Travelling, particularly overseas, can be stressful and difficult in this day and age. There are so many things that can complicate your travel and make it unpleasant. Below, I have come up with a list of 10 things that will help make travelling a hassle free and enjoyable experience.
1. Online Check In – This is a convenient service that is mainly available only on domestic flights. However, airlines such as Thai Airways are slowly bringing in the option to check in online for international flights. This is a godsend! You don’t print off your boarding pass like you do with a domestic online check in but it cuts your check in process in half timewise with special access to the online check in counter. Just drop your bags, grab your boarding pass and best of all, no standing in line.
2. Confirm Your Flight before leaving for the airport – There is nothing worse than getting to the airport from your house or your hotel only to be told that your flight has been cancelled/delayed/held up/suspended or anything else of the like. I have been in this situation too many time to count! Always give the airline’s office at your departure airport a call before heading off to check everything is running on schedule. If not, sit back and relax until you actually need to leave.
3. Hand Luggage - Hand luggage is most definately the most important thing to you during travel, particularly if you’re heading off on a long flight overseas. Your hand luggage will contain everything you need to keep you comfortable, entertained and relaxed during your flight. I recently flew to the UK and made the mistake of taking a poor choice of hand luggage. The most fundamental thing about hand luggage is that it should have wheels! This makes it so much easier to walk around airports in between flights and to run to gates to catch planes. Not having hand luggage on wheels on my recent trip made lugging it around awkward, heavy and uncomfortable. Make sure your hand luggafe is packed efficiently too. Laptop will have to come out of it at security so make sure that it’s on top.
4. Checked Luggage – Save yourself the hassle, expense and embarrassment of being told you’re luggage is overweight and only pack your bag half full. Don’t think that the airline will be understanding – they have the right to refuse to take your luggage on when it’s overweight if you are prepared to pay or not, trust me on this one, I learnt the hard way. Your checked luggage can really be anything you like, wheels are not a necessity because you really have to deal with it pretty minimally and when you do have to deal with it you can always plonk it on a trolley and wheel it to a cab anyway. By only packing your bag half full you can ensure that your luggage wont be overweight and have some space to shop and bring things back without worrying about whether it’s all going to fit.
5. Be prepared for the circus act – Reduce your stress and help the line move along faster by being prepared when you get to certain checkpoints in the airport. When you get to the customs desk, be prepared with boarding pass, passport and immigration forms. When you get to the security checkpoint make sure you know where all the fluids are in your hand luggage and that they are within the regulation. Access them quickly and get on with it, don’t hold up the line. Same goes for the laptop, coins in your pockets, jewelry and belts. Start dealing with these things while you’re waiting in the line so that when you get there, you can drop it all in one of those awkward plastic boxes and send it down the conveyor belt.
6. Be aware of duty free regulations – When you are shopping up a storm in the duty free area before you depart on your relaxing, luxurious holiday, make sure you’re not going to get nabbed arriving into your destination with too much alcohol or cigarettes. Also ensure that items you are buying duty free in one country will be permitted within countries where you are having layovers. I have seen this happen all too many times – Traveller spends big at duty free, arrives home or to holiday spot and is told at the airport that they can’t enter with all that they’ve bought. Waste of money, lots of hassle. Don’t rely on the check out chick in the Sydney duty free store to know what the rules in Bangladesh are.
7. Passport – Everyone tends to panic a bit about passports. It used to be that anyone could take your passport, use it for themselves to go anywhere in the world, take over your identity and then use that to commit crime. It’s not quite like that anymore. If you live in Australia at least, passports now have a microchip in them with extensive information about you within it. Additionally, most countries now take photographs AND fingerprints when you go through customs just in case the frisk at security didn’t make you feel like a wanted criminal. Losing your passport is not quite the big deal it used to be, they can be replaced almost instantly and the likelihood of aynone else being able to use it is slim. It is still an important document, so look after it but don’t have heart failure everytime you forget you put it in the left pocket of your bag instead of the right. The biggest deal with passports these days is validity. Ensure you have at least one year of validity on your passport before departing. If you don’t, check that your destination country will allow you in with less than a year validity as some wont. Others require only 6 months validity, definately worth doing the research on that.
8. Visas, Visas, Visas – Every country has differing rules on visas for each nationality that passes through its borders. It is essential to determine what is required of you in terms of visas long before departing on your holiday. If you require a visa and don’t have one on arrival you will be deined entry, not provided with a visa on the spot. Some countries take several weeks to provide you with a visa so allow ample time. South East Asian countries seem to be notorious for this. Some countries such as the USA will permit entry without a visa but you must first make a visa waiver application. The complexities of this topic are huge and it pays to make sure you are following all regulations to be allowed entry to a country before actually arriving there.
9. Shoes, glorious shoes – We’ve all seen (or been) the girl in the security line with 6 inch stilettos on that wrap up the leg, buckle up in four different places and then tie in a lovely knot just behind the ankle. This is not appropriate for flying. You know you’re going to have to take your shoes off when you get to security so wear a pair that you can get off and back on again with ease and quickly! Also, your feet/ ankles are most likely swell on the plane and no one wants to be unable to get those lovely little stilettos off on the other end because they’re feet are now so fat that the shoe is cutting off all circulation to the bottom half of their legs. Gents should wear simple sneakers or a boat shoe. Ladies should wear thongs, slip on flats or a lovely loafer. Take your shoes off during the flight for comfort and to allow your feet to swell the way they need to in that environment.
10. Avoiding bathroom lines on board – My mother harped on at me as a child that as soon as the smell of revolting, processed airline food being heated up started wafting through the cabin I was to jump up out of my seat and take the opportunity to go to the bathroom. My response of course was always “but I don’t need to go right now”. I see now the validity in her scheme. If you don’t go before the meal is served you will be stuck in your seat while the food carts are whizzing down the aisles. Then when the chaos is over and you’re desperately needing the bathroom, you will have to stand in line behind 15 unsavory sods who jumped up and got there first. Take my dear mother’s advice, and go to the bathroom as soon as that awful scent hits your olfactory nerves and save yourself some post meal hassle!
The 10 travelling tips above have been developed by me from my own personal experience. I believe that if each of those steps are followed you should have a happy, stress free and enjoyable holiday or flying experience, at least until you hit the ground at your destination. That, however, is for another blog.
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
