Travel Tips & Suggestions!

One of my passions is traveling and experiencing different cultures, both at home in the United States and internationally.  Every time that I travel I learn something new or think, “I wish I had thought to do something or not to do something.”  Often, I also think, “I wish I had not forgotten to bring something.”

So, after many trips and saying or thinking “I wish …”, I am creating a running list of tips and suggestions for traveling.  The tips and suggests are in no particular order.

Contributions and discussions welcomed!

1. Invest in a travel wallet, something that will hold your passport and all your travel cards like your frequent traveler cards and airport lounge cards.  You can call it one stop storage.
2. Even if you don’t travel a lot, consider joining a frequent flier program or an awards program.  Some of the frequent flier programs allow you to donate your miles.  If you are a family you can combine your miles and maybe use them to obtain a ticket.
3. If you are traveling internationally and need or want to carry cash, money belts can be easily worn under your clothes and are less susceptible to someone stealing it off your person than a wallet.
4. At some point, your airline carrier is going to lose your luggage or there will be a delay in you receiving your bags.  Take a small bag with toiletries, under garments, and a one or two days of clothes on board as a carry-on, but check the rest.  Do you really want to tramp through several airports trying to make connections carrying all your bags?
5. If possible, build at least a day into your travel itinerary in the event of delays and cancellations.
6. For long trips, it is not always practical to get up and walk around the plane, but there are exercises you can do in your seat, like ankle flexes, arm extensions, and so forth.
7. Organized tours may sound hokey, but it’s an easy way to learn about the city you are visiting.  Take a city tour your first day and then explore on your own.  Of course, you can do your own research and map out a plan yourself.
8. Don’t over plan activities … do you really want to feel like you need a holiday after your holiday?  Too tight of a schedule and you may find yourself needing to be in two places at the same time.
9. Pack lite or take extra bags … you are going to buy stuff.  Of course, the airlines are making this a little tricky by charging for extra bags.
10. Want to savor the flavor of the locals?  Just ask a local where they eat … this can work out good or bad, but if local authenticity is your goal, take the risk.
11. If you like to plan your trips, make a travel folder and organize which ever way that will help you be most organized.  I recently took a multi-country trip and organized by country where I had all lodging, tours, and vouchers for each country separated in a notebook.  It worked wonderfully.