8 Best Travel Tips For A Smoother Trip

No matter where you’re headed, or where you relish to peregrinate, we’re all in desideratum of a tip or two to ensure we book the right destinations, pack appropriately and save a little money where we can.

I’ve broken the travel tips into 8 categories to make it more facile for you to digest depending on what phase of the travel planning you’re currently in.

Table of Contents:

Picking a Country

Planning a Country

Flights

Accommodation

Transportation

Food and Sightseeing

Travel Packing and Safety

Solo Adventure

8 Best Travel Tips For A Smoother Trip

Without further ado, here are the best 8 travel tips that might save your life:

Travel Tip 1 - Picking a Country

1. Utilize the “Everywhere” Function on Flight Search Engines to Find the Cheapest Country to Fly To

I enjoy Skyscanner because of its incredible "Everywhere" feature, which allows you to search literally everywhere in the globe for flights from your town of origin.

2. Travel Where Your Currency is Strong

Choose a country based on where your local currency will go furthest during the time you optate to travel. Save countries with strong currencies for another day.

3. Skip Countries with costly visas

If you’re on a budget and have flexibility on where to peregrinate, skirt those areas with pricier visa and save them for another day

4. Social media power

Make sure to follow your preferred travel industry organizations via web-based networking media and monitor them frequently to be the first to get to know about the sales, special promotions or giveaways that might give you a better deal.

Travel Tip 2 - Planning a Country

1. Travel during off-season

It's extravagant to travel during the summer or spring break. If you want the lowest prices on your trip, then choose to travel during low or shoulder season (timeframe between low and high season), when crowds start to increase but destinations are not yet at maximum capacity.

2. Use a Trip Specialists/Travel Agent

That's right, trip specialists are still a thing. Truth be told, with such a great amount of information out there, they're more useful than ever. Did you realize that many trip specialists just work on commissions? That implies that you can get their help in planning and booking service at no additional expense to you.

Best of all, not exclusively do you not pay extra, you often save precious bucks on things like flights and accommodations since trip specialists have access to insider deals that the normal buyer can't get.

3. Ask your friend "Google"

Long gone are the times when purchasing up a guidebook before an outing is a necessity. There are plenty of free web journals out there (ah, you’re reading one right now) that provide unbelievable recommendation on destinations round the world. Thus, skip the book store and persist with obtaining your tips and travel recommendation through blogs for free of charge.

4. Be Flexible & Don’t Over Plan

I wince when readers ask how long they ought to spend in a specific city or country. In all, actually I have no clue what you'll enjoy or who you'll meet. I thought I'd rocket through New Zealand in up to 2 months, but ended up living there for more than 1 year since I enjoyed it to such an extent.

My recommendation is to pick a city in a country, 1 or 2 must-do sightseeing, and an ending point (or not). At that point simply let the universe decide the rest. Be adaptable and open to change your arrangements, in case you find out something awesome!

5. Make a List of Priorities Before You Depart

If you wish to stay to a specific budget, then it’s vital to make a list of priorities for your trip BEFORE you depart. Whether it's a strong desire to eat at expensive restaurants or booking a private tour experiences, Write it down! This will help you to distinguish where you have to remain economical during your vacation, while helping you watch out for the cost.

6. Research Prices for Everything Beforehand to Avoid Getting Scammed

How frequently do you hear stories about people showing up unprepared in their destination and being scammed right off the bat by a cab driver?? I swear that happens each moment, 24 hours every day. Keep in mind, information is a key. Communicate with companions who have been before you or do your online research to see how much things like taxicabs from the airport should cost so you don't get overpaid.

Travel Tip 3 - Flights

1. Use Onelifetravelworld.com or Skyscanner to find low-cost flights

I book all of my flights through Onelifetravelworld.com , because it always finds the cheapest offers. The key here is to keep things flexible: I enjoy One Life Travel World because it searches hundreds of travel sites and airlines at once to find the cheapest one and look at prices over a whole year.

2. Use Free Stopovers

If you are planning to travel to a location requiring a layover to a desirable location, call the airline to ask if you can get a free stopover. I used this technique to check out Dubai on my way to New Zealand last year and I got to see the UAE without adding any extra fees to my ticket cost with Emirates free stopover program. However, not every airline provides this, but when you discover one that does it feels like you hit the jackpot!

3. Check Baggage Allowances

Nowdays, baggage fees are popping up everywhere these days. In particular, no free baggage is available on budget airlines like Ryan Air, Easy Jet, Air Asia, Norwegian Airlines and IndiGo. Thus, always read your airline's luggage allowances before your flight and do not forget to measure that suitcase to ensure that you are up to regulation!

4. Pay for Additional add-ons BEFORE the Airport

If you really need to check a bag, then make sure you add it to your booking online BEFORE you arrive at the airport. Airlines (particularly budget airlines) often charge a greater price to check a bag, so save yourself the unnecessary charges and take a few additional minutes to do it at home.

5. Make Bookings in a Ghost Mode

I've encountered this personally! If you're booking flights or accommodation, open an incognito browser window (Ctrl+Shift+N) when it's time to make your reservation. I've seen flight prices gradually rise as I kept checking them, only to watch them fall when I used an incognito window.

Travel Tip 4 - Accommodation

1. Use Onelifetravelworld.com or Booking.com Price Matching Feature

I love to book hotels with either Onelifetravelworld.com or Booking.com search engine for many purposes (their filtering system is BOMB). They also make sure that their price matching promise is the best rate for you as it searches hundreds of hotels and travel agencies at once to find the cheapest accommodation.

2. Get Holistic About Your Hotel Bookings

When it comes to hotels, it’s facile to get caught up in price comparisons and just book the most frugal thing you can find. But there’s so much more to cerebrate about that can affect your budget.

For starters, make sure to take a look at a map and get a sense of where you’ll be spending most of your time while not at your accommodation. Will you be in walking distance to attractions? Will you need to take a cab? Transportation can integrate up and culminate up offsetting your savings on the hotel you booked, so ascertain to factor this into your choice.

Other things to consider:

Is breakfast included?

Complimentary airport transfers?

Do they offer free wifi?

Are drinks all-inclusive?

Is there a kitchen where you can cook?

All of these are consequential factors in deciding what the genuine cost will be to you for booking that particular hotel.

3. Avoid Expensive Hotels & Resorts

Stay in the hostels or Air BnB's. Not only you get free breakfast at most places, but also you're going to meet many new people of different nationalities and that connection you make with different people in unknown places is a gift that will live with you forever.

Travel Tip 5 - Transportation

1. Compare Transportation Options with Rome2Rio

Rome2Rio is an amazing website that compares all the different ways to get from point A to B around the world. You indite in your commencement point and destination and it will do all the rest of the work for you, probing for planes, ferries, buses and more. This helps give you a complete picture of your options so that you can make the most budget-cordial transport decision.

2. Stroll as much as you can

If you're able to, walk! Hey, you may even shed a couple of pounds on the trip. You really don’t need to take public transportation everywhere. Every dollar saved adds up. Also, it offers a choice to taste and dive into the enjoyment of the whole experience of moving from one point to another, unlike other common forms of travel that offer only pleasure coming from one point and going to another.

3. Use HERE Maps for offline navigation

Do you not have data? Through HERE Maps, you can download whole country maps and get walking instructions wherever you need to go. I have found it works better than caching Google Maps.

4. Ask Local People About the Apps They Use

For instance, in location such as Bali, local people use applications such as GoJek and Bluebird to get vehicle or bike taxis that are excessively reasonable. You may not realize that these services exist in your destination unless you've done in-depth research beforehand. Simply ask a couple of local people what they use and you'll get hooked up with the best resources in your region.

Travel Tip 6 - Food and Sightseeing

1. Eat the local food

If you are peregrinating, taste a little bit of everything, especially if you don't understand what it is. Ask local people for recommendations. Eat street food from front-end sellers with astronomically immense lines. Also eating street food is a great way to save cash while peregrinating. My favourite icecream spot in Auckland, NZ is Giapo

2. Visit the local Supermarket

Local markets are my favourite way to get acquainted with a place better. I dote checking out the different foods, visually perceiving how the locals shop, and discovering what’s popular in a particular country. Night markets in Asia are especially fun!

3. Evade Restaurants Near Major Tourist Attractions

Did you ken that it’s almost proven theory that restaurants near major tourist attractions always charge more (and also they customarily have worse victuals, too)? They ken visitors don’t want to go far from where the action is happening to get their next repast, so they jack up the prices and take full advantage. Yes there are exceptions, but if you want to save on your daily dining bill try venturing out away from immensely colossal tourist sites

4. Get up early to evade crowds

Rise afore sunrise to have the best attractions all to yourself while evading large tourist crowds. Also, it's a magical time for photos due to soft diffused light, and it’s conventionally more facile to interact with locals getting ready for their day. Want those astonishing Instagram shots? You need to get out there afore everyone else shows up.

5. Check Activities Deal Sites

Sites like Groupon and bookme.com are great for finding deals on tours in your destination and can spark some inspiration when it comes to deciphering what activities you optate to be doing during your vacation.

Travel Tip 7 - Travel Packing and Safety

1. Keep everything important in your Backpack

For me, that is:

Passport

Laptop

Travel Gears

World Convertor plugs (Tip: Don’t forget to take converter plugs or you’ll have to go probing as soon as you reach a new place)

Charger and Portable battery

Sunscreen (not more than 100ml otherwise you have to throw out at airport security check in)

Debit card and some spare cash

Sunglasses

Hand sanitizer Cap - NZ Muscle

Chewing gum (Tip: It may prevent your ears from getting blocked on a plane)

Headphone (Tip: Make sure you download all of your favourite songs before you leave for road trips, long journeys, and flights. I prefer to use Spotify)

Travel Pillow

2. Travel Insurance is very important

I ken what you’re cerebrating: Isn’t travel insurance just an extra cost I don’t need? Earnestly. If you do only one thing afore you depart, make it getting travel insurance. I’ve heard far too many horror stories of peregrinators injuring themselves in remote places and ending up in hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of debt.

No one wants to come down with an illness abroad only to have to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to be airlifted back to their abode country. On the safe side and get travel insurance — trust me, it’s so worth the placidity of mind knowing your next trip will never put you into extreme debt if something goes erroneous. I'm personally use World Nomads. They were fantastic to deal with when making a claim.

3. Always leave afore time to airport

Allow yourself lots of extra time to deduce where you require to be so that you don’t miss your flight. I always arrive at the airport 3 hours afore my flight departure time (unless it’s a diminutive airport). Extra tip - preserve yourself a plethora of time by checking in online in lieu of waiting in line.

4. Wear sunscreen every day

When you peregrinate, you’re in the sun more than most people. Thanks to months of island-hopping and beach time, as well as entire days spent outside exploring. Wear sunscreen every single day, regardless of the weather and temperature, because you genuinely don’t want your peregrination of a lifetime to result in skin cancer or a body that’s blanketed in leathery wrinkles.

Need more tips on how to choose right sunscreen for your skin? Check out Dr. Nivedita Dadu's Blog

5. Eat healthy and Stay Fit

Peregrinate can throw your body out of whack. When you’re peregrinating from place to place it’s arduous to maintain a workout routine, and many of us slack off. Or we don’t slumber enough. Or we eat an exorbitant quantity of cupcakes. Remember to be nice to your body. Get enough slumber, stay hydrated, eat salubrious, use sunscreen, exercise often and carry medicine, in case you needed (like anti-septic cream, pain killers, blister plasters, paracetamol etc).

6. Give family and/or friends facsimiles of your itinerary

From a safety perspective, it’s good to have several people back home who ken where you’ll be. I forward any flight or accommodation substantiations to my family. It takes just a few minutes but genuinely ameliorates your safety.

7. Take an extra debit and credit card with you

Sometimes your bank will block your card, sometimes your card won’t work in an ATM, and sometimes you could even lose it or have it glommed. I always pack a second debit card plus a backup credit card, which you keep separate from your wallet. It’s being a little paranoid, sure, but you’ll be happy you did it if you transpire to misplace your card.

8. Scan your consequential documents and electronically mail them to yourself

Scan a replica of your passport, any visas, and any debit/credit cards you’re peregrinating with. Password forfend the documents, and email a replica of them to yourself and to a family member . If everything you own gets glommed, you can access them safely from your electronic mail account, take your facsimiles to your embassy as proof that you’re who you verbally express you are. Plus, you’ll be able to buy flights home and pay for accommodation with your debit cards to keep travelling/peregrinate home in an emergency.

9. Peregrinate with a toilet roll or wet wipes

Grab half a roll, squash it up, and keep it in a sandwich bag in your daypack. Long bus journeys in developing countries often stop at squat toilets where there’ll be no toilet paper. At that stage, you’ll be unbelievably grateful you have some of your own.

10. Mark your luggage so it stands out

You don’t want to fortuitously take someone else’s luggage or have someone run off with yours at the baggage reclaim. Stick some stickers on it, put some duct tap along one side, tie some ribbons to the handle — ascertain it stands out from other similar bags

11. Read up about local customs afore you go

You don’t want to offend anyone while you peregrinate, so ascertain you’re vigilant of any offensive gestures or deportment afore you arrive. As an example, in Thailand, women shouldn’t touch monks or hand them anything, you shouldn’t touch the local’s heads, verbalize anything lamentable about the royal family, utilize your right hand for passing people things and paying, or point your feet at someone. Do your research before you travel.

12. Don’t change your currency at the airport

That’s where you are going to get the worst exchange rates

13. Inscribe Down The Address Of Your Hotel

Sometimes, after a long flight playing games on your smartphone, your battery could culminate up dead. And if you didn’t indite down the address of where you’re staying, how will you tell/show the taxi driver? As ridiculous as it sounds, I’ve done this a few times and it’s inelegant. Falling asleep or forgetting to charge my phone. I’d additionally recommend inscribing down your hotel room number somewhere after you check in.

Travel Tip 8 - Solo Adventure

I think everyone should endeavor solo peregrinate at least once. It builds your knowledge, confidence, shows you what you are capable of, enhances your convivial skills, give you time and room to think, and helps you learn more about what you want and need in life. You perpetually meet lots of people. But remember to call your family and companions time to time. It’s an astronomically immense, resplendent, exhilarating, and fascinating world out there.

Orchestrating a peregrination right now? These are all the websites I dote for booking everything from flights, tours, accommodation and more:

Onelifetravelworld.com - for comparing flights and hotels at once to find the best deals

Booking.com - for best hotel deals

Airbnb - for awesome home rentals

Intrepid or STA Travel - for group travel

World Nomads - for travel insurance

Rentalcars.com - for easy car rentals

Feel free to share your own favorite travel tips in the comments at the end!

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