We talk to others for as long as they will listen when it comes to travel. Often about our experiences in places of mutual interest, and quite regularly exchanging tips and other bits of advice.
Of course, there are so many variables when it comes to travel. Where you are going, what time of year, if you are using a travel agent and so on. So not all of these tips will be of use to you. But we hope you get a couple of useful bits of information.
Before you go
Before you lock in that hotel or apartment, use Google’s Street View to check out the immediate surroundings. Do a virtual walk up and down the street and check out the neighbourhood. Make sure you’re not immediately above a nightclub, or located on a busy intersection, and that no other ‘hazards’ to your comfort are too close.
Use online resources from other travellers and speciality sites like SeatGuru (planes) and Seat61 (trains) to pick the best seats. We watch YouTube to check out transport options too. Tripadvisor and looking at Google reviews are great for seeing ‘real’ photos of accommodation, dining options and so on. Cruise Critic will give you insight into your cruise.
We do a reasonable amount of advance planning for our sightseeing and activities. We use the ‘save’ feature of Google maps to flag places you want to visit. That way it is much easier to find them again when out and about. Where data on the go is an issue, we download Google maps for the city we are visiting so we can access maps and our saved sights on our phones while offline. Click here to find out how.
Got your eye on a fabulous, well rated restaurant? So have all the other tourists. Book in advance if you really want to dine there. And if you do change your mind prior to the day, be courteous and let them know.
To maximise your time in a place, plan the things you want to see and group them by area. Then spend a day or half a day in one part of the city seeing the things that are close to each other. If you use the local public transport, save time by having already researched which bus or metro line to take and where to get off. No one wants to be trying to work this out over breakfast on the day.
Save copies of itinerary, bookings, receipts, pre-purchased tickets etc online, such as in Google Drive in case you lose paperwork. Another option if your chosen email provider has the feature, is to ‘flag’ important emails to be able to find them quickly. Be careful when it comes to saving and emailing copies of passports and other identification information. Consider cyber security – read more about email security here.
If you are visiting European cities such as Rome, Vienna or Lisbon, choose accommodation in the historic centres. Don’t waste time travelling 30 minutes to an hour in and out of the centre each day. And you are much less likely to feel like going out at night if you have to accommodate extra travel. I know accommodation outside of the centres is less expensive, but if you can, spend the extra. If you book months ahead, you can often get good deals on pricing.
Learn greetings, please and thank you in the local language. There are so many online language options available to help with learning the basics. Make a little effort with politeness and a warm smile, and it will get you further. We’ve spent 17 days in Paris across our trips, and have never had a ‘rude French person’ experience. Contributing to this is making the effort to greet the staff in shops and cafes, and understanding that it is considered rude not to.
Packing
You will have heard it before, but less is definitely more. Unless you have a formal event like a wedding, don’t bother with your best attire (cruises with formal nights are possible exceptions here!). Be prepared to wash and re-wear clothes. Rolling your wet item of clothing in a spare towel and giving them a good squeeze is a good substitute for the spin cycle, and reduces drying time. For summer trips, our holiday wardrobe is pretty much two pairs of shorts/skirts, two long sleeve linen shirts (light weight and keeps the sun off you), a nice dress/shirt for dinners out, walking shoes and one extra pair of ‘nice’ shoes for aperitivo and dinner. Even then, in some cities, make sure your ‘nice’ shoes are comfortable for walking over old cobblestones.
We use packing cells, which are small zip-up cubes of various sizes that work like removable compartments for your suitcase. They make it easier to sort and locate things. All our electrical items, such as chargers are together in one, odd things like travel tissues, wet wipes, bandaid boxes are in another, and shoes are spread across a couple. It’s awesome when you can take your large cell of folded shirts and shorts, etc. out of the case and place it straight onto a wardrobe shelf in the hotel room.
We put our liquid toiletries in small silicone travel bottles. Get a quality set. Ours have lasted for years and are easy to use and clean. We only take the amount of liquid product we need, plus a bit extra just in case. I have long curly hair. I take my own shampoo, conditioner and hair cream so I know my hair will behave. But I don’t need to take the whole 400 ml bottle, or pay a premium for the brand’s travel size.
Whilst away
Buy tickets in advance for busy sights so that you don’t waste time queuing in long lines. We try to only buy from the sight’s official online presence. Do some research to make sure you aren’t getting ripped off on a third party website.
If you are using a camera, have multiple memory cards on you. Once I forgot to change my memory card and had to waste 20 minutes reviewing my photos to delete ones I thought I could live without when we arrived at the Belvedere Palace Museum. Not ideal under pressure. Also check and charge your camera’s or phone’s battery each night. If you are not uploading your photos to a cloud backup, and would hate to lose them to a technical issue, theft or accident, then invest in a small backup device.
Don’t carry stuff in your pockets, you’ll be a target for pickpockets. Carry only what you need. I use a small over the shoulder handbag which is large enough for my phone, camera, tissues, sunscreen and cash/cards. Hubby carries nothing of value in his pockets.
Make sure your taxi is metered and the meter is running at the start of the trip. Have a rough idea of where you should be heading and the likely cost too. See the Google Maps tip above.
Watch out for known scams (or anything suspicious). Unsolicited ‘assistance’ at railway stations could result in a demand for payment. There are heaps of scams out there. Read about some others here. There are plenty of online resources you can check out for the countries you are visiting. And most travellers have a story!
Keep a journal. Sometimes it’s painful to commit time to, but it is fun to read later. It also helps match photos with places further down the track if not using an iPhone or other form of photo geo-tagging. I use our journals a lot for writing our blog stories. I do groan at the thought of adding to the journal after a busy day, but it has proven to be worth it.
And importantly, stay respectful and polite, you are in someone else’s country, they may do things differently. Be prepared to laugh at your own expense.