travel tips

After our three weeks in France, just what are my travel tips for you? What did I learn that might help you?

#1. Global Entry

This is one wonderful program. By signing up and being accepted in the program, you become a “known citizen” or “trusted traveler”  and thus can bypass the customs lines when returning to the States. And, more and more foreign countries will start to accept this program in the coming months and years.

How to do it? Go to the Global Entry site. Set up an account on line. Follow all the instructions and answer all the questions. Pay $100. Then wait about two weeks when you will receive an email saying you have been approved and to set up an appointment for an interview. These are conducted, generally, at airports. Yes, you may have to travel some distance for this 10-minute interview. They take your picture and your fingerprints and you are then registered with the system for five years.

What does it do for you? Well, when we returned two weeks ago to Raleigh airport the customs line would probably have taken at least an hour. I’m guessing. But it was […]