I love visiting new countries and going on holiday, and I’ve been to some amazing countries over the years. After visiting continents such as Europe, Africa, Asia and America I’ve managed to pick up a few tips so I thought I’d do a post and share what I’ve discovered with travelling. It doesn’t matter if you’re going away for a weekend or a month, these tips will help you to be as organised as possible, as safe as possible and enjoy your trips as much as possible too. If you are ever looking for top travel tips, I cannot recommend Pinterest enough as they have tips for everything.
When packing your suitcase and hand luggage, I’d highly recommend taking photographs of your important documents such as your passport, tickets, any visas or driving licence incase you are a victim of theft or if you were to lose them and are stranded in a foreign country. I’ve never lost my travel documents but I always make sure I carry a photocopy with me.
I’ve seen some sites recommend leaving a second photocopy and leaving it with a friend or relative should you need them if both your physical copy and photocopies are misplaced. Another recommendation when it comes to potential loss or theft, is for taking multiple currency options. I tend to take my debit card with me for emergencies, take currency from the UK as the rate tend to be better and then you could opt for travellers cheques which are a safe currency option available in US dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, Japanese yen or Pounds sterling.
Budgeting sounds like such an obvious tip but I know myself I’ve got carried away on the first half of my holiday only to be left with a smaller budget on the second half. Now whenever I travel I make sure I make a daily budget for each day I’m away, and then take an extra amount which I can then use for excursions or however I see fit. Travellers cheques are handy for this as you can reverse them when you get home should you have any left unspent.
The next of my top travel tips I’d have to recommend would be ensuring you have adequate insurance cover on every trip you take as you never know when you’ll need it. Travelling can be a little worrying with the natural disasters and incidents across the world but we have to live our lives and not let things stop us from living our best life. Although the chances of a disaster striking while you’re on holiday may be relatively low, it is difficult to ignore the ever-present risk of something unpredictable happening.
If you were worried about natural disasters when travelling you could consider Europe as it’s generally regarded as a safe zone from earthquakes, hurricanes and active volcanoes due it’s location on tectonic plates. Although we obviously aren’t guaranteed against disasters, the British appetite for holiday abroad seems set to increase with the percentage of people taking a foreign holiday this year increasing to 60%, which is the highest level since 2011 according to ABTA’s Holiday Trends Report.
The sectors connected to the travel industry, such as insurance, recognise that there is still a thirst for travel and are adapting their products to ensure that they offer a wide choice of covers to enable travellers to protect themselves against crisis’ and disasters.
The cover includes a dedicated telephone number offering immediate assistance should a disaster occur when travelling. The service is provided by S-RM who has a team of crisis response consultants made up of former military, law enforcement and intelligence agency personnel, strategically positioned around the world to provide assistance during a crisis. Regardless of the continent you visit, it’s imperative you have insurance in place to protect you, yourself and your luggage as you don’t want to end up needing help abroad without any cover in place.
The next of my top travel tips is to make an itinerary of what you’re wanting to do whilst your away and let your family know incase they need to get hold of you from back home, and need to know where you are.
It will also help you make the most of your trip and ensure you get to do what you want to do, but allow some flexibility to avoid disappointment if you can’t manage to tick off something from your itinerary. I’d also recommend putting your valuable items in your hand luggage as you don’t want to end up losing your suitcase and your valuables gone forever, such as your laptop and ensure you back up your technology just in case.
When packing I cannot recommend using packing cubes enough as they’re a real space saver within your luggage and some help to keep your clothing crease-free when travelling. You need to let your bank know you’re travelling before you leave your home country so they’re aware your debit or credit card might be used in a foreign country. Banks can put a block on your card if they think your cards are being authorised fraudulently via card cloning but if they know you’ll be travelling they can put a marker on your account for the countries you’re travelling to.
So they are a selection of my top travel tips and I’m thinking of doing a part two very soon..
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