travel website problems

Mistakes People Make When Booking Travel Through Third-Party Websites

Senior Reporter, HuffPost Life

Expedia. Skyscanner. Booking.com. Trip.com. Priceline. These days there are countless third-party platforms for booking flights, hotels, rental cars and other aspects of the travel experience.

While these websites can make the planning process feel more seamless and convenient, there are some potential drawbacks that are important to understand before you make any reservations.

Below, travel experts share the common mistakes people make when booking trips through a third-party service ― and their advice for avoiding these errors during your travels.

Assuming They Have The Lowest Prices

Travel booking websites can be great for comparing prices across different providers and potentially finding exclusive deals. But you’re often going to see the same costs across platforms ― including the travel vendor’s direct website.

“You should not assume online travel agencies have the lowest prices,” said Phil Dengler, co-founder of The Vacationer . “While coupons and other promotions can make it appear that you are saving a lot of money, you should always check directly with the airline or hotel.”

When booking a flight, you should check the prices on the airline websites, as well as results on search engines like Google Flights. As you look for accommodations, compare rates on hotel websites and third-party booking systems.

“In many cases, hotels will guarantee the cheapest rate when booking directly with them. In certain situations, third-party booking sites will hide resort fees until the very last moment or put them in an easy-to-miss spot.”

Losing 24-Hour Cancellation Options

“You should not book airfare with an online travel agency if there is a chance you may take advantage of the federal 24-hour cancellation rule,” Dengler said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has mandated that air carriers allow customers who purchased tickets at least seven days before a flight’s scheduled departure to cancel their reservation and receive a full refund without penalty within 24 hours of booking.

“Unfortunately, the flight must be booked directly with the airline,” Dengler noted. “That means third-party booking sites do not have to honor the rule, which means you could be out of luck if you are looking to cancel within 24 hours. If there is any chance you may need to cancel your flight, check with the third-party booking site before you book to see if they honor the 24-hour cancellation rule.”

Not Reading The Fine Print

“Always read the fine print so that you know their return or refund policy,” said Ciara Johnson, a travel blogger at Hey Ciara . “For added protection, book with a travel credit card that has insurance in case something goes wrong. If you’re not booking for a deal, it’s always best to book direct on the company website. It’s likely cheaper to book direct anyhow!”

Ravi Roth , a queer travel expert and host of “ The Gaycation Travel Show ,” echoed this advice. He emphasized being aware of any extra fees or troublesome policies regarding cancellations, itinerary changes and refunds, so you should make sure to read and save your confirmation email with the details.

“I recommend using trusted sites like Orbitz for hotels and Airbnb to book experiences. As for flights, I would try Skyscanner, but while booking, make sure to stick to the major airlines,” Roth noted. “Sometimes folks can find a super cheap flight, but in the fine print, there is a charge for overhead and checked luggage. I cannot stress enough to read the fine print.”

Missing Out On Loyalty Points

If hotel or airline loyalty points and status are important to you, using a third-party booking site might not be the best move.

“Many online travel agencies let you insert your frequent flyer number or hotel rewards number, but that does not mean you will earn status credit and points,” Dengler explained. “Some airlines and hotels will allow you to earn status when booking with online travel agencies, but you should make sure first.”

Trying To Modify Bookings Through The Travel Provider

“Third-party booking sites like Expedia, Priceline and Travelocity are also known as online travel agencies, and they are essentially middlemen between you and the airline or hotel,” Dengler explained. “In other words, your reservation is with them and not the airline or hotel. That means you contact them for customer service instead of the airline or hotel.”

So if access to direct customer service with the travel provider is a big deal to you, avoid these third-party platforms when making your reservations and use them as search engines for comparisons instead.

“While the larger online travel agencies have better customer service than the smaller ones, it is still better to talk to the source directly,” Dengler said. “That is important for both reservation modifications and cancellations. If there is a possibility that there will be severe weather during your trip, I recommend booking directly since there is a real chance you will have to modify or cancel your itinerary.”

Because canceling or making an itinerary change can be a bigger hassle through third-party platforms, make sure to pay close attention when you’re making your reservation.

“Travelers should just ensure to double-check all of their information, such as travel dates, name and contact information when booking via third-parties,” said Casey Brogan, a consumer travel expert at Tripadvisor.

Choosing A Travel Provider That Doesn’t Allow Third-Party Sales

“Be aware that several budget carriers, most notably Ryanair in Europe , technically don’t allow third-party sales of their tickets,” said Marek Bron, a travel blogger at Indie Traveller . “If you book their flights through a third-party anyway, then this is done through a work-around way that’s not supported by Ryanair.”

As a result, making cancellations or changes through the third-party site might be more expensive or challenging than it would have been if you booked directly through the airline. Ensure you can actually get an official confirmation with your chosen air carrier or other travel provider when you book through an external system.

Not Reading The Reviews

Not all third-party booking sites and travel agents are created equal. As such, it’s important to read the reviews of these services before making your reservations through them.

“Check reviews of these third-party sites, such as on TrustPilot, before booking as some of them are to be avoided,” Bron said. He advised paying extra close attention to mentions of customer service, as you might need this to handle changes or cancellations down the road.

“If working with a travel agent, ensure they have the right qualifications and double-check your reservations with the airlines and hotels,” echoed Jessica van Dop DeJesus , a travel media specialist and blogger at The Dining Traveler. “Also, look into travel insurance and check with your credit card to see if they provide any travel insurance services.”

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10 Dos And Don’ts For Building A Successful Travel Website

Set your travel website up for success so that you can easily take in new tourism business online using this advice.

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), your website is the foundation on which all of your hard work will rest.

It doesn’t matter how many keywords you add, meta descriptions you tweak, or plugins you remove: If the building blocks of your tourism website aren’t properly assembled, you’re always going to struggle to get the site to rank as well as it should.

On top of the technical benefits of a well-built website, as a travel brand, your website is one of your most valuable assets.

Here, potential customers can browse available packages, read testimonials from previous guests, and get a taste of the experiences on offer through engaging imagery and text – along with actually booking a holiday directly with your company.

Creating a travel website from scratch is always a significant project, but the benefits of designing a site from the ground up are widespread when it comes to ranking as high as possible on search engines.

So whether you’re a new travel brand that needs a website to start your business journey, or are redesigning your site to reap the benefits of a custom design, here are 10 dos and don’ts for building a successful travel website.

Do: Start With SEO Research

Every well-ranking website design starts with SEO research.

Before you decide on any of the pages or content that’s going to be included on the site, you need to understand which factors will influence how your site ranks on search engines.

High-ranking websites are structured based on keyword research and target phrases, as these influence the topics that landing pages are focused on and the kinds of questions that content needs to answer.

They’re also built to optimize page speed and minimize unnecessary plugins while making it as easy as possible for search engines to understand their intent.

This is one of the key reasons why using a website builder template or trying to cut corners with website design can be such a big problem.

Unless the website for travel is specifically designed with SEO in mind, you’re shooting yourself in the foot right from the start.

Don’t: Opt For A Bad Hosting Platform

If you’re trying to quickly get a new travel website off the ground, it can be tempting to choose a generic hosting platform .

These are often advertised as simple ways to build a functional website, and whilst this is true on the surface, there are plenty of problems that lie beneath.

When you use ‘drag-and-drop’ website builders to put together a website using existing templates, you often end up with a lot of unnecessary code and dependencies in the site’s backend.

This massively impacts how long it takes for pages to load and how smoothly the whole site runs, which will stop the site from ranking highly on search engines, and potentially frustrate users that want to book a holiday or make a purchase.

Using bad platforms to build your site can also limit the features you’re able to add to it later down the line.

Not only can this stifle creativity when you’re trying to come up with the best travel website design, but it can also come back to haunt you in the future when you’re unable to expand your site.

Do: Make Use Of Stock Image Databases

Opting for a custom-built design for your travel website is the route I recommend to ensure that all of your specifications are catered for – but this can be an expensive and time-consuming venture.

Many people will opt to choose a template on a site like WordPress to build their travel website, and the good news is that there are plenty of ways you can customize this to make it look unique.

One of these is the photos that you use on your travel website, which are an incredibly important visual element. One of the key ways you will engage a user is by encouraging them to picture themselves on a trip or in your accommodation, and eye-catching, immersive images are a great way to do that.

Having unique photographs on your website is ideal, but it’s not always possible when building a website, especially if your company is based in a different location. Thankfully, there are plenty of stock image databases you can utilize, offering both free and paid images.

If you’re looking for beautiful free stock photos, Unsplash is a fantastic option. Pixabay and Pexels are also good, but often only have a limited selection of images on offer.

If you’re looking for a greater variety, paid sites like iStock and Shutterstock offer reasonable prices for their images.

Don’t: Try To Cut Costs With A Bad Booking System

Plenty of travel companies have a booking system as part of their website. This element needs to be carefully considered, as some booking platforms can negatively impact a site’s SEO.

It’s worth properly doing your research into the best kind of booking system for your travel website, as many can be difficult to use, time-consuming to update, or are just built with a lot of unnecessary code that can really slow down this section of the website.

Here are some of the best WordPress booking plugins that cater especially to travel businesses:

• WP Travel Engine
• Travelpayouts

In some cases, you may be better off building a custom booking system that is much easier to edit and clearly lets customers book what they want without any misunderstanding.

Yes, building a bespoke booking system is another cost if you’re already investing in a unique travel website design. But it is likely to save you a lot of time and money in the future by making this booking system simple and optimized specifically for your brand, minimizing issues later on.

Do: Plan In Time For Content Creation

If you’re working with an agency or a designer, content creation might be included in the website design package that you’re paying for.

But many brands prefer to write their content themselves in order to capture the right tone of voice, so it’s important to factor in how long this is going to take.

You can start writing content for your website once you have a clear plan of the site structure and how many pages are going to be built.

It might be useful to see template designs for different landing pages to know how much text is needed – or your designer might ask you to write the content first, so they can design the pages around this.

If you want your travel website to rank highly when your customers search for your offering, you need to complete keyword research first.

This gives you a list of popular, relevant phrases that you can include in your travel website content that will help the site to rank higher and ensure that genuinely interested web users are arriving on the pages they’re looking for.

There are several different paid and free keyword research databases that you can use for this, with my favorite being Ahrefs .

These databases often have a tool that allows you to enter a word or phrase and then generate a list of related keywords, showing search volume and other useful data.

For travel keyword research, you want to focus on keyword phrases that indicate the user is looking to book a trip, visit a location, or get a recommendation.

For example, ‘family safari in africa’ is a general phrase with broad intent, whereas ‘where is the best place for a family safari?’ or ‘what animals can you see in south africa?’ are likely being searched by someone planning a holiday.

Once you’ve compiled a list of relevant phrases, you can either write landing page content that includes these phrases, or create pages of blog posts that specifically answer questions or focus on a topic with high search volume.

As well as keyword databases like Ahrefs, you can use Google Trends to identify popular travel topics and create content targeting query spikes, capitalizing on seasonal traffic.

Don’t: Forget Headers, Title Tags, And Meta Descriptions

It’s not just chunks of text for landing pages that you need to think about when it comes to website content creation .

Headers, title tags, and meta descriptions need to be carefully considered and written, as they are a key aspect of a website’s SEO.

Every landing page needs a unique heading structure, and you ideally want to fit target keyword phrases into each of these headings. This structure makes it easier for users to navigate a page, along with helping search engines to rank each page more easily, which will boost how well each page ranks.

To create a header structure, start with the page’s title (H1), which will usually contain the target keyword phrase. You can then use keyword research to find similar or related phrases that can be used as headings further down the page.

For example, a page might have the title ‘Luxury Family Safari Holidays’ with subheadings including ‘Family Safaris in South Africa,’ ‘How to Book a Family Safari,’ and ‘What to Expect on a Safari Holiday.’

Title tags are an element of a webpage’s HTML that explains the title of the page and appears in the tab at the top of a screen when a website is loaded up on a browser (and on the search engine results page).

Not only do these need to be clear so that the user understands the purpose of the page, but they also impact a page’s SEO, so should contain the target keyword phrase.

Title tags also often contain the brand’s name and occasionally a key phrase that summarises the brand’s offering. To build on the previous example, the title tag might be ‘Luxury Family Safaris | South Africa Safari Holidays | M+J Safari Experiences.’ 

Finally, a meta description is another HTML element that summarizes the content of a page and, again, influences how well it ranks for its target phrase. Meta descriptions should be under 200 characters, so need to be carefully written to provide a concise description of a landing page and include relevant keyword phrases if possible.

An example might be ‘ Witness a side of South Africa you’ve never seen before with a luxury family safari holiday from M+J Safari Experiences.’

Do: Implement A Sitemap

A sitemap does what it says on the tin: it maps out where each of the landing pages is on your website and provides a navigation point that directs how to get to each of these.

No matter how you build a travel website, you should implement a sitemap to provide search engines with a way of quickly understanding what the website contains.

Without a sitemap, bots crawling your site to decide where to rank it on search engines will try and interpret your internal linking instead. This can impact your ranking, so it’s best to have a sitemap established in the early stages of building a travel website.

You also need to consider user experience when you’re building a sitemap.

Potential customers on a travel website are likely going to want to browse the experiences you have on offer, see pictures and videos of your service offering, read testimonials to gain social proof, and then look at how to book a trip.

You should design your website so that this journey is easy to follow, with internal links and calls to action (CTAs) guiding the user toward making a purchase.

Don’t: Avoid Internal Linking

Speaking of internal linking , whilst it’s not a substitute for a sitemap, it’s definitely not something that you should avoid.

Internally linking landing pages to one another helps to direct users to different pages and keep them on your site for longer, ideally moving them towards making a booking.

Having lots of internal links throughout your travel website also helps it to rank better, as it helps search engines to identify the key pages on a site.

It also helps new pages to start ranking for phrases faster by associating them with existing pages that are already ranking well.

It’s very straightforward to put internal links in the header and footer of a landing page. But if you really want to reap the benefits of this approach, you should include internal linking in the content on each landing page as well.

Consider the anchor text that you’re adding the link to each time; it needs to be related to the page that it’s linking to, otherwise, the link will be seen as spammy.

Do: Optimize Your Images

It’s not just written content that needs to be optimized.

Travel websites tend to have lots of images on them, but the size of these can affect how quickly a landing page loads, which in turn can affect how well it ranks.

You shouldn’t compromise on image quality, but you should resize and compress each image before it’s uploaded to save space.

Images can also be optimized by ensuring that they have a title and alt text that describes what the image contains. Images should be relevant to each landing page, so this alt text can be used to insert more keyword phrases – or at least phrases that are semantically similar.

Don’t: Overuse Plugins And JavaScript Elements

Finally, whilst we’re talking about elements that impact loading speed, plugins and JavaScript can both cause problems with how fast a landing page loads.

Both can be useful, but both need to be chosen carefully so that your website’s SEO isn’t affected.

Plugins can be used to add a variety of exciting features to a travel website, but overuse will make it impossible to load a page in under a couple of seconds.

Consider the benefits of each plugin before you add them to your website, and regularly review these to ensure you’re still getting what you want.

JavaScript, similarly, can make a website more dynamic; these elements are resource-heavy dependencies that will also impact how quickly a page loads.

Some browsers also have JavaScript disabled, so by using a lot of these elements on a page, you face losing functionality if JavaScript isn’t enabled.

A new travel website build is often a lengthy process that can come with a hefty price tag if you don’t know what you should be asking for.

The above advice should give you a clear set of guidelines of what to prioritize and avoid when it comes to designing a new website for your travel company, helping to ensure you’re left with a beautiful and functional site for your brand that ranks well on search engines and brings in plenty of business.

More resources:

• Travel Content SEO Strategy: How To Build Links, Traffic & Conversion s
• 5 Tips For More Engaging & Impactful Branded Travel Content
• 3 Travel SEO Tips for Competing in Organic Search

Featured Image: REDPIXEL.PL/Shutterstock

Tom Mcloughlin is the founder of SEO Travel, a specialist travel marketing company. A passionate marketer and travel blogger, he ...

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Top 8 Challenges Affecting the Digital Travel Industry, Right Now

There is a huge variety of challenges that the digital travel industry is having to find solutions to. These challenges call for different responses from the various companies involved, all of which must ultimately serve to improve customer experiences.

Here are the top eight challenges affecting the travel industry right now, and some of the solutions that are being proposed to overcome them.

1. Brand Differentiation

Whether it's a seat on a plane, a room in a hotel, or a car rental, there are many companies out there all selling the exact same product. Companies are now having to find different ways of marketing their particular brand, products, and services to make themselves stand out from their competitors.

Many up-and-coming travel companies and OTAs are building their brands within a particular niche - honeymoon and destination weddings, for example, or adventure holidays, or as region/destination-specific specialists. In doing so, they avoid becoming "all-in-one" travel shops - Jacks of all trades but masters of none. By focusing on one niche or just a few related niches, these brands create differentiation in their marketing efforts, which become more effective as there is less competition.

As David Angotti , Co-Founder of SmokyMountains.com puts it : "While national websites like HomeAway and Airbnb deliver exceptional booking experiences and raise overall industry awareness, the hyper-relevant nature of geo-targeted niche sites is better equipped to deliver additional demand for specific localized markets. For example, high-quality video content that highlights a destination, combined with paid amplification through Facebook, can raise awareness for a specific market. This delivers additional demand and visitors that likely would not have visited the region in absence of this marketing approach. Smaller, niche websites excel at geo-local strategies like this. In addition to increased demand, the niche website increases the overall distribution health of a brand through channel and lead diversification."

2. Budgeting

In the constantly evolving world of technology, along with customer expectations changing faster than it's possible for companies to keep up with, budgeting becomes a very important factor in keeping up with trends.

Companies are being forced to use their budgets in smarter ways and advertise their business through different means.

One way they're doing this is with social media platforms, through which brands are able to promote themselves and connect with their audiences for little or no financial outlay. By taking advantage of the marketing opportunities social media provides, brands can effectively market their products and services in a more cost-efficient manner.

As a popular industry among young people, social media provides a great opportunity for travel brands to connect with target customers where they are, promote their products and services, and gain organic traffic to their websites - all without having to lay out a lot of money.

3. Multichannel Attribution

Multichannel attribution refers to the process of determining which marketing channels lead to conversions and sales, and giving each channel an appropriate amount of budget and attention accordingly.

Having a clear idea of which marketing channels are driving sales means companies can better allocate their marketing efforts. This then helps the business increase its efficiency of spending by only investing time and money into the channels which are driving growth.

Additionally, when a business knows its market and customer demographics, it can engage accordingly and optimize content to fit each platform for specific groups. This again increases the efficiency of a company's budget as it's able to witness higher engagement on these platforms and focus on enhancing the customer experience.

One company doing this particularly well is Marriott International , which created a culinary challenge and associated hashtag which trended on Twitter and Instagram. By using multichannel attribution to identify the best platforms on which to run the contest, the hotel brand was able to reach a diverse range of people, ultimately gaining a much wider audience.

4. Customer security

With the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now in force, customer security and privacy are becoming ever more important. While targeted ads and personalized marketing are massively popular and effective ways of advertising, travel companies need to be careful about what type of information they're using to personalize the ads directed at potential customers.

With ever-changing technologies, including voice, AR, and VR, keeping up with customer security is becoming a much more difficult job. New threats are forcing businesses to have to use new technologies and software in order to protect their customers' data.

If a business is taking the appropriate steps to ensure customers are secure on its site, it encourages repeat business and helps to drive revenue. When a site is secure, not only is a company improving customer experience, but it's also building trust in the eyes of its audience. This provides customers with the peace of mind that their information is being treated with the respect it deserves, and that the company itself is responsible and stable in its position within the digital travel market.

Many customers have stated they would have no problem booking with another brand or company if certain conditions, including price, schedule, or locations, were preferable.

This indicates that customer loyalty is a rarity, with customers having no ties to the company that they are choosing to travel with. Price comparison sites compound this problem by making it simpler than ever for customers to shop around for the best deal. It's also more unusual now for travelers to book their entire vacation in a single package, with innovative platforms such as Airbnb and Kayak providing a much easier booking experience to book flights, hotels, etc. separately.

Loyalty programs are something that many travel companies are setting up to ensure customers keep coming back. Hilton , for example, offers fitness classes in return for loyalty points for its guests. This encourages its customers to return to its hotels to build their loyalty points up.

6. Inspiration

Inspiration for trips and holidays can come from anywhere. Travel companies need to be ready to seize onto this inspiration when it occurs - or even create it themselves - and convert it into sales.

This is why you'll often find travel companies posting beautiful images of travel locations on their social media accounts. These images are designed to spark inspiration in those who view them, and then (hopefully) encourage and inspire holiday bookings.

Platforms such as TripTuner can help generate this inspiration in an audience. TripTuner describes itself as a "travel inspiration engine" and uses powerful artificial intelligence software to help travelers discover new vacation opportunities based on their travel history, searches, and interests. TripTuner also uses data to offer customized and personalized advertisements in order to further inspire customers.

7. Marketing Automation/Segmenting/Messaging Strategies

Many marketing departments must perform repetitive tasks like sending emails, posting to social media, and other mundane actions. However, marketing automation technology can take care of these tasks, leaving marketers free to focus on developing new strategies and interacting directly with their audiences.

Segmenting seeks to divide a broad consumer or business market into sub-groups of customers - known as segments - which are based on some type of shared characteristic/s. These groups are also usually subdivided into further groups of existing customers and potential customers. Segmentation helps marketers deliver the right information to the right people at the right time - by not sending top-of-the-funnel content to those in the middle, for example.

Brand messaging is the language and phrasing that appears on a company's website and other advertising materials. It covers everything from the fonts and images used on marketing materials to the type of music played on advertisements. Brand messaging ultimately informs audiences whether a product or service is aimed at them and can make the difference between success and failure.

The most important thing about brand messaging is that it's consistent across all channels. Your brand should have one identity and one voice, so you need to make sure all those responsible for putting out brand messages are savvy to this fact and have the necessary guidelines and training to make it happen.

8. Social Media

Travel brands are looking at how social media can be used for (almost) free advertising and to create organic buzz around their offerings.

Social media is massively influential to younger generations in particular, with many only using products and services they see advertised on their favorite platforms. Not only this, but they are living lifestyles in accordance with the trends they see on social media, with travel being a massive influencer in this regard. Instagram is a particularly useful social media platform for the travel industry as it allows brands to use hashtags to encourage people to share their travel experiences and create organic content as a result.

Social media is also being used to form relationships and enable communication between businesses and their customers, provide excellent customer service, and encourage loyalty. Being able to communicate with a company using a platform such as Facebook Messenger is, for most people, preferable to sitting on hold on the phone.

Final Thoughts

The challenges facing travel companies are forcing them to come up with new, creative solutions to combat them.

However, those companies which are willing to meet these challenges head-on will see customer experience improve across the board. In turn, this will encourage not only repeat business from those customers who have booked with them previously but inspire new customers to come on board as well.

The various challenges facing digital travel marketers will be hot topics at Digital Travel Connect US 2019 , taking place this October at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego, CA.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.

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10 Common UX Problems on Travel Sites

Kristine Ugalde

July 6, 2017 | 3 min read

Last Updated: Dec 5, 2023

Table of Contents

1. Cluttered layouts

2. unintuitive fields, 3. no tracking of progress, 4. no map search tool, 5. not personalised for the user, 6. choosing a date is tedious, 7. neglecting mobile ux, 8. ignoring the power of copywriting, 9. not including reviews, 10. user inspiration.

When gathering information and booking travel , brands leverage UX to impart a positive brand experience. With UX as the new brand, we compiled the most common UX problems for travel websites.

Some websites overload their user with too much information resulting in a heavy cognitive load. Sure, the landing page is prime real estate and it is tempting to squeeze special offers and product offerings on the landing page. Keeping it simple lets the user focus on the task at hand.

On the landing page, the user is greeted simple layout that focusses on the search bar with a clear call-to-action. Once the user starts typing, the page changes to a more dynamic search page. Trivago understands their customers’ objectives and presents them with a clear and clutter-free search experience.

A drop-down menu for the destination, especially when most of the text is obscured, slows down the search tremendously. If input values or destinations are limited, a hybrid text box and drop down menu works best. During exploratory sessions, users may conduct several searches at a time and will be slowed down by drop down menus.

Autocomplete search not only helps the user execute a search quickly but can also guide users who want to explore options in a specific country rather than a city.

Progress trackers can inform the user where they are in the buying process, what’s to come, and drives users to seek completion. This feature is a must-have for airlines and helps to logically structure the booking process.

An interactive map gives users a dynamic method of searching. Maps that refresh the search parameters based on geography or destination-based pricing can also be a source of inspiration for travelers.

TripAdvisor gives users the option to choose their currency and language. Unlinking the two offers a truly customisable user experience.

New visitors vs. returning visitors

When new visitors land on your page, recommendations and popular destinations are ideal for creating inspiration if they are not set on where to go.

On the other hand, returning visitors should be greeted with recently viewed or recently searched offers that give them a more personalised experience. Returning users are 2x more likely to purchase during a session, hence the importance of personalising the page.

Smart calendars

Finding the best deal on flights can be a long process and can be tough when the prices are so volatile. Skyscanner makes researching easy based on the certainty of the users.

If a customer has specific travel dates, choosing the date is easy on the calendar. An important UX point is to include the days from the previous and following month.

If dates are flexible, Skyscanner gives the option of choosing the month, even the cheapest month.

Optimising your content across all devices should be standard in 2016. Users are likely to conduct some portion of their research on mobile. Although the sessions may be shorter, users need to be able to find information quickly.

HotelTonight is geared towards the spontaneity of booking last minute hotel deals. With this in mind, they optimised their mobile site with UX best practices such as larger buttons and ensuring that the credit card input field prompts the number pad.

Copywriting is often an afterthought in UX. Reassuring language can help ease anxiety about the booking. Also, giving customers contextual information, such as limited inventory or other customers, nudges them to purchase. A great example is seen on Booking.com:

Customers often open multiple tabs or “page park” when trying to find the best deal. When a user switches back and forth between tabs, the title of the page changes to the price. A minute detail like this that transforms and expedites the discovery process helps the user to purchase faster.

In the search listings page, Hotels.com not only integrated TripAdvisor reviews with their own customer reviews but also highlighted listings that were favoured by other users. Social proof is an important driver to purchase.

In general, e-commerce websites with clean, efficient designs to promote professionalism and win the customer’s trust . However, the differentiating factor for getting your customer to purchase rests on the brand’s ability to inspire wanderlust.

High-impact images

Onefinestay uses large, high-res images with a lot of light and makes the rooms look spacious and inviting. High-impact images evoke emotions with the user and draws the user in visually.

When researching for an upcoming holiday, customers often gather as many options as possible. The wishlist function on AirBnB is easy to use and can be shared with traveling companions or your brand’s community-at-large.

Travellers’ needs are constantly evolving. Travel brands need to find the right combination of user-focussed functionality with inspirational content. The consumer purchase journey is a long process and the travel sector is highly competitive. By offering a pleasant and efficient user experience, travel brands can compete on other factors other than price and drive consumer loyalty.

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Search form, 9 problems and opportunities in travel sites heuristics set.

Some aspects (common problems and opportunities) that deserve special attention in travel sites.

By jordisan .

Reference(s): 

• User Experience (UX) in travel sites
• Principles and checkpoints
• Spreadsheet

Common problems

And how to deal with them.

01. Information overload; too many options

In most travel websites the  search form  is already the main functionality and it’s visible enough. However, some of them include  too much information and/or too many options , especially on the home page: search forms, offers, packages, last-minute bargains, etc. ; sometimes it seems like someone has just dropped them on the page, with no obvious structure or grouping into sections. This may require an extra effort by the users to  find a starting point to start their navigation ; it’s common, for example, to find plenty of beautiful images of idyllic places which may have an aesthetic purpose but don’t help users to find what they’re looking for (unless it turns out they are images of their destinations).

Let’s remember that one of the “commandments” of user experience is that  the vocabulary and behaviour of the website must be targeted to users  instead of reflecting the internal structure of the company. However, some websites still include some contents and classifications which aren’t obvious at all to end users.

It’s better to avoid designs where everything is trying to stand out and use options which are easy to understand. It’s important for users to identify a clear  starting point depending on their needs  and their profiles (we talk a little bit more about profiles below).

02. Missing prices (or not clear enough)

That’s something which is getting better, but there are still websites where price information is unclear: prices are missing, or they hide additional fees until the end of the buying process. Many users  already know these practices and they will react in a negative way.  So, in this aspect, it’s better to be clear and transparent from the beginning.

03. Not adapting to user context

Due to their own characteristics, travel websites usually include a lot of information which could be  adapted to each user , and particularly to his/her  location .

03.01. (Do) Show prices using the user’s local currency

03.02. (do) use a place near to the location of the user as the starting point of the travel.

For example, the closest airport for flights.

04. Complex date pickers

An input control to select one or more dates is almost indispensable in a travel website; nevertheless, there’s no such thing as an optimal implementation, so they usually become a source of confusion for users. There is no doubt that they’re a functionality that deserve particular attention during design and testing, which should take into account the following recommendations.

04.01. (Do) Include logical bounds

For example, not allowing a date previous to today for booking a reservation, or not allowing a return date previous to the departure.

04.02. (Do) Show the selection in a clear way

Make the departure date visible enough when selecting the return date.

04.03. (Do) Allow entering the date using the keyboard

For some users it’s easier and/or quicker that way (but remember to show the accepted date format somehow).

05. Bad usage of vouchers

Vouchers are a useful marketing tool in many cases, but it’s important to determine  when they can be used  during the buying process (usually it’s better in the final step), and how they influence  users not having one . In some cases  they can be even counterproductive , so it’s a good idea to consider some alternatives (for example, offering discounts depending on the authenticated user or where he/she comes from).

Opportunities

Aspects which can make a positive difference when compared to competitors.

06. Consider different user profiles

Some authors identify three  different profiles of e-commerce users . A good travel website should care for all of these profiles by offering, on one hand, a searcher which allows  specific data for  buyers  to be entered, but on the other hand allows  “open searches” with very few data  which can be refined later depending on the results,  for  hunters  and  browsers . The latter will also benefit from  “similar results”  to the user’s search (e.g., in dates, prices or destines). Moreover,  special sales and bargains  will be interesting for  browsers .

06.01. Browser profile

Browses through different options without a particular objective; their first thought isn’t to buy, but they might if they find something interesting.

06.02. Hunter profile

Has an approximate idea of what she/he wants, but is still looking for the best option (many times, depending on the price); she/he is going to study and compare many alternatives before buying.

06.03. Buyer profile

Has an exact idea of what he/she needs, and will buy it when he/she finds it.

07. Include emotional and social aspects

As marketing experts already know (and is perfectly explained by  Susan Weinschenk in her books ), including social and/or emotional references greatly affects  the buying decision . In this type of website, we can use different aspects of that kind.

07.01. Testimonials and recommendations from other users

07.02. scarcity.

“Only 3 available”; “last day”

08. Fighting shopping-cart abandonment

One important point of optimization (also in travel websites) is identifying and avoiding the abandoned buying processes. In many cases they will just be the result of users looking for a better price, but they can also be  a result of usability problems , which we won’t detect unless we perform a detailed study (because in the real world, users probably won’t complain; they’ll just leave).  Analytics  will help us to identify the particular step  where  the problem lies, and  user testing  will help us to know  why .

09. Taking advantage of mobile features

We already know that any e-commerce website should adapt to mobile devices, which will probably represent more than 50% of visits. This is also true for travel websites, with an extra: they will probably be used  for last-minute purchases  (for example, when you are already at your destination). In this case,  geographical and/or temporal proximity  can be a key factor (“I need a nearby hotel for tonight”).

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5 Most Common Mistakes on Travel Industry Websites

• Milan Stojković
• February 6, 2020

We have analyzed more than 400 travel websites and these are the most common mistakes!

Last year we had an action within the Etourism Consulting agency and we presented a free website analysis to all the interested tourism industry stakeholders – hoteliers, tour operators, travel agents, destinations.

In a nutshell:

We processed more than 400 websites and these are the most common mistakes on the travel websites that we have noticed:

• Not Mobile Responsive
• Inactive Google Analytics
• Facebook Pixel not installed
• Inquiry/reservation form not present or not working correctly
• The website does not possess an SSL certificate

Let’s see the details.

Your travel website is the most important source of information for tourists, but also the sales channel for your travel business.

Therefore, there is nothing more important than your website when it comes to providing information and driving sales.

Here in Etourism Consulting, we are specialized in providing online marketing services exclusively to the travel industry clients .

With regard to celebrating the World Tourism Day, which was dedicated to Digital Tourism Transformation last year, we decided to give a completely free website analysis to any interested travel & hospitality industry stakeholders.

Until that time we have worked with over 500 travel related websites with our clients in various travel niches.

But then we received the free website analysis requests for more than 400 new travel websites belonging to travel agencies, hotels, apartments, villas, rent-a-car agencies, from all over the world.

We didn’t expect so many inquires.

We had to analyze more than 400 different websites!

Alongside with our everyday work, this brought a real headache in our agency. But we have promised and we did it !

All of the 423 websites were carefully analyzed and presented with emphasized errors and mistakes, and further improvement recommendations as well.

The 434 travel website audits were delivered in just a few months !

Adding that to our previous experience, we could say that we become familiar with travel industry websites. We had an opportunity to realize what are the most common mistakes on the travel websites.

And now we want to share our findings with everyone , because we believe it will be help you at least not to make these same mistakes when creating your travel website or redesigning and improving the existing one.

1. The website is not mobile responsive

This is definitively the first thing you would want to check and the deficiency which should be sorted out as soon as possible if it is present.

If your website is not adapted for mobile devices (cell phones and tablets), you will be faced with a deficiency which will have an impact on both your website`s ranking in Google search results and on the effects on any kind of paid campaigns you may run.

This is harming the user experience on the website and it significantly decreases the chance for the visitors to make a reservation.

We are in the 2020s  for God’s sake, make your website MOBILE FRIENDLY!

How can you check whether your website is ready for the mobile first world?

Your website should undergo a Mobile Friendly Test so that you can check whether your website functions equally well on all the devices. This Google tool is very simple to use – all you need to do is to enter your website URL and you will know how Google sees your website in less than a minute.

If you get the results as the ones in the picture above, you can relax because your website does not have any issues concerning this.

Otherwise, this test will make a list with all the things you should improve on your website to become Mobile Friendly. Sometimes it is just a little fix, but it many cases it is easier (and cheaper) to do a complete website redesign than trying to fix the old one.

You must not neglect the fact that your website is not adapted for mobile devices, unless you are ready to give up on potential tourists and guests who reach your website using their mobile devices, and their number goes even up to 90%.

We recently had a conversation with a client concerning the appearance of the website on mobile devices. We did have several objections, but he thought that it was not so important because his website had been visited mostly using a PC, at least he thought so.

He was shocked when we sent him this screenshot from Google Analytics.

You can notice that mobile visits on this website were over 85%!

That is why it is important not only to pass the above mentioned test but also to visit the website by yourself (or ask someone else) using a mobile device and thoroughly check whether everything is looking nice, how the booking flow looks like, is anything hard to use or see…

If you went green on this test you should not be too relaxed, since having a mobile friendly website doesn’t mean that it has nice and smooth mobile user experience, optimized for bookings . However there is no an easy test for this, but if you want we can check your website and let you know what you need to fix and improve.

Obviously, in order to see all these data, you need to have Google Analytics installed on your website, which leads us to the following most common mistake on the website.

2. Google Analytics is not installed

Google Analytics is a must-have!

Google Analytics is a free service which automatically gathers, sorts, processes and puts at your disposal a vast variety of data on your website.

The fact that you will be closely acquainted with the profile of your potential tourists and guests who might visit your website and their behavior on the website can help you perceive the efficiency of your website as an information and sale channel.

If you want to know ( you should ) the age and gender of your website`s visitors, where they are coming from, which fields of interest and online search terminology bring them to your website, how much time they spend on your website and on which device, which web pages they usually visit, from which web pages they leave your website and what the reason is, whether they do certain actions on your website (filling in reservation inquiries, for instance), and many other things – all you need to do is make a Google Analytics account and connect it with your website by setting a Google Tracking Code .

In the picture above you can see the way you can find the tracking code in the Admin section under the option Tracking info. You should insert this code in <head> section of your website.

Also important is the fact that Goolge Analytics can be connected with other tools and platforms, like Google Ads.

Needless to say, Goolge Analytics is necessary for the Internet marketing.

Your online marketing activities are irrelevant if you cannot measure them and track their performance.

3. Facebook Pixel Code Not Installed

Facebook Pixel allows us to measure and increase the efficiency of online marketing.

Without pixel you won’t be able to use advanced marketing techniques , such as remarketing and conversion tracking.

If you want to do a decent marketing for your travel business, having a Facebook Pixel set up is not a choice but a must-have.

Pixel represents a unique piece of code which is set on the website. If you have you can set up and track conversions and various events, optimize Facebook campaigns, create Custom and Lookalike audiences, run remarketing campaigns, etc.

This is how that piece of code looks like (installed using Google Tag Manager):

Pixel Code and the instructions for its installation on the website are located within Facebook Ads Manager, in the Pixel section.

4. Direct bookings are not possible or too complicated

This is the common issue on the websites that present hotels, hostels, villas, apartments and other accommodating objects .

We do not have to say how important the proper booking form is for these kind of websites.

People visiting your hotel can easily book their rooms using the booking forms by visiting your website. It’s a great way of getting direct bookings .

However, if you don’t have a booking form or is not working correctly or it is hard to use, the visitors will leave the hotel website and book the room using some of the OTAs websites (which comes with commissions) or, even worse, they will book at your competitor.

And you don’t want this to happen.

There are three most common issues with booking forms…

There is no booking form. Not even a phone number!

It seems unreal but there are still certain accommodation websites that have no option for online reservation .

The booking form either does not function or there is no booking form at all.

The phone number is usually tiny and hidden somewhere in the corner of the footer section; or there is no phone number at all.

It depends on the country but in most cases domestic travelers usually like to book by making a phone call.

So, pay attention to your inquiry forms, contact details and especially the phone number. That number must not remain tiny and hidden, it should look like this:

062 234 567 89

Beside its size, the number has to be clickable, meaning if you click the number, it should be dialed.

Booking process is too complicated

Having an online booking system is not enough; it has to be easy to use.

Potential guests who are currently on your website should be able to book their stay fast and easily, in a few simple steps.

Filling in the booking form should be intuitive and it should not ask for too much information from the users. It should contain only the fields which are necessary for further processing.

Booking form is not visible enough

The starting booking bar is usually located on the homepage, which is correct but not enough.

It is also necessary that it is located on every room page and to have a visible, attention garbing Book Now button across the whole website.

A nice example of an easily accessible and simple booking form is shown on the Pension Biba website.

Lastly, we have to mention another problem which is common on hotel and apartment websites and has a negative impact on the completed bookings percentage, known as the conversion rate in the online marketing.

It is about the buttons and links which lead your potential guests from your website to the TripAdvisor or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Not only is there a risk that potential guests will not come back to your website , but you literally send them directly to go-between agents, where they can also make a booking (that will cost you more), instead of leading them towards simple direct booking on your own website.

5. The website does not have an SSL certificate

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate represents the basic standard when we talk about the website security.

This is especially important if you sell something directly on a website, or you have various forms which need to be fulfilled with sensitive information, which is a common case with travel agency or hotel websites – reservation form, inquiry form, contact form…

With the SSL installed, all the data are coded, encrypted, so that only a browser or server can decode them. In this way, the SSL helps you protect you and your guests from hackers, skimmers, or any kind of data confidentiality abuse.

This is especially important for travel websites where potential guests and tourists need to insert various sensitive information when filling the form, such as the address, ID and passport number, even credit cards.

Not only the visitors of your website will feel more secure, but your company will also look more professional.

By having the SSL you also confirm the authenticity of your webpage, verifying it as the only true representative of your hotel, travel agency, organization.

In other words, the visitors are aware that it is not a fake or suspicious website, but a credible company. People must believe you before they take their wallets from their pockets, right?

What is also important is the fact that the SSL certificate has become one of the most important SEO factors for website rankings in Google search results.

Google does not want to send visitors to those insecure websites so it gives the advantage in ranking to those which have the https:// mark.

Those websites which have the SSL certificate will get a “Connection is secure” mark from Google Chrome which increases the confidence in your website which is extremely important in the moments of making a booking decision.

Beside the above mentioned deficiency, there are a lot of less or more serious problems on travel websites which we have spotted during our analyses and they all together have a negative consequence concerning the functioning of the website as an information and sale channel, which is most often manifested in the following ways:

• Poor on-page and off-page SEO
• Poor customer experience
• Slow loading

Feel free to c ontact us and we can do a complete website audit for you , or even create a complete digital marketing strategy for your travel company.

Also, we can follow your improvement and support you with consulting services or we can do all the work instead of you , and you can dedicate your time to your business and tourists.

Do You Want To Boost Your TRAVEL Business?

Drop us a line and keep in touch.

• GENERAL TRAVEL

10 Annoying Travel Problems and Their Solutions

Raised in a multicultural family in the colorful Chicago suburbs, Raquel’s greatest joy is ...

• Before You Go
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It’s been a glorious day exploring Thailand’s ancient temple ruins. You arrive at your hotel room with a phone full of pictures and rich stories that will live on forever. But when you finish emptying your day bag, something isn’t there.

Your passport is gone and in its place is one of a traveler’s worst nightmares and biggest travel problems.

Don’t lose your passport. We repeat: DON’T LOSE YOUR PASSPORT.

With just a bag or two in tow and (sometimes) cultural and linguistic barriers, issues that pop up while traveling overseas can often seem magnitudes worse than if they were to happen at home. And when you travel to unwind, grow, learn, or tackle new adventures, these little snafus are the last things we want to get in our way.

As Albert Einstein once said, “A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” So in the spirit of a literal Einstein, let’s get familiar with some of the most common travel problems and how to solve them (or better yet, avoid them).

Is there a way to avoid annoying travel problems?

The unpredictability of travel lends to its charm and feeling of adventure. If a sprinkle of risk is an absolute no-go, we’d all be taking ultra-planned river cruises with our grandparents. Yet however thrilling unpredictability is, annoying travel problems are never welcome.

The best way to avoid most inconvenient headaches when out and about around the world is to overplan and prep before you even leave home. While you can’t foresee what will happen, you can at least have a backup plan or course of action lined up if you do find yourself in a pickle.

Familiarize yourself with a destination’s transportation system, the area around your accommodations, and what you’re able to buy in stores abroad—for example—all before arriving. Triple checking the ol’ packing list doesn’t hurt either .

10 common travel problems and how to deal with it

So, what kinds of bumps may pop up unexpectedly throughout your travels? Let’s dive in.

Is there a worse headache than the one caused by lost luggage?

1. Canceled, delayed, or unreliable transportation

No matter where you travel in the world, transportation will never be perfect—except maybe in Japan where trains’ annual average delay is mere seconds. From missed transfers to routes that have temporarily changed with a note posted in a language you don’t understand, there are tons of ways transportation issues can botch your journey.

• How to solve it: Transportation snags are largely out of your own hands, so avoiding them may not always be possible. Instead, the best way to minimize the impact is to seek out alternative routes to arrive at a destination just in case. Familiarize yourself with all possible options like a bus vs train, and what to do if your plans get altered. Knowing who to contact about a canceled train beforehand, for example, will help you act quicker and be less stressed if faced with that situation.

2. Forgotten can’t-live-without items

You’re settling into a hotel room after a whole day of flying and fighting jet lag only to find that your retainer didn’t make it into your suitcase. Now that you think of it, it’s still lying at home on the bathroom counter.

Universal items like toothbrushes or clothes are easy to replace wherever you go at the drop of a hat. However, personalized life companions like prescription meds, eyewear, or a phone charger with a specific voltage may not be readily available in your destination.

• How to solve it: This may go without saying, yet it’s not always a rule of thumb that travelers follow: Create a packing list and double check before leaving! Yes, that means start writing down your absolute essentials days or even weeks before your departure to make sure you account for everything. Leaving it all to your memory in a last minute packing spree won’t do you any favors.

3. Currency exchange

Do yourself a favor and have a bit of the local currency with you before you arrive abroad.

Exchanging currency has gotten so much easier over the past few years (good riddance, traveler’s cheques!). However, each country and region still has its own process for exchanging currency, so bringing a wad of cash with you and crossing fingers that it will all work out may not be your best bet. In some areas, traveling with that much cash on hand may raise safety concerns as well.

• How to solve it: Check in with your home bank to see what your options are for your target destination. In some cases, you can easily access an ATM with a debit card abroad for minimal fees. Some banks will also exchange money for you before you leave if you request it ahead of time, so you have a bit of cash on hand to navigate the first few days on a trip.

READ MORE: Is it Better to Travel with Cash or Card?

4. figuring out where and when to get food and water.

To be clear, you should definitely have access to drinking water and food anywhere you go! This common travel problem refers specifically to whether you can drink the tap water and what food sources you’re advised to avoid. Free drinking water also isn’t as widespread around the world as it is in the United States, especially in water-scarce regions.

• How to solve it: If you’re participating in an organized travel program like study abroad or a language school abroad , you’ll have great resources available already to ask about safe food and water sources. Your accommodations, such as a hotel or host family, can also give the skinny on whether street food is a yay or nay and if the tap is trusted. When in doubt (say you’re super off the grid), just stick to prepackaged food and beverages.

5. Knowing local emergency protocol

Knowing to dial 911 in an emergency is a no-brainer home, but what if you find yourself in need of help abroad ? Also, who do you contact if you are victim to a crime, lost valuables, or are hurt? While traveling is usually a positive adventure for most, these annoying travel problems can happen. And the last thing you need in an emergency is to feel lost and alone.

• How to solve it: Of course, you should definitely acquaint yourself with the local emergency phone numbers. If there is a language barrier and no one that can help translate, another great option is to know the contact for your embassy or consulate in your country of stay. Your embassy can act as a liaison between you and local authorities, as well as help you access medical care among other services.

6. Luggage weight limits

Don’t overpack, otherwise you might be stuck paying extra baggage fees.

Weight restrictions are a big limiting factor when traveling by air. But honestly, who can blame you for wanting to bring back an entire new wardrobe from Italy? If you’re hopping around to multiple destinations, e.g. adventure travel or a gap year , schlepping 100 lbs. of stuff around with you isn’t exactly ideal either.

• How to solve it: Ah, the internet. It provides so many wonderfully helpful free resources for how to pack light. Versatility is the way to go with clothes, but also think of multipurpose shoes, as multiple pairs of footwear can really add on the pounds. Another great packing hack is to bring a single suitcase with an empty duffle bag inside so you are armed and ready to bring back all the new goodies you buy abroad.

7. Gaps between check-out and check-in times

You’ve got a train to catch to your next location in the afternoon, where the check-in time is hours later, but you need to check out of a short term rental by 11:00 a.m. That leaves a few hours during which you’re on your own with bulky luggage and nowhere to go. Frequent travelers are likely quite familiar with these awkward gaps between check-out and check-in times.

• How to solve it: Accommodation hosts can be quite flexible when there isn’t another guest immediately arriving the same day, so see if you can get a check-out extension. Other great options are to ask about luggage storage at your accommodation (usually available at no additional cost) or even at bus and train stations.

READ MORE: Choosing the Right Travel Accommodations

8. packing for multiple climates.

Whether you’re staying put for a semester or year, or have multiple locations bundled up into one trip, you’ll likely face a range of climates. While keeping clothes for more than one season at a time in a single closet is already a struggle back home, this only gets all the trickier when you have to whittle that down to a few tops, bottoms, and shoes.

• How to solve it: Start a packing list with your bare essentials that you’ll need in any season or climate zone. Then, think about how you can get the most functionality out of the items remaining. Packing gurus typically advise travelers to lean on layers, so you can get full use out of each and every item.

9. Language barriers

Nowadays, it can be a little easier to find your way around language barriers.

Even though technology has evolved to the point of instant translation on a phone (admittedly, the translation isn’t always perfect), language barriers are still prevalent. Walk into a restaurant and sit down to order, then WHOOSH—you’ve never wanted pictures on a menu more badly in your whole life. The server comes over to ask something and BAM—maybe you aren’t so hungry after all...

• How to solve it: With simple Google Translate and other apps , you can overcome some of the most common travel problems with understanding signs and written text. When it comes to spoken language, having a travel program, host family, local friend, or even buddy who’s studied the local language more than you will certainly be helpful.

10. Locals who only want to speak English

On the flip side of traveling on a lonely English-speaking island, there are the language enthusiasts who have diligently studied the language of their destination for years. But, uh-oh, someone you proudly ask a question to senses an accent or maybe a grammar mistake. That’s it, they answer in English and now there’s no going back.

• How to solve it: Practice makes perfect with learning new languages, but every so often you’ll come across the stubborn English-enthusiast who just wants to save you the trouble of speaking their native tongue. They mean well, but it’s not doing your fluency any favors by switching to English. If you do get a reply in English, stay firm and keep going in the original language. That way, the person will understand that you know more than they thought and you’re comfortable sans English.

If you’re ready to go abroad, our FREE Online Advisor will send you 5 personalized travel program matches

Don’t worry—you can learn how to handle the biggest travel problems.

For first time travelers , the possibility of meeting with common travel problems can be overwhelming. But once you become a seasoned globetrotter, you’ll know how to dodge issues and solve them like a pro. And who said you have to go at it alone?

Visit the GoAbroad.com Covid Hub for help safely planning your next trip

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12 Ways to Make This Summer’s Travel Less Bad

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Travel is back, but that doesn't mean it's easy (or cheap).

Airport chaos has made headlines more than a few times over the past couple of years, but if you opt to drive, you'll have to contend with soaring gas prices. Plus, hotel prices have hit all-time highs , even though many properties cut some services like daily housekeeping.

Despite all those deterrents, traveling might be non-negotiable. You might have five weddings to attend this year. Then there’s the work offsite to finally meet the coworkers you’ve never met face to face. And now that your youngest kids are vaccine-eligible, you owe them that (expensive) Disney trip they’ve been begging for.

Ah, suddenly the wanderlust you felt when envisioning your dream “revenge trip” back in 2020 has been zapped away, instead replaced by anxiety and plenty of unwanted expenses.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Combine solid planing with a healthy mindset, and you might skip the common problems with traveling. Who knows? This summer vacation might become the best trip ever.

1. Acknowledge your trip won’t be perfect

Go into your trip with realistic expectations. Delays are all but inevitable, and things might be more expensive than you budgeted for. If you go in knowing the caveats, you’ve already set yourself up better to avoid disappointment.

With that, focus on these next tactics that you can control.

2. Book flights with lower odds of a delay

As if traveling wasn't stressful enough right now, it’s impossible to guarantee your flight won’t be delayed, as even a private jet could still be subject to air traffic or weather delays. But certain booking strategies can at least increase the odds of on-time arrival:

Fly earlier in the day before a previous flight can delay your plans.

Avoid layovers if your budget and route allow.

Book with airlines with strong histories of on-time arrivals (Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines rank highest, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics).

3. Apply for TSA PreCheck

One of the easiest airport lines to avoid: the traditional security line. With TSA PreCheck membership, you can access dedicated, often-shorter lines that enable you to flow through faster. Plus, you won’t need to remove your shoes or laptops.

Applying for membership takes time, and perhaps money, too. But carving out time to apply now is likely better than cutting into your precious vacation time by standing in an annoying security line. The application fee is $78, but many travel credit card benefits include TSA PreCheck reimbursement .

4. Don’t check bags

Another line to skip? Bag check. While you can sometimes skip this line by holding airline elite status , the easiest way to skip it and avoid unnecessary travel obstacles is by not checking bags, period.

There are plenty of other reasons to pack light. There’s no risk of checked luggage getting lost if you fly carry-on only, and you won’t have to stand at the baggage carousel on the other end of your flight. And should you need to make a last-minute switch to another flight, you won’t be held back because your stuff is stuck on another aircraft.

5. Do pack a 'delay emergency' kit

While packing light is essential, make space for some essentials to account for one of the all-too-common travel problems: delays or other inevitable travel snafus. Things to include:

Packable snacks: “Hangry” travel can turn a bad trip worse. Jerkies and protein bars are filling, without filling up too much space in your bag. Plus, you’ll avoid long lines at airport cafes.

Portable chargers: If flights are delayed and the airport doesn’t have power outlets, you’ll stay plugged in.

Copies of your passport, COVID-19 vaccine proof and other important records: You might not necessarily need physical copies, but digital copies don’t take any space and might come in handy.

Entertainment: Bring a book or laptop so you’ve got entertainment if you get delayed.

6. Gift yourself lounge access

Speaking of what to do during a delay, the airport lounge might be your oasis. Airport lounges, which can typically be accessed via programs like Priority Pass (membership is sometimes included with certain credit cards ), can sometimes make a delay not merely tolerable, but actually enjoyable.

Lounges vary in quality, but the best ones have luxuries like nap suites, Peloton bikes, showers and buffets. Consider travel hassles like delays simply as opportunities to treat yourself to another complimentary cappuccino.

7. Let your phone assist you

Smartphone apps can simplify travel. Most airlines and hotels now offer online or in-app check-in, upon which you’ll receive a mobile boarding pass or virtual room key to bypass the physical counter.

Just this year, Starbucks rolled out the ability to order ahead from many airport locations, removing yet another irritating line you might otherwise stand in.

Apps can also notify you of a flight delay, help navigate new routes due to traffic, and find cheap gas stations .

8. Reserve the 'pay later' rate, even if it’s more expensive

Many rental car companies and hotels allow you to reserve now, but don’t require payment until you arrive. Sometimes they offer a discount for paying upfront, which can be worth it if you’re certain you’ll make the trip.

But given the uncertainty of travel issues these days, it might be worth paying what’s likely only a small percent more. The trade-off — no headache of trying to get your money back — can be worth it.

Plus, if prices drop between booking and check in, you can rebook the same reservation at a lower rate. In fact, such occurrences are surprisingly common. Hotel room rates were cheaper 73% of the time when booked 15 days out versus four months out — with an average savings of 13% over the past three years, according to a 2021 NerdWallet study .

9. Consider an all-inclusive or group tour

Group tours and all-inclusives can sometimes be more expensive upfront, but they may entail less headache given there are fewer reservations to book (and worry about going awry). When you book guided group vacations, the trip is in your guide’s hands once you arrive.

Trip challenges — whether a vehicle breakdown, unanticipated closure or something else — are almost inevitable these days. But if the trip is up to the guide you hired, then problem-solving is largely up to them, too.

10. Have travel insurance

Travel insurance can help you get money back for canceled or interrupted trips. It can also fund expenses like additional clothing if your luggage gets lost or an extra hotel room if you need to stay overnight due to a flight delay.

Some credit cards offer travel insurance on trips purchased with that card.

Read the policy, though, as many plans come to your rescue only if you experience a covered reason, like an injury or jury duty. You generally can’t expect a refund if you cancel “just because,” unless you purchase the more expensive “ Cancel For Any Reason ” coverage. And even still, this more-flexible coverage typically only refunds about 50% to 75% of the total cost, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

11. Tip where appropriate

Travel is already expensive, and tipping can sometimes feel like something you do begrudgingly, especially when you’ve already been hit by rapid inflation, resort fees and maybe even a COVID-19 surcharge.

Tipping can help a likely overworked employee (as of May 2022, leisure and hospitality employment still remains roughly 8% below pre-pandemic levels, according to the U.S. Travel Association). Likewise, your generosity might literally pay off for you, too.

Tipping the cleaning staff at the hotel breakfast buffet might net you a complimentary premium drink from the coffee bar. Some cash for the hotel housekeeper might mean chocolates and towel animals on your bed.

12. Be kind to workers and fellow travelers

You don’t necessarily have to tip to get superior service — kindness is free. Berating the gate agent because your flight was delayed won’t get you there any faster (not to mention it’s likely not their fault the flight is late). But, being nice means they’re more likely to pull some strings to get you on another flight.

And try to be patient with and considerate of other travelers. For a lot of rusty travelers, it’s their first trip in years. And for some other travelers, they’re flying to their fifth wedding of the month. They deserve your sympathy, too.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2023 , including those best for:

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75,000 Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

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10 common travel problems and how to deal with them

If you travel for long enough you'll experience all these problems and more. You'll also learn that every problem has a solution. Here are 10 of the most common travel problems and ways to avoid them.

Adam NomadicVA.com

Apr 01, 2023

When it comes to travel problems, I've experienced them all!

When you commit to a life of travel you have to accept that it won't always be a smooth operation. Some trips go perfectly without a single problem, but many don't. Some things you can prepare for, others you just have to react to.

The best solution to most travel problems is preparation . Sometimes you'll need to be creative and resourceful with your solutions but this is also one of the joys of traveling . 

You can't prepare for every eventuality, but no problem is insurmountable.

While the situations and specific circumstances may differ, there are common problems that happen to all travelers eventually. 

We'll discuss 10 of the most common travel problems and ways to avoid them .

10 common travel problems and their solutions

1. getting lost.

Some people have fantastic spatial awareness, others not so much, but most people have got lost at least once in their life. It can be a horrible feeling — your heart beating faster as the panic starts to rise. You can get lost anywhere: a supermarket, airport, town center or in the wilderness. 

With modern technology this is one of the easier travel problems to avoid. In the past you'd need a map for each country. Nowadays almost everyone has a smartphone. Before you leave, download Google Maps and then download the offline map for whichever cities you'll be visiting. The offline maps are tiny — normally between 20 to 50mb.

With the offline map on your phone you can browse even without an internet connection . 

A word of warning though, this is not a foolproof plan! If your battery dies the plan comes crashing down. A pen and paper may be ancient technology, but they don't require batteries. Write down your destination just in case.

The most important thing is to not panic. If you can, take a seat and take some slow breathes. Strangers are generally nice and helpful so, if it's safe to do so, ask for directions. If you don't speak the language you can show them the written address (it's not advisable to flash your phone around).

2. Getting mugged

In nearly 20 years I've only been mugged four times. Two of them were in my hometown, minutes from my house.

Some countries are more dangerous than others. It's important to check for any government warnings before you visit. It's also advisable to check Facebook groups and other forums for the opinions of other travelers.

A word of advice though — don't believe everything you read . 

If I'd listened to every bit of advice about South America I never would have got on the plane. I've read hundreds of horror stories about Brazil yet I lived there for over a year without a single problem.

There are lots of articles about how to stay safe when traveling , but what should you do if you actually get attacked?

Don't panic!

The first thing you need to do is report it to the police. You'll need a Crime Reference Number to claim on your insurance. If you're traveling with Worldpackers , your host will know the nearest police station and be able to help you with any translation issues.

Once that's done it's time to deal with the emotional side. After I was attacked in Chile I became quite emotional. I was attacked after leaving a bar, beaten up and robbed. For days afterwards I didn't want to leave the hostel and I was suspicious of everyone in the street. 

I questioned myself. Why me? What did I do wrong? Was it my fault?

It wasn't my fault. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It took me a while to accept it, but it wasn't my fault. It wasn't personal. They didn't know me. I was just a random tourist to target. Once I accepted that it was just business for them I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. That may seem silly, but it's an important emotional shift to make.

You're allowed to feel anger, rage and frustration, but you have to learn to let it go. They're destructive emotions. The majority of the world are awesome people. Don't let a few idiots ruin your journey.

3. Losing your phone

This may seem like a silly one to add to a list of travel problems . Why not a camera? Laptop? Bag? Because most people do everything through their phone.

I had a phone stolen recently in Argentina . Without it I couldn't:

• tell the time
• top up my prepay debit card
• find the nearest police station
• alert my family that it had been stolen
• access my travel e-tickets
• cancel my contract
• tell anybody about it because my translator was on my phone

I had to use the public computer in the hostel, which then caused all kinds of security alerts with my online accounts. Logging in from a foreign computer usually requires answering additional security questions, and then they helpfully offer to text a code to your phone.

Not helpful when the phone is lost!

Make sure you:

• know all your passwords
• update all your account details before leaving
• have a backup email address to receive those annoying security codes

This is one of the more common travel problems as mobile phones are big business all over the world. Your shiny new iPhone could be a year's worth of wages for a local. 

The solution is to use common sense and not wave it around in public. As with all valuables, keep them out of plain sight and, wherever possible, on your person or locked in a safe.

4. Getting sick

Sickness comes in many forms when you're traveling .

• Travel sickness

Travel sickness is caused when signals from your inner ear don't match up with your visual signals. For some people it happens every time they travel. Others only suffer on certain types of transport. I used to hate buses. The smell of the engine and the rocking motion would cause me to hold my breath. This was a problem for any trip longer than 30 seconds.

If you don't have travel sickness medication then there are a few things you can try. First I would try and limit the stimulation. Looking out the window at the passing buildings made me worse, so I would focus on the chair in front and focus on my breathing.

For other people the opposite is true. Distract yourself and take your mind off the feeling, either via conversation, music, counting things out the window, etc. Replace the sensory malfunction with another sensory input.

If you can get access to fresh air and a drink of water then hopefully you can calm the feeling and focus on other happier thoughts.

This is one of the lesser travel problems. While many people use jet lag just to mean tired, it is an actual condition. It's caused when your natural body clock gets out of sync after crossing time zones. Your body still thinks it's one time but the world is operating at a different time.

When I flew to Australia I was woken at 2am by the flight attendant with my dinner. A Thai green curry at 2 o'clock in the morning might sound great after a night of partying, but not when you're stuck on a plane. For the flight staff it was the normal dinner time, but my digestive system didn't agree.

Symptoms of jet lag can include tiredness or restlessness and an inability to sleep. There are a few different approaches to getting over it. You can either try and sleep it off, but this could mean missing time at the start of your trip. I prefer exercise. When you get to your destination try and be as active as possible.

Go out, walk a lot, get lots of fresh air. I don't recommend alcohol as this can mess with your body clock even more. If you arrive in the middle of the night and can't walk around, relax. Meditate, read a book or something which doesn't involve lots of stimulation.

• Insect bites

While some bites can just be itchy or a slight annoyance, others can be quite dangerous. If you're going to a place where mosquitoes or other bugs are known to bite, wrap up. Better than any repellant is a layer of clothing. If you do get bitten try not to scratch. Easier said than done, but this can lead to worse problems.

I am a magnet for biting insects, from fire ants in Costa Rica to mbutu in Paraguay to mosquitoes anywhere in the world. When I step off the plane, it's insect party time. I always carry a good, non-toxic repellant plus some essential oils to treat the itching for when I do get bitten.

It's also important to know the active times for the insects. They vary around the world so get local advice, but most mosquitoes are active from dusk and dawn. Try to avoid being out at these times. If you are, make sure you're covered up or wearing a good repellant.

If you get bitten and start to feel sick, seek medical advice immediately.

Even if it's cloudy, wear protector! Check the weather conditions before you travel and especially the UV levels. A cloudy sky can still produce dangerous levels of UV, and that's what does the real damage.

Apply 30 minutes before going out and then every two hours afterwards. If you're swimming or sweating then go crazy and do it every hour. The saying "less is more" does NOT apply to suncream!

The effects of sunburn can be horrendous. I was unable to walk for two days after thinking I was safe on a cloudy day. It felt like I'd been hit by a car... it was absolute agony for 48 hours.

If you have access to aloe vera, use it! It works miracles for sunburn. If you don't have any then keep the burn cool without applying ice directly. Or even better yet, don't get sunburn! Prevention is much less painful than treatment. Sunburn is one of the travel problems with lasting effects so try and avoid it at all costs.

Now that you know how to protect yourself, here are 15 summer travel ideas .

• Food poisoning

Food poisoning is a travel problem that can strike at any moment. Symptoms can include nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhea. If it's bad then it can hit you within hours of eating or drinking the contaminated thing. Anti-diarrhea tablets can be a lifesaver... literally.

Before traveling anywhere I always pack toilet paper. I consider it almost as important as my passport. That may sound dramatic but I've been in some sticky situations before. If you develop food poisoning then you'll understand.

While I mentioned diarrhea tablets earlier I only use them as a last resort. This is your bodies way of clearing the contaminate from your body. Let the body clean itself. This may mean a day or two by the toilet, but at least you'll be clear afterwards.

Drink plenty of fluids but avoid dairy and alcohol. Once you start to feel a little better then start with soups or broths and build back up to solid foods.

5. Not speaking the language

This is a travel problem I've lived with for years. 

Not being able to communicate with the people around you can lead to all kinds of emotions:

• Loneliness (see below)
• Frustration
• Determination
• Encouragement

Hopefully you noticed how that list went from negative to positive. 

While being unable to speak the local language can cause lots of negative emotions, it can also be the catalyst to greatness .

Body language, sign language, gestures and smiles. They are all powerful ways to communicate. Use every single one of them. If you're afraid of speaking new languages abroad , don't shy away from meeting new people because you don't know words. Use these other forms of communication as an ice-breaker.

Study languages as much as you can before you travel. It's an incredible form of respect that will be appreciated worldwide if you make the effort. Even if it's just a few words or phrases it will help. There are hundreds of apps, guides and language programs you can try.

The best way to learn a language while traveling ? Speak. It can be slow, painful or lead to lots of laughter. It all depends on what attitude you approach it with. While some languages are much harder to grasp than others, a lack of words is a travel problem with an easy solution.

6. Loneliness

Loneliness is not one of the travel problems which affects everyone, but when it strikes it can be the worst problem imaginable.

There's no single trigger. It doesn't just affect people who suffer from depression or emotional people. 

No matter how strong or independent you are, loneliness can set in and ruin your trip .

It's important to be aware of your feelings. A sudden change in circumstances can really change your attitude to traveling. If things start going wrong and you don't address them then they can spiral out of control.

Being apart from loved ones for an extended period of time is the classic reason, but it can also be as simple as missing a birthday or having nobody to share a special moment with. These small things can add up and really weigh on your mind.

If it gets to a certain level you could be tempted to cancel your trip and go back to your previous life. Traveling asks you to step out of your out of your comfort zone and, without enough positive reinforcement, it can become overwhelming.

There's no easy cure for loneliness. Humans are sociable creatures by design so the easiest solution is to reach out. The saying " You're never alone when you're traveling " is mostly true. Unless you're way out in the wild then chances are you'll be able to speak to somebody.

Speak to your Worldpackers host or other travelers . 

I'm not saying pour your heart out or cry on their shoulder, but you can if it helps. Depending on your emotional state it may only require a smile, hug or a beer with like-minded people.

If that doesn't help then contact the Worldpackers support team . They're all experienced travelers who've lived the travel life. They've all experienced these travel problems and can offer assurance and support. When you're traveling with Worldpackers experiences , you're NEVER alone.

7. Running out of money

This can be a major problem which you'll definitely want to avoid.

Unexpected things do happen though. Things break, unexpected charges come up, plans change and emergencies happen. It's impossible to account for every eventuality. 

Before you travel research the country you're visiting . You want to have an idea of the general cost of living so you can budget properly . 

Save as much money as possible, and always try and have an emergency fund which you don't touch. This can be a credit card or savings account. It should have enough money in for a return flight — that's the last resort should an emergency happen and you need to return home.

Traveling can be expensive so make sure you read about how to save money while traveling , and it's also worth thinking about making money while you travel. 

Unless you have a huge amount of money saved up or you've mastered how to travel on a budget , it can disappear quite quickly. The Worldpackers Academy  has some great material about creative ways to make money while you travel.

If you're a traveller on a budget, check out our travel hacking tips.

8. Missing a flight

This all depends on whose fault it was — yours or the airline.

If it's your fault, there's very little that can be done. 99% of the time this is one of the travel problems with a simple solution. Always arrive in plenty of time. If you think there's even a possibility you won't make it then check the rescheduling rules for your ticket. If you do miss the flight and it was all your own fault then it's time to beg.

Airlines have no obligation to help you if it was your fault . 

All you can do is explain to the staff in a calm, reasonable manner what happened. Don't shout at them. As emotional as you may be, it wasn't their fault. They're just doing their job, so don't be rude to the airline staff.

If you can get on the next flight, all good. If not, and you may not be able to fly for a while, it's time to start thinking about the additional things you've booked. Are you going straight to a Worldpackers host? If so, message them and make them aware of the situation. If you have an Airbnb, hostel or tour, do the same. Don't let the missed flight snowball and ruin everything.

If it wasn't your fault you missed the flight, now you have options . 

Different countries have different rules. Speak to the airline staff and, once again, be calm and reasonable. Some airlines will offer compensation, a free hotel or a free upgrade. It all depends on the individual situation.

I missed a flight transfer in Panama and ended up with a free stay in a 5-Star Hilton Hotel. Admittedly it was only for 5 hours, but it was a nice surprise.

A missed flight isn't the end of the world. Take it as a travel lesson to learn from.

Keep reading:   The most helpful 26 tips for first time travelers

9. Baggage not arriving

This is one of those infuriating surprise travel problems . You check your bags in, get the boarding pass, enjoy the flight and then your bags don't arrive with you.

This happened to me and I was devastated! Luckily it happened on the return trip so I could just go home and wait for the bags to arrive. They eventually did three days later. If it happens on the outbound flight it's a different story.

According to AirfaireWatchdog , "On average, airlines lose around two bags for every 1,000 passengers, and that includes bags that are temporarily misplaced."

That's a disturbingly high number. Certain airlines are better than others so do some research before booking your flight. Even with all the research in the world it's still possible to be the unlucky one. There's absolutely no way to predict it.

While you can't predict the future, you can be prepared . 

Take a change of clothes in your carry-on luggage. I also always carry my toiletries bag with me. This way if my big rucksack goes missing I have something to change into and a way to freshen up.

It's a huge inconvenience, but you can survive.

If your bags don't arrive be sure to speak with the airline staff and find out the procedure. You may have to phone them or they call you. 

Some airlines deliver misplaced bags to your hostel while others need you to go and collect it. Before you leave the airport make sure you know the exact procedure, they have your details and you have theirs.

10. Breaking up with a partner

A  common travel problem  is the breakdown of relationships. As we mentioned before, travel takes you out of your comfort zone. This can lead to stress and frustration. If you're traveling with a partner this can be magnified.

It doesn't matter if it's a girlfriend, boyfriend, best friend or family member, disagreements happen. When you're living in each other's pockets 24/7 there are more opportunities for these disagreements to happen. 

The anticipation of traveling is an incredible time. Whoever you're going with, it's an exciting time to plan, look at photos, make bucket lists and fantasize about the incredible adventures to come. The reality can be quite different as you discover hidden personality traits and different approaches to problem-solving.

My advice for traveling with a partner is to be honest and to compromise, but don't compromise your happiness . 

If you really want to do something or go somewhere and the other doesn't, talk about it. The breakdown of most relationships occurs when there's a lack of communication. 

It may not work for all travel partners but don't be afraid to separate and meet again a few days, weeks or months later. That short break could be the spark you need to rekindle the fire. For romantic partners I recommend brutal honesty. The second a problem arises, talk about it. Don't let anything fester.

Read my guide to couple travel for more detailed information about taking your relationship on the road.

That concludes my list of the most common travel problems and ways to avoid them. 

Every problem has a solution. If you travel for long enough you'll experience all 10 of these and more. Does that mean you should avoid traveling to avoid these problems? Absolutely not!

The benefits of travel far outweigh the negatives. Once you've had these experiences you'll be better equipped to handle whatever life throws at you, either on the road or back at home.

These 'problems' will make you stronger, more resourceful and much more resilient .

Happy travels!

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Adam Fraiel

NomadicVA.com

Author, digital nomad, copywriter, virtual assistant and travel blogger - I love telling stories, sharing experiences and helping others achieve their dreams.

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Write here your questions and greetings to the author

Jun 08, 2022

I just read your article. I hope i can get some advice from you. I am not a travel writer. I just wrote an article about my travel experience with a popular airport and what i went thru. I don't know where to send the article and this is my 1st time writing such an article.

Jun 11, 2022

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Travel Problems: Solutions That Can Save Your Trip

These days, travel problems aren’t just a possibility, they’re almost an expectation. Learn ways to prevent common issues and deal with any that do occur.

Travel affords fantastic benefits. It allows us to meet new people, experience new cultures, and grow as a person. However, travel does not come without difficulties. There are problems with language barriers, culture shock, and bad weather. Major travel problems aren’t just a possibility at this point; they are almost an expectation. Air travel, after the pandemic, is struggling to keep up with the surge in travelers in 2022, and more complex problems like pilot shortages, poor staffing, fuel problems, and a little bit of rustiness are adding fuel to the fire. So, how do you deal with these almost inevitable disruptions? Is there a way to salvage your trip?

In this guide, we will cover some of the most common travel problems as well as tried-and-true ways to overcome them. We’ll talk about post-pandemic madness, but we’ll also hit on travel concerns that pop up all the time. No matter what travel hardship you come upon, the most important challenge is to keep your head and quickly weigh the options. There are always options! They might not be what you originally intended. They might result in a completely different summer travel experience than you planned, but you know what? That doesn’t have to be devastating. It can actually be really exciting! Let’s dive in.

Plan a sightseeing scavenger hunt!

Looking for just the right tour to start off your trip? Consider an app-guided scavenger hunt from Let’s Roam . We have hundreds of adventures all over the world! Each unique experience includes trivia, photo challenges, and more. Engage in some friendly competition as you and your travel companions learn about landmarks and make new memories!

10 Tips On Being a Prepared Traveler

To be perfectly honest, you can prevent a lot of heartache just by doing things right from the get-go. Before we get to solutions for when problems occur, let’s chat a minute about some travel tips to keep them from happening in the first place!

1. Stay away from the masses.

Flying in and out of New York City, or London Heathrow is a bad idea right now. Large international airports do have the best prices, generally. However, they also have the most flights coming in and out. If one or two get delayed, guess what, they are affected. If you have the ability, book a flight from a smaller airport.

This same strategy goes for choosing your destination. Right now is not a good time to tour London, Greece, or Paris. Check out the Albanian Riviera instead!

2. Get good travel insurance.

Whether you invest in a great travel credit card or you buy extra travel insurance through a company like Safety Wing, make sure that your trip is covered. You may be eligible for lost baggage reimbursement, coverage for a hotel if your flight is delayed overnight, or even full reimbursement if your trip is canceled.

It is important to be familiar with your particular travel insurance company and how it works. Make sure you have read your policy. Print it out and carry it with you so that you have the customer service number and your rights handy. The same thing goes for the airline you are flying.

3. Don’t overbook.

Normally, it is a great practice to book things early, at least from a budget standpoint. That is not the case in today’s travel universe. The more you book in advance, the more you are going to have to fight to get back if you have a missed flight or other disruption.

4. Make sure your trip is refundable.

If you do choose to book ahead, make sure that everything you book is refundable up until the day of service. That means that you only book fully-refundable hotels, activities, etc. Do not book anything expensive for the first two days of your vacation. If your flights are delayed, and you just had free days planned anyway, then you didn’t miss much.

5. Pack light.

Seriously, do not check bags, unless you absolutely have to! For almost any trip in the world, you can manage with a carry-on and personal item. I realize this seems insane to some of you, but I promise it is possible. You can always purchase larger items when you get there. There is probably a Walmart or similar store. Don’t stock up at home on new clothes, shop when you arrive!

6. Pick a straight path.

Direct flights are the most expensive flights. However, they are also the least likely to have problems. If your direct flight is delayed a few hours, so what? You don’t miss your next flight because of it. You will still end up at your destination—just a little later than you had hoped for.

This may not even mean choosing a more expensive flight. It just might mean picking the correct airport. You may need to drive a couple of hours to a different one instead of choosing your nearest and usual. You may need to choose a vacation destination that is pretty close. Most Caribbean, Central American, and even Northern South American destinations can be reached with a non-stop flight from the US.

7. Check in early, and position yourself appropriately.

While I usually don’t recommend this, for travel in 2022, you need to be at the airport at least three hours early. Poor customer service, long waits to check bags, and frequent gate changes mean that there is a lot of opportunity for error. Give yourself time to adjust.

Once you have made it through TSA and to your gate, position yourself close to the flight attendant desk. The desk clerks are the fastest way to get a new flight if you are one of the first ones in line. Otherwise, there are better options we will discuss later.

8. Download all the apps.

The best travel apps aren’t just money savers—they can also help you keep your trip on track. If there is a smartphone app for your trip, download it. That includes the airport, airlines, hotels, etc. Turn on the notifications and set it to vibrate so you will feel when you get an alert. Some airlines will even put flight delays up hours in advance. This can save you from sitting in the airport for half your day when your early morning flight has been delayed until the afternoon.

9. Do your research!

When you leave for a trip, you should have some key information handy. Will your cell data work when you get there? If not, you should have the directions and map to your hotel downloaded. If you land in the morning, and you can’t check in until 3 pm, you should have a plan. Where are you going to get local money? Do they have a certain rideshare app that is prevalent? What are the major scams in the area? Know what to look for as soon as you step off the plane. You can’t research everything, but you can be prepared for 99%.

It is vastly important, that you have emergency services saved on your phone or written down (or both). You should have the address and phone number of the closest hospitals, the emergency service number, your roadside assistance, and the location of the US Embassy handy at all times.

10. Be flexible.

The key to surviving travel (and making the most of a bad situation) is keeping your mind open. If you travel enough, you will run into problems. It is inevitable. The kicker is…how do you react to them? Can you salvage the trip, or are you going to sit in it and be miserable?

Common Travel Problems and Last-Minute Solutions

Some travel-related problems are due to poor planning. Some are due to faulty systems and industry issues. Some are cultural. Some are situational, and some are just downright bad luck! We will cover them all in this section and give you a few tested solutions to make the most of a rotten situation.

Flight Issues

Beforehand: Make sure your flight is insured through credit card or travel insurance. Purchase refundable flights. Have a backup plan and a secondary destination, in case you need to change your entire trip.

In the moment: If you have to deal with a flight cancellation, don’t freak out! Keep your head and get to the customer service desk as soon as possible. If you are in a long line, then begin to contact customer service via social media or the phone number. Believe it or not, it is often quicker to use Twitter than wait for a person.

You will need to decide if you want to cancel your trip, get on the next available flight, or change your destination. Normally, if your flight is canceled, you will automatically be booked on the next available flight. However, you have the right to turn this down. This is where knowing those policies comes in handy. Don’t cancel a flight that is nonrefundable without knowing that you can get some reimbursement or a new flight.

For more information on this common travel problem, we’ve got expert advice on “ How to Make the Most of a Flight Delay “!

Language Barrier

One of the most frustrating things on the planet is to be stuck in a pickle and you can’t speak the local language. While a good chunk of the world speaks some English nowadays, it seems you’re always in a tiny village or rural area when you get in a jam, and there isn’t an English speaker in sight.

Beforehand: Before you travel, make sure to download the destination language on Google Translate on your phone. This way it will work even if you don’t have data service.

In the Moment: There are a few things you can do if you find yourself in an area where you can’t communicate. First, head for the most touristy thing you can find. Generally, hotels, tourist attractions, and popular restaurants are going to have the highest chance of finding someone who speaks your language.

Secondly, make friends! Talk to people on the bus. Look for ex-pats or digital nomad hangouts . I don’t know how many times our travel has been made 100x easier because one of our travel companions spoke a bit of the language. Friends are invaluable!

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It is likely that a local speaks some English, and if you are brave enough to ask for help, you will find someone who is willing to help you. (Looking really pathetic and lost is also helpful)!

Lost Luggage

Beforehand: Make sure your bags are properly labeled with your name and home address. Have those policies printed out! Keep your claim tag information.

In the Moment: Consult the lost baggage service desk for your airline. It is usually located near baggage claim. You ask for the appropriate amount of money, per their policy, for delayed baggage.

If the airline refuses to give you a stipend, you can still rely on your travel credit card or insurance. Generally, this will be a reimbursement kind of thing, so stick to the budget in your policy and keep all your receipts.

Beforehand: Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, both before and during your flight. You can also try to book flights that will have you arriving in the later afternoon or evening. Check out our tips for conquering jet lag !

In the Moment: Try not to nap when you land at your destination. You want to get on the local time as soon as possible. Try to get a good night’s sleep on the first night. This may involve a sound app on your phone, a sleeping mask, or adjusting the temperature. Do what you need to do to get a good night’s sleep.

Schedule Gaps

One of the most common frustrations is an early check-out time and a late check-in. You now find yourself with hours to waste, all your heavy bags, and nowhere to go.

What to do: The first solution is to contact your next hotel. They will likely allow you to check in early or store your bags in a safe luggage closet until check-in. If not, check into local locker storage. You can use Google or a specialized app like Bounce, Nannybag, or Stasher to find lockers near you.

When in doubt, find a Let’s Roam scavenger hunt nearby! That will kill 1.5-2 hours and you’ll have a great experience.

Bad Weather

Beforehand: Normal weather patterns should be part of your pre-trip research. You want to choose the season with the least amount of rain, no hurricanes, etc. However, the weather doesn’t always play along. If the weather is questionable, only book a night or two in your preferred hotel. You might need to relocate.

In the Moment: If you wait it out a day, and the weather still stinks, talk to your resort first. They will often be willing to relocate you to a sister hotel in another region. In some countries, just moving a couple of hours can put you in a completely different climate. In Costa Rica, for instance, the east coast has the opposite rainy season as the west coast, and they are only a couple of hours from each other.

If moving is not a possibility, then look into what you can do to have some fun indoors. We can help you with that! At Let’s Roam we have a series of amazing indoor activities for every kind of adventurer. Try one of our indoor scavenger hunts, a virtual murder mystery, or our home date nights. We know it isn’t a substitution for the vaca you planned, but it’s better than moping!

Consult the locals! The local people obviously live in this kind of weather. They know how to entertain themselves during monsoons, keep safe during major storms, and they will be more than willing to share their tips and tricks.

Tummy Troubles

Heard of “Delhi belly”, “the Haitian Sensation”, and “Montezuma’s Revenge”? Travel-related illness is all real, and they are brutal!

Beforehand: Ask your physician for the best antibiotic for food poisoning and traveler’s diarrhea for your destination. They will almost always write you a prescription to take with you. Make sure you research foods to stay away from and how to get clean water to your destination. Carry a filter water bottle.

In the Moment: If you get the dreaded sickness, hydration is key. You will have to force yourself to intake clean water, herbal teas, or whatever you can keep down. In many countries, the pharmacist has much more autonomy than in the United States. They always know the best medications for common ailments, and they can usually give you the correct medications without the need to see a doctor. If you are not better in a couple of days, you may need to visit a clinic or hospital for IV fluids.

Forgot Something

Beforehand: Carry a paper or digital copy of any important prescriptions.

In the Moment: If you have forgotten something you cannot do without. Consider having a family member overnight it by FedEx to your accommodation. If this isn’t possible, you can check with local facilities to get a replacement. Many eye doctors, pharmacists, etc. will fill your valid American prescription.

Getting Lost

Beforehand: Download your directions from Google Maps, or take a screenshot of the detailed directions. Take a screenshot of your hotel address.

In the Moment: Your first concern is to find safety. Drive, or walk, until you find a well-lit and populated area where you can think. Once you reach a store or gas station, ask a local for help. If you are in a rural area, call roadside assistance. When phone maps don’t work, you are best to just get a local taxi to take you safely to your destination.

Being Robbed

You’ve probably been saving for a while to cover your travel costs. Most people work very hard for the right to travel, so what happens if you get robbed? The most common assault is going to be a quick grab and run. Generally, they don’t want to hurt you, they just want your stuff. You are probably better off just to give it to them, and get to safety as soon as possible.

Beforehand: The key to not getting robbed is to pay attention and try not to look like a lost tourist. Do not flash your money or jewelry. Do not discuss money with strangers. Do not carry expensive electronics into crowded areas. Carry a moneybelt or slash-proof purse, and carry them crossbody. Men, put your wallet and documents in your front pockets. Do not keep all your cash, credit cards, and valuables in one place. Split them between your room safe, your travel partner, and a few places on your body. Be extra vigilant outside airports, train stations, and popular tourist attractions.

In the Moment: Get to safety quickly! Notify proper authorities immediately. If you still have your phone, contact your credit card companies, and your bank, and have your cards put on hold. If your phone has been stolen, get online and locate your phone (using the Find My Device App or something similar). This may help the police find the thief. You can also lock or erase your phone so that the thief does not have access to your accounts.

Getting Scammed

Beforehand: Every region has its favorite scam! Do some research on your destination and know what to look for before you travel. Be sure to read our advice on avoiding travel scams around the world !

In the moment: There really isn’t much you can do. If a prosecutable crime has been committed, you need to contact the police. If not, your primary goal is to get to safety. Do not engage with the person or persons, as causing a scene as a foreigner is usually not going to go in your favor.

Relationship Issues

If you travel long enough, you will eventually find travel buds, and they can be amazing! However, good things don’t last forever. It’s pretty common for travel relationships to go bad.

Beforehand: Keep it light. Don’t get into a long rental car or accommodation contract together. Make very clear expectations when you agree to travel with someone. It might sound formal and silly in the moment, but making sure everyone is on the same page about responsibilities, money, and expectations is really important.

In the Moment: When you feel the vibe changing, get out before it gets ugly. You can make up an excuse for why you need to leave, or just say that you need some time alone. Offer to pay your share of the expenses. Have a final drink together, and then part ways. If you don’t, it is going to blow up in your face, and you risk losing a friend totally, or worse.Exhausting Itinerary

This is a common one. If you are an American, you have limited vacation days, and you need to see it all! We get it.

Beforehand: Get a great guidebook! Rick Steves and Lonely Planet will both give you suggested itineraries and help you plan a schedule that is doable and enjoyable.

In the Moment: What do you already have tickets for? What are your top remaining must-sees? Go see these, and get rid of the rest. Ask a few locals (not in the tourist industry) which sites you should keep and which ones can go.

Lost Passport

Losing your travel documents is terrifying, but it happens to the best of us!

Beforehand: You should carry a photocopy of all your important documents with you. Use a secure documents app, like Last Pass . This will make the replacement of your documents much faster and easier!

In the Moment: Contact the local US embassy immediately. They will schedule an appointment to go over your case and get you new documents.

Culture Shock

If you’re heading to a destination for the first time, don’t be surprised if you feel awkward or uncomfortable at first. Culture shock is a real thing, and it can ruin your trip if you don’t know how to deal with it.

We’ve got tips to make you more culture conscious , and they would certainly be worth a read before you travel. Changing your mindset is a great way to ward off culture shock!

Beforehand: Research your destination culture and familiarize yourself with the stages of culture shock. This way you will know the symptoms and how to migrate through them.

In the Moment: If you find that you are judging your destination culture for the “weird” things they do, it’s time to respectfully ask some questions. The key to getting to a healthy place with a new culture is to understand why people do “weird” things, and why things are the way they are. Find a trusted local or traveler that is familiar with the culture. With a little background information, you will find that you can usually sympathize and move forward to a place of acceptance. Understanding and grace should always be your motive. Your way is not the only way or even the best way. They likely know something you don’t.

Terrible WiFi

If you are on a short trip, this isn’t such a big deal, but if you are traveling long-term, the lack of stable WiFi can make you insane. You do need to work, pay bills, and of course, binge Netflix, after all.

Beforehand: Carry a hotspot of your own, with a subscription option, like Skyroam . Always carry an unlocked phone with you.

In the Moment: Pop into the local phone carrier and grab a sim card with data. They usually have large amounts of data, free social media, and a few texting and call minutes for super cheap prices.

You’ve got this!

The best thing you can do to ensure that your trips are enjoyable is to do as much research and planning as you can from home. This will help you form realistic expectations, prepare for common scams, and have all the safety information you need.

You can’t plan for everything though, and problems will happen. The most important in-the-moment advice is to keep your head! If you freak out, you will not be able to make appropriate decisions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and remember that a bad vacation is usually salvageable if you are flexible!

In this guide, we have hit on a few of the common problems in travel, but a life of travel presents different problems than a short-term trip. For a good look at the reality of full-time travel, check out “ Essential Considerations for Long-term Travel .”

Frequently Asked Questions

The most common travel problems are lost passports, delayed or canceled flights, and lost baggage. Always carry photocopies of your documents and invest in travel insurance.

Long trips are rife with possible problems. The most common travel problems are relationship issues , canceled or delayed flights , bad Wifi connectivity , and culture shock .

Inclement weather is a common travel problem . If you find yourself in it, look for adventurous indoor activities , and consult locals on what they do when the weather is crummy!

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Here’s How We Solved the Problems with Booking On Trenitalia’s Website

Mose Hayward

Travel Nerd

I’ve been booking trains in Italy for many years, and oh, the problems.  Trenitalia’s official website is buggy to say the least, and the ticket machines in train stations are as confusing as the humans at the ticket counters. Worse, using foreign (American, French, etc.) credit cards can cause even more headaches.

Italians have these problems too, and as much as they love train travel they’re constantly cursing the national train company and especially its booking system. The website is ugly and very quirky to use even its original version (Even those of us who speak fluent Italian can’t fathom what it’s getting at sometimes).

We’ve previously tested out all of the platforms for European train booking and in this article we catalog some of the problems we and others have come across specifically with Trenitalia and what to do them.

But the short answer is to just book on more functional sites that offer the same prices. Our top pick is just below, and we discuss all of the rest in our treatise about the best train booking platforms for Italy .

The Easiest Way to Avoid Problems with Trenitalia’s Website

If you’re having issues with Trenitalia or Italo websites, you can sidestep all that and just book instead on Trainline . On Trainline you get access to the same dynamic or fixed pricing offered at any given moment from the carriers themselves, but on a functional, error-free website.

Trainline also allows you to sidestep Trenitalia’s nonsensical translations, iffy customer service, and billing issues with non-Italian credit cards.

In addition, for complex and international routes with stops, in our tests Trainline’s smarter routing engine delivered even cheaper trips for entering and leaving Italy than Trenitalia itself. We also love Raileurope  for Italy, but Trainline was a bit better than RailEurope in this regard, and it shows lots of bus alternatives.

The only drawback: Trainline charges a booking fee to most users, depending on your computer’s IP location and other factors that Trainline is opaque about. (Boo, Trainline!) But the fee generally amounts to 1-4%, usually just a couple of euros, and for avoiding Trenitalia’s website headaches, it’s well worth it. It’s by most counts the cheapest private train booking option.

This article was first published on Oct. 19, 2017. It was completely updated and rewritten on September 5, 2018. It was updated on April 22, 2019, concerning Trainline fees. It was again updated on November 20, 2019, concerning Loco2’s name change and fees and other news.

What Are the Latest Problems with Trenitalia.com?

Italy’s national train company’s website simply sucks. Italians complain about it. Foreigners complain about it. Among the main gripes:

• For trips starting or ending outside of Italy, prices can actually be higher on Trenitalia than when buying through certain resellers like Trainline, as Trenitalia doesn’t have as complete access to non-Italian networks.
• Trenitalia’s website often has billing problems with foreign credit cards , and even errors in  accepting Italian credit cards and Paypal. It also sometimes  can’t accept non-Italian addresses .
• Random parts of the Trenitalia website remain untranslated . Parts of pages show up in Italian, and you must use Italian (not English) place names in searches. Sometimes you need to know which train station is served for which route in order to perform the search.
• Trenitalia offers a hilariously useless 25-page guide for English speakers attempting to use their site, which explains the obvious stuff in excruciating detail (“continue” means “to go on”) but doesn’t explain real questions that users might have about the site’s bizarre options and oddball terms (such as “typology of the carnet”). (If you really want to buy from Trenitalia, one blogger does a decent job of explaining such options , incidentally.)
• Technical glitches often force you to restart your search or your purchase process.

• Customers often report problems reaching Trenitalia’s customer service, for example, when purchased tickets are not actually generated.
• Routes that you know are available sometimes do not appear in search results  at all, particularly complicated routes and those leaving Italy.

All that said, people do manage to use Trenitalia and the site often works OK once you’re used to it and know what to do and what to avoid. But of course there are easier options.

Trainline: Our Favorite Alternative to Trenitalia’s Website

Trainline allows you to avoid the obvious challenges of Trenitalia.

There are other private portals too, but this is why our top pick for Italy is to book trains with Trainline:

• Trainline’s English is snappy, flawless, and includes comprehensible explanations of Italian ticketing options. (There are 16 other language options as well, at last count.)
• No matter where you are in the world, the site accepts your Mastercard, Paypal, American Express, and Apple Pay.
• There aren’t surprise redirects or pop-up or pop-under ads for hotels.
• Put simply, the site’s technology works. We’ve always been able to get through the purchase process fast without having to restart.
• Customers are also generally reasonably satisfied with the level of customer service. You can return or exchange tickets (if you purchase tickets with this option) within the Trainline interface without any haggling with Trenitalia.
• You can show your tickets from your phone or (recommended, in case your phone should have issues) print them yourself.

In our tests, Trainline also has a smarter search engine that comes up with cheaper and better route options than Trenitalia or private competing portals, which we discuss here .

Wrap-up: Our Solution for (Avoiding) Trenitalia’s Website

We’ve switched to  Trainline and we think it’s better for just about anyone for Italy train bookings.

It offers the same prices as Trenitalia and Italo on the same routes, but for any complex trips finds even better routes in most cases. For this service, you do have to pay a couple of euros booking fee. But it’s worth it to just get your train tickets without the headaches of the carriers’ own buggy websites and reviled, screwball customer service.

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An Alternative for Trenitalia's Annoying Website

The platform Trainline searches Italian trains as well as buses, and provides easy-to-understand results in real English without all of the web errors—and often with smarter routes.

It is also the way to see Italo and Trenitalia trains side-by-side and decide which operator is best for a given route.

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Update April 12, 2024

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BARK Air, the first airline catering specifically to dogs, is booking flights now

(Gray News) – Welcome to BARK Air, the world’s first air travel experience designed specifically for dogs.

In a news release from April, BARK Air said it is focused on putting dogs’ travel needs first and their human companions’ needs second, “enabling them to travel together comfortably and conveniently.”

BARK Air comes from the company BARK, known for its monthly subscription BARK Boxes that send toys and treats.

BARK is partnering with a jet charter company to make BARK Air a reality.

“Too often, dogs are denied travel, confined to a duffle bag, or endure the stress of flying in cargo,” the news release said. “Recognizing these challenges, and the increasing demand for an accessible solution, BARK Air presents a more fun – and humane – option for dogs traveling with their two-legged human companions.”

The goal of BARK Air is to treat dogs like first-class passengers.

Following booking, flyers will be contacted by a concierge to collect information about their dog to create a custom travel plan to ensure the best possible flight experience.

When checking in at the airport, flyers will only have to arrive 45 to 60 minutes before their flight for a simple check-in process – no crates, TSA checkpoints, or screening. The dogs will meet other furry friends on the flight.

Prior to boarding, dogs will receive flight prep with calming pheromones, music, and colors that pups prefer. All pet passengers will have access to various aids such as calming treats, noise-canceling earmuffs, and calming jackets to ensure a stress-free and enjoyable flight.

During the flight, dogs will be served treats, beverages, and other surprises “with the intent of pampering furry passengers and their humans.”

Flights are available to book now, with the first flight taking off from New York on May 23.

Initial flight routes will serve the New York City metro area via Westchester County Airport with flights to the Los Angeles area via Van Nuys and London, England via Stansted Airport.

The company hopes to expand further.

For more information about BARK Air and booking, visit DogsFlyFirst.com and follow their Instagram @barkair .

Copyright 2024 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The problem with accessing opioid treatment in parts of CT: Getting there

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State officials and nonprofit providers are spending millions of dollars to increase access to methadone in Connecticut and to eliminate one of the biggest barriers to that opioid treatment medication: travel times.

Several of the state’s methadone providers are in the process of siting and opening new methadone treatment centers in Connecticut, including the first clinic of its kind in Middlesex County.

At the same time, state officials are preparing to spend more than $4 million from a pool of opioid settlement funds to outfit two new methadone vans, which will be capable of dispensing the vital medication to patients in more isolated corners of the state.

Those investments are key to Connecticut’s larger goal of expanding medication-assisted treatment in the state, including methadone, which is widely considered to be the most effective treatment for people with a history of using heroin, fentanyl or prescription painkillers.

[RELATED: How methadone, other meds are helping to lower CT opioid deaths]

There are roughly 30 inpatient clinics located throughout Connecticut that dispense methadone to individuals seeking treatment for opioid use disorders.

But with many of those federally licensed centers located in the state’s larger cities, there is concern that pockets of Connecticut still don’t have a level of access that is necessary to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic, which claimed the lives of more than 6,300 Connecticut residents in the past five years.

To highlight that point, a team of researchers from Yale University and Virginia Tech University recently completed a study for Connecticut that calculated how long it takes for residents in every part of the state to travel by car, bus or train to the nearest methadone clinic.

That analysis showed that for people living in and around cities like Waterbury, Hartford, Danbury, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, Torrington, Norwich and New London, it often takes less than 15 minutes by car to get to the nearest methadone clinic.

But in other sections of Connecticut, it can take more than 45 minutes to drive to the closest treatment center, which can be a major impediment for people who are undergoing methadone treatment while also attempting to maintain a job or care for their families.

“Imagine being stuck in traffic, knowing you have to get dosed and you have to get back to work or you have to get your kid on the school bus,” said Nancy Navaretta, the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Unsurprisingly, the time commitment is even bigger for people who don’t have access to a car.

Large swaths of Connecticut have no public transportation, and even in places that do, the researchers found, it can take more than two hours in some instances for people to get from their homes to a methadone clinic via public transit.

During the early stages of methadone treatment, patients are often required to travel to the clinics daily for therapy and their liquid dose of methadone, which helps to reduce the most severe symptoms of opioid withdrawal.

Benjamin Howell, one of the Yale researchers who conducted the travel study for the state, said that means some people who are in the initial phases of treatment could spend three to four hours per day on a bus just to receive their medication.

That can be a major deterrent for people suffering from the most serious opioid use disorders, Howell said, because illicit narcotics like heroin and fentanyl can be more easily available to those individuals than the medication-assisted treatment.

“These are the people we should be championing — the people who are deciding to go get treatment,” Howell said. “We should be supporting those people as much as we can and lowering the barrier as much as we can.”

The long commute

Doug Schumann knows all too well the burden that travel times can present when attempting to access methadone treatment in Connecticut.

From 2015 to earlier this year, Schumann has been making the journey from his home in Middletown to a clinic in Hartford operated by the Root Center, the state’s largest methadone treatment provider.

Schumann wasn’t excited about making the 20-mile commute six days a week. He did so because, for the past nine years, the Root Center’s clinic in downtown Hartford was the closest medication-assisted treatment center available to him.

Schumann, who became dependent on opioids after initially being prescribed painkillers to treat the symptoms of pancreatitis, said during the first couple months of his methadone treatment in 2015, the distance between his home and the Hartford clinic was extremely difficult to overcome.

The car he was using broke down shortly after he began making the half-hour commute. That setback resulted in him taking a three- to four-hour round-trip bus ride to Hartford for more than a month, which was a major hassle while he was in the nascent stages of recovery.

Schumann said he was able to overcome the significant commute time by forming a daily routine, which required him to get up before dawn so that he could reach the treatment center by 5:30 a.m.

“It took me a long time to get where I am now,” he said.

But other Middletown residents who sought out treatment did not have the same success that Schumann did when faced with the prospect of traveling to clinics in Hartford, New Britain or Manchester every day.

“A lot of people that I know have dropped out because of the distance,” Schumann said.

Filling the gaps while fighting the stigma

The commute for Schumann and other people living in and around Middletown got a lot easier in April, after the Root Center began accepting patients at the first methadone clinic in Middlesex County.

The opening of that new center , along Washington Street in Middletown, will fill one of the biggest geographic gaps in methadone treatment in the state and ensure every county in Connecticut has at least one clinic capable of dispensing the highly regulated medication.

The travel study produced earlier this year showed that residents who lived along the lower Connecticut River valley in towns like Chester, Haddam and Lyme previously faced more than half an hour in a car or two hours on a bus to get to the nearest methadone clinics.

Steven Zuckerman, the executive director of the Root Center, said those travel times should be dramatically reduced now.

The creation of the new clinic was not easy, however. It took more than five years and a lawsuit against Middletown’s Planning and Zoning Commission to get permission.

The Root Center committed a substantial amount of time and money to building the treatment center, Zuckerman said, because the organization knew there was an unmet need for opioid treatment in the region.

That is reflected in the Root Center’s current list of patients. Zuckerman said his organization has 180 patients with Middlesex County addresses who have been travelling to the organization’s other clinics in Hartford County.

We’ve been stuck in this situation where it’s been stigmatized for so many years. Doug Schumann

Some of those patients, he said, testified during earlier meetings of the Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission about the need for a clinic in Middlesex County and the benefits it could provide.

But in return, Zuckerman said, those patients were met with “brutal comments” from other members of the public, who openly disparaged people who were receiving treatment for an opioid use disorder.

That type of local opposition to methadone treatment centers in Connecticut has not gone away.

A group of residents in Guilford is fighting a newly proposed clinic being constructed in that town by the APT Foundation, another nonprofit treatment provider headquartered in New Haven.

Despite the local zoning laws allowing the center to operate there, the opponents of that new clinic continue to complain about its proximity to homes and schools.

In response, Guilford’s first selectman and the executive director of the APT Foundation said the patients who will access that clinic already live in Guilford and surrounding communities. But that has done little to quiet the opposition.

The recurring complaints are representative of the wider stigma that surrounds the opioid treatment drug, several providers and methadone patients told The Connecticut Mirror.

“We’ve been stuck in this situation where it’s been stigmatized for so many years,” said Schumann.

A mobile solution

While the nonprofit providers continue to advocate for additional methadone centers in the state, Connecticut officials are working on another strategy to fill in any remaining gaps in the network.

In March, the members of the Connecticut Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, which is responsible for managing the settlement funds, voted to spend $4 million over the next three years to help providers retrofit two vans to dispense methadone.

Navaretta, the DMHAS Commissioner, said the settlement committee chose to spend that money because it believes those roving clinics will increase the number of people who are enrolled in a methadone program and, ultimately, save lives.

“Over and over again, by various authorities, it’s been shown that medication for opioid use disorders is the most effective intervention,” Navaretta said.

DMHAS will accept bids in the coming months from licensed methadone providers who are interested in operating the vans. Agency officials said they could be up and running by sometime next year.

The state intends to give preference to treatment providers that will use the vans to cover Connecticut’s northeast corner, northwest corner, southeast corner or the central part of the state. All of those areas were identified as regions with significant commute times to existing clinics.

We wouldn’t be able to do it if there wasn’t the opioid settlement dollars to really provide seed money. John Hamilton, president and CEO of Liberation Programs

John Hamilton, the president and CEO of Liberation Programs, which runs methadone clinics in Stamford and Bridgeport, said that without the state’s financial support, nonprofit providers like his would be unlikely to build and staff the mobile methadone vans.

The cost for the mobile treatment centers is substantial, Hamilton said, because the vehicles need to meet strict regulations required by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which polices methadone because it is, itself, a narcotic.

The vans will need a bathroom, a safe that is bolted to the vehicle and all of the equipment that is necessary to dispense the liquid methadone to patients. All of those upgrades, state officials said, could cost up to half a million dollars.

The groups that operate the vans will also need insurance and licensed nurses to staff the vehicles, which is why the settlement advisory committee also set aside money to cover operational costs for several years.

“We wouldn’t be able to do it if there wasn’t the opioid settlement dollars to really provide seed money,” said Hamilton, whose intends to apply to run one of the two vans.

State officials believe the vans could serve multiple purposes.

Luiza Barnat, the agency’s director of opioid services, said the vans will increase public awareness of methadone and other recovery services in smaller towns, and she said they should increase the number of people who stick with the treatment.

“I think the vans really provide a lot of engagement and are able to reach the people that we’re currently not reaching at all,” Barnat said.

Officials also hope the vans will be able to travel to skilled nursing facilities and long-term care centers to ensure patients no longer need to wean themselves off the opioid-treatment medication while they are recovering from a surgery, an illness or an injury.

Hamilton said all of those additional services can help help get more people enrolled in a methadone program.

That’s vital, he said, when research has shown that only a small portion of the people who could benefit from methadone are actually accessing the medication.

Andrew Brown Investigative Reporter

Andrew joined CT Mirror as an investigative reporter in July 2021. Since that time, he's written stories about a state lawmaker who stole $1.2 million in pandemic relief funds, the state Treasurer's failure to return millions of dollars in unclaimed money to Connecticut citizens and an absentee ballot scandal that resulted in a judge tossing out the results of Bridgeport's 2023 Democratic mayoral primary. Prior to moving to Connecticut, Andrew was a reporter at local newspapers in North Dakota, West Virginia and South Carolina. His work focuses primarily on uncovering government corruption but over the course of his career, he has also written stories about the environment, the country's ongoing opioid epidemic and state and local governments. Do you have a story tip? Reach Andrew at 843-592-9958

Middle East Crisis U.S. Won’t Suspend Aid, for Now, to Israeli Unit Accused of Abuses

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• Israeli police detaining protesters during a demonstration by Israeli and American rabbis near the Erez crossing into Gaza. Reuters
• Palestinian children waiting for a water supply tank in Rafah, southern Gaza. Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Damage in the area of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. Ramiz Dallah/Anadolu, via Getty Images
• Walking past posters in Tel Aviv of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
• Hanging around the apparent remains of a ballistic missile near the southern Israeli city of Arad. Amir Cohen/Reuters
• Palestinians on a hot day at a beach west of Deir al Balah in southern Gaza. Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock

Follow live news updates on the crisis in the Middle East .

Blinken says the U.S. could take action if Israel fails to hold its troops accountable.

The Biden administration, which has been under pressure for its support of Israel’s war in Gaza, will not withhold military aid from a troubled military unit accused of human rights violations in the West Bank, so long as Israel continues with steps to hold the members of the unit accountable.

In an undated letter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told the House speaker, Mike Johnson, that the United States was working with Israel to address charges against the unit, the Netzah Yehuda battalion. Though the letter did not mention the battalion’s name, a U.S. official confirmed that Mr. Blinken was referring to Netzah Yehuda, which has been investigated for crimes in the West Bank predating the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that set off the war in Gaza.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomacy, said that the Biden administration could still take action against Netzah Yehuda if it concludes that Israel has not taken sufficient steps to hold its members to account.

The letter, obtained by The New York Times, said the State Department had determined that Netzah Yehuda had committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

U.S. officials had reached similar findings about two other Israeli military units and two civilian units, the letter said, but in those cases the Biden administration had decided not to withhold military aid because Israel was already acting to “bring to justice” culpable service members.

Mr. Blinken assured Mr. Johnson in the letter, reported earlier by ABC News , that the United States “will not delay the delivery of any U.S. assistance, and Israel will be able to receive the full amount appropriated by Congress.”

Under federal statutes commonly known as the Leahy law , the U.S. government must deny aid to foreign military units found to have committed gross violations of human rights without accountability. The law allows for the targeting of individual units without cutting off entire foreign militaries.

It was not clear what practical effect any such move might have, given that funding of specific Israeli units is hard to track, and it is unclear whether the units mentioned in the letter receive American training or equipment.

Still, the news last week that U.S. officials were considering withholding aid from Israeli military units for abuses prompted a furious response from Israel and from Mr. Johnson, a strong supporter of the current Israeli government. Mr. Johnson said this week that he had called the White House in protest and had received an assurance in writing that none of the billions in additional U.S. aid to Israel approved by Congress this week would be affected.

The Biden administration has faced growing calls to restrict American aid to Israel over its military offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks in October. President Biden so far has declined to place conditions on U.S. aid over Israel’s devastating tactics in the Gaza war, though he has taken several steps in response to violence by Israelis in the West Bank, including placing sanctions against several Israeli settlers for what the U.S. has called “extremist” acts of violence against Palestinians.

In his letter to the Republican House speaker, Mr. Blinken said that two Israeli battalions and “civilian authority units,” none of which he named, had committed human rights abuses but that he had “determined that the Israeli government has conducted effective remediation of the units involved.” He defined remediation as a process in which a foreign government takes “effective steps to bring to justice the responsible members of the unit.”

In the case of Netzah Yehuda, which he did not cite by name, he said that “there has not been effective remediation to date” but that the Israeli government “has presented new information regarding the status of the unit, and we will engage on identifying a path to effective remediation for this unit.”

Mr. Blinken is planning to travel to Israel next week for meetings with Israeli leaders to discuss efforts to free hostages from Gaza and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an Israeli official said on Friday. It was not immediately clear whether he would discuss Netzah Yehuda. Mr. Blinken has discussed the matter by phone with senior Israeli officials in recent days.

Under the terms of a 10-year security agreement that the United States and Israel reached in 2016, the United States must consult with Israeli officials before placing restrictions on security assistance. That consultation is ongoing, according to the U.S. official.

Netzah Yehuda, which was created to accommodate the religious practices of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, has been repeatedly accused of mistreating Palestinians.

In January 2022, according to witnesses, its soldiers bound and gagged a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died of a heart attack while in military custody. An investigation concluded that the two soldiers who bound the man thought he was sleeping. The soldiers faced disciplinary action but no criminal charges were brought.

The unit was transferred in 2022 from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in northern Israel, according to Mr. Blinken’s letter.

Mr. Blinken added that no other Israeli units had been found culpable of rights violations under the Leahy Law and that the administration’s deliberations “will have no impact on our support for Israel’s ability to defend itself against Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah or other threats.”

— Michael Crowley reporting from Washington

Blinken will make another wartime trip to Israel.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will visit Israel next week, an Israeli official said on Friday, as talks on a cease-fire deal that would allow for the release of hostages held in Gaza appear stalled and tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the war.

The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter, said talks with Mr. Blinken would center on hostages and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Mr. Blinken last visited Israel in March, when he warned that its plans to invade Rafah , where more than a million displaced people are sheltering, would pose severe risks to civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with those plans, saying that such an operation is necessary to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.

Still, the Biden administration has stuck by Israel as mediators have failed to broker even a temporary cease-fire in Gaza that would give Palestinians some respite and allow for the release of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel .

The United States has proposed a deal through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in which Hamas would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages in exchange for a six-week truce and the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity under official ground rules put the blame solely on Hamas for blocking the deal.

The official said that while Israel had signaled it would accept those terms, the response from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader hiding underground in Gaza, had been “totally nonconstructive.” Hamas has since signaled that it is not completely rejecting the deal and is willing to sit down again, the official said, adding that the United States and its partners would test that in coming days.

President Biden and the leaders of 17 other nations called on Hamas on Thursday to release all the hostages in a joint statement that appeared intended to send the message that the world is not entirely against Israel and that Hamas is the main impediment to ending the war.

Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.

— Patrick Kingsley reporting from Jerusalem

Israel fires into Lebanon after a deadly Hezbollah missile strike.

An Israeli man was killed in an anti-tank missile attack from Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Friday, the latest in a growing string of civilian casualties on both sides of Israel’s northern border as tit-for-tat strikes intensify with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah .

The Israeli military said in a statement that the man had been carrying out “infrastructure work” when two anti-tank missiles were fired late Thursday into the area of Har Dov in northern Israel, a disputed sliver of land where Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet. Also known as the Shebaa Farms, the area is claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel, and has long been a crucible for violence.

Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional proxy , described the overnight attack as an “ambush,” claiming that two vehicles had been destroyed in a combined missile, artillery and rocket assault on an Israeli military base in the area. The Israeli military statement did not say whether a base had been hit.

Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, identified the man killed as Sharif Suwayed, 35, and said that his truck had been hit while he was working to improve defenses at a military base, modifications that were being carried out at night to protect against Hezbollah attacks. The Israeli military was investigating, the broadcaster reported.

Israeli forces responded by striking Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, among them a weapon storage facility and military compound, according to a military statement. Lebanese state media reported on Friday that multiple towns had been targeted by heavy Israeli bombardment, damaging dozens of houses. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, the heaviest between the sides in nearly two decades, has shown no sign of subsiding. Israeli strikes inside Lebanon have begun to creep deeper into the country’s interior, though the hostilities for now have been confined largely to areas along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

In Israel, 19 soldiers and civilians have been killed in the recent violence, which began after Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel in support of the deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.

More than 70 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, along with roughly 270 Hezbollah fighters, the group has said, a figure that exceeds its losses in the 2006 war with Israel .

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said this week that its strikes had eliminated half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon, although experts expressed skepticism about that claim . They also have cast doubt on whether targeted killings of commanders could achieve Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah farther from the border, reducing the threat of attacks and allowing the tens of thousands of Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes.

Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

— Euan Ward Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

A baby born in Gaza after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike dies less than a week later.

A baby who was delivered through an emergency cesarean section after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike died on Thursday, a relative said, less than a week after news of her birth brought a glimmer of hope to war-torn Gaza.

The baby, who was born prematurely after a strike in southern Gaza that also killed her father and sister, suffered respiratory problems, and doctors were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh.

“I buried her in her father’s grave,” he said in a phone interview on Friday.

The mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was killed along with her husband, Shukri, and their 3-year-old daughter, Malak, when an Israeli strike hit their home in the city of Rafah shortly before midnight last Saturday. Rescue crews took the bodies to the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, where doctors performed a cesarean section on Ms. al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant.

The girls’ uncle said that Malak had wanted to name her little sister Rouh, the Arabic word for soul. The extended family decided instead to name her after her mother, Sabreen.

Sabreen weighed just three pounds at birth, said Dr. Mohammed Salama, head of the neonatal intensive care unit at Emirati Hospital. Her birth was captured on video by a journalist from the Reuters news agency, who filmed doctors providing artificial respiration to her after she emerged, pale and limp, from her mother.

Instead of a name, doctors initially wrote, “The baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani” on a piece of tape across her chest.

“The baby was delivered into a tragic situation,” Dr. Salama told Reuters, adding, “Even if this baby survives, she was born an orphan.”

— Hiba Yazbek Reporting from Jerusalem

Drone attack kills 4 workers in an Iraqi gas field, but no one claims responsibility.

A drone attack on a large gas field in Iraq’s Kurdistan region killed four workers and plunged much of eastern Kurdistan into darkness because it relies on gas to fuel its electrical plants, according to a Kurdistan regional government spokesman.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. While Iranian-backed armed groups have bases in the area, there are many competing interests in Kurdistan, leaving it unclear whether the attacks are part of the larger regional fight between Iran and Israel, which has intensified during the war in Gaza.

The Kurdistan region’s president, Nechirvan Barzani, condemned the attack and called on the government in Baghdad to investigate. “These attacks endanger the peace and stability of the country,” Mr. Barzani said, adding, “The representatives of the Iraqi federal government must do their duty to prevent these attacks and find the perpetrators from any side and punish them according to the law.”

Iraq’s joint command in Baghdad issued a statement calling the attack “sabotage,” confirming that a drone was used. The statement said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani had ordered an investigation.

Friday’s drone attack was the second so far this year on the Khor Mor field in Sulaymaniyah Province. The last one, in January, did not inflict casualties.

“Four Yemeni workers have been killed, and the field has been severely damaged, which will cause electricity shortages,” said Peshawa Hawramani, a spokesman for the Kurdistan regional government.

Almost a million people in Sulaymaniyah Province were left without power, along with thousands more in adjacent provinces. It took about 24 hours to restore electricity after the last attack, but because the damage was greater this time, Kurdish authorities said it could take longer. While hospitals and security services have large generators, many ordinary residents have access only to limited power from shared generators.

Claims of responsibility were never made for previous attacks on the gas field, which is operated by Dana Gas, based in the United Arab Emirates, and a related company, Crescent Petroleum.

While the drone attack could stem from the regional conflict between Iran and Israel, there are other tensions in the region — between internal Iraqi factions and between Baghdad and Kurdistan. There has been a multiyear effort by the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and the courts to reduce the Kurdistan region’s control over its natural resources.

At the same time, there is tension between Iran and Iraq over any efforts by Iraq to expand domestic gas production. Iran sells about $4 billion of gas to Iraq each year because Iraq does not have enough gas to fuel its electricity plants. Kurdistan and the Iraqi government had been discussing expansion of the Khor Mor field.

Kamil Kakol contributed reporting from Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq .

— Alissa J. Rubin Reporting from Baghdad

Rabbis are arrested near the Gaza-Israel border at a rally to highlight starvation.

Police arrest group of rabbis and activists near gaza, the israeli police arrested rabbis and peace activists near the border with gaza..

[singing] You can arrest us, but we’re going to walk slowly, our way towards the crossing.

Seven rabbis and peace activists were arrested on Friday near the border with Gaza after they tried to take food supplies into the territory, according to two participants and the campaign group that organized the effort.

The detainees were among a group of roughly 30 rabbis and activists from Israel and the United States who were stopped by police officers as they tried to reach the Erez crossing, a major transit point between Israel and northern Gaza.

Organized by Rabbis for Ceasefire, a peace movement based in the United States, the effort was intended to build support for a truce and to highlight rising reports of starvation in Gaza . A global authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, has predicted an imminent famine in northern Gaza, the area of the territory closest to Erez.

The protest was timed to coincide with the week of Passover , a Jewish festival that celebrates the biblical story of the liberation of Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt.

“We were making the point that Jewish liberation is bound up with Palestinian liberation, that we want freedom for all,” said Toba Spitzer, a rabbi from Boston who attended the protest but was not arrested.

The group had tried to drive into Gaza with a pickup truck carrying half a ton of rice and flour but was stopped roughly a third of a mile from the border, Rabbi Spitzer said. The effort was largely symbolic and the organizers expected it to fail given the restrictions along the border; the supplies will now be donated to needy Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Rabbi Spitzer said.

The Israeli police did not respond to requests for comment.

The author Ayelet Waldman of Berkeley, Calif., was among those arrested, her husband, the author Michael Chabon, said on Instagram .

There are widespread food shortages in Gaza. Israeli restrictions on where convoys can enter the strip, Israeli bombardment and widespread damage to roads, the collapse of Gazan agriculture, and a breakdown in law and order have all made it harder to distribute aid safely.

Aid groups and United Nations officials have accused Israel of systematically limiting aid delivery. Israel denies the assertion, blaming the shortages on logistical failures by aid groups, and has recently increased the number of trucks entering the strip.

Israeli officials say that the Erez crossing, which was primarily used for pedestrian traffic before the war, is difficult to use for aid delivery because it lacks the right infrastructure and was also badly damaged during the Hamas-led raid on Israel in October.

A majority of Jewish Israelis oppose the delivery of more aid to Gaza, according to a poll conducted in February by the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group.

Israeli protesters regularly gather at another crossing point farther south, trying to block aid convoys entering Gaza .

— Patrick Kingsley and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad Reporting from Jerusalem and from Haifa, Israel

The U.S. Army has begun work on a floating pier to move aid from ships into Gaza, the Pentagon says.

Army engineers on Thursday began construction of a floating pier and causeway for humanitarian aid off the coast of Gaza, which, when completed, could help relief workers deliver as many as two million meals a day for the enclave’s residents, Defense Department officials said.

The construction on the “initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea” means that the project’s timing is in line with what Pentagon officials had predicted, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Defense Department’s press secretary, said. The construction is meant to allow humanitarian aid to bypass Israeli restrictions on land convoys into the besieged strip.

General Ryder said that defense officials expected the project, ordered up by President Biden early last month, to be completed early next month. The facility is meant to include an offshore platform to transfer aid from ships, and a floating pier to bring the aid to shore.

Aid organizations have welcomed the plan, which will be an addition to the airdrops of humanitarian supplies that the U.S. military has been conducting over Gaza. But aid workers say, and defense officials have acknowledged, that the maritime project is not an adequate substitute for land convoys. Such aid convoys fell sharply when the war began more than six months ago and have only partly recovered .

Some U.S. military officials have also privately expressed security concerns about the project, and General Ryder said that the military was looking into a mortar attack on Wednesday that caused minimal damage in the area where some pier work is supposed to be done. However, he said, U.S. forces had not started moving anything into the area at the time of the mortar attacks.

The floating pier is being built alongside an Army ship off the Gaza coast. Army ships are large, lumbering vessels, so they have armed escorts, particularly as they get within range of Gaza’s coast, defense officials have said.

The United Nations says famine is likely to set in within Gaza by the end of May.

Aid workers have described bottlenecks for aid at border crossings because of lengthy inspections of trucks, limited crossing hours and protests by Israelis, and they have highlighted the difficulty of distributing aid inside Gaza. Israeli officials have denied that they are hampering the flow of aid, saying the United Nations and aid groups are responsible for any backlogs.

Senior Biden administration and military officials detailed a complex plan in a Pentagon call with reporters on Thursday afternoon, explaining how the pier and causeway are being put together, and how it is supposed to work. Army engineers are constructing the facility aboard Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean. One official said that the “at-sea assembly of key pieces” of the pier began on Thursday.

Biden officials are insistent that the Pentagon can carry out aid deliveries through the floating pier without putting American boots on the ground in Gaza. Officials described a complicated shuttle system, through which aid would be loaded onto Navy ships in Cyprus and transported to a causeway — a floating platform — at sea.

The Pentagon’s military acronym for the project is J-Lots, for Joint Logistics Over the Shore.

The causeway at sea is different from the floating pier where the aid will be offloaded into Gaza. An engineering unit with the Israeli military will anchor the floating pier to the Gaza shore, a senior military official told reporters in the Pentagon call.

Shuttle boats run by aid organizations, the United Nations or other countries are then expected to transport the aid to the floating pier, where it is to be loaded onto trucks driven by “a third party,” the official said. He declined to identify the third party.

The official said that Israel was dedicating a brigade to provide security for the American troops and aid workers working on the pier.

The operation is expected to bring in enough aid for around 90 trucks a day, a number that will increase to 150 trucks a day when the system reaches full operating capacity, the official said.

— Helene Cooper Reporting from Washington

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