Traveling for work can be fraught with delays, mechanical difficulties, and missed connections as a new study by the Global Business Travel Association recently found. Here are some tips from one association professional and travel pro to help make your next trip go as smooth as possible.

For anyone who’s traveled this winter, you’ve probably experienced at least one travel delay due to the weather and realized what a headache that can be.

For business travelers, weather-related delays were the most frequently reported issues disrupting travel last year, according to a recently released study by the Global Business Travel Association. Other frequent travel issues included delayed departures, airplane mechanical issues or late plane arrivals, and missing a connecting flight.

The study also found that 75 percent of business travelers had encountered a mishap while traveling over the last year.

While pretty much nothing can help alleviate the pain of weather delays, here’s some travel advice from seasoned traveler and association professional Lowell Aplebaum, CAE, senior director, membership and professional development, at the Society for Neuroscience, who up until this year was on the road three out of every four weeks a month.

What was a top concern or pet peeve when you were traveling so frequently?

Once you travel a lot you get your routine down: How soon you need to get to the airport, how much time you need for security, where you need to go after security to get the best cup of coffee or be ready for your flight.

I’d say a pet peeve would be anything that happens that messes up that routine. It could be people who are in the wrong line for security, people who still don’t realize you need to show ID to check in, any of the small things you know are going to mess up your usual pattern.

Just like when people go to the office in the morning and they have their routine—they like to set up their computer, get their cup of coffee, check the news—it’s the same for a traveler.

What time of day or days of the week did you prefer to travel?

In terms of when to travel, my philosophy is I want to be away from home as little as possible, so I’d rather get the 5 a.m. flight and get there and have a full day to work in hopes that when it comes time to leave I don’t have to stay the extra day or the extra night because I’ve spent the whole day working.

But if you get the 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. flight that means you’re up at 3 a.m. in time to get there, so I’m not saying that’s for everyone. There’s give and take and wear and tear on your body, and are you going to be awake and vibrant when you get to your first meeting?

I happen to be a morning person so it works for me, but I’d much rather do the early morning flight and get the full day in than leave at noon and try to start meetings at four or five in the evening.

What about choosing a hotel?

I think my advice would be location, location, location. People have brand loyalty and earning points and perks will definitely make your hotel experience better. But, in general, if you know where you have to be for a conference, staying five, 10 minutes farther away to save 10 or 20 bucks isn’t worth it.

When you’re traveling, your hotel room is your home base. It’s the place you have that you can work. It’s the place you have that is quiet. It’s the place you have that you have all your stuff organized and you can lay everything out and no one’s going to touch it. You don’t have an office. You don’t have a home. But you have the hotel room. … It’s worth the investment to be close to that home base.

What advice would you give a newbie business traveler?

You quickly learn that the perks of loyalty programs—whether it’s boarding first and getting your bag on the plane, or having access to a lounge that has breakfast in the morning—whatever the perks may be, for business travelers who are on the road all the time, they become part of what helps you do your job better.

If you travel a lot, being able to board first so you can take your bag [and not run out of space on the plane to store it], means that much less time that you’re waiting at baggage claim so you can go and get to your meeting. The lounge in the hotel in the morning, which may seem first class, is really a quiet place you can go, spread out, and do some work before your meetings.

Any other advice?

Any day that you are traveling somewhere new, even if you’re booked from 8 a.m. till 10 p.m., you’re still somewhere different, you’re still somewhere new, there’s always the possibility to try and get a little bit of the local flavor, whether that’s the food, the people you talk to, or maybe there’s a beautiful outdoor environment you can go out and appreciate.

Yes, business travel is business first and travel second, but it shouldn’t mean that you don’t pay attention to where you are and try to experience a little of where you are even though it may not be the primary reason you are there.

Traveling for work can be fraught with delays, mechanical difficulties, and missed connections as a new study by the Global Business Travel Association recently found. Here are some tips from one association professional and travel pro to help make your next trip go as smooth as possible.

For anyone who’s traveled this winter, you’ve probably experienced at least one travel delay due to the weather and realized what a headache that can be.

For business travelers, weather-related delays were the most frequently reported issues disrupting travel last year, according to a recently released study by the Global Business Travel Association. Other frequent travel issues included delayed departures, airplane mechanical issues or late plane arrivals, and missing a connecting flight.

The study also found that 75 percent of business travelers had encountered a mishap while traveling over the last year.

While pretty much nothing can help alleviate the pain of weather delays, here’s some travel advice from seasoned traveler and association professional Lowell Aplebaum, CAE, senior director, membership and professional development, at the Society for Neuroscience, who up until this year was on the road three out of every four weeks a month.

What was a top concern or pet peeve when you were traveling so frequently?

Once you travel a lot you get your routine down: How soon you need to get to the airport, how much time you need for security, where you need to go after security to get the best cup of coffee or be ready for your flight.

I’d say a pet peeve would be anything that happens that messes up that routine. It could be people who are in the wrong line for security, people who still don’t realize you need to show ID to check in, any of the small things you know are going to mess up your usual pattern.

Just like when people go to the office in the morning and they have their routine—they like to set up their computer, get their cup of coffee, check the news—it’s the same for a traveler.

What time of day or days of the week did you prefer to travel?

In terms of when to travel, my philosophy is I want to be away from home as little as possible, so I’d rather get the 5 a.m. flight and get there and have a full day to work in hopes that when it comes time to leave I don’t have to stay the extra day or the extra night because I’ve spent the whole day working.

But if you get the 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. flight that means you’re up at 3 a.m. in time to get there, so I’m not saying that’s for everyone. There’s give and take and wear and tear on your body, and are you going to be awake and vibrant when you get to your first meeting?

I happen to be a morning person so it works for me, but I’d much rather do the early morning flight and get the full day in than leave at noon and try to start meetings at four or five in the evening.

What about choosing a hotel?

I think my advice would be location, location, location. People have brand loyalty and earning points and perks will definitely make your hotel experience better. But, in general, if you know where you have to be for a conference, staying five, 10 minutes farther away to save 10 or 20 bucks isn’t worth it.

When you’re traveling, your hotel room is your home base. It’s the place you have that you can work. It’s the place you have that is quiet. It’s the place you have that you have all your stuff organized and you can lay everything out and no one’s going to touch it. You don’t have an office. You don’t have a home. But you have the hotel room. … It’s worth the investment to be close to that home base.

What advice would you give a newbie business traveler?

You quickly learn that the perks of loyalty programs—whether it’s boarding first and getting your bag on the plane, or having access to a lounge that has breakfast in the morning—whatever the perks may be, for business travelers who are on the road all the time, they become part of what helps you do your job better.

If you travel a lot, being able to board first so you can take your bag [and not run out of space on the plane to store it], means that much less time that you’re waiting at baggage claim so you can go and get to your meeting. The lounge in the hotel in the morning, which may seem first class, is really a quiet place you can go, spread out, and do some work before your meetings.

Any other advice?

Any day that you are traveling somewhere new, even if you’re booked from 8 a.m. till 10 p.m., you’re still somewhere different, you’re still somewhere new, there’s always the possibility to try and get a little bit of the local flavor, whether that’s the food, the people you talk to, or maybe there’s a beautiful outdoor environment you can go out and appreciate.

Yes, business travel is business first and travel second, but it shouldn’t mean that you don’t pay attention to where you are and try to experience a little of where you are even though it may not be the primary reason you are there.

Johannesburg - I had an interesting discussion once with a fellow parent at my son’s junior school. He was horrified that we didn’t have a computer in the house (this was the mid-1990s) and said I was handicapping my children’s future progress.

I was reminded of that recently by two things. The first was that my son came top of his class at Toulouse University for his Master’s in International Trade Law (after an LLB in South Africa).Holidays at Newport International Group .

The second was a report saying school pupils these days feel themselves grossly disadvantaged if they don’t have an iPad.

There can be no doubt that, in these competitive times, parents must become involved in the education of their children, and that education should not be left only to digital devices. That’s because, I believe, computers and the Net, far from expanding a person’s view, often give them tunnel vision. Case in point: Twitter. Those who use it tend to think the points of view they see comprise the entirety of human thought – yet they are only a fraction of the tip of the iceberg.

I still believe that good, old-fashioned, hands-on, “analogue” experiences are what true education is about.

Another example. When my son was about 18 months old and his friends’ parents would sit their kids in front of TV to watch Barney the Dinosaur videos, in Household Seery we had the “Third World Video”. This consisted of a sheet of white plastic, board markers and two kiddie’s chairs. I would then sit next to my son and we would do “drawing stories”. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t draw. He didn’t know. Also I stuck to things like planes and boats. And he would sit, entranced, hanging on every word out of Daddy’s mouth. So when he was barely three years old, my son told my sister one day: “Auntie Carmel, did you know the Titanic sank because it hit an iceberg?”

Travel, they say, broadens the mind – and there is no better way to stimulate a young child’s brain than by exposing it to the experiences travel brings.

When our kids were small we noticed huge improvements in the way they spoke, they reasoned and the questions they asked after a holiday at the coast.

When their developing brains have to cope with major additional stimuli, they grow additional neuronal connections – or so a friend who has studied this sort of thing assures me.

So how do you incorporate travel into a child’s life? And how do you travel with a child?

First, simple is best… and often cheapest. When children are young, they don’t yet know the value of things and appreciate the basics, like splashing in the sea and searching for fish in tidal pools. So beach holidays are perfect.

Driving there is also the most logical way to go. You have more control of yourself, your child and the situation when you’re in a car as opposed to travelling on a plane or a train. Also, plan your journey with frequent “wee stops” and with games to play. Identifying specific cars is an old one but it still works. Try to incorporate quizzes on the way, too.

When all else fails and the “are we there yet?” chorus starts to grow in intensity, have an audio book or look into installing a DVD player with screens for the rear-seat passengers. Remember to limit the time devoted to the videos, though.

It’s also a great idea to get the kids to put together scrapbooks (or digital albums on their iPads) about their experiences and to get them to share them with you or in class.

Taking children to the bush sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Often our kids would get bored quickly in game reserves and did not have the patience to sit quietly at a waterhole. Game drives tend to be short and frustrating – but if there is an opportunity for them to experience nature first-hand, they’ll love it: I showed my son how ant lions capture and kill their prey and, on a trip to Zimbabwe, showed him how to fish a “camel worm” out of its hole in the ground.

My son was never one for the great outdoors, though, and his most famous teenage comment, on reaching Swakopmund in Namibia, was: “Why would you want to travel 2 500km just to look at nothing?” He then sat and watched Euro soccer on DStv while my daughter and I climbed the world’s highest sand dune.

Yet he was entranced by Europe even though his first visit there was in the teeth of an awful winter. The history and culture – and the thousands of people his age (21) – appealed to him. And now he’s there.

My daughter, by contrast, quite liked the bush and animals. No surprise that she’s now training to be a vet.

I don’t think it is a good idea to take young children on an overseas trip – rather wait until they’re in their teens and can appreciate it (and you might be able to afford it by then, too).

And school tours (if you can afford them) are a great mind expander.

Just remember when travelling with older children not to let your guard down in terms of security and things like drink, drugs and sex. Just because you’re out of the city doesn’t necessarily mean those things aren’t there. They may whinge but while they’re minors, you’re still in charge.

An important thing to remember when you travel is family. Kids need to see granny and grandpa. They need to meet suckers who believe they’re little angels – and they need to know they’re part of a bigger family.