Feature: Geography: How to Get It Right When You've Never Been There

[bluewolf458]

Not many people have travelled really extensively, so when it comes to writing a story set in a specific area, especially in a country foreign to you, it's almost certain you've never visited it. Let's get a bit of help from our Sentinel friends.

Comments

[germankitty]

Adding a detail to traveling methods, specifically flying -- the procedures are different between domestic (= in-country) and international flights. (All this is OTOH, and to the best of my recollection; I've been flying internationally since the early 1970s.)

First off, to fly internationally, you need a passport and go through passport control. Not a big problem before takeoff, but on arrival there's usually a hold-up of some kind due to identity checks (longer, especially in the US, since 9/11), and you need to collect your luggage (involving yet another wait) before going through customs. So disembarking from a plane, depending on where you're coming from and/or going to can take anything between 30 minutes and two hours on average.

Customs ... check the destination country's regs for what you're allowed to have on your person; for example, some countries don't allow import of certain publications or anything they deem pornographic -- and yes, that may include something essentially harmless like Playboy or Cosmopolitan, or a known politically-inclined periodical.

-- while talking about luggage, there are number, weight and size restrictions, both in general and specifically what you can bring into the cabin. Your character(s) CAN'T put a large suitcase under their seat or in the overhead compartment, and neither can they check in all of their worldly possessions. Not unless they're loaded enough to pay extra -- and it doesn't come cheap. As little as 5 pounds excess weight can cost you over $50 for a short 1-hour hop from London to mainland Europe. So check! --

Only after having cleared customs can you pass through a barrier and meet whoever's waiting for you; I've only been able to meet a friend and then get my luggage on one domestic flight in the US!

Flying in Europe varies depending on whether a person is travelling within the EU or not; there are different counters for nationals, EU citizens, and all the rest at Immigration/passport control. It could happen that an Englishman, an American and a German all flying into London will have to queue in 3 different places -- UK and Commonwealth citizens, EU member and "rest of the world". No idea how Africa and Asia handle this, so again, check!

Also, there are different, stricter procedures in place since 9/11 everywhere, and up until the early 90s (IIRC) smoking was still allowed on a lot of airlines -- there was no separate compartment, they just chucked the smokers into the last 10 or so rows at the back of the plane.

Until recently, getting a free snack/light meal and drink(s) even on short flights was pretty common, again until the 1990s.

[bluewolf458]

I've got very little experience of flying, so this - left as your comment - makes a good addition to the feature.

[germankitty]

Thank you. :)

While flying has become affordable and quite common, there still is a little more to the whole process than boarding a train, say -- often, it's very much a case of "hurry up and wait", especially considering that most airlines require passengers to check in never less than one, but often up to three HOURS (on flights to the US) before departure! So a one-hour flight from Paris to London might well take a total of FOUR hours under normal circumstances, with check-in luggage, from check-in to passing customs; maybe an hour less if you only have carry-on luggage ...

(And yes, there are even more differences when we're talking first-class passengers, or VIPs.)