Travel Information/Resources and Photo Associations

Be sure to also thoroughly check out the FAQs. Each of these two pages has slightly different information, sometimes totally different!

Accommodations

There is a popup window on each workshop page that contains the specific hotel we have selected for that workshop.

IMPORTANT:

In many cases, our room rate actually includes our daily imaging room. Normally, that room incurs a hefty fee. So unless you are local, please join the rest of your fellow participants; otherwise, expect to pay a surcharge of up to $75 for your share of the imaging room. This obviously will cost a lot more than a few dollars saved with Expedia or other booking sites. Besides, it is more fun and more practical for meeting up for our various shoots if we all stay in the same location. Usually, any discounted rate we have negotiated will also apply if you wish to come earlier and stay later. Plan on taking advantage of the discounted rates to stay an extra day or so.

Arnie and Margo usually (but not always) stay over the last night of the workshop and go out for one final dinner with those participants who are also staying. We often go out for an extra photography session with those who stay over. The information on the individual workshops will indicate their schedule.

Car Rentals & Other Transportation

Because we stop in locations where the roads and streets may be narrow and parking minimal, we encourage, in fact insist on, car sharing. It is also friendlier to our environment. As noted on the FAQs page, we are committed to placing as small a footprint in our locations as possible.

This means that when rental cars are necessary, we carpool, at least four to a car, sometimes six. We can only handle a maximum of four cars other than ours, and only when we have a number of "spousal units."

While we cannot guarantee takers, we can try to facilitate ride sharing in advance. Meanwhile, best to rent a car and cancel later rather than find your car of choice is no longer available. The pop-up window for each workshop will indicate what we will be doing.

Overseas, we walk a lot, use Uber and taxis, rent drivers for an excursion, or a bus in some circumstances. Occasionally, Arnie and Margo rent two vans, usually Mercedes, to transport our participants around. In all these cases, the cost is shared by the participants.

When traveling, it is a good idea to have an Uber account (we have had great success with them) or one from Lyft, with which we have also had good experiences.

Travel Agent

Navigating the maze of domestic or overseas flights can be daunting, totally frustrating, and time-consuming as we all search for the best fare. We have a travel agent that we can highly recommend, as she has found us great fares unavailable to us mere mortals:

      Sharon Erickson
      Cruise Planners (but don't be put off by the name, as she does so much more)
      612 McLendon Hills Drive
      West End, NC  27376
      877-693-4535 before 9 pm East Coast time!
      910-684-0290 before 9 pm East Coast time!
      e-Mail Sharon

Sharon is an American Express Travel Representative, is well traveled, and is very savvy in so much more than just cruises. She has access to resources unavailable to us mere mortals and can often find fares that are below the ones on the Internet, even below ones that our seasoned travel researchers have found.

With domestic fares, she does need to charge a fee, usually around $35, but for many, it is well worth it. We have found we still save not only money, but tons of time! Remember that old saying that, "Time is money?" Contact Sharon as noted above. Please tell her we sent you (no, we do not get any perks from this).

Please note that in cases where we negotiate special rates with our hotels, you must either book through our travel agent, or use our links and make your reservations yourself. This information is noted for each workshop under Accommodations in the popup.

Travel Insurance

These days, with COVID, we cannot recommend highly enough that you need to get travel insurance. Please go to our page on preparing for travel during these times. Then click on the TRAVEL INSURANCE link.

There are many review sites with the top choices, but you will want to make sure that the company you select is a BBB Accredited business with an A+ rating.

Traveling with Photo Equipment

It is always good to check with your airline before traveling to make sure you are complying with their current rules. Alas, TSA no longer has guidelines and passes consumers along to their airline of choice. Be prepared to do some deep digging.

We NEVER check our camera gear; nor do we ever check our laptops. The airlines will not cover these, and even if they did, you would be up a creek without those items. Common sense dictates that you allow plenty of extra time should TSA ask you to empty your bag and sift through each item one by one.

People often ask us about traveling with tripods. We take the ball heads off ours to make packing much easier and the tripods temporarily shorter.

You may also want to select your airline based on its willingness to work with photographers...

Remember, you may have to check your bag plane-side before boarding smaller aircraft. We have done this numerous times over the decades without any problems ... knock on wood!

If you are a member of a photo association, carry your membership card. It may help you, but that is not a guarantee.

Finally, too many people bring too much gear. The less you worry about your gear, the more you will see what is around you.

General

• US Department of State (to apply for or renew US passports)
• Global Entry/TSA Precheck (to reduce waiting times reentering the US and to access shorter security lines heading out of the country)
• US Department of State Travel Advisories (for up-to-date warnings of unsafe conditions for travelers around the world)
• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (for all matters relating to health issues around the world)
• US Embassies & Consulates (comprehensive list around the world)
• Card Fees & How to Avoid Them (Rick Steves' hints on avoiding card fees, but we do not use him for our travel research)
• Credit Cards w/o Foreign Transaction Fees (for those who travel out of the country)
• XE Currency Converter (great tool for converting one currency to another that goes both ways and incudes a comprehensive list of currencies)
• Global Airport & Seaport Parking (discount airport parking that we use all the time)

Maps & Guides

• DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteers, now owned by Garmin (I have used these paper atlases - a combination of road atlas and topographical map - since DeLorme published the first one on Maine in 1976)
• Lonely Planet (a decades-long staple in my reference library along with LP's guidebook upgrades, eBooks, snapshots of various destinations, and other useful information)

Weather

See Weather page (also under Resources menu above).

Electricity around the World

• Electricity Around the World by World Standard

Associations(fellow members can be very helpful as travel resources, too)

• American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP - professional association and resource for business & copyright issues, supporters of precedent-setting court cases protecting intellectual property)
• North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA - with webinars, discounts, etc.)
• Professional Photographers of America (PPA, portrait and wedding photographers w/extensive educational program)