Hack Your Travel

Hello and welcome back! I have returned with a great post full of easy travel hacks to make your next trip even better. Let's dive right in:

Hack Your Suitcase
There are a lot of tips for maximizing space in your suitcase, many of which I addressed in an earlier post, but here are a few more tips to hack your suitcase for optimal use.
1. Use a bright colored suitcase, like my new Delsey luggage, or tie a piece of bright and noticeable fabric to the handle to make your suitcase easily identifiable.
2. Mark your suitcase as "fragile." The people handling your luggage should take special care with it and put it on top of other luggage in the cargo hold, making yours one of the first on the carousel at baggage claim.
3. Weigh your suitcase. Your bathroom scale should give you a relatively accurate weight to help you avoid paying extra to check your overweight baggage.
4. Pack quick-dry and wrinkle-resistant clothes. You'll always look your best even when living out of a suitcase.
5. Keep clothes fresh with a bar of soap or a dryer sheet in the bottom of your suitcase. If using soap, wrap it in something else so you don't get soap stains on your clothes. If the hotel you're staying in provides a free bar of soap, you won't even have to bring your own.
6. Pack hot tools in oven mitts, that way you can wrap them up and throw them in your bag even when you're rushing.
7. Pack a small sewing kit. Not only can you fix holes and sew on buttons, but you never know when the thread and tiny scissors will come in handy.
8. Hide money in unlikely places. Some genius places I've seen: Old Chapstick tubes, mint or gum containers, and sanitary napkin wrappings. (Brilliant! No thief is going to open that!)
9. Make copies of important documents. Keep copies of your passport, itinerary and emergency numbers with you, in your suitcase, and leave copies behind with family and friends in case of emergencies.

Hack Your Trip
1. Do your research before you go. Obviously you're going to look up the hotel before you go, but what about restaurants and attractions? Read restaurant reviews to find where the locals eat and the best places to experience the culture. TripAdvisor and Yelp are good places to start.
2. Use the ATM for cash when traveling abroad. You will get better exchange rates than at the airport, just make sure you notify your bank that you will be traveling.
3. Go early or around lunchtime to tourist attractions. You can usually avoid the lines if you can get out before everyone else, but lunchtime can be a good time to explore too as many people will be taking a break to eat.
4. Take photos of maps, itineraries and important documents. If you're traveling with a group, like when I traveled with Contiki, you may have to meet up at a specific place and time. Keep a photograph of meeting places and maps on your phone or camera in case you lose your map.
5. Easily convert Celsius to Fahrenheit with this easy trick. Double the Celsius number and add 32. Boom, Fahrenheit. (It's actually the Celcius number times 1.8, and if you can do that in your head, I respect you greatly. For everyone else, just double it, you'll be close enough.)

Hack Your Flight
1. Get a credit card with travel perks. You can earn miles and other rewards to save money on your next trip.
2. Clear your cookies or use the incognito window in your browser when booking flights. Prices may go up if you visit the same site multiple times.
3. Bring an empty water bottle. You can't take a full water bottle with you on the flight, but you can ask your flight attendant to fill it and keep refilling it throughout your trip. However, know where you can drink the local water and where you should avoid it.

Hack Your Hotel Stay
1. If you travel a lot and tend to frequent the same hotel chains, join their rewards programs to get free nights and perks.
2. Ask the hotel for a free upgrade. I've never tried it, but I've heard this works. If it works for you, let me know!
2. If you forgot your phone charger, go to the front desk to see if they have any guests have left behind.
3. For extra security while you sleep, use a small rubber door stop to keep the door closed while you're in your room. Some hotels may already provide them, or you can pick one up for a few dollars and pack it in your suitcase.

Hopefully you can use these hacks during your next trip, and you can find even more on the Pinterest board for this post. If there are any hacks you use that I missed, please leave them in the comments.

To end this post today I will leave you with a bit of travel trivia I learned from watching Dangerous Grounds, a fantastic show on the Travel Channel that follows Todd Carmichael as he journeys to dangerous places to find the world's best coffee. While Bolivian coffee is popular around the world, residents of Bolivia don't usually drink coffee. Instead they chew or make a tea from the leaves of the coca plant. The sensation that results is a mild stimulant that also suppresses the effects of altitude sickness. However, the coca plant isn't only used to make coffee and tea, it is also the first ingredient in cocaine.

That's it for today and I'm sorry my posts have been so few and far between. I'm working on getting back on track with a regular posting schedule, so let me know if there are any topics you want covered. Thanks for reading and happy trails!

-Sam