To those who are uninitiated in the world of travel, going on a long trip can be a daunting prospect, especially when you’re visiting a country or place for the first time without any prior knowledge. A hundred things could go wrong, from having to give up the most basic luxuries you’ve taken for granted at home to having to deal with some inconveniences to your schedule, minor or otherwise.
While it can be near impossible to reduce all the problems you can encounter on your trip to zero, we can get as close as we can with the right amount of planning. Knowing what options you have at your disposal can help you breeze through foreign cities like they’re your backyard, and we’ll help you out with that.
Here are some tips from veteran travelers to help you prioritize convenience while you travel.
Roll Up Your Clothes
Have you even had the problem of spending so much time meticulously folding up your clothes only to discover them creased up the moment you take them out of your bag? It can be disheartening to realize that all that hard work you’ve done while packing was all for nothing. Now you’ll have to find a way to press your clothes to make them presentable, but if you’re in a foreign city you’re not familiar with, that can be a problematic endeavor.
One common trick you can make use of is to avoid folding your clothes, and simply rolling them. It may be counterintuitive if you first think about it, but folding your clothes actually adds folds that can turn into creases while you’re on the move. Rolling lowers the amounts of folds you have on your clothes, keeping them tidy, and also saves you space in your bag.
Make Use of the Right Apps
Technology has come a long way and has given a lot of options that can help you navigate an urban area more easily. While a lot of apps out there require a cellphone signal to use, which is the last thing you’d want if you’re trying to avoid expensive data charges, you can use free features like Google Maps to download offline maps to help you navigate easily. While offline maps lack the landmarks like hotels, restaurants or local shops, you do have the option to drop pins, which can help you mark certain places to make them easier to find.
If, however, you’re okay with spending a bit of money on data, your options get a whole lot wider. Plenty more features from Google Maps become available, plus you can also download ride sharing apps like Grab or Uber. Ride sharing apps also provide you drivers that may be nice enough to give you some tips about their city only locals would know about. While ride sharing apps do have service charges, you can find coupons or promos online, rydely.com being one of the many places to get them, to help you with your travel expenses.
Keep You Gadgets Powered
Now, having the right apps would be pretty useless if you don’t have a smartphone to access them with. If you’re out travelling away from your hotel, the last thing you’d want to happen to you is to run out of power and won’t be able to charge for hours at a time. This is why it’s always a good idea to keep a power bank with you. If you can, invest on a larger power bank that can charge your phone multiple times from empty, as opposed to smaller ones that can only charge your device once. Power banks with 6000 mAH batteries should suffice, but having larger capacity ones shouldn’t hurt. Getting power banks that can charge multiple devices in one go are also favorable.
Keep an Empty Water Bottle Handy
While there are restrictions to bringing liquids with you on certain flights, no such restrictions are in place for empty bottles. If you’re not keen on buying overpriced bottled water on your trips, you can bring an empty water bottle with you, and simply fill it up from a water fountain, or ask certain bars if you can have it refilled. Not only will this keep you hydrated as you move about, you can also save a lot on water.
Keep Moisturized
Long flights can put a strain on your body, particularly on your skin, as the atmosphere inside planes tend to be dry. Having chaffed skin certainly wouldn’t help you when you get to your destination, especially if you have to deal with jetlag as well. To help your skin from drying out, make sure to bring moisturizer with you. Look for moisturizer bottles that can fit under the 100mL hand luggage allowance to avoid any mishaps.
While these tips don’t seem much on their own, they do add up. Anticipating what can go wrong as you travel means you’ll know what to do to help prevent them. It wouldn’t do well to only focus on the bad things that can happen, however. Never forget the main reason why you’re out travelling in the first place. Always enjoy yourself, and with the tips we’ve given you, enjoying your trip is that much easier to do.
