How To Get The Most Out of Your Holiday

Throughout almost 15 years of travelling experience, we’ve packed luggage hundreds of times, travelled with all kind of transportation means and went through a lot of different situations; some of them were positive experiences, some of them less positive.

No matter the nature of the experience we had, every single trip was always a good moment to add some tips&tricks on our list, so that next time it will be even better. Just as in life, when travelling, it’s important to learn from your mistakes, and to make sure that you won’t repeat them.

We’re going to share with you 10 of our most important tips that we’ve gathered while travelling. We surely hope it will help you, just as much as it helped us.

1. If you forgot your charger at home, but you somehow have a USB cable, use the USB in your room’s TV to charge your device. If there’s no TV in room or it doesn’t have a USB slot, it might be a good idea to ask at the reception – they usually have lots of chargers from clients that forget them, and will most probably be happy to help you!
2. As often as you can, try to find a hotel/hostel/room that has breakfast included or that allows you to eat at least the first meal of the day in their restaurant. Trust me, it’s not enjoyable at all to leave your room on an empty stomach or without drinking your morning coffee, in search for a place to eat and spend more money, when you could’ve gotten away with it at the place you’re staying in.
3. If you’re on the lookout for the cheapest low-cost airplane tickets, make sure you search them in the first few days after prices for the following season show up. You will often find tickets for various price categories, and surely, the cheapest ones sell out the fastest.
4. There are still many hotels where internet isn’t free. Make sure to check the comments on Booking / TripAdvisor / FourSquare first, there is a good chance you will find the password there.
5. When travelling abroad, use your phone’s GPS so you don’t overcharge the bill. A very clever idea is to open Google Maps on the area that you’re planning to visit on that day, while connected to your hotel’s Wi-Fi, right before leaving. This way, the map will be saved on your mobile phone, and you won’t need to use your data plan in order to use Google Maps.
6. Make copies of all the important personal documents you’re travelling with, and keep them in a separate place, other than where you’re keeping the originals. We can’t stress enough how important this is, it actually saved us quite a few times. Furthermore, we recommend having scans on your phone/laptop. You never know when you’ll need them, and it’s always better to be on the safe side.
7. If you aren’t feeling comfortable while in the airplane and you have the options to pick your seats, choose one right next to the wings, because that’s the place where you feel the less turbulences. I once chose a seat on the last row, right near the plane’s tail, and it surely wasn’t too enjoyable.
8. Always, wherever you’re going, bring with you snacks of all kinds – fruits, biscuits, cereal bars, and as often as possible, sandwiches. Don’t just count on the fact that whenever you’ll be hungry you will easily find a nice restaurant; that’s not always the case.
9. If a restaurant’s menu is in many languages, it often means that the restaurant is one for tourists, rather than locals. This usually translates to high(er) prices and not exactly local food.
10. Write down your hotel’s address on a piece of paper and keep it with you, in case you ever get lost. You never know when your phone runs out of battery. It’s not a nice thing to happen at all, especially in the middle of the night – trust me!

Obviously, there are so much more things you can learn while travelling. It’s important to always adapt and think in advance when planning your journey, in order to avoid any unwanted experiences. Most importantly, perhaps the biggest rule of them all: have loads of fun!