Travel Essentials
25 January
I am lucky enough to have travelled to a fair few places in my
short time on earth and over this time, I like to think I have picked up a few
tips and tricks to make the whole travelling business more enjoyable. Obviously
holidays and travel are designed to be fun, but what about all of the bits
between leaving your house and reaching your final destination? I have put
together a list of the tips I have learnt over the years and found incredibly
useful when flying between places. I have also added in some of my travel
essentials to help save you some money and take out some of the guess work!
Being a complete worry wart means travelling this way makes my
life much less stressful. I do however understand that this is a lot to do, so
if it isn't your thing, that's totally fine (case in point at the end of this
post!). If you are interested though, this is how I like to travel...
First things first, before you even leave the house, you need to
consider what you will need to prepare in advance as well as what to take with
you.
In advance
That's the important stuff, but here are some extras I like to
add on.
Take cash, change currency
I know we live in a digital age where we tap our cards to pay for
everything and there is a cash machine on every corner, but what if there
isn't? The last thing you want to do (especially if you are travelling
somewhere remote) is to end up without any money to enjoy yourself/buy food/buy
booze/have for emergencies etc. You don't have to take all of your money in
cash, but its good to take some. It can also be cheaper as many banks charge if
you are making transactions or withdrawing money abroad. If you do take a lot
though, don't store it all in the same place.
Work out basic transport routes
Especially if you are heading to a city. By working out the
public transport and prices before you get there, you are far less likely to
get stressed and give in to taking a taxi. This will save you money in the long
run. You will also see a lot more of the place if you use their transport
systems and do a bit of walking, rather than taxiing door to door. This is less
important in English speaking countries as it is easier to read/ask once you
get there.
You have everything sorted and ready to go, but now its time
to pack, you are staring at an empty suitcase with a mountain of clothes and
toiletries that will definitely not fit in said suitcase. So what do you?
Write a check list before you travel, take it with you
I always do this. By writing a list of what I need I don't have
to worry about forgetting any important things like chargers or bras (yes this
has happened!). Often its the most basic, fundamental things that we use get left behind because we don't normally think about them. If you take the
check list with you, it makes it very easy to pack everything back in on the
way home.
Take solid products
I have learnt this both from working at Lush and having an
unfortunate incident when I went to Minneapolis, where it was so cold that all
of my liquid beauty products froze in my suitcase. Madness. One of the great
things about solid products is that they last absolutely ages and don't use up
the liquids allowance. This means you can pack your whole beauty routine into
your carry on, so if your suitcase goes awry (hopefully it doesn't) you can
still get on with enjoying your holiday looking fabulous!
Take travel size products
You can't find everything in a solid form, so for what's left try
and take smaller sizes. Most shops do travel size products these days so you
can probably find your favourites in miniature. This will mean less weight in
your suitcase/carry on and less risk of breaking or damaging expensive full
size products.
Take an extra outfit separate to your luggage…
...or a spare set of underwear at least. That way if you need to
change on the airplane, or perhaps if your bags go missing, you're not going to
feel like its the end of the world.
Take a capsule wardrobe
If you have the time, pick out less pieces that will mix and
match to create multiple outfits. I am the least 'fashionable' person you will
meet, so this isn't the easiest thing for me. It helps so much though as it
means there is more space to bring stuff home! It also takes less time to think
about what to wear when you get there. Planning what you are going to wear is
much easier if you...
...Check the weather before you leave
I never used to do this and just went with what I presumed the
weather in that country was like. Which is a bit silly really. Packing for the
weather means you can utilise suitcase space so much more efficiently and
again, leaves lots of room to bring back goodies! One thing I will mention
though is to always take one outfit that is completely opposite weather to what
you are expecting, just in case.
Now that it's time to pack everything you have decided on into
the suitcase, it is a really good idea to...
Compartmentalise
Section out your suitcase into areas. Only if you have the time
of course! By separating shoes into cotton bags, packing each outfit together
and having separate sides of the suitcase for different items, it just means
less time finding things when you want to be exploring your new surroundings.
Also, packing heavy stuff at the bottom of the suitcase saves lots of
embarrassing 'suitcase tipping over and creating a loud noise in the middle of
the airport' moments - thank me later.
Tidy your space before you leave
This one kind of sucks, as you really won't want to do it. However, the last thing you want to do after
a wonderful holiday (or an exhausting business trip) is to clear your bed of
all the rubbish you left there, before being able to sleep. Make the extra effort
to at least spruce up your space before you leave, and coming home won't feel
as bad.
Lay out your travel clothes the night before
This is mainly if you are travelling super early. It's one less
thing to think about and an extra 10 minutes in bed.
Good things to remember to take with you
and finally...
Document your
travels
I don't mean take a picture of every little event if that's not
your thing. You have to live in the moment and actually absorb your time away.
But you will be grateful in years to come when you have a couple of snaps to
spark your memory when you are telling people all about your travels!
For those of you who find this a little overwhelming, I will
leave you with a tip from my other half. He is constantly travelling for work,
the complete opposite of me and tends to just 'wing it' to a certain extent.
'Wear a jacket with lots of pockets.'
This basically helps if you don’t want to carry more than a
backpack, by shoving everything in your pockets it makes getting through
security much easier as all you have to do is dump said jacket into one of the
trays on the belt and walk on through. You then pop it back on at the other
side and you can sort everything out away from all the queues and stress of
security. Also, if you are only going for a weekend, throw everything into
a carry on, keep your boarding pass on your phone, and away you go.
I told you, there is a way for everyone! I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing
it. Let me know if you have any more travel tips, or if you are
travelling somewhere soon by commenting below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Lucy is the author of Louminous, a beauty and lifestyle blog with a healthy dose of adventure and delicious food. You can also Lucy over at Instagram and Twitter @LucyLouminous.
Lucy is one of my fabulous guest posters helping me out here on the blog whilst I settle into life as a new mum, so a massive thanks to Lucy for this insightful post on travel essentials. I hope you picked up some tips and tricks on how to make your future travels run smoother, it's definitely made me want to go exploring!
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