The world is your oyster! (And the grit makes the pearl!) Travel Tips. (Travel Tips in General)

Member Name: GillMN

Product:	Travel Tips in General
Date:	30/08/09 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Real travel gives you 3D vision.

Disadvantages: You have to come home and go back to work!

Travel tips?

People travel for a lot of different reasons, work, holidays, to visit family and friends, to 'get away from it all' or to 'find it all'.

I am lucky enough to travel quite a lot, both with my work or just for a holiday.

Here are a few tips, some of which I learned the hard way. Most of them pertain to travelling abroad. Some might be useful wherever you go.

~~~Before you go~~~
Check the validity of your passport. Has it got plenty of time before it expires? Some countries demand a six month clearance. Check it out so that you and your family are not left heartbroken, embarassed and holidayless at the airport check in. I've seen it happen a few times now. No valid passport, no travelling abroad. (Unless you are off to the Irish republic and a driver's license will do.)

Read about where you are going before you get there. If you are well organised you can make a list of things you want to see. If you are like me you will make a list and then leave it on the kitchen table to amuse the dog sitter! So make your list and pack it!

Pack your suitcase, then look at it, then take out half the clothes! You won't need them. Usually we are going for 7 or 14 days. Most people take enough jeans and teeshirts to stock a small supermarket. If you get somewhere without some vital bit of clothing you can either do without, buy it, steal it or improvise.

If I'm travelling with someone I generally put a change of clothes in their case and vice versa, in case a case goes astray. I have to say that the only time my case did go astray I was travelling solo (so was my case) so that tip wouldn't have been much use.


Visit the tourist information site of the country you are going to. You can often find the dates of festivals and events local to your area that you might otherwise have missed. Little village fiestas and such can be great fun and very cheap entertainment.

If you are travelling to a third world country check the jabs available and necessary. The two aren't the same.

Again, if you are going to an underdeveloped area, take little presents for the local children. They will enjoy receiving them and you will enjoy giving them.

If you take medication, pack enough for three extra days. If it's important medication, take a copy of your prescription. Sometimes it is interesting to see what your medication costs in other countries. Some prescription drugs are much cheaper. Some cost an awful lot more. I, of course, have travelled without mine once or twice. I wasted a lot of time trying to remember what I took and trying to get the pharmacists to understand! So take your prescription in case your meds are lost, spoiled or stolen.

It's easy now on the web to find out if stuff like sun tan lotion is available and/or cheaper where you are going. You also get to find out other bits of information whilst you are looking.

One thing I always take is earplugs. Many a rattling air conditioning unit, or a noisy drunk, or an underfloor karaoke, or a snoring partner has been defeated by these two little bits of foam. I use them at home too. Guess who has a snoring partner?

The other item I nearly always take is a travel kettle. If I can't sleep, a mug of tea or cocoa helps while I sit reading on the verandah waiting for sleep to come. A lot of hotels and guest houses don't supply a kettle and you don't always want to be bothered getting dressed and wandering about, trying to find a drink.


~~~Dealing with airports and surviving the plane journey~~~

Airports used to be fun for me, now they usually feel like feats of endurance. So.....

Put everything you don't really need until you get there, in your checked luggage. Then somebody else gets to hump it all over the airport and you don't have to carry it.
Put your mini make up kits, moisturiser and deodorant in a plastic bag before you get to the airport. Airports now are charging £1.00 for two bags! Just to get your liquids through in your hand luggage.
Take off all excess jewellery before you get to security. Last week I stood behind one genius who had to take off at least thirty thin metal bangles! Nobody was amused.
If you don't want the whole line to hate you, get yourself sorted out before you get to the metal detector.

~~~Passing the time on the plane.~~~
Go into Boots in the airport and get yourself a meal deal for the flight. It's cheap, has a good variety and it gives you something to do whilst trying to distract yourself from strangling the man in the seat next to you who is snoring and invading your leg room!

Put a small travel book about your destination in your hand luggage. Try to teach yourself at least five phrases in the relevant language before you arrive.

You know the little earphone/adaptor thingy you paid £3.50 for last time you flew? Find it and put it in your hand luggage. It will save you £3.50 and you will feel smug. Unless of course, it doesn't fit, in which case you will have to buy another one to add to your collection! (I've got about six!)

I always take a puzzle book to distract me. Clip a pen onto the book. There is nothing worse than being bored witless and not being able to fill your puzzles in. Airline stewards never have spare pens. I know, I have tried to borrow one countless times. Being offered a "Cross Super Pen for only £113.95" is not the answer I want to hear.

Ask for a pillow and blanket as soon as you take off. There are probably only 8 available for the whole plane so get your request in early! Rolled up together they do make it easier to nod off, and positioned carefully stops you lolloping and dribbling ungracefully on the passenger next to you when you fall asleep.

If it's a long haul flight, or over four hours anyway, wear support stockings. They make a suprising difference to your legs and might stop you spending your holiday looking at scenic views of a hospital ceiling. I know they don't look wonderful but they don't half work!

Do the exercises in the in flight magazine. If nothing else it means that fellow passengers will give you more space because they think you've gone mad!

At altitude alcohol metabolises faster into your bloodstream. It also dehydrates you. So if you don't want to lurch off the plane looking like a 'before' advert for leather furniture cream, go easy on the alcohol.

~~~And when you get there? ~~~

In my humble opinion, travelling means deliberately going out of my comfort zone. Obviously you are going to take part of your comfort zone with you, family, friends, favourite clothes etc. Part of the excitement and education of travel for me, is to experience different ways of living. Different weather, different languages, different ways of life, different foods. Going to a new country and insisting that everything is the same as at home isn't travelling. Only your body has moved, your heart and spirit and brain may as well have stayed at home.

Try new foods, talk to people, mime to people, laugh at yourself getting it wrong. Be open to the idea that the culture in your new place has evolved as much but along different tracks to your own. Be aware of every opportunity to have a go at something new.

Sometimes when you're travelling, things go wrong. If you have used your common sense, read about the place you are going to and have taken sensible precautions, you will be better prepared to deal with them. Usually they are minor things. You will survive them and have interesting tales to tell. Nothing always goes right at home, why should it when you are abroad? Don't let minor things ruin the rest of your time away.

Behave with as much respect as you would expect a visitor in your home to display. This is their country, you are a passing guest. Pack your good manners and civility along with common sense and integrity. They are as much a passport to a good holiday as the little red one you have (hopefully) remembered to put in your pocket. Wherever you go people are the same in terms of appreciating real, honest and warm contact. Treat people like real people and 99% of the time it will be reciprocated. Treat them like dirt and you will end up with muck all over you.

Prepare for what you can and don't worry about what you can't!
Most of all though, go and have fun!

Summary: Just go and do it and learn about the world and your place in it!