Travelling nowadays is not about being comfortable, it’s about being smart as well.

You need to be a smart traveller to ensure the maximum use of your money and your time, only then you will be extremely satisfied with your journey.

Travelling doesn’t need to be frequent instead it needs to be satisfying and worthy.

Many travellers and explorers tend to travel smartly and use their resources at hand, very wisely.

So here are a few travel tips that you need to inculcate to make your travel safe and comfortable:

The tips mentioned here majorly are for international tips because being a stranger in a lonely country with no one to help you out is much more terrifying than being in your own country.

PLANING THE TRIP

The OFF season

Travelling during the offseason is always recommended when you are on a tight edged budget. Usually what happens is many tourists try to visit places in the best climate but they neglect the fact that in other seasons too, the places are travel-worthy. So during the ‘On-Season’ undoubtedly many people are travelling to places obviously to witness the amazing weather. So to get better deals and low prices of some locations and places you can actually plan your travel during the offseason.

 

Choose cheaper destinations

People usually complain about the humongous expenses that they come across while travelling but they ignore the fact that if they choose the location depending on their budget then there are chances that they would end up spending much cheaper. Like for example, a 2-3 week holiday in Europe will cost you as much as 2-3 month vacation in Thailand, Cambodia etc. So choose locations depending on your budget.

 

Do your homework well

This is not a tip or a hack but something that each and every traveller must follow to ensure a complete understanding of the place where we are going. Searching and looking for things to do and how to get there, everything needs to be sorted. Everything needs to be planned well. As in the end, everything boils down to a well-planned trip that can ensure an extremely satisfying journey.

Offline Maps

Many a times it so happens that despite knowing the route we forget that one important turn, it’s quite humane to get lost but it is also quite smart to level up your travel game by saving the maps of the regions of the country offline beforehand.

     

DOCUMENTS

Passport

The passport is your only identity out there on a foreign land so you cannot afford to lose it under any circumstance. There are chances that the passport might be stolen too. So, to prevent this from happening you can avoid taking your passports to the sight-seeing tours that you embark upon. Always take a photo or scanned copy your passport whenever going abroad for a holiday so even if the passport gets lost or stolen you at least have a backup.

CASH 

Informing your Bank

Always inform your bank about your travel. This is majorly helpful as they can always suggest some better options for payments abroad rather than your regular methods and this may, in turn, be helpful to you. Secondly, if at all your card gets stolen and is being used somewhere else then they won’t cancel your card out.

Carry less Cash

Never carry bundles of cash whenever planning any trip be it a local trip or an international trip. Also, one pro-tip is that always try to avoid the conversions of cash at the airport because the conversion rates are a bit higher at the airport, so you may actually end up paying more than exchange rate currently running in that country.

PACKING 

Travel Essentials

Be it a local trip or an international holiday, essentials are extremely important for the majority of us. Some important travel essentials like headphones, extra pair under-garments, side bags, water bottles, face washes, journals etc.

Extra Outfits

Some time, while trekking or while hiking in the monsoon there are chances that the clothes may get wet and can further lead to the development of rashes and stuff. So always do carry extra outfits that will you prevent you from any rash or skin problem.

Suitcase

One of the pro-tip that smart travellers usually use is buying a suitcase that is not at all BLACK in colour. The reason being that the black coloured suitcases are most commonly preferred & purchased suitcases around the globe and can lead to greater chances of misleading and confusion at the baggage counter. There are chances that you might pick up someone else’s suitcase or someone else might take your suitcase and, trust me it’s a whole new level of embarrassment when this happens.

Rolling up Clothes

Here’s something about packing stuff! It’s always great to have a lot of things in a small place. So to maximize your space, roll up your clothes and put it in our bag as it occupies much smaller space than simply folding and keeping the clothes. I can see all those clean-freaks getting their claws out to notch us off but hold on, rolling up clothes doesn’t necessarily mean disturbing your well-ironed clothes. It can also be packed amazingly if you properly set everything in your bag. 

Bottles

Whenever it comes to bottles of shampoos and facewashes, there is always a little fear of them leaking out and destroying your entire luggage and such mistakes are bound to happen in a hurry. So always place a plastic film before closing the lid and then cut off the excess to prevent them from leaking out and for added protection all you can do is, place all of it in air sealed bags.

FLIGHTS AND AIRPORT

Baggage Fees

To cut down on minimal and hopeless expenses, always go light. By this we mean, that try to avoid any unnecessary luggage that you might have packed. Sometimes we tend to pack extra for safety and that is good too, but on the other hand, there are chances that it, in turn, might increase your luggage and incur you extra baggage fees at the airport.

Very Long Wait

Many a time international flights have halts which are extremely long and you end up getting stuck in the country you never wished to be! But what if you could use this time and make the most of your layover time. Yes! Just get all the details about your next flight and just take your luggage and start exploring the place for the next couple of hours. This way you get a mini-vacation inside an ongoing vacation. 

Music

When it comes to long journeys, they can turn out to be extremely boring if you don’t have an amazing audience or when you’re alone on a long flight or a train or a bus journey. So if you use ‘Spotify’ or any other online music streaming platform like ‘Gaana’ or ‘Saavn’, then it’s highly recommended to save your music playlist offline so that you have some entertainment on the go! 

Tuesdays / Wednesdays

You may have heard many bloggers/vloggers say that travel on Tuesdays / Wednesdays, this is majorly because on Tuesdays and Wednesdays there are very few people booking tickets as compared to a Friday or a Monday and hence it is always advisable to book flight tickets or train tickets on Tuesdays / Wednesdays. 

Planes take off early too

This is a great misconception that flights are always running behind their schedule. But sometimes it’s not so, there are chances that sometimes your flight might even take off early than the designated time of departure. So be careful plus attentive.

STAY

Hostels / Homestays

Instead of buying and staying in fancy hotels, it is better to stay in hostels and homestays. Homestays are like renting an apartment for you when you’re travelling. Some applications like Airbnb help you find good & cheap homestays. The owners also sometimes organize activities for the tourists and that’s an added advantage for any traveller. But not everyone is comfortable with a hostel stay as a lot of people have to stay together but it’s all about your choice and flexibility.

Ready to cook food

As Indians, this is not a hack for us it’s actually a travel necessity. But a tip of advice, here is that carry such ready-to-make foods that are light and can be cooked within minutes. This is majorly for all those trekkers and hikers who go to places where they might not even have food around, so be careful; do your homework well in advance. 

Buy and cook on your own

Sometimes it happens that we’re on an extremely tight budget and here’s a tip to save some more cents on the go! All you can do is instead of eating out in the restaurants, go to the markets and cook for yourself. That way, you’ll get to know more about the lifestyle of that place and you can also cook whatever you want even while you are travelling. 

Specific Converters

This is a life-saving hack for all of us indeed. Things get worse when you realize that your three-pin charger won’t just fit into the plug. But here’s a hack for that too. Some many resorts and hotels have their televisions connected to the plugs by specific converters so if you’re lucky you might find one right behind the television. If you are very unlucky (much like us), then probably you will have to shop for one converter.

Hotspot

Sometimes when the hotels are not equipped with their wi-fi services and that is when it troubles you the most. Cause wi-fi is important for our survival mahn! So in such cases, make sure you have internet services enabled on your phones and then use your phone as a mini wi-fi device by switching the hotspot (internet tethering) on.

Time differences

Especially during journeys, involving change in hemispheres, the time difference between the destination and our home would be massive. There will be many problems when you move into a totally different time-zone and can cause conditions like difficulty in sleeping etc. So you can carry some medicines that can help you cope up with the jet lag and also medicines that will help you fall asleep!

Stay safe from Pickpockets

Pickpockets are always on the run when it comes to tourist in a foreign country, and since they are well versed with the routes of their country they can run away and you can’t even chase them all day long! (You definitely can if you are a Bollywood hero, eventually then you can even catch the robber too!) Jokes apart, but if you want to prevent this from happening then all you can do is switch to an over-the-shoulder sling bag (which looks good both on guys and girls) and you will end up being and feeling safer. 

TIPS FOR SAVING MONEY WHILE TRAVELLING 

Foot / Bike

When you’re travelling and want to visit places in a particular country then instead of booking cabs it is always better to travel by foot or by a rental bike or by public transport which needless to say will cost you much less than an Uber.

Transit

The best method to curb your flight expenses is to travel smart. All you need to do is to find alternatives for the same in the region nearby. You can research well about places you’re heading to, in advance, and look for some public transport methods that can help you get to your location at much lower prices. So all you can do is go to a nearby place by flight then use public transit to get to your final location. This might not work always but if you’re smart enough then do always keep your eyes and ears open for all the options and alternatives.

We have tried to collect and jot down all the tips and hacks that we could find and we simply hope that it helps someone or the other.

We hope your travel becomes much more easier and super smooth after inculcating all these above mentioned tips and hacks!

 

Here are some more ways to ensure better travel efficiency:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir2AM0bUsQY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ABuab0Jvwk

Thanks to our references:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPuPy_I6eA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwNqEzyBy6E