Your next vacation should be relaxing and stress free. You have worked hard and paid a lot of money to spend that time doing what you want to do where you want to do it. Let us help put your mind at ease with these simple steps that you can take to ensure your happiness, while traveling.
Avoid food allergies when going abroad by not going to places that cannot translate. You need to know the language’s food related words, particularly if you have bad reactions to foods. Then at least you can warn the staff and possibly get a quicker response for medical professionals.
Do some research ahead of time and look for dining credits and coupons for your destination. You can also save a lot of money by getting advice about where to eat before you depart. This is better than asking for recommendations when you are already hungry and in a strange place.
If you are traveling light and planning to wash laundry as you go, use your daily shower as an opportunity to wash your underwear and even your lightweight shirt. It only takes a few moments and prevents you from building up a pile of laundry that needs to be washed all at once.
If you are staying at a lower-cost or no-name hotel when traveling, never put your bag on the bed. Be sure to check the sheet and spreads for bugs. If you must take your clothing out of your luggage, hang it in the closet instead of putting in the dresser or onto the furniture. Bedbugs are a major problem in North American hotels.
For a trip to wine country or just a beach getaway, if there’s a chance you’ll be drinking wine, pack a waiter’s corkscrew. This tool will come in handy for the bottles you buy at the winery and can make picnics and hotel drinks much easier. A corkscrew can be especially difficult to buy when traveling abroad, so plan ahead and toss one in your suitcase to make life easier.
If you plan on traveling with young children, make sure to stop often on the way there and back. Explain them in details where you are going, and how long it will take to go there. Prepare some activities to keep them busy during the trip, such as coloring books.
When going on a trip, make sure to split up your bank cards, credit cards, checks and cash. Put them all into different hidden pockets of your purses and travel bags. Following this simple tip will ensure that if you do get robbed, you will not be stranded without any money.
Something you should never do is place an important document in the pocket of the seat in front of you. Most likely, it will slide down to where you will not be able to view it anymore and you will forget all about it. Then you will get off the plane and realize too late that you don’t have it.
If you have a fear of flying and need a drink to help you relax on the plane, always make sure that you add two drinks of water to that one alcoholic beverage. The worst thing you can do is drink too much on a plane and get sick or dehydrated.
Traveling to foreign lands can be fun, but make sure you don’t go at it alone. A good piece of advice is not to travel alone. Many people tend to get caught up in the wonders of being a tourist, but forget that the locals may not be as kind as they think they are. The world is vast and not everyone is nice. Traveling with someone else or going as a group, prevents you from being the target of the next crime.
Because security does not allow you to lock your luggage, you run the risk of the zippers coming undone and your belongings leaving a trail across the country and around the baggage claim. To help prevent this, use zip ties, which hold the zipper together, but can easily be cut off (with little cost to you) by security, if necessary.
If you are traveling by airplane, be sure to bring along your own headphones. Most in-flight entertainment systems today require that you wear headphones. You may be able to buy them in-flight, but it will be at a greatly inflated cost. Headphones are also a great way to create ‘white noise’ to block out your neighbors and/or the plane noise.
Now that you have some information that you will need, in order to have a well-planned and relaxing getaway, all that is left to do is to pack your bags and put the advice here into good practice. Travel should be an enjoyable experience and these tips will make sure that that happens.
