Travel Tips

• Hong Kong: If you are part of the One World Frequent Flyer program you must check out Cathay Pacific's Business Class lounge.  Absolutely divine!  Stylish design, excellent internet lounge (complete with soothing water feature), short order chef for delicious dim sum, mini tubs of haagen daz and other treats, lovely showers with molton brown toiletries. 
• Munich: If you have some time to kill between connections try a napcab, a small but very stylish sleeping and/or working cabin with a bed, desk and internet access. 

When you travel the last thing you want is for Jetlag to slow you down.  Download our jetlag beating tipsheet to help you hit the ground running.

•  InYourPocket, a one-stop travel portal for 50 European Destinations, has free downloads for a very comprehensive list of Central & Eastern European cities. 
• Ryanair provides free, downloadable travel guides for all of their destinations.  The 10 to 15 page guides are written by travel journalists, are regularly updated and contain discount vouchers for tours and activities. 
• Travel eguides has free downloadable travel guides for a number of destinations.  Two formats are available - brief with pretty pictures and in colour or comprehensive in black & white.
• Rough Guides' free PodScrolls service lets you download travel content to your iPod.  Starting with Eating & Drinking guides to 10 of the world's top cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, London, Madrid, NYC, Paris, Prague, Rome, San Francisco).  PodScrolls work on all full colour iPods.

Slimtree.com...the broadband gym provides fitness videos you can download.  Including Yoga, Pilates, Cardio and Abs.  Handy to help keep fit whilst travelling.

Use World Nomads' Travellers Language Guides to "learn the local lingo". They are currently available in 20 languages, contain essential phrases and are free to download.  The World Nomads team is working on a language guide application for iPods which should be available shortly.

• Qantas, Virgin Blue & Jetstar reportedly lose 200,000 pieces of luggage each year.  The vast majority are reunited with their owners within 48 hours.  Incase your luggage is lost make sure your contact details on your luggage tags include destination, flight and mobile phone numbers.
• If you are travelling overseas it is always good to pack a spare pair of underwear in your carry on.  And if you are travelling with a friend or partner you might want to pack an outfit in their bag and vice versa in case one bag is lost. 

To help your pre-trip preparation run as smoothly as possible we have compiled some suggested packing tips and lists. Simply download, print and check off.

• Not sure when and where to buy your duty free goodies?  Download our Duty Free allowance guide to help you plan.
• New to a destination and don't know where the best shops are?  Then you will love itravelishop's shopping guides. Featuring "Top Shops" guides for popular (Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, Mumbai, LA) and less well known destinations (Mammoth, Jaipur). 
• When travelling overseas, particularly to a number of countries in one trip, it is easy to forget what the local exchange rate is.  Help is at hand from oanda.com where you can create your own handy, purse size, currency cheat sheet before you depart.  Click on FXCheatSheet and follow the instructions.

Want to know a bit about what's going on in your destination before you arrive so you can make the most of your time?  Try these fab sites.

• Gridskipper - the worldwide travel blog
• Whatsonwhen - entertainment and events around the world
• TimeOut - local experts providing up-to-date information and "critically sharp commentary" on the world's best cities.