Chris Guillebeau, writer and world traveler (he’s on a quest to visit every country in the world) put together a fascinating list – published a few weeks ago at Anderson Cooper’s 360° blog – of the things he wishes he’d known when he began traveling. (Click on the image to the left to read his article.)
Compared to Chris’s list, mine is a bit more mundane. I wish I’d known more about traveling light, the ins and outs of frequent flyer programs, and certainly more about how to save when booking flights and rooms.
How about you? What insights and tricks have you learned over the years? Please share with the PH community by commenting.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!- You may also enjoy these related posts:
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- “Frequent Flyer” – fascinating documentary about frequent flyer mile junkies…
- Fodor’s: When to use cash vs. frequent flyer miles
- ExpertFlyer.com: powerful tool for frequent flyers!
- 3 online discount airfare “secrets” guides: are they worth it?
December 6th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I really have to agree with this one:
8. Never assume that your taxi driver knows where your destination is.
Upon arrival to Madras at about midnight, my taxi driver drove in circles for a good hour, trying to find my hotel. The guidebook map and street signs did not help — he could read neither English nor Hindi. After stopping and asking directions a dozen times, I happened to spot the hotel sign as we drove by and staggered to a well-earned rest.
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December 6th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I like that list. Thanks for posting. I’d love to hear your list, Kevin. Especially the tips on catching frequent flyer miles. I know you post some here but the entire credit card scheme gets a bit overwhelming for me.
To contribute my own list of things that I have learned from reading other’s tips and from personal experience I’ll post this link:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum.....uette.html
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December 7th, 2009 at 1:12 am
Something that I wish everyone knew before they started traveling has already been talk about by Till in her tips. This is taking all the stuff out of your pockets and putting it into your bag before you go through screening. This saves everyone time and hassle.
More to the point, I wish I knew that you CAN buy stuff there. Wherever there is, you can buy it and probably in your size and to your liking. There are so many multinational brands that you can find almost anything you want wherever you are going. How do you think the people you are visiting survive? This stops you from overpacking for the worst-case scenario.
Also, I wish I had known that the first time I would need to have many documents ready, like receipts/e-tickets for your flight back and a bank statement doesn’t hurt(especially if you travel with debit/credit cards instead of cash).
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Till Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 5:59 am
Quick rectification. Till is a man. Till is an old (15th century) German name. It’s rather rare but very well known thanks to Till Eulenspiegel.
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