Some things I have learned about travel.
Some things I have learned about travel.
If you add up my travel in miles it’s over 4 times round the Earth, if you add it up in time it’s over a year full time, if you add it up in countries it’s 22, many several times to different parts. I’ve always loved going new places and learning from it, I love everything about it: packing, arriving, learning how things work, trying new things, getting my preconceived ideas, I didn’t even realise I had, blown apart!
I’ve couch-surfed, stayed in plush hotels, stayed in literal castles, vans, beach huts, tents, road trips, gone by train, flown, ferry boat and walked.
So the tips are:
Even in hot places never underestimate how much colder it will be at sea or on the coast. Packable macs and squash-able down jackets are your friends.
Get lots of small water bottles and make everyone carry their own even if you carry all the food and towels and clothes.
Always a backpack not a shoulder bag, you will regret the shoulder bag 10 minutes from the house, same goes for high heels.
Check your passport, money, tickets and phone several times and then don’t worry about what else you may have forgotten, anything else can be bought, borrowed or done without.
It’s not like the old days when you had to sweat over a map and prey you had worked out the right bus, Google maps and Google translate are your best assets, have a look and learn to use them. So many features, drop a pin in your location when you get to where you are staying so you don’t need to worry about finding your way back any more.
Get those sun proof swimming tops for kids, any less fighting over reapplying sunblock is good.
Have a little bag on your front for the tickets and things you need easy to reach. Then a bigger bag on your back or with wheels. Get the ones with 4 wheels that go in any direction not 2 that can only be dragged.
Look for nearby towns with train connections rather than driving into cities.
If you have a car or van food shop before you move to the next place, and then when you arrive you can cook. This way you can find a supermarket at your leisure rather than arrive with an immediate problem to deal with.
You can stuff your travel pillow with clothes to extend your baggage allowance as travel pillows are not part of your allowance on flights on some airlines - check.
I completely agree with however said “Half the clothes, double the money.”
If you don’t wear it at home because you are not too sure about it, don’t take it, you won’t wear it on your trip either.
Pack so everything goes with everything else, you do this by choosing a trip colour pallet, for example I’m taking all grey, pink, black and silver this trip. Then you can layer if it’s colder than you expected and use the same jacket or shoes with multiple outfits. You get the idea.
Make local friends whenever possible, they will show you a whole other side to a place.
Help others, if you just figured out the trains, tell the person standing behind you - you want to collect good “rescue karma.”
Walk 10 minutes in land or away from the cathedral to pay €21 for lunch for 4 not €61.
Play “airport security” as a game at home with kids, so when their teddies and bags get taken off them and shoved in a machine they react with delight at finding the real life version of the game instead of crying! This worked so well with both my children they still get excited when they see the airport security coming!
On long flights or drives with kids, pack lots of little new things like books and toys but only hand them to the kids one at a time when they have got bored of the previous one. If you can wrap them with lots of hard to get off tape this lasts even longer. If you are driving solo and have no one else to hand them to the baby have them in a box not a bag as it’s easier to reach in without looking away from the road.
Remember that modern travelling is essentially waiting, waiting for a flight, waiting on a flight. Don’t get upset by that. Just own it. You will get there.
If a kid is complaining feed them protein. If they are still complaining once fed it’s legitimate so then you can try and fix the problem.
Don’t forget your feet with the sunblock.
A hat is worth a thousand sunglasses. Especially one with a brim at the front that can keep the rain off your face and fabric or a brim at the back that can keep you from burning the back of your neck which is most likely to give you sunstroke. One like Indiana Jones is ideal because it will protect you from rain or sun, including the back of your neck.
Even in flights between hot places remember sitting still in high altitude on the plane will be cold and they never give you a decent blanket.
Don’t complain about the cost of food at the airport, these businesses pay a lot to be there, pay it or bring your own.
Try to go slightly out of season to places, put up with slightly unpredictable weather but get it to yourself, get it cheaper and meet more locals.
I agree, with Billy Connolly when he said, “There is no such thing as bad weather only inappropriate clothing.”
If it’s got wet, it’s not insulating you anymore, take it off unless it’s wool, wool still insulates when it’s wet, it’s also fireproof.
I agree with everything said about towels in the hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, (quote included at end) only adding get a travel towel because you can have all that, but it only takes up as much room as a teacup.
Remember when you breakdown, get stranded, get lost or miss your boat, you will not regret this experience in 10 years time, you will cherish the lessons you learned, so try not to feel too stressed.
If you bring the kids, leave the sketchbook (this may be a bit specific to artists.)
If you can’t get where your going remember you may be able to get close, for example you can’t fly to Florence because (insert problem here) you can fly to Pisa and get the train the Florence.
Be willing to waste the ticket, if everyone is exhausted and crying feed them all, if still the case, just go home even if you paid for a day out.
A great big cotton scarf that will roll up small is a very good idea. You can wrap it round you for warmth make it into a skirt for children who got all their clothes wet, lie on it like a beach towel to get less sandy, dry yourself with it, wrap it round your crazy hair to keep it out your face, or turn it into a sarong to hide your wobbly bits on the beach, cover not allowed flesh in churches, shelter from the sun under it, sit on it on cold stone surfaces, knot it into a bad to collect shells, and tie it to your backpack to keep it out of the way.
Take leggings and a cardigan to make summer dresses into more cool day outfits.
To cold places, take leg warmers because you can cover the space between your boots and your big coat without having tons of really heavy weight trousers to carry.
Get a waterproof phone cover which goes around your neck. You can squeeze your cash and debit cards in there too and the keys to wherever you’re staying. Then you can swim in the sea, leaving nothing of value on the beach. Also wear around your neck for taking photos off the sides of boats. Get them for your teenagers too, so you don’t end up carrying their phone in the sea.
No matter how tired you are, force yourself to shower or bath after a long haul flight, a long haul flight is more radiation than an x-ray, and when you wash that radiation off with water, you will feel much better.
It’s your life, you can go to Egypt and skip the pyramids if you prefer going up the Nile on a banana tasting trip!
Equally collect experiences you cherish not a list of places you went. I’ve been to France and Germany about five times each and America about the same, it doesn’t give me any more bragging rights, but it gave me a better life.
The moment is more important than the photo, if you can’t convince the kids to pose for a photo willingly, or catch them not looking, just leave them alone and rely on your memory.
If you don’t travel then read, it’s the other way to experience different views of the world than your own sheltered corner of it.
Get a kindle, then you can carry a 1000 books and a dozen dictionaries, and it weighs less than a cup of coffee. Then you can travel and read!
Love Kirsteen. Xxxx
Here is the quote from the hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy in case you haven’t read it:
A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
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