15 Useful Travel Tips

To broaden your horizons while traveling, get off of the beaten track. Too often, travel books concentrate on the usual places, that all tourists know about and visit. When you limit yourself to these sites, you will have a limited travel experience. For something different and exciting, why not weir off this road and get a glimpse of how the locals live?

You want to make your trip be as enjoyable as possible while you are away, but some preparation in the lead up can save you a lot of time, money and effort shoudl somethign go wrong.

1. Let your family or friends know your travel itinerary – espacially if you travel alone. That way if anything happens they know where to start looking for you.
2. In case you have doctor prescribed drugs, make sure that you plan take them in consideration when you plan for your getaways and make sure that you have your prescription with you. Also find out the rules of the place you are going to. There are some prescribed drugs tht are not allowed in certain countries.
3. Make sure that you get travel insurance for your trip, especially if you are about to head off trekking the Andes. Hospitalisation overseas can be costly, so get some cover to minimise it in case it should happen to you.
4. Read the small print on all traveling transactions you make – whether it is for your ticket or accommodation booking. You will find sometimes that what is advertised and what is in the small print, doesnt always match. As an example, sometimes airlines attempt to tell you they can not alter your flight, however their agreement frequently states that they can. Companies try and conceal this data from you mainly because they want much more of your money. Become a ready buyer making sure that corporations will not be able to benefit from you.
5. Scan your passport and credit cards and e-mail a duplicate to yourself. It hardly ever happens, but in case you lose your passport this can save you a lot of time and headache.
6. If you are flying wear footwear demanding minimal effort to slip on and off.
7. Obtain a waterproof pouch for items like your passport, phone and paper money. The amount of passpoert I ahve seen going through washing machines on overseas trips certainly tells me it is warranted to get one!
8. Let’s not forget a handy power adaptor for international powerpoints! Don’t ask me why but there are plenty of different versions of it around the world. A simple investment of around $20 can save you some hassle with all those electrical gadtets you may want to charge!
9. You may laugh at this one, but I always take wet wipes with me. They make a great refresher towel, you can use them to wipe away germs from countless surfaces and they even help remove some stains from clothing.
10. Call your Credit Card company before you leave and let them know where you are off to. Nothing worse than having your credit card blocked while you are overseas as they suspect illegal activity .
11. Get the embassy’s contact saved somewhere handy for each country you visit in case you need it. Better yet, if your country has a travel line register your travel dates and places with them.
12. Make sure you have some cash on you that you can easily get converted in banks. Do not trust that guy in the back alley no matter how great his rate sounds!
13.  Buy a city guide, they provide awesome information about places, where to eat, what to visit and all other attractions
14. Make sure you have international roaming and data plan on your phone. Google maps can be a god send! Make sure you get it turned off when you return.
15. Take lots of photos, these will be your memories when you return.

Most of all, get out there and have some fun! If you want to make it happen you will find the way, all you have to start with is to pick your next destination.