UK Travel Authorization

No more impromptu visits to the UK without a hoop to jump through!

Earlier this year, the UK started requiring travel authorizations for travelers coming from countries that previously had no Visa or similar requirement for entry besides an adequately valid passport.  

Things to know:

• There's a fee.
• The authorization lasts 2 years
• The authorization is tied to your passport number.  The email says you don't need to show any information, but I have read online that some airlines may ask for proof of the authorization.  Thus it's best to print and bring a copy just in case.
• You need a passport-like photo which you can take and submit online yourself.  However, the website bot is very finicky with its requirements.  
• Blank background and good lighting
• Do not smile!
• No hats
• Head to shoulder in the frame, look straight at the camera
• Despite following all of that, the bot on the website bot kept saying my photo did not meet requirements.  In the end, I overrode the bot and voila, my photo was accepted presumably after review by a human!
• The turnaround time for approval is unpredictable.  My application was approved within minutes.  Another member of my travel party didn't get approved until several hours to 1 day later.
• I didn't want to download the app despite it being highly encouraged by the UK government.  I was able to complete everything on the website just fine.

Scotland: University Housing and Hostelling

From a crowds and hotel pricing perspective, August has got to be one of the worst times to come to Edinburgh.  

From an activities and weather perspective, August may be one of the best times to come to Edinburgh.  They have multiple festivals going on at once: film festival, arts (dance, music) festival, military tattoo performance near the castle, and fringe stand-up comedy festival.

It was so crowded that some sidewalks had two lines, one going in each direction.  I rarely travel in the summer expressly to avoid crowds, and I was surprised by how crowded it was in late summer since school had already begun in many countries.  I had also discovered after having booked my flight that hotel prices were sky high!

Here's where I stayed and what I liked about these places:

1) University of Edinburgh Summer Stays

It's quite ingenious- build a welcome center, hire students to work reception 24/7, and open up unused dorms during the summer to tourists.  One wonders why other universities don't do this!

I can't say the price was cheap, but I can say it was cheaper than the exorbitant August hotel prices.  The best part of the deal was it included all you can eat breakfast.  You might think, why do I want to eat dorm food?  Well, I personally thought it was the best dorm food I've ever had, and I've eaten at a couple universities.  They had plenty of healthy options and also had unique Scottish breakfast items so that you don't have to go searching for a restaurant to try Scottish food.

Although they did not advertise this at reception, the key card allowed entry into the pantry (kitchen) on my floor which meant access to a common fridge, dining furniture, cupboards, etc.  I also saw signs for laundry rooms but did not try using them.

2) Hostelling Scotland

I can't say enough positive things about my experience with Hostelling Scotland.  Each hostel had private room options with en-suite bathroom.  The staff allowed luggage storage which ranged from a locked room to middle of the lobby area kind of set-up, so don't store any valuables.  My favorite part was the milieu.  For example, the Glasgow hostel had a historic wood carved staircase inside the Victorian building.  Going down this staircase, one could smell the wood and imagine living in this Victorian house.  The exterior of the Stirling hotel was very 1500s.  It's next to the Old Jail, and from the window I could see an ivy-covered wall, stone turrets of the old jail, and dilapidated headstones from the old cemetery.  The hostel used to be Erskine church, so I wonder if they razed over some burial sites to pave the lot and so forth.  It's a bit creepy but also very rustic and unique.

One downside to staying in rustic accommodations is there is no lift (aka elevator) in a couple of the hostels, so be physically prepared for many flights of stairs!  Pack lightly.

Scotland via rail, bus, and walking

 Scotrail is timely, affordable, and efficient.  I took it throughout the Lowlands.  I did not get any pass and paid a la carte.  Here are my tips:

Humans can save you money

Tickets are available from machines, but I discovered that humans can get you the best deal.  For example, unsolicited by me, the agent at the Stirling station kindly split the ticket to and from Dundee so that I would save 10 pounds a person!  With split tickets, you have to insert the first leg (cities A to B) upon entry and second leg (cities B to C) upon exit, but I was told I did not have to disembark the train at all when it arrived at Perth (city B).

Edinburgh Ride a Card 

I got the week-long Ride a Card.  You can get it in advance and activate it whenever you'd like afterwards by tapping it onto the bus or metro station.  For metro, you need to tap on and off at the stations.  For the bus, the tapping point is near the driver and different from the contactless payment tapping area. 

The Ride a Card is a great deal compared to other day or week passes that I've bought in other places.  It includes the journey to the airport on the Lothian Bus Air Link 100 (tall dark blue buses) or via the tram.  It includes the Lothian buses and trams.  Depending on where you are lodging, either one may be a feasible option for traveling back to Edinburgh airport.  For the journey from the airport, it was not possible to use the Ride a Card since they don't sell it on the bus.  You can pay for a one-way ticket online while you wait or with exact fare (no change) with the driver.  The Air Link 100 can be found right as you exit the airport on the right near the Edinburgh sign.

Beware that the bright orange Airport Express buses are *not* run by Lothian and are not included in the Ride a Card.  Hence there are 3 options for getting to/from the airport, and only two are covered by the Ride a Card.  Make sure when using Google that you are looking at times for the correct type of transit option and make sure you stand at the right stop!

Where do you get one?  

They're sold at the Lothian bus travel center.  I used the one at Waverley Bridge which is walking distance from where the Air Link bus drops you off when arriving in Edinburgh.  Caveat- they are closed Sundays.  Check their hours and plan accordingly.  Each card has the person's name and photo, which is unlike all other cities that I've visited, so make sure each member of your party is in the line when you buy the cards.

Dundee Day Tripper

A day ticket can be purchased from the bus driver.  The sign at the stop said 5 pounds a person, but the ticket receipt was a bit less than that (though I paid 5 pounds and there is no change).  

Glasgow on foot

Because I stayed near Kelvingrove Park, I was able to walk to and from the university museums and Kelvingrove Park museums.  I was also able to walk to and from the train station to the hostel.  I saw some buses and had researched their transit app but did not use it at all so cannot speak to it.

Stirling on foot

The tourist part of the city is extremely walkable.  I only saw tour buses around.  I stayed on St. John St. which is walkable to the castle and Smith Gallery and Museum.

British Airways Booking Nightmare

When it comes to their booking and customer service experience, British Airways is hands down the worst airline with which I have ever dealt.

The fact that I had to Google multiple times for hacks just shows how bad they are.  This is 2025 for crying out loud.  If a cheap carrier like Frontier Airlines or Zip Air can have a better online booking experience than a large airline like British Airways, that speaks volumes.

Here are my tips and pearls after going through this nightmare and losing way too much sleep over the whole thing.

#1- CLUNKY WEBSITE

If the website is very slow or frequently throwing error messages, just give up and try the next day.  Apparently they don't have any website banner to warn about system down times.  Thus I had no idea if the fact that I kept running into error messages was typical for them or not.  Since the website worked about 10-20% of the times I tried, it gave me a little hope such that I kept trying it.  Otherwise I would've given up long before.  However, after going to bed for 4 hours and trying again early the next morning, voila, the website was much smoother.  I suspect they just don't announce system maintenance times.

#2- NO RECEIPT

Apparently after they updated their website a few months ago, they don't issue a receipt right after you buy it of how much you paid for your tickets.  I can go to the corner store, buy 2 apples, and get a receipt, but British Airways can't give me a receipt for two international air tickets that cost $2400!?!  When went to the website "manage booking" section and clicked on the receipt the first day, it said error.  On the second day, it showed some details but showed 0.XX for how much I paid.  Now I know that ticket wasn't free!

Especially if you need reimbursement for work or other purposes, this hack is useful.  Thanks to the Reddit member who posted it!  Go to the Finn Air website and enter your booking number and surname.  You'll get a receipt in minutes via email.  

Beware, if each member of your party entered a different email address associated with that booking number, you'll get separate individual receipts at each respective email.  Thus each person will only see their own receipt.  That was not intuitive to me at first since I was used to getting one email with receipts for all members of the trip.

It's possible they wait for the credit card to totally clear before listing the paid price on the online receipt, but that is overly conservative vs. other companies.  Other companies send you a receipt within minutes of booking.  It's been several days, and British Airways has not emailed me any receipt.  Yes, I've checked my Spam folder.

#3- UK ONLY NUMBER FOR TICKET CHANGES

Apparently my ticket is fully refundable before departure, but any cancellations or changes are not possible through their website.  This is bogus.  I've never had an airline make it so hard to make changes or cancellations.  It makes one wonder how hard it'll be to ever get a refund.  They list a non toll-free phone number open only during their UK business hours to call for any changes to seats, tickets, refunds, flights, for my ticket.  I Googled for tips, and apparently there's a toll-free US number that might be able to do changes...I'm not sure yet as I don't have any changes to make at this point.

#4- NO CONFIRMATION NUMBER

No confirmation number?  Don't freak out too much yet.  The scariest part for me was after I entered the necessary payment information and my credit card confirmed payment, the screen didn't move.  I DID NOT GET ANY CONFIRMATION NUMBER.  Thus I had no proof that I had any ticket.  I did not have any email, either.  It's been several days, and I have heard zip from them about my confirmation number or tickets via my email.  It's only thanks to the Finn Air receipt that I even have some proof that I have tickets.  But how did I get the confirmation number to get the Finn Air receipt?  

I called the British Airways reservations line, which is a toll-free number, and told the agent I didn't have a confirmation number.  I went into the whole story about how I hit "pay" numerous times, but nothing happened after the first time the money was deducted from my credit card.  I was tempted to start all over again and rebook about 2 hours later.  Only while doing so did I see that the exact pair of seats I had selected for all 4 portions of the trip were already booked!  It's highly unlikely in the almost empty plane that this was a coincidence.  At this point the agent told me "let's not waste time" (his tone insinuated it was his time, not mine, that he cared about), and he proceeded to look up the date of my flight, origin and destination airports, flight number (I could only guess as I had not saved any information from my first booking), and name.  He had a very thick South Asian accent and spelled my name incorrectly.  I corrected him, but he said he couldn't find anyone by that name on the flight.  Thankfully I remembered the seat numbers I had chosen and asked him to look up who was sitting in those seats.  Then magically he found me on the flight and gave me my confirmation number.

Even then due to the clunky website throwing errors, I wasn't sure this number was legitimate.  After the first few errors, I was back on the phone dialing the toll-free number again.  While on hold, the website briefly flashed my reservation details, so I hung up.  Then it went back to throwing errors...and so goes why I only got 4 hours of sleep that night.

Moral of this story is, British Airways human reservations folks can get you that confirmation number if you're sure the reservation went through, like if your credit card got deducted.  Don't be tempted to hit "pay" repeatedly (lest your card keep getting charged) or to start all over from scratch (lest you end up with way more tickets than you really wanted!).  Save everything- flight number, seat number, etc. since you CANNOT RELY on them to send you an email BOOKING CONFIRMATION.

CAVEAT EMPOR

Day Passes Can Be a Rip off!

 I have wasted so much money on single or multi-day passes.  On the pro side, they save you from having to have coins or exact change to get on the bus.  You don't have to fish out your wallet and risk getting pick pocketed.  On the con side, for many cities they don't make financial sense for most trips.  Unless you're bopping constantly from one destination to another trying every restaurant or shopping extensively, they may not make sense if you are visiting a few destinations that will eat up your day.

Here is my running list of the cities in which I've made substantial "donations" to their transit program because I paid way too much $ for day passes when it would've made more sense to pay for individual rides:

• Osaka 

The problem was that I had researched and planned on a Kansai area pass, but April 2024 they changed both the price and the rules.  No longer would the Kansai area pass cover buses.  Instead it would only cover non-JR local trains, with some other exclusions.  Secondly, the price increased a lot.  Thirdly, the website had said to go to Osaka Station tourist office to buy the pass, but the tourist office staff told me that was no longer the case and to go to Umeda Station commuter office.  In my panic of what to do, I stupidly stood in an insanely long line at the Umeda Station commuter office which was crowded with local denizens.  Even the staff in the line were confused as to whether this station sold the new Kansai area pass.  Once I saw the price of the new pass, I quickly and stupidly pivoted to buying the Osaka day pass.  I only used the metro at most 4 times in a day and once I used it only one time in the whole day.  It's not a 24 hour pass.  It's by calendar day.  Thus buying a ticket in the afternoon and activating it late in the day is a total money sink.

• Tokyo

Depending on which station you are at, different tickets are sold.  I had researched the multi-day pass covering both metro companies (Toei and Tokyo metro) and had wanted to get that pass for convenience.  However, I learned that where I was at, Daimon Station, they did not sell this pass in paper form.  The pass could only be loaded into the Pasmo visitor card which I did not have.  Pasmo cards expire in 1 month unlike Suica, Toica, Icoca, and other IC cards that last for 10 years.  

Secondly, the paper day pass I purchased that Daimon Station was only good for that calendar day regardless if you activate it or not although there is a process to obtain a partial refund for unused passes.  Thus do not buy multiple passes in advance if this is the type you are purchasing!!!

Thirdly, I ended up mostly using the local JR trains and the Yamanote line which were closer to my Hamamatsucho hotel.  Neither of these companies are covered by the Tokyo/Toei metro pass.  Thus even if I had gotten that multi-day pass that I originally researched, it still would've been a waste of money.

• Brugge (Bruges)

Brugge is totally walkable.  The buses don't run very often compared to how fast you can just walk from point A to point B.  The bus also doesn't go into all the narrow alleys and paths where some shops and destinations are tucked.  The main use of the bus was for getting to and from the train station with my heavy luggage.  For that limited use, I could've just paid a la carte.

• Ostend

Ostend is pretty walkable, too.  The distance is farther than in Brugge, but I totally was able to walk from the train station to the tourist office near the casino and airport and all the way back to the Mu.Zee near the train station.  I felt obligated to hop on a bus just for a few blocks back to the train station so that I could make myself feel better that I used the day pass that I had already paid for for some purpose.

Shinkansen (Japanese Bullet Train) Sans JR Pass

The Japanese Railway group increased the price of the JR Pass that covers all of Japan in Oct. 2023.  This increase came after many years of stagnant pricing that had historically made the pass a no-brainer and a great deal.  After the price increase, it's equivocal whether you will save any money in obtaining it.

Of note, not all pass types increased in price in Oct. 2023.  I spent the better part of one day trying to anticipate prices and calculate whether or not I should get the Hokariku Arch Pass for my April 2024 trip.  Unfortunately, not only did the price increase in April 2024, but it stopped being sold as widely as before.  To make matters worse, the JR East and other JR websites I tried would *not* for the life of me take my American Visa and Mastercard debit or credit cards!  I wasted so much time entering and re-entering these cards and signing up for these JR accounts.  

Long story short, I ended up buying JR tickets as I went along without getting any pass.  Since others may be doing the same post-Oct. 2023, I figure sharing my trials and tribulations may help someone out there!

If you've decided to travel in Japan without any JR Pass, here are my tips, in no particular order:

1) Save your tickets and stubs!

In all my travels throughout Europe and North America, I've never, ever been asked for an old ticket when trying to buy a new ticket.  Yet I believe since the pricing may be different when transferring within the JR system, I was asked to show whatever ticket I used to get to a particular station when trying to buy the ticket to my next destination.  Full disclosure: I was traveling from Tokyo Station to Nagano.  I had taken a local train to get to the Tokyo Station, so I presume I had ended up inside the station within their transfer zone.  It was some lost in translation trying to understand what I was being asked to do, but luckily the staff have a tablet that can robotically recite the intended message in multiple languages.  

It was a close call for me, as just before getting into the ticket line at Tokyo Station, I had a Mari Kondo moment and had contemplated jettisoning my old tickets into the closest trash can.  They brought me no joy and seemed to have served their purpose.  Thankfully I had not done so, else I would've created trouble when trying to buy my next set of tickets.

2) The ticket gates may want multiple tickets for long-haul journeys with transfers

Only in Japan have I ever experienced a ticket gate that wanted me to feed it multiple tickets.  If you don't feed it the right tickets, it will not let you go pass.  The gates will blare and flash if you push through them illegally in your confusion (don't ask me how I know).  

Now the question is, which tickets do I feed it?

The busy staff at Tokyo Station did zero explaining to me when handing me a bunch of tickets.

The very nice woman at the much less busy Nagano Station JR tourist office wrote out on each ticket the numerical order in which I was to use them and explained which tickets to feed at which station.

3) The ticket gate may eat your ticket prematurely, but the staff can help

During the journey from Nagoya to Tokyo while transferring to the local train near Tokyo, I was confused when, after leaving the shinkansen, I was deposited within the transfer area without a clue how to get a ticket to the station I wanted in Tokyo.  I knew I needed a ticket to be able to exit at the final station in Tokyo, yet there no barrier to me entering the JR platform for the local train.  So they'll let me get on without showing my fare, but how will I be able to exit?

After inquiring at the information line, I found out that the ticket gate when I had recently exited the shinkansen had inappropriately eaten my ticket!  I guess if you don't promptly take the ticket that pops up before the person behind you does their business, or due to other malfunction, the machine ate it before I had a chance to grab it.  

Luckily the info desk person told me to talk to the ticket gate staff.  After explaining to them the situation and showing them my companion's ticket that didn't get eaten by the gate, they were able to pinpoint on their computer exactly which gate ate the ticket.  The staff person went to empty a canister towards the bottom of this gate and returned to me the exact ticket stub that got swallowed by the gate!  Now I could use this ticket to exit the local JR train gate once I arrived at my final stop in Tokyo.

4) The ticket gate may be crazy?  Or I am missing something?

Back to the nice woman at Nagano JR Station.  I followed her instructions to a T, and everything worked fine until I got to my final destination in Osaka.  When I tried to exit the shinkansen gate, I deposited two tickets but only got one back along with an error message asking for me to insert all of my tickets.  However, I had no other tickets left besides this one ticket!  I used all my tickets in the preceding parts of the journey, and the previous gates had swallowed them.  I showed the gate staff my one ticket left, and the staff let me walk past them to exit the station.

I have heard there are different gates, like transfer gates versus other gates.  Not all gates are the same.  Perhaps I should've taken some other gate to exit the station if I only had one ticket left.  

5) Reserved vs. unreserved cars

For some shinkansen journeys you are not required to pay for a seat reservation.  In this case, for an unreserved ticket you are limited to sitting in the cars marked unreserved.  Where are these cars?  They are at the boondocks of the platform.  If you are running late, have heavy luggage, or can't walk far, get a reservation and strategically pick which car you want to board.  If you have a lot of time, want to save some money, and are able to build in time to walk all along the very long platform to find the unreserved car, then by all means do so.  The unreserved cars may be marked via the lighted sign on the car itself and/or at the sign overhead on the platform near the boarding area for that car.  If you keep seeing only reserved cars, and your train truly has an unreserved option, that means you haven't walked far enough.  Keep walking!  If not one direction, try the other.

Some trains like the ones to/from the airport require reservations all of the time.

6) Minimize luggage.  I had minimal luggage: backpacks and 1 small carry on size luggage for 2 people.  If you don't have the ability to make seat reservations in advance so that you can increase chances of sitting near the larger luggage storage areas, then you need to plan for not having access to that space.  Folks with the JR pass purchased online in advance direct from the JR site may be able to make seat reservations online in advance unlike the rest of us peons.  

I found the overhead racks were pretty small and maybe ok for backpacks.  However, the seats were spacious enough for me to roll in my little carry on next to me and still have leg room.  Also note the Nozomi train has luggage size rules and restrictions!

Now if you're still trying to decide whether to get a JR Pass, here are some tips:

1) Learn the JR rail system if you are not already familiar with it.  I really enjoyed reading and learning about it from a book called Japan by Rail.  This book lets you know what destinations are found near each station featured in the book which covers multiple geographic areas of Japan.  It is fascinating to learn the history of how the JR rail system came to be.

2) Once you understand the components of the different JR companies and what geographic areas you want to visit, calculate the estimated costs.  The aforementioned book recommends some transit websites like Jorudan for researching these routes.

3) IC cards are only good for local trips.  They don't work for transferring different JR companies to traverse from one JR region to another.

4) Not all shinkansen costs are covered by the JR pass.  For example, for Nozomi trains, which are the fastest way to get from Kansai region to Tokyo region, you have to pay a 'supplement' fee even if you have the full JR pass.

5) If you buy the JR pass directly from the JR website and not a third party, you may be able to make seat reservations in advance directly through the JR system.  The caveat is that you may not be able to do this as I had mentioned before that the JR website would not take my US credit cards for the life of me.  Also, read the details about seat reservations.  If made in advance, you may have a deadline to pick them up in person.  If made at the train station, you may need to stand in line.  

 

Carless in Hawaii- Oahu, Big Island, Kauai Part 2- tourist destinations

 Now that I covered how to get to and from the airport in part 1, I will cover some tourist destinations reachable by public transit in part 2.  I apologize this is a late post based on my trip in 2022, so please check transit websites for the latest updates.

Oahu

Like most tourists, I stayed in Honolulu.  The bus was convenient for traveling around that area.  Per Google Maps I could've gone to the North Shore or much further south via bus to see some waterfall(s) and gardens, but those would've been very time-consuming trips.  Thus I did not try to venture much beyond Honolulu.

With the bus you can get to:

Pearl Harbor

Remember to reserve admission tickets in advance from the national park service website!

Diamond Head

Reserve admission tickets in advance.  Punctuality was of the essence.  When I went, they turned away tourists that were slightly late no matter how much they begged or cried that this was their only opportunity to visit.  They didn't let folks in super early, either.  Thus you need to plan ahead for how long it'll take you to walk from the bus stop.  When I went, the bus stopped outside what looked to be a grassy hill.  It took some figuring out sans Google Maps to decide whether to turn left or right along this hill.  Once we figured out the right direction, it was quite a hike inwards, including through a tunnel, to even get to the official entrance where they have a little kiosk that sells some food and souvenirs as well as some benches for sitting.  I am recalling at least 30-60 minutes or more for this hike from the bus stop depending on how slow you walk.  

Then once I got to the official entrance, the staff would not let super early people in, nor folks who were too late.  I sat on the benches until I gauged they would let folks in my time group in.  After passing this entrance booth, it was a long hike all the way to the top of the crater.  It was very crowded, and some points it was a single file line of people all trudging up this crater.  I was worried about having a time limit to finish this hike due to the crowding and time slot on the ticket, but that turned out not to be any problem.  If you finish and get to the top, there is a photo opportunity at the very tippy top.  Then you can choose to go the same way down or a different path down.

Iolani Palace

The bus goes here, too!  I didn't get to go inside because tickets were sold out for the times I was available.  Get tickets online in advance if you really want to go inside and are traveling during a busy time.

Honolulu Art Museum

The bus goes near here, too!  It's closed certain days of the week, so I didn't get to go inside when I was there.  

Walking distance to the museum is Daiso, known as a 100 Yen or "dollar" store in Japan.  It's found in the US, too.  Items are typically above $1, but they are pretty cheap compared to mainstream stores.

Per Google Maps, Hanauma Bay was reachable via bus plus some walking.  However, it is closed several days of the week for the coral reef to rest and recover, so I didn't get to visit when I was there.

Big Island

The bus goes travels much less often than in Oahu.  I stayed in Hilo.

Richardson Ocean Park

This was my favorite snorkeling experience!  

Volcano National Park

Per the bus website, you could take it between Kona and Hilo.  I stayed in Hilo and paid for a private tour to Volcano National Park.  However, per the bus website I could've saved a lot of money and used public transit to visit this national park.  

Pro of taking the bus to the volcano park: save $.  From where the bus drops you off you could plan some hikes if time permits.  

Con: infrequent bus service, and it drops you off at a particular spot in the park.  With the private tour I was able to be driven to multiple stops within the national park; however, I was unable to do any hikes on my own.

As mentioned in my other post, across from the bus depot is the Farmers' Market.  

Kauai

Poipu Beach

The bus stop takes you near Poipu Beach.  From there, I was able to do a very long walk to the resort area from which you can do a long hike to the Makauwahi cave.

This hike was *long* and *hot*.  I had brought one water bottle, but that was not enough!  Thankfully some good Samaritan had set up a large dispenser of water near the cave.  Otherwise others in my party would've been accusing me of trying to kill them via dehydration and heat stroke.

There were so many smashed dead toads or frogs along the red dirt road.  So sad!

The red Kauai dirt gets all over your shoes and socks.  I ended up throwing away my sneakers after the hike as I wasn't interested in trying to wash away all the dirt.

The views are stunning, though!

On the way back to the bus stop, I detoured along the residential neighborhood to get to Poipu beach.  There was a tortoise and a seal at the beach that day.  

I had researched a very long public transit journey to the north to visit the botanical garden and do a famed hike there; however, due to time limits I spent my time on the south part of Kauai.  Unfortunately, the bus didn't go to the east side nor to the park used to film Jurassic Park.  You can take private tours there if you wish.

Happy island bus hopping!