Contest: Help National Car Rental Define the Traveler Truths.

By Posted in - Travel Resources on November 1st, 2012 A colorful chicken bus in Santiago, Guatemala.

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A colorful chicken bus in Santiago, Guatemala.

Those colors don’t lie; though, sometimes the drivers do.

I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d lay down a crisp $2 bill in favor of the notion that most Travel Truths derive from this simple adage, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” As travelers, it’s in our blood to evolve and adapt to our surroundings, and when we get hoodwinked, we tend to quickly assess the situation to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Every year National Car Rental gives travelers the opportunity to earn free rentals with a program called ONE TWO FREE®. When renters rent twice, they get a third rental free. It’s as easy as 1, 2, free! To celebrate the return of this popular promotion, we’ve teamed up with National Car Rental to give our readers a chance to share their travel experience, and become part of the National brand forever by including the winning tip on the company’s Facebook page. To get the ball rolling, I’ll share our Traveler Truth with you.

Twice is Nice When it Comes to Advice!

Our Traveler Truth comes from our first trip to Guatemala in 2007, where we used chicken buses to travel between cities. We were doing pretty well navigating from place to place, until we ended up on a bus that was going in the opposite direction of where we wanted to be. After we arrived at our correct destination hours later, Beth and I talked about what went wrong that afternoon. We discovered that we got swept up in the hurried atmosphere of the bus stop, believing the driver when he shook his head and “si,” when we asked if this was the bus we needed to take. Then we rushed onto the bus without verifying it with another person.

It’s hard to say if the driver was purposely trying to dupe us. There’s always the chance that he just misunderstood us. However, one thing that we’ve learned from our travels, which is why we always ask twice now, is that sometimes people will give you the wrong information if they don’t know an answer, because they don’t want to admit that they don’t know. I know, it sounds strange but it’s true!

So when you travel take our advice and always ask two different people when it comes to something important such as directions or transportation.

Alright, now that you know our Travel Truth, it’s time to share yours in the comments below for a chance to win an awesome prize pack!

Beth and I will work together with National Car Rental to select the best (1) truth from the comment section below, and the reader who submits the chosen comment will win the National Car Rental’s Traveler Truth Prize Pack valued at $499.98! That’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me!

National Car Rental’s Traveler Truth Prize Pack includes:

• Swiss Army WT Wheeled Tote

• Swiss Army WT Deluxe Garment Sleeve

• One (1) $100 AMEX Gift Card

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Enter the contest and you could score some pretty sweet new luggage for your upcoming travels! 

After we select our winner, the winning fact will be compiled into the greater Top 10 Business Traveler Truths, and will be featured on the National Car Facebook page, and will be shared far and wide to business travelers across the country.

As an additional bonus (this isn’t required for entry into the contest), if any of our readers sign up for the ONE TWO FREE®, and refer their Facebook friends or Twitter followers (there will be an option to share once you sign up), you will automatically receive one free rental credit for ONE TWO FREE®, essentially making the program: rent one, get one rental free. If you are not already an Emerald Club member, you can join immediately here, at no cost, to get the credit.

Furthermore, if you send in a screenshot of your comment, along with the name of our blog (Beers and Beans), and your Emerald Club number, which you can sign up for here, to OneTwoFree@ehi.com, then you will receive one free rental credit, essentially making the program: rent one, get one rental free.

The contest ends on November 4, 2012 at 11:59 (est), so get in your Travel Truths by then! We will announce the winner on November 8.

So, what is your Traveler Truth? Simply let us know in the comments for a chance to win!

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*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!

(11) awesome folk have had something to say...

  • Andi -

    November 1, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Learn hello and thank you in the language of the country that you’re traveling in, it will get you very far!

    • Randy -

      November 1, 2012 at 2:20 pm

      @Andi, Ah, so true! It is really amazing how far those two words can take you.

  • Patty -

    November 1, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    If you get where you’re going and it’s not what you expected, sit down, take a deep breath, and make a commitment to see what is there, before you jump up and head out. Sometimes that’s how you find the hidden gems in travel.

  • Abi -

    November 1, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    Don’t rush, and throw away the tight agenda. You will enjoy a place more and actually get more out of the sights and experiences if you take them in at a peaceful pace.

  • Andrea -

    November 2, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Do less planning. That may sound counterintuitive, but the best travel experiences we’ve had were the completely spontaneous ones.

  • Monique -

    November 2, 2012 at 10:10 am

    Always talk to the locals. They will know the best places to eat, drink & see!

  • Wendy T -

    November 3, 2012 at 8:33 am

    It sounds so cliche, but it is indeed something that resonates:

    It’s about the journey, and not the destination.

    Whether it be personal or business, enjoy the journey; life is nothing but a series of journeys that accumulate into our life’s experiences. And at the end of our ultimate journey here, that is what’s going to matter.

  • Christy -

    November 3, 2012 at 10:34 am

    Be open minded and humble (remember to be kind to the locals). AND.. sometimes the best experiences come from getting lost.

  • Mary -

    November 4, 2012 at 6:08 am

    My travel truth is ALWAYS BE EARLY When I was 15 years old, my mother had sent me to Florida to stay with one of her friends and her 16 year old daughter for the summer. When it was time for me to fly back home to New Jersey, the 16 year old had just gotten her license and decided she wanted to be the one to drive me to the airport. She thought it would be fine if we arrived at the airport at precisely the time my flight was scheduled to leave (no earlier). Of course I arrived to my gate and my plane had already left. The next flight home wasn’t for another 5 hours! I sat in the terminal crying. Lesson learned.

  • Mami2jcn -

    November 4, 2012 at 6:14 am

    My travel truth is ALWAYS BE EARLY When I was 15 years old, my mother had sent me to Florida to stay with one of her friends and her 16 year old daughter for the summer. When it was time for me to fly back home to New Jersey, the 16 year old had just gotten her license and decided she wanted to be the one to drive me to the airport. She thought it would be fine if we arrived at the airport at precisely the time my flight was scheduled to leave (no earlier). Of course I arrived to my gate and my plane had already left. The next flight home wasn’t for another 5 hours! I sat in the terminal crying. Lesson learned.

  • Wendy T -

    November 4, 2012 at 7:27 am

    Pardon my test above. Testing a different browser and getting different results-able to comment here now 🙂

    My truth is to enjoy the journey and not focus so much on the destination. Life is, after all, all about singular journeys that add up to the sum total of our lives.

    Breathe, stay present in the moment and enjoy what is right around you. That is what matters at that very moment.