I ended up with 96 pages in my passport and they were all full-Although its expired, I still have it and it is kind of a shrine of sorts to me.
(more…)
Lonely Planet Fabrications?
By Lee | 3 Comments » 
There is an Associated press report out that could potentially damage the global reputation and world dominance of the Lonely Planet travel guidebooks. A former Lonely Planet author who contributed to over a dozen LP books claims, “They didn’t pay me enough to go to Colombia (referring to LP),” Thomas Kohnstamm was quoted Sunday as saying. “I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating who was an intern in the Colombian consulate.”
(more…)
The New Heathrow Terminal 5
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a week or so now and finally I can’t think of anything else to write about so I can now take the piss out of the Brits and their brand spanking new Terminal 5 that opened to the public on March 27, 2008. And what an opening it was. On the day of the terminal opening, British Airways, which is the sole occupant of the new terminal cancelled 34 flights due to “teething problems” and was later forced to suspend passenger check-in. A malfunction in the new “state of the art” baggage handling system meant that nearly all flights took off without bags, and people faced delays of up to four hours as a result of waiting for baggage. On March 27th and 28th, 100 flights were cancelled whilst delays continued for a third day. British Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick dutifully admitted that over 28,000 bags owned by passengers were “missing”. Finally on April 2nd, British Airways reported that they were to send 15,000 of the delayed passenger bags destined for mainland Europe to Milan for sorting and return to customers-many people still haven’t received their bags.
(more…)
To Use or Not Use a Travel Agent
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
As I am thinking about my summer trips, you can imagine they are fairly complicated trips trying to maximize time in places while seeing a lot of different things and possibly covering a few countries in a clip. Complicated trips make you do a lot of research and check lots of different options. Planning, route selection, hotels, modes of transportation, etc. can take hours and days on end. You obviously want to get the perfect trip and when you get frustrated with how things are going you think, why don’t I just use a travel agent? This happened to me recently and got me thinking, when should you use a travel agent?
(more…)
Maximize Your Miles
By Lee | 6 Comments » 
Travel always causes a great debate for me. Should I pay for the trip or use miles? In general, I like to pay for long flights because then you get the miles and if you have status, for instance platinum status on American Airlines, then you will receive double miles in addition to the miles equal to the price of the ticket. Additionally, paying for flights will give you a leg up on re-qualifying for elite status for the following year. Obviously, this debate is for people who have a lot of miles and have status with an airline or would just like to get started.
(more…)
“Winning”
By Lee | 10 Comments » 
My friend Jake called me up yesterday, giddy as a schoolgirl as he tends to get, to tell me that he just had a “win” with Cebu Pacific Airlines over a fare discrepency. I asked him the story and it clearly was a win as Jake just simply beat the agent down with relentless banter to the point where the guy just couldn’t take it anymore and gave in-a trick he clearly learned from me. A win is a term that we have deemed for any success that you have in negotiating or getting your way to save money related to or when traveling. A win could be anything, from haggling down the price of a souvenier to the price of a rental car or saving money on an airline when they tried to screw you. A win feels good and sometimes it is all you have to keep sanity in remote places as sometimes numbers are the only English that native people may speak because it relates to their business. Even if a win requires you squabbling over what is in reality insignificant pennies, it is still a win, and you’ve fulfilled your touristic duties.
(more…)
The Endless Summer
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
I’ve been feeling sick lately and this freezing cold weather in New York is starting to become a real bummer so I decided to watch one of my favorite movies of all time last night, The Endless Summer. It’s one of those movies that every time you see it, it just makes you relax and takes you away to the places where the two main characters are in the movie. The movie is timeless and so brilliantly simple. If you had the time and the money, you could follow the summer around the world wherever it goes, making it endless.
(more…)
Pages
- About Lee Abbamonte
- Ask/Contact Lee
- Country List
- Country Qualifications-What makes it Count as a Country
- Mt. Kilimanjaro Journal
- Mt. Kilimanjaro Video Slideshow
- Newsletter
- Press Clips
- Radio Spots
- Sponsorship
- Standards for Visits
- Useful Travel Links
- Why Travel?
Email Updates
Categories
- Africa
- Airlines
- Asia
- Australia/New Zealand
- Caribbean
- Central America
- Europe
- General Travel
- Indian Subcontinent
- Middle East
- New 7 Wonders
- North America
- Oceana
- Picture of the Day
- Random
- South America
- Top 5 Lists
- Travel on TV
- Trip Blog
- Trivia
- World Sport
Monthly Archives
Travel links
- Cheap Air Tickets
- Travel Insurance
- Travel Blogs
- Globetrekker Videos
- Airport Parking
- Last Minute Hotels
- Hostels in Honolulu
- London Hostels
- Travel Gear Blog
- Eurail Passes
My Links
- Travel Sites