My ultimate travel tips

Also known as Travel Hacks – things to make your travel easier. A short cut. A cheat sheet to getting the most out of your travel!

In this post you’ll find my tips for saving money on bank fees, what I do to prep before I go through Airport Security, how to save money on various loyalty programs, and what to do if your luggage is damaged.

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After years of travelling all over the world on short trips and month-long ones, over packing, under packing (yes sometimes I forget to take a jacket), fiddling with gadgets and trying to get comfy in economy class on a long-haul flight, these are my best travel tips..

How to save money!

Using credit cards abroad. You’ll sometimes get the option to select local or home currency. Always select local. If you don’t, you allow the vendor’s bank to set their own exchange rate, and your bank will probably also charge an overseas charge.

Use Wise. I am a convert to Wise for a couple of reasons: they use a mid exchange rate, so neither the full buy or full sell rate that your own bank will use. You’ve also already popped your money in there so it is set at the exhange rate you used back then. While you select “credit” on an eftpos machine, there are no fees (some outlets change a bank fee for paywave, so beware of that).

Read my full Wise Card review here.

I am a huge advocate of loyalty programs. I am signed up for airpoints on Air New Zealand (Star Alliance), Qantas (One World), Emirates and SouthWest. However because I don’t travel every other week, I am focused on Air New Zealand and their Star Alliance partners. They’ve got me at Gold! (I switched to Westpac from BNZ specially and I’ve never paid for a domestic flight within New Zealand as I earn enough on my monthly spend to cover a few local flights a year!)

Add price alerts on websites like Skyscanner. If you’re just beginning your research, go to Skyscanner (or your favorite web scraping air fare site) and enter your destination and dates. You’ll see a bunch of airline options come up. Note Skyscanner isn’t a booking site. You then click on the airline you want to book, so yes, you can still use and collect your loyalty points.

The Price Alert feaure if good for when you want to know when the fares drop, they’ll send an email.

I follow airlines and hotels and destinations on social media so I am in the loop when they promote a hot deal. I Like their Facebook pages, subscribe to their newsletters, follow them on other social media platforms I’m on.

Top tips for breezing through Airport Security

And not all airports have the same rules so look around for signage of what security requires and listen out as the officers are often yelling in a monotone to let everyone know.

Avoid wearing a belt. It’s easy for the ladies, as we can wear trackies or dresses/skirts. But removing belts are still a requirment in some airports, so speed things up by planning what to wear before hand.

Avoid wearing chunky jewellery. I wear a permanent gold bangle that always makes the x-ray machine go offer and I need an extra pat down. Now I slip it off and zip it into a pocket in my handbag so it goes through the machine.

Shoes. This is a major airport difference lately. Some say keep shoes on, some yell to take them off. Usually if it covers your ankle, you need to put them on the conveyor with your hand luggage. I also pack slippers to change into on the plane on long haul flights, so if I’m wearing boots, I might pop them into my carry-on and wear my fluffy Birkenstocks through the x-ray.

I’ve also written this post on what to do on a long-haul flight. 17 hours can be a long time to kill! I’ve broken it down into nice bite sizes.

My best travel tips in the hotel

Bring a multiboard power strip. I only travel with one power plug adapter (see my post here for what plugs are used around the world) and I can charge everything at once with my multiboard.

Washing powder. If I’m travelling for more than about 10 days I’m going to need to do laundry, but buying laundry powder is pretty tricky in a small enough container, and washing clothes with hotel shampoo just doesn’t cut it beyond an emergency stop gap. I take those laundry sheets. Just a few of them in a ziplock bag.

Drying laundry in your room. You probably know this, but it was a revelation to me when my cousin Kate started rolling her wrung out but wet laundry in towels and twisting them. I now lay them onto a dry towel, roll, and because it’s a huge bath towel, I stand on it to absorb as much moisture as possible, then hang them on coat hangers in front of the AC. It’s important the AC is on – they’ll dry in a jiffy!

Pack a plastic (or eco-friendly) bag. One or two plastic bags are handy for things like dirty shoes, wet togs (bathing suits!) and dirty laundry.

My best tips for when you’re out and about

Use your iPhone Calculator for quick currency conversion. I was last year years old when millennial Grace showed me that when you open your calculator app on your phone, if you tap the top right tiny calculator symbol you get the option to select Convert. Then just set the currency and all you need tdo when shopping is open calculator!

The pic below shows NZ$100 = 9,259 Yen.

Travel with more than one credit card. There’s nothing more stressful than having your credit cards stopped by the bank due to fraudulent transactions. The first time it happened was two days after returning from Hong Kong. Fortunately I was home and could access my money, but if I had still been away and maybe just starting a long trip, I would have been stuffed needing a new credit card to be issued!

I always travel with more than one card, and another good tip is to leave one card in your safe or with your partner in case your wallet is stolen.

Have a photo of your passport on your phone. This has been handy more than once when I’ve needed to send my passport info to a travel agent and I have it right there on my phone to email from anywhere. But mainly it’s going to come in handy should your passport ever get stolen and you need to report it.

Fill in your emergency contact info on your phone. Not many people know that the little red heart app on iPhones can be accessed when your phone is locked. This is a brilliant little app that stores your emergency contact details, but only if you fill it in!

Handy if someone picks up your phone (i.e. not a thief) and is trying to reach you to get it back to you. Yes it does happen – there are some honest people in the world! But also essential if you should be in an accident and first responders can make contact with your partner/friend/spouse or whoever you’ve added in there.

Avoid data roaming. Unless you have a plan. I use Vodafone from New Zealand and I can roam in many countries for $9 per day. That gives me access to my full data plan from home so I often use my phone as a hot spot to blog and use the internet on my computer. If you don’t have this plan, make sure you have turned data roaming off and use free Wifi spots.

*Speaking of roaming data, you might like to read my post on things NOT to do on a cruise >>

Make free phone calls. Of course most of us will know this, but there are several apps – including Facetime – that you can use to phone your mum. It uses data, but whenever you’re using free Wifi (say in your hotel or at McDonalds!) you can phone home for nought. I also use WhatsApp.

What’s in my toiletry bag!

I am an overpacker when it comes to toiletries because I HATE being sick or even just under the weather when I’m travelling, so I typically have medication and a remedy for just about everything. But my essentials are:

Eye drops. I try not to use them everyday, but there is nothing that makes you feel (and look) worn out like red eyes. Especially if you are meeting with people or even presenting to a room, as I sometimes do. Clear, bright eyes hide a multitude of sins!

Throat. This is my absolute hate. If I’m getting a cold or worse, it always starts in my throat so I travel with Betadine throat gargle to hit it immediately the scratchiness starts. I ALWAYS have a huge pot of Nurofen (Ibuprofen) – in fact some in my toilet bag and some in my handbag. I even have a throat spray and lozenges kicking around in there.

Shampoo and conditioner. I’m fussy about my hair products as I have currently had my hair chemically straightened and need to ensure I use a Keratin product. I created these little soft plastic bottles for 50ml and 100ml (airline liquids rules and all!) and decant into those. The beauty is they get smaller as you use it up.

Nail scissors and file. I pretty much ALWAYS snag or break a nail when I travel. I think it must have something to do with the dryness of the aircraft making my nails brittle. Take an emory board and you can carry that on you. Scissors or clippers are also handy for cutting labels off your shopping! (Just make sure they are packed in your checked in luggage).

Of course I also pack cleanser, moisturiser, toothpaste and brush, floss, cotton buds, tampons, Claritin for allergies and sunscreen.

And no, I can’t ever travel with carry-on only!

I wrote this post about what I take ON the plane in my carry-on luggage to make a long-haul flight as comfortable as possible.

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What to do if your luggage is damaged

The difference between a warranty and a guarantee: Did you know that damaged luggage due to rough treatment by baggage handlers does not constitute a replacement or repair under warranty?

I see this a lot as owner of the Travel Store. People think their luggage can be smashed to smithereens, dropped on the ground, cracked and lose wheels and that the warranty will cover it. Wrong. This is the fault of the airline – in the first instance. Ground staff/baggage handlers in the second.

In an ideal world you would video your luggage when you check it in, showing no damage, then if you go to pick it up from the carousel upon arrival and find it damaged, you video it again.

Either way YOU MUST NOT leave the airport without filing a damaged luggage claim. Yes, this is a pain because you’ll need to find the right place and wait around, but if you don’t, you run the risk of no-one taking responsibility for the damage. At best the airline will offer a replacement, at worst you’ll use that claim form to send to your travel insurance to make a claim.Save

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