Travel Tips 101

The in's and out about travelling 

With every journey you learn certain new things that will make your travel so much easier if you knew this from the start. And this was exactly the case with me in the last few weeks. Although I have done a lot of traveling myself to a few places around the world I can honestly say that this past few days was quite a experience in itself. I never really organized the previous trips but I always knew what was going on behind the sense but obviously that didn't really help me.

Here is my tips:

1. I prefer a hard body suitcase above a material suitcase because it just seems a little stronger and I think it's also easier to force close.

2. Always have a big enough bag especially if you are planning on going for a year.

3. When you pack your bags roll your clothes up into little sausages and tightly as possible and pack them together as tightly as possible. Try to pack the bottom and top layer in the same direction.

4. Take your big bulky jackets in your hand as it won't be weighed and you save up some space in your suitcase.

5. Take an extra hand luggage bag with so that you can spread the weight of your luggage evenly and attempt to avoid overweight penalties.

6. Always pack an extra set of clothes into your hand luggage especially 2 extra panties/jockeys. Bags do get lost on long flights and you might end up waiting as long as a week for your luggage to catch up with you. So it's always night to have a pair of clothes on while you are washing the other set of clothes.

7. Pack your bags a day or 2 before the time to avoid having to live out of your bag for a week and giving yourself the time to still have a choice what to wear.

8. Make sure you don't exceed the liquid limit in you hand luggage and also pack all your liquid bottles into ziplock bags to avoid your clothes from getting washed and stained in the process of your flight. Air pressure is a real thing.

9. If you have a few stop over's in different countries before you reach your end destination send you luggage directly through to your end destination. This will save you some time and effort on the airport because you won't have to wait for your baggage at collections and then book it in again. This will give you some time for the duty free shops.

10. If you have a backpack take it with as it will make your daily traveling overseas so much easier.

11. Always have your documents with you or at least carry copies of the most important documents (passport) in your backpack while touring as you might just encounter a obstacle where you'll need it. Don't carry the originals for incase the backpack get stolen but copies in several different places will do you wonders when you need it most.

12. When it comes to having a contract in a foreign country try and receive the contract before applying for your visa. This might just save you a lot of time.

13. Don't book your flight ticket before you received your passport back from the embassy. This will save you money.

14. Call the embassy everyday just to make sure there is progression when it comes to issuing your visa. This doesn't count for the American and Dutch embassy in South Africa. I'm not sure about the leniency of the other embassies.

15. If you want to go travel a good idea for spending money will be to get a traveler's cheque (ABSA) because you can get dollars/Euro on it and then safe some banking fees whilst overseas. And you don't have to work in Rand.

16. For money exchange you need your passport, ID and flight confirmation to get the money.

17. When you exchange rand for dollars ask the bank to get small notes (5$ and 10$) and not only big notes (50$ or 100$) because when you buy something in a foreign country at a small coffee shop they don't have change for the big notes and thus you won't be able to buy it or if they do have change you will sit with their currency which is not necessarily the same currency as your end destination. Saving you money.

18. When you are actually on the plane high up in the air and your ears are getting sore because of the irregularities of cabin pressure ask the flight attendant for 2 plastic cups and put it over your ears. This will calibrate the cabin pressure and your ear channel pressure. This works wonders for screaming babies too. Oh this might also help you sleep in the plane if you know how to make a screaming baby quiet.

19. Walk around in the plane every 3 hours or so just to keep the blood flowing. Your legs and feet tend to swell a little because of water retention and the altitude.

20. On that note wear loose clothes on a plane. It's much more comfortable and it allows your legs and feet to swell a little and not cause you discomfort. Wearing a pair of jeans is a no go!! Unless its a short flight.

21. If it's a really long flight try and take a sleeping pill just to help you feel rested by the time you reach the other side.

22. Be sure to know in what time zone the airport falls in order to avoid missing your next flight after a lay over. This happened to my family and it delayed our trip by 4 hours which is not nice considering your journey becoming 24 hours long.

23. If you choose your plane seat it's better to take a aisle seat to avoid discomfort when you want to leave your seat and walk around or go to the bathroom.

24. If you travel alone for a very long time make a friend as quickly as possible.

This is all I can think of now.... If I get so learn some new tricks I'll post them here.