It’s not like I’ve spent the first 20 years of my life living out of a suitcase, nor am I really an expert on travel advice. However, being partial to the odd holiday and weekend trip, I have learnt a few things worth sharing (a few actually being 20 – purely to fit with the title if I’m being honest). So here are some practical packing tips, meaningful lessons, and a couple of embarrassing moments that I don’t fancy repeating.
- If you’re going on a beach holiday pack a bikini/swimming trunks in your hand luggage. (It only takes once for your suitcase to be missing when you arrive in Thailand and you spend the next 3 days in a fluorescent ill-fitting bikini bought on the beach – nice).
- Wake up early and explore (I hate to sound like my dad, but you really do get so much more out of a day).
- Listen to people’s stories. It’s a common saying that everyone you meet knows something that you don’t, and someone living in a different country with a different culture is probably going to prove that saying correct.
- Pack less than you think you’ll need.
- When things go a bit wrong just remember that they usually make for better holiday stories anyway.
- Always take an oversized scarf or jumper on the plane – air-cons are always freezing or boiling (there’s no in between), if it’s not freezing you can use it as a pillow.
- Book train tickets in advance.
- Skip the open top bus tours and walk the city for yourself. You may not find out the factual side of the location, but you could stumble across a hidden gem that isn’t yet in the guidebooks, or find an alternative view of a main attraction (plus you can google 100 facts about the monument at home).
- Buy a set of little plastic bottles and fill them with your own toiletries when you’re only travelling with hand luggage and a 100ml liquid limit – so much cheaper than buying travel minis.
- Learn a few basic words of the local language before you arrive. It makes a better impression, it’s polite, and people usually appreciate it.
- Restaurants a few roads back from the main street will likely have better food at cheaper prices.
- Roll clothes instead of folding them – saves room.
- The best moments are rarely the ones that you capture for social media.
- Eat street food, but be cautious. (Consuming deep-fried spiders highly increases your chances of getting food poisoning – who knew?)
- Take advantage of the fact that your friends are at different universities and plan some cheap trips to parts of the country you haven’t yet visited – free accommodation, and visiting friends which is the main thing of course.
- Put cotton wool pads in compact make-up cases to stop them from shattering (If I’d learnt this one earlier I’d have saved many bronzers!)
- Girls/Boys trips give you some of the best laughs and teach you some of the best lessons, whether that’s during the actual holiday or the planning process.
- Use a google chrome incognito browser when searching for flights. Your search history can be monitored by airline companies, so do this to decrease the chances of prices increasing.
- Know how to use maps. Should you find yourself lost in Paris late at night with a friend who doesn’t have the best sense of direction or can’t understand metro maps, you may just be able to save the day.
- Sometimes it’s not about where you go but who you’re with. For as long as I can remember my Nan would take my whole family away for her birthday weekend every year. It was always to the same seaside town and I could tell you the itinerary almost to the hour. It wasn’t the most fancy of places but because of who was there I don’t think any of us would have had it any other way.
❤️
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Brillo !!! And of course no.20 made me cry !! 😂 No18 I need to know how to do that ! Duh !!!! 🙅🙅
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Thank you, yes you do – I’ll show you for your next holiday! And sorry about the last one, couldn’t be more true though xx
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Great set of tips! 😉
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Thank you!
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Nice list! It’s funny that you mentioned Paris in number 19. That is exactly the city in which I was in when I really paid attention to maps and figuring out where to go! lol Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Thank you Tay, glad you liked it! I think Paris can be quite a complicated city to navigate, so it’s good to know that others have found the same!
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This is a lovely post! Number 16 is such a good tip, I’d not thought about that before! Would love if you could take a look at my blog sometime X
https://charlotteamanda.com
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Thank you, I definitely will x
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