Travel Links
Kevin S. Hawkins
A list of links for making travel plans. Please send corrections and suggestions.
- Comprehensive sites
- Travel to or from Detroit and Ann Arbor
- Going Abroad
- Skyscanner lets you search and browse options and provides links directly to airline website for booking the itineraries you find. It sometimes include itineraries that can't be found through the search engine on the airline's website.
- The Practical Nomad – Advice geared toward the independent traveler.
- Transportation Security Administration – the latest security regulations for flights within, entering, or leaving US airspace. Please note:
- Checked bags are subject to search, so travelers should either leave them unlocked or use a lock that is branded as being TSA-accepted (because TSA has "master" keys).
- TSA officials have confiscated liquids not in their original containers from the quart-size bag currently allowed on board, despite the website not mentioning this labeling requirement.
- Wikivoyage – Contains many collaboratively authored travel guides, not only on cities and regions but also on topics like Flying on a budget and Rail travel in the United States.
Since I no longer live in Ann Arbor, this section will fall out of date.
See Ann Arbor Links for what to do when you get here, especially the map of selected accommodation near U-M Central Campus.
- Combatting jet lag – If you have a connection part way through a long trip, check to see if you can get a hotel room near the airport with an hourly rate. For example, YOTEL offers cabins by the hour inside certain airports, and London Heathrow Airport has nearby hotels that charge by the hour. Search for "day-use hotels".
- Credit/Debit/ATM Cards and Foreign Exchange – Information from FlyerGuide on choosing which card to use when overseas
- Aircraft Disinsection Requirements from the US Department of Transportation
- US Customs and Border Protection
- US Food and Drug Administration
- U-M International Center
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- US Department of State
- While the US Department of State and others explain entry requirements for each country, including how long your passport must be valid in order to enter the country, note that some airlines require a longer period of passport validity.
- If driving in Canada with your own auto insurance, ask your insurance company for a free "Non-resident Inter-Provincial Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card" before you leave, or carry the policy itself, since standard US insurance cards are not accepted as proof of insurance by Canadian authorities. Also carry proof of ownership of the vehicle.
Information on Russian visas is confusing in many ways, and all the more so because information describing the standard lengths and types of visas issued in different categories, as established in Russian law, rarely takes into account that beginning September 9, 2012, US citizens are by default granted multi-entry visas valid for 36 months unless the visa invitation specifies that it is for a single entry. For a single-entry visa, you should indicate in the application the dates on the visa invitation, whereas for a multi-entry visa, you should indicate a three-year period.
While the country-specific information page on Russia from the US Department of State and a webpage from Invisa Logistics Services LLC provide some information about migration cards (used "to register" your visa), more detailed information is provided by Way to Russia, and extremely detailed information is available in Russian about all sorts of visas except work and student visas, including the "registration" process, in a wiki book.
