28th Jan, 2009

Travel Tip of the Week: Bring an Alarm Clock!

Every week, Explorations will offer all you inveterate travelers a travel tip from one of our expert Program Consultants.

This week’s travel tip is from Senior Program Consultant Alyssa Geiger, and it’s a good one for the Circadian Rhythmically-challenged…

My travel tip is to pack your own alarm clock. This might seem a bit silly to some people-the hotel will have them, right?

Don’t count on it.

Even if the hotel does have an alarm clock, there’s no guarantee that you know how to work it. Some alarm clocks — especially in foreign countries –can be quite tricky.

And if it doesn’t go off-or if the sound it makes isn’t loud enough for you to hear it? It’s just not worth the risk.

And on that note-it’s not a good idea to rely on wake up calls from the hotel either-sometimes their system can get mixed up.

I was on an Explorica tour in Spain and requested a wake up call around 7 a.m. Needless to say…it was a call that never came.

The group left without me for the guided sightseeing that day, and I felt really embarrassed because the group must have thought that I had overslept! After all, they all received their wake up calls either from the hotel or from their teachers.

Long story short–turns out the hotel called the wrong room.  These kinds of things can happen at a large hotel.

So I say don’t leave it to chance — bring your own alarm clock!

Last 5 posts by Alyssa Geiger

Posted by: Alyssa Geiger

Categories:
travel tips

Alyssa says: "Wake up!"

Responses

As a teacher about to lead her 7th tour, I completely agree with Alyssa’s suggestion to bring an alarm clock. Many of the students think they can rely on their mobile phones, but we encourage them to leave them behind unless they will actually work for phone calls when we are away.
I have found that it is well worth my time to get up 10 minutes before the wake-up call is scheduled. I then have time to get myself up and organized, and still have time to take a quick walk down the halls and knock on the doors of my student’s rooms. I also require all of my students to check in at breakfast, even if they are not going to eat. Then I at least know they are up and functioning!

By: Kim Wiggin on January 28th, 2009
at 3:57 pm

I agree, a necessity for travelling overseas. I also tell the students that within their group of three or four, they need to bring two alarm clocks. When we do the room checks, one of them goes on the night table and the other, well….. on the other side of the room. At least that way, hopefully one of them will have to get out of bed to shut it off.

By: travelbug on January 28th, 2009
at 4:00 pm

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