Back in 1999 there was an interesting book written by this fellow named Tom Griffiths about travelling and student travellers. It was called The Virgin Student Travellers’ Handbook. It was my first introduction to the great world of travelling. Granted it is not about miles or points at all (in fact I do not think he even mentions them once in the book) but it does give many good tips on the experience of travelling.
The theme of the book is around what Mr Griffiths calls the “Gap Year”. This is essentially a year between high school and university or a year after university where you travel and explore instead of just heading into the next step of whatever it was you were going to do. With this in mind, he uses the book to explain how to travel for about a year all around the world. He assumes the reader had never travelled at all and for those who may be old professionals at travelling, this will seem a bit basic for many of the chapters. Some of the topics in the beginning of the book explain all about different types of visas, airport experience, how to pick destinations and even how to keep in contact with the folks back home who will be worried sick about you should you disappear halfway around the world for a year and the only time they hear from you is when you return at the end of it.
So for the total newbie traveller it is a gold mine of information. Even if you are not a total newbie, and even if you are not travelling for six months to a year; the book is certainly worth reading. The main reason for this is because it discusses how to get discounts and how to find inexpensive ways to get around and where to stay. Granted if you have 12,000,000 Hotel points from various promotions, some of these tips may not matter to you a whole lot. Since not everyone has those many points and many want to travel before they have loads and loads of points and miles this can help to make that happen.
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