Travel Tips

Money Tips

• Buy some local currency before your trip. You may need to order this ahead of time from your bank. 
• Don't keep your wallet in your back pocket.
• Wear a cross-body bag with a zipper closure.  A shoulderbag should be kept tucked under your arm. Try not to stand at the edge of a curb where a passing motorcyclist could grab your bag.
• Travel money pouches with cloth-covered wire straps, worn inside your clothes, hold an extra credit card and emergency cash.
• Take more than 1 type of credit card. Know the PIN numbers.
• Call your credit card companies before you go and give them your itinerary, so that they will expect charges from locations you don't usually frequent to avoid being denied a purchase. 

Cell Phones

• Check that you'll have cell phone service where you're travelling.
• Buy an international service plan from your provider before you go. 
• If your children have cell phones, make sure both you and they are aware of how much a call, sendng a text, or sending photos might cost. If necessary, make it clear that the phone is only for emergency texts or calls, like if they get lost. 
• In many places, it's considered rude not to give people your full attention. I was having lunch at the Louvre with my travel companion who was (as usual) scanning his phone, when the older woman at the next table scolded me in French, "Why are you with him?"

Planning, Guidebooks and Optional Excursions

• Even if you are travelling with a tour group, read up about the places you'll visit ahead of time. Take advantage of free time to visit places "off the tour" and make your own itinerary. 
• Should you book optional excursions?  Are you travelling alone or with just one other person?  Is the excursion the best way to see the most in a short period of time?  Can you afford these trips?  Will finding your own way be more of a stressful situation or an adventure?
•  If you're travelling with three or more people, save money by planning side trips yourself using public transit, local cab services, or renting transportation. We used an online service to book a car and driver to meet our cruise ship at several locations and take us on our own tour. This personalized alternative was actually less expensive five people than paying individually for the optional excursions offered through the ship. Check references, get recommendations, book online from home, before you go. Our cousins didn't do this recently on their Hawaii cruise (they just assumed they'd be able to get off the ship and book a rental car) and they wasted a lot of time trying to find one.

Communicating in a Foreign Language

• Practise a few simple phrases in foreign languages, like "Hello," "Can you please help me?"  "I need...." or "I would like...."  "How much?"  "Thank you...."  One of the most helpful phrases to know, if you buy bottled water, is how to ask for flat or sparkling water.
• If you can't make yourself understood, do not SPEAK LOUDER; this is rude and unhelpful. 
• Be grateful that the educational systems in other countries emphasize foreign language skills. Many people in other countries are multilingual, but don't think that everyone in the world should speak your language. Get a language learning app and learn something new.
• Communicate non-verbally. Norm has travelled the world using his own "sign language." If he wants to buy something in a market, he smiles, points at it, and holds his hands up in query. They usually reply with a price. If he can't understand the answer, he mimics writing it down and then offers a pen and paper. (Actually, he asks me to find a pen and paper because he doesn't carry one.) Point to things you want on menus.  Carry maps with you so you can be shown how to get to your destination in case your phone guidance fails. 
• Ask an employee or someone in uniform. They are more likely to be able to speak a second language than the average person on the street. Travelling from downtown Hong Kong to Kowloon, it was great to find uniformed employees in the station, ready to give directions in English and explain how to buy tickets from the ticket machines.

Foreign Food, Service and Schedules

• We travel because our destination will be different from home.  Be happy to experience a different culture, new foods, another lifestyle. It's hard to understand people who are aggravated because the hotel doesn't serve bacon and eggs, or the duvet is full of feathers, or people are driving on the "wrong" side of the road.
• Slow down and enjoy a different pace of life. If you need quick service and can't linger over a meal, explain this before you are seated to be sure your needs can be met.
• Unless you are a member of your country's actual  royal family, do not expect preferential treatment just because you are visiting from another country. Even real princesses are expected to be gracious, exhibit good manners and wait patiently. 
• Do a little research and find out the local "timetable." Some towns shut down entirely for siesta in the afternoons. This can be disappointing if you've set aside the afternoon to wander the shops. If you are accustomed to dinner at five, realize that many European restaurants don't start serving till 7, so don't skip lunch. We once left our ship at an Italian coastal town and paid for a day trip to Florence. When we got there, we were disappointed to find out that all the palaces and museums were closed on Mondays. Another time, we got on the wrong train in Japan. We'd been told the exact time of our train's arrival at the station, but we got on one that arrived a few minutes earlier.  We didn't realize that trains in Japan run precisely on schedule.    
• Don't be surprised by the price of bottled water in hotels. Mini bars are expensive in North American hotel rooms, too. Go to a local grocery and buy a less expensive bottle of water, the largest size, a smaller bottle to carry on a walk, and some fruit or small snacks. When ordering water, ask for an unopened bottle--you want to crack the seal yourself to make sure you're getting pure water and not the local tap water in an opened bottle.

Photography

• Unless you're a really keen photographer and that's the purpose of the trip, leave the big camera with all the lenses at home and take a small, waterproof digital camera, or just use your cell phone camera.
• You will take more photos than you think, so if you take a camera, take extra memory cards.
• Make sure you don't leave your charger plugged in the hotel room. It can be hard to find a substitute.
• In big cities, it's easy to find extra memory cards in certain formats, but you usually can't find compact flash (CF cards) anywhere but in camera and electronics specialty shops.

Packing

• Pack light.  Everyone says this, but you don't need as much stuff as you think and you can buy most thing that you might need anywhere.
• Check the condition of your luggage a week before you go. I once discovered that my suitcase zipper had split and had to run out and buy a new case the night before I left.
• If you're buying new luggage, get a case that's lightweight, with 360 degree swivel wheels, that you can pull easily. You will appreciate this when you are running across the huge Frankfurt airport with 15 minutes to catch your connecting flight. I like my suitcase to be a bright color so I can find it easily in the airport baggage claim area. Hard shell cases are recommended by baggage handlers. 
• Last time I got off a plane, there were 3 red suitcases on the carousel identical to mine. For quick identification, tie a tassel to the handle.
• Make sure all your luggage, including carry-ons, have luggage tags. Inside, tuck your business card, or write your home address and phone number inside the case in permanent marker.
• Confirm that the size of your carry-on will actually fit underneath the seat or in the overhead bins of the airplanes in which you'll be flying. If it doesn't, be prepared to check your bag.
• Weigh your luggage before you go--and leave some space and weight for things you might buy.
• Check the luggage quantity and weight restrictions on every airline on which  you'll be travelling. At the end of an extended family trip, we once found it less expensive to buy an extra airline ticket than pay the overweight fee for a suitcase on a budget flight from England to Scotland.
• Wear slip-on shoes for air flights--you may have to remove them at airport security.
• Do your shoes have a steel shaft? I didn't realize that my leather slip-ons did, until they set off the alarm at Frankfurt Security and put me in a special line-up for extra scrutiny, that made me late and dashing across the airport to make my flight....
• Check the packing security regulations for the places you will travel; get a list from your airline online.
• In case your luggage is lost, in your carry-on, pack a change of underwear and a t-shirt, as well as medications, your camera, phone, lap-top and chargers. 
• Because you can't get 2 large suitcases in a European taxi's trunk, if you are travelling as a couple, and can't get by with 2 carry-on size bags, take 1 large suitcase and 1 smaller case. Pack suits, shirts, pants, dresses and shoes in the large case. Take compact clothes like t-shirts, bathing suits, socks and undergarments in the smaller bag.
• Use a "pack list" when you're packing at home, so you don't forget any essentials. Check off items as you pack them. If your luggage is lost, you'll have a record of items for an insurance claim.
• Pack an important outfit inside a dry-cleaning or garmet bag. I arrived in L.A. and opened my bag in the hotel to find a "Hand-Checked by U.S. Customs" note. When I took out my pale satin jacket to dress for an event that night, it had black cart marks on the sleeve--obviously they'd dropped and run over it. Not a good look.

Do not get off a plane without your glasses on your face.

I took mine off to sleep, they slipped behind my airline seat and I couldn't retrieve them. I meant to ask the flight attendant for help when we landed in Poland, forgot, exited the plane, immediately remembered, but was not allowed back on. I was sent to make a report to the airport Lost-and-Found. I wonder if my then-brand-new, expensive glasses are still on that plane, flying the world, years later.

Taxis and Transport

• Write down the name and address of your hotel to hand to your taxi driver. He may not understand your pronunciation of the hotel, or there may be more than one hotel with similar names. (Of course you can now show him on  your phone, but in case you don't have service or your battery dies...) We once split up our children and luggage to taxi in small cars to our hotel in Spain and ended up at two different hotels, although my  husband had verbally given both drivers the same information. I ended up walking up a long hill to the correct hotel, lugging suitcases with two grumpy, tired kids who didn't want to carry their own backpacks.
• Ask how much it will cost to get to your destination before you get in the cab. You might also consult a map on your phone during the ride. You will be less likely to be "taken for a ride" on a "short-cut" to "save time." Using an app like Uber makes this less likely now.
• Snap a photo or note the cab company name and the cab number, in case you forget something when you exit a taxi. Sleep-deprived, I once left my wallet on the seat of a cab in Nassau. Luckily, the driver had given us his phone number so we could call him in a few hours to take us to the airport. We phoned him and he returned immediately with my wallet, with my money and I.D. intact. I gave him a tip and hope that honest man is blessed with good fortune himself.
• If you are travelling with a family or a group, realize that you may have to split up for car transport to hotels and airports. In this case, it might be less expensive to arrange bus transportation through the hotel. If you do split up, make sure everyone has the correct destination address or airport terminal number.

Computers and Internet Service

• Expect to pay a lot for internet service at hotels and in cruise ships. Find out where internet cafes are before you go, and save the addresses. 
• Find out if your hotel has a business centre where the internet is free. Ours did in Amsterdam, but the business center was so busy during the day I went to bed early after dinner, exhausted from walking, and got up at 1 AM to use the business centre for an hour when it wasn't crowded. 
• When you can't Google, get the concierge at the hotel to find out the answers to your questions.

Hotel Services

• At a luxury hotel in Paris, the concierge was not at all condescending when we asked how to get around on the Metro, the Paris subway system. It was convenient to know that after buying your Metro ticket, you must insert it in the turnstile when you enter--and hold onto it to insert in the turnstile when you exit. If you lose your ticket, you pay again. When we mentioned we were taking the Metro to Versailles, we were pleased to learn that the concierge had tickets for hotel guests to purchase. Buying them at the hotel meant we avoided a huge line-up at the palace. Find out what your hotel concierge can do for you.
• Travel expert Alex Tilley, purveyor of fine travel wear, cautions against giving out unnecessary information about your destinations, valuables or itinerary to desk clerks, door men or taxi drivers, for your own safety, and to protect against theft.
• Breakfast plans at mid-price hotels are usually a good deal but sometimes you have to buy them when you book your room, so have a look. At a Parisian luxury boutique hotel, the couple at the next table were loudly upset when billed 32 euros (the price of a continental breakfast for two) when they'd only had two coffees and one croissant from the basket on the table. When the bill was not adjusted, they sat down and finished the entire basket of pastries. We were happy that we had a breakfast plan included with the price of our room, and could order just what we felt like.
• In restaurants, lunch menus are usually less expensive than dinner. In some cities downtown, more restaurants may be open for lunch than later in the evening on certain days.
• Breakfast buffets are priced according to what you are expected to eat at one sitting. Filling a take-out bag without asking permission is a form of theft. We were embarrassed when a couple we'd recently met sat with us at breakfast, finished a full meal from the buffet, then went back to get more and started "making sandwiches" with food from the buffet. They'd brought a Tupperware container to stuff for their lunch. Servers will usually graciously pack up uneaten food from your plate for you if you ask, but you should ask

Souvenirs 

• I felt sorry for the woman on a Rhine river cruise who was frantically trying to find souvenirs to take back to everyone in her office. She was upset that our boat sometimes stopped in towns when the stores were not open. If you want to shop, make sure you do so when you have an opportunity and if you're on a tour, ask the tour director when that will be.
• It's easier if you don't shop for souvenirs. Do your acquaintances really want a BBQ apron featuring a Viking, or a seashell necklace from someplace they've never been? 
• If, however, someone has paid for your trip or gifted you with spending money, or is watering your plants or picking up your mail or caring for your cats, remember their helpfulness with a postcard or e-mail during your trip, and a small gift when you return--even if they tell you that you don't have to bother. You can buy the gift when you get home.
• If you want a souvenir, think small. I once lugged a striped wool blanket, a big yellow bird pinata, and a large glass bottle of vanilla extract home from Mexico. That was fun, but if I buy anything for myself now, it's earrings, or a patch for my overnight travel bag. (Though if I went to Mexico again, I'd be tempted to buy vanilla.... If you plan to, remember to wrap any bottle in your clothes or a sheet of bubble wrap, pack it in the middle of your suitcase, maybe reinforce the bottle top with some tape.)

Safety

• If anyone makes you feel uneasy, trust your instincts. End the conversation, move away, go somewhere more secure, just like you would at home.
• Do your research before you go. Don't stay anywhere you won't feel safe.
• Don't be too chatty with strangers. If you want to make friendly conversation, ask questions instead of giving out information. The driver who takes you from home to the airport doesn't need to know how long you'll be away or if anyone's left alone at home. The driver from the airport to the hotel shouldn't be told that you're on a trip alone. The driver from your hotel to the restaurant doesn't need to know all your plans for the night and when you'll be back.
• Thieves often work in groups. Be extra alert if someone creates a distracting commotion.
• You're vulnerable when alone, and also in crowded places where pickpockets operate easily.
• Keep your credit card or wallet in a hidden pocket.
• Keeping a hand on a wallet in your back pocket alerts a pickpocket to its location.
• A back pocket is the worst place for a wallet or passport. My travel companion says he's never had his wallet stolen from his back pocket, his preferred place for it. Maybe because I walk behind him guarding it when it's visible? It's annoying to have to watch his bum instead of looking in the windows of the shops along the Champs Elyssee.
• Dress like the average local person wherever you will be. Unless you travel with personal security, consider leaving pricey watches, expensive jewelry and designer bags at home.
• Don't keep keys in your bag or purse--carry them separately.
• Look like you know where you're going and what you're doing, even if you don't.
• Don't leave your purse, handbag or backpack unattended and don't trust anyone to "watch them" for you.
• If someone offers to "take a picture of you both" with your expensive camera or cellphone, say no thanks.
• Shrink-wrap services for luggage at some airports might help prevent tampering and theft.