One travel technique that has worked very well for me takes place the day before my trip: using a pre-travel prep-and-packing checklist. I created this checklist about 15 years ago and still refine it occasionally. This list has three sections:
A) Preparation tasks: Like printing essential travel documents, saving a backup to my mobile phone, buying foreign currency, activating data roaming, etc.
B) Packing list: Mine currently has about 30 or so items, covering everything from the very basics, like toothbrush and toothpaste, to the often-overlooked, like reusable ziplock bags, microfibre cloths, etc.
C) Last minute checks: These are final tasks to complete just before leaving home. This includes double-checking that passports are packed, non-essential electrical appliances and lamps are switched off, balcony doors are locked, wet waste has been properly disposed of, etc.
By the time I step into a taxi or train to the airport, I can fully focus on the journey ahead rather than worrying about forgotten items. After all, this checklist has served me well for the past 15 years. Every item is checked off before I leave home, so as soon as I get into a taxi or train, I can relax, knowing that nothing has been forgotten.
Now I only pack the very basics, medication, laptop and chargers toiletries for shaving etc and a few clothes. Anything else I will most likely purchase or won’t need at all. I avoid checking bags, just a small carryon and my backpack.
To me the more important items are travel requirements, road conditions, directions, etc.
I have a corollary: when I head out of my apartment/hotel/whatever, I assume I could be gone for a night or two -- you never know what will happen! This doesn't mean you need to lug around a bunch of stuff, but just enough basics to make it so you can easily say YES! at forks in the road that might require you to walk too far to get home that day, or stay overnight on a boat, or be out very late with a new group of friends. A toothbrush, change of underwear, and warm cost-thing, sunscreen, etc. Optionality is easy to prepare.
I must inform you that in my mind this makes you a wizard.
By which I mean, thinking ahead and preparing items that give you options in the event of unlikely but possible situations is a very wizard-like thing to do.
If I stay at a hotel instead of an airbnb I will not bring my toiletries.
I’ll ask the front desk and so far 100% of the time the hotels I’ve stayed at will have a shaving kit and a toothbrush and toothpaste.
I don’t live a minimalist lifestyle by any means, but when I travel with family, friends or solo I try to pack as little as possible. Sometimes no carry on, just a small backpack for a quick trip
Hairgel I put a tiny bit in a ziplock bag because insane tsa rules care about the co rained size not the amount inside and I’ve had hair gel containers taken away before. Now I take enough for my trip in a ziplock back and that’s it.
My trips are short, have never brought nail clippers
I've started to prefer small checked bags over large carryons. Boarding a plane is more pleasant when you don't need overhead space for you bags. And you don't need special travel versions of stuff to get around carryon restrictions.
The backpack should also be small. I find 20 L the ideal size, but your needs may be different. If your backpack is too large, you'll be taking more unnecessary stuff with you everywhere at the destination.
Having luggage lost is such a PITA, especially on short trips. Carry on only. I buy the smallest carry ons I can find so the carry on police at the check in counter don’t make me ever gate check.
I don't find lost luggage that annoying. It has happened to me twice out of ~300 flights, and I received the bag the following day both times. Missed connections and rerouted flights due to weather, strikes, and other random issues are more common and have a bigger impact on the trip.
I've had luggage delayed far more often than that and I've also been able to rebook because of weather only because I had carryon. Usually luggage delayed for a day isn't a big deal--if you're staying in a city (and I often leave a little slack for that reason). But if you're heading off somewhere that you can't receive a luggage delivery, that can be a big deal.
Sometimes unavoidable to be sure--you're not carrying on all your camping gear--but I'll make compromises to just have carryon.
The one thing you _need_ to pack, apart from visa docs required for travel, is a credit/debit card. Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location.
Traveling to rural Vietnam looked daunting and dangerous for people from the EU, but once there me and the friend realized all the worrying and excessive preparation was for naught. We still forgot some things, an hour or two spent at the local shops and the problem was resolved. All you need is an accepted way to pay and you could get out of almost any reasonable situation.
Now would it be cost effective? Surprisingly sometimes yes, but even if not it could give you some more stories to tell. Part of the fun of traveling is the stories you tell afterwards, and no good story starts with “everything went according to plan”.
My father once told me that as long as you have your passport, wallet and the name and address of where you're going everything else will work out fine. That advice has treated me well.
Which raises a point that is often lost today. Assume your phone breaks, gets lost/stolen, etc. How do you know where you're going? Having a printed agenda is a very good idea even if you resent the weight of the paper.
What "closest mobile phone store" in many places? I've been on a ton of trips where I probably haven't seen a closest mobile phone store for a week or more.
My point is that you should try not to be absolutely screwed if you're cut off from the Internet. I carry physical maps, itinerary, guidebook, etc. You can actually travel without Internet access. Of course, you can't mitigate any eventuality but I'd certainly argue that you should generally be able to move forward without Internet, email, or GPS.
You'll find stores selling that stuff in even the most rural parts of central Asia and Africa these days. As long as there's a reasonably sized human settlement, someone's probably selling mobile devices even if there's no local network to use it with.
I remember standing up to board my flight home, putting the phone into my pants pocket, except I was putting it into air, and it landed on the tile floor of the boarding area. The outside screen wasn't cracked, but the LC-Display cracked all across the bottom, making the display totally black. I usually don't bother having physical boarding passes, but luckily I did have it in paper format at that point.
Interestingly the phone was still working, it just can't show anything. Double-clicking the power button still opened the camera app, and I could take pictures by pressing the volume down button. And alarms would still go off, but holding the power button opened Google Assistant and it understood the command "Delete all alarms", no unlocking required.
I reluctantly use mobile boarding passes when traveling because I don't have a convenient printer when I'm not leaving from home. But presumably the counter could still look me up via my passport or other relevant ID.
The thing I haven't figured out (mostly because I haven't sat down and done so) is how I'd access mail and such—without my password manager on my own phone, I don't have access to anything.
I've sat down and tried to figure this out, and never been happy with the solution. I carry an old phone as a spare, which also has my password manager and 2 factor codes.
I asked HN about this recently because I couldn't believe everyone, especially people who aren't interested in designing backups, i.e. the type to come to HN, were all thinking this through enough to have good solutions.
HN consensus seemed to be for hardware keys like Yubikey, and paper backup codes.
Problem: with 2FA, lost phone = lost access to your email and rest of digital life, when on a trip (I’ll assume no one travels with their recovery keys).
I actually do have my Gmail recovery keys with my passport though I haven't tested in a while. But from reading other comments, I guess I'm pretty paranoid and maybe more prepared for a situation where I don't have a working phone.
But, if you use a password manager for Google, not sure if that does you any good. Honestly, regaining access to your various accounts if you need to get a new phone--perhaps especially internationally--may be pretty hard. I do sometimes travel with an older spare phone but it's getting out of support.
Yubikeys with a passkey for every major service. One on the keychain, a nano one permanently in the laptop. This lets you access anything with the key and a password.
My counter to that is that, once you get out of major cities, even in the UK, there may be very few opportunities to pick up things including pretty routine first aid supplies. You probably also don't want to spend the first half-day of your vacation doing routine shopping.
So, yes, you can often pick things up but don't count on it. If you're adaptable, you can probably manage (perhaps outside of some things like medicines) but you're not necessarily just walking into a store and laying down your credit card.
- good shoes in certain regions may not be easy to find. don't skimp on good shoes.
- not to get into a dirtbag pissing contest about necessities, but there were also plenty of towns in Myanmar where one couldn't produce a USB-C or Lightning cable pre-pandemic
There's a ton of medical and medical-adjacent stuff (both prescription and not) that isn't going to be easy to come up with in a typical village or small town. Good to have some basic things you can use to rig a backpack strap or hole repair. There are fairly essential clothing items you may not easily replace on foot in small towns; it's raining hard and you left your rain jacket at home.
If you’re going someplace cold you’ll want warm clothing and if it’s sunny then sunblock is a big deal, but in general you don’t need much stuff on a trip.
My guess is you're not hiking for 10 miles in possibly chilly rain in England or wherever. (Or needing a shell because of wind.) An umbrella doesn't really work and you're probably not wanting to just walk all day drenched. In a city, yes, umbrellas are often a reasonable alternative.
If I'm on vacation and I missed something it's either (a) something I can live without; (b) something that can be procured within a day if needed, which doesn't imply I have to dedicate all of that time, but rather that I will be going to town later that day or tomorrow.
Again, we're talking travel and holidays, not an expedition.
The counter examples people gave so far:
- a cable: well, maybe you don't need that cable anyway for the reminder of your 2-4 week holidays? Maybe you can occasionally borrow one at the reception or caffe? Is it a proprietary charging cable for your headphones or bike computer? Well, that's the advanture part mentioned in that article.
- clothing: trust me, local people will have exactly what you need for local weather. Getting quality or designer brands may indeed be difficult in remote places, but we're talking about an intermediate solution.
- working remote, lost computer: I know everyone tells you that the world will end if you won't meet the next deadline but that's not true. You can get a day or two off, things happen and people will understand. Meanwhile look for alternative solution, maybe a internet caffe? Talk to the staff at your hotel or local cafe, maybe someone can borrow you something for a day or two? If it's really that important, someone will ship you replacement. Again, it's the advanture part.
- medicine: this I must admit is tough one. If your life really depends on it then you simply don't forget. Sure, your luggage might get stolen but that's beyond your control and you have to cancel the trip anyway most likely. Otherwise you have the medicine in couple places, you should have a receipt and unless you're in a warzone medicine is generally available. I've been in this exact situation couple of times (Germany, UK, Ukraine, Vietnam) and I always was able to procure whatever I needed.
A few ibuprofen and anti-diarrhea pills can make a world of difference, save you from ruining your whole day on a potentially short trip, and they take up no space.
I have a couple of very compact kits, one of which is basically walking/hiking first aid (e.g. blister stuff) and the other is the sort of stuff you mention. It's a really good idea to throw something like these in your bag which weigh nothing, take up no space, and can really be nice if you need them.
PSA: The small index card holders (i.e. about an inch deep) are really good for these kind of kits as they provide some protection.
Yeah, some cash, debit card, and a backup credit card that is hopefully as independent of the card you normally use traveling as possible. (i.e. not two Chase cards.) Also, be careful that your backup isn't a card you normally never use--especially internationally. The card companies seem to have gotten better about random fraud alerts but they still happen.
If you're traveling with a SO and have joint accounts, check the account numbers. My wife was pickpocketed in Madrid and 2 of our 3 joint cards had the same number, meaning that even though I had the physical card, it was cancelled until we got the new cards.
We weren't aware of the issue before this happened.
WeChat Pay is still a no-go, but you can now set up Alipay with any foreign credit/debit card, no need for the former rigmarole of account verification with Chinese phone number/bank account. And Alipay is accepted basically everywhere. (Cash is not.)
Do you mind sharing these checklists? I’d love to throw them into my Obsidian notes for the next time I travel. I do it infrequently but it’s always stressful because it’s to visit family internationally.
Make a checklist. Go on trip. Refine checklist by adding things you forgot and removing things you didn't need. Iterating on the checklist is key.
Mine is pretty short because it's only about the non-routine stuff:
- passport + passport card + visa
- make travel notifications for credit cards (seems less needed these days)
- chargers + outlet adapters
- download maps for areas in Organic Maps, bookmark important places (don't trust Google Maps' offline maps)
- write down confirmation/reservation numbers and important phone numbers
- remove pocket knife from carry-on
- headphones + earplugs + eyeshade
- spare glasses (even an old pair works. yes in Asia you can get new glasses in less than an hour)
- do you need swimwear, sunscreen, or a headlamp?
- lacrosse ball to roll out knots (very personal, but 10hr flights in a cramped economy seat can put a strain on one's back, esp as one gets older)
Again, this is my personal "perennial" travel checklist. It's written from my experiences of having a girlfriend break my glasses while needing to drive the next morning, and forgetting headphones for overnight bus rides.
Similar to susam, I've also started keeping another trip-specific checklist (e.g. any items my in-laws want from America, or bring 98% DEET for SE Asia). These get deleted after the trip.
I think there are items that have a good size/weight to utility if you do end up needing them in a place where you can't just run to a store. But you also need to be careful not to fall into a "just one more thing" trap because it occurs to you something might be useful or even was useful in a very specific set of circumstances.
With the prices of electricity these days I turn off everything by remote control per room each time I leave the house for work etc. Not even extension cord lights are left on, only the very bare necessities - fridge etc remain on.
Ah but the genius of such a list is that it can also cover things like closing windows, checking the gas cooker is off, watering plants... anything that you might later think "did I remember to...?", while flying to Indonesia.
You might have left your fridge switched on, but did you close the door properly?
With LED lights, making sure everything is turned off isn't such a big deal these days. But, while I don't really sweat closing up the house for a day or so, it's definitely worth checking things like windows on a longer trip. There are definitely a lot of things you normally do on cruise control and it's nice to be sure they really happened.
I have a spreadsheet that I clone and edit each time I go on a trip. So if I go camping, skiing, to the beach, etc, I can look at my old checklists, find a similar one, then clone it and tweak it for my upcoming trip.
Agree. I have everything on it after one memorable trip where I forgot to pack any socks.
The pre-trip to-do list is also really useful - e.g. all the things that need charging before I go.
My list has subsections for specialised trips such as camping, wildlife experiences etc. On one camping trip I inventoried everything that came out of my car when I got back. This spotted a couple of things that I probably wouldn't have remembered for the next trip. Over the years I created a box full of tent-things that I can just lift into the car when I load up.
It's not perfect because every trip is often a bit different but compartmentalizing stuff that usually goes together (OK, I don't need my UK plug adapter if I'm going to California) helps a lot without having a checklist of every item. You want your essentials first aid kit, your standard chargers kit, your misc travel kit... goes a long way.
Depends on where you are going. We did a trip to India and we got charged several fees when withdrawing from State Bank of India. It would have been even higher if we had allowed State Bank of India to the currency conversion. Do your research before heading to a different country.
ATMs probably tend to be a better deal but for $100-200 amounts probably doesn't matter much. Whether you spend your leftovers at the airport depends on if you're reasonably certain you'll be back. I keep pounds and Euros but I have way too much of other currencies which between COVID and employment changes, I'll probably never use.
>Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest! ... They will usually feel honored. You can offer the newlyweds a small token gift of cash if you want. You will be obliged to dance. Take photos of them; they will take photos of you. It will make your day and theirs. (I’ve crashed a wedding in most of the countries I have visited.)
That will only work if a white tourist wedding crashes in a poor country. That will not work if I (as a brown-colored southeast asian) do it.
Yeah, a few of these items sound a lot like "white tourist in poor country".
Like the one about asking the taxi driver to drive you to his mom, like holy cow that's creepy. Imagine asking an American Uber driver "hey drive me to your mom's" and see how they'd respond.
It doesn't even have to be the US, that already wouldn't go well in Eastern Europe. Such things can be seen as extremely disrespectful and are a sure way to get a punch in your face in some places.
Lots of these tips seem like what you'd hear from someone regularly traveling someplace like Egypt, where the taxi drivers will openly tell you about their life/family/etc.
I travel alone as a woman a lot, and while it's not as dangerous as many people fear, I'd never ask a taxi driver to take me to (potentially) his private residence in a random neighborhood in an unfamiliar city.
> People in other places are not saints. You might get cheated, swindled, or taken advantage of. Paradoxically, the best way to avoid that is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior. And vice versa. To stay safe, smile.
Idk I would recommend it to a single female traveler
Just imagine this interaction from the mom's perspective. (Because the author sure hasn't!)
You're minding your own business just doing laundry or whatever and your adult son just shows up to you house totally unannounced with a foreign stranger in tow looking for you to cook them a meal. Come on, that is really rude!
Like, it's clear this guy thinks the mom is a total NPC in this situation. It takes some serious delusions of grandeur to think the mom is "happy" about this interaction.
Honestly, I think that is a great way to describe what bugs me most about this list. It's the idea that other people are there for your entertainment.
Like: 'Go to a cemetery. Look for sacred places. People live authentically there.'
Like really. Why are you going to a place to watch people grieving for your entertainment? What -is- this list? After 50 years of traveling? This mentality is what he has to show for it?
Presumably the driver knows their mom well enough to determine how she would react, or call ahead to be sure. If it still blows up, blame the driver, not the passenger who initiated the request.
A taxi driver in a poor country is doing what he needs to do to get paid, probably with a bit of a tip. That doesn't make this interaction ok. It's exploitative and RUDE!
some are entirely incorrect. Lack of hygiene is a real problem in tropical countries. Pretending that all food everywhere is equal is some crazy level of white, sheltered nonsense.
I would never recommend that anyone eat anything uncooked in a country like India. You are asking for digestive woes.
No, that one is accurate. Street food is usually made to order and has high turnover if you pick a popular stall, which means it often is safer than touristy restaurants that rely on snaring a couple of visitors a day and thus has food sitting around for much longer. I spent 1.5 years in Thailand and the only time I got sick was from a fancy, touristy seafood place in Koh Samui.
You still have to use common sense though. The water/ice used in street food is often sus, so anything uncooked is best avoided, and you probably don't want to get your larb from the lady who keeps her raw minced meat in an open bucket marinating in the sun.
This depends. There are local places with cheap chicken rice in Thailand and locals go there but a savvy local will tell you: don't go there in the afternoon. Because they cook rice once in the morning and it hangs there all day! Usual customers maybe all have their gut adjusted but you don't
But yes I had a fair share of mild poisonings from touristy places. I blame fresh veg which in Asian cultures may not be so clean
I can't even imagine having this sort of attitude where you think that your presence is like a "celebrity guest" for strangers and and will be "making their day." You. Complete strangers.
Like, how does one have such an inflated sense of importance? And feel absolutely no shame in writing it out for the world to see.
It depends on the place. I've definitely been to a couple places where people were very excited to meet me (a large white man), practice their limited English, parade me around to their friends, and ask me about where I live.
I was constantly expecting them to want something from me in return, but it never happened. Actually they would often insist on giving me things. This has happened to me probably four distinct times. It's obviously more likely to happen in small towns that don't get a lot of tourists, and also more likely to happen in countries without white people.
I imagine this might not generalize to people of all races. It also helps to have an outgoing personality.
Of course, in tourist hotspots people are probably vaguely annoyed by your presence (or specifically and intensely annoyed, like in Barcelona apparently) and will either ignore you or try to sell you things.
tbf there are certain parts of the world where if you're young and white and friendly you absolutely do get the celebrity treatment, including wedding invitations[1] and especially a lot of photo requests. There are also parts of the world and families where a foreign guest unknown to most people there would be extremely awkward even if they had a genuine connection with one of the party.
I'd have gone to the wedding of the daughter of the Indian chap who sat next to me on a bus for a couple of hours the day before if there hadn't been logistical issues, because the invitation was genuine and I'd have been able to have proper conversations with the wedding party and feel like I was there for more than just free food and music. I don't think he needed me to make his day though :)
Yeah, while I did like the Laser-Back strategy of going to the most remote location first and meandering back to the departure city, reading the names at the bottom shows only one phenotype of person wrote/edited this.
>In many parts of the world today motorcycles play the role of cars. That means you can hire a moto-taxi to take you on the back seat, or to summon a moto-taxi with an uber-like app, or to take a motorcycle tour with a guide doing the driving. In areas where motorcycles dominate they will be ten times more efficient than slowly going by car.
I would be extremely wary about this. You are so much more vulnerable on a bike. And you won't even be wearing proper protective equipment. Even if they lend you a helmet, it is unlikely to fit properly and don't know how many times it has been dropped or involved in a crash. Also the most common injuries to motorcyclists are to the legs, and I doubt they will be lending you boots or biking trousers.
2 years ago when backpacking in East Africa, I went from "there is no way I'm ever doing this" to taking nothing but those moto-taxis ("boda bodas") even for 40 minute inter-city rides with a 12KG backpack on my back. No helmets to speak of. Except maybe in Rwanda.
Part of the learning experience of such travel, is to see firsthand how the locals of these places perceive the risk. How they manage risk in general, and what is the "value of a human life" for them as compared to our western perceptions.
There is no "the locals" usually. It sounds a bit condescending, like the article. If people look different than you it doesn't mean they are all the same. People have different life situations. Maybe even in your home country too.
If you go somewhere on a moto taxi in Bangkok all those taxis and fancy SUVs you see are not silly foreigners who are scared of motobikes, they are also locals who manage risk.
I grew up in a family where drunk driving was totally normal. Car wrecks happened with regularity. As a child I road with my parents while they were drunk and actively drinking. I road in the bed of my dads pickup truck while he was speeding on backroads while drunk. I never wore my seatbelt until I started driving. One of our cars growing up didn't even have seats, cuz my dad took them out. My dad would slam on the breaks while driving down the highway and everyone would go flying.
I always wear my seatbelt now. I would never would drive drunk now, or even slightly buzzed. I would never expose children to that sort of environment. My parents are awful people.
The combination of poor road safety, lack of protective equipment and lesser health care if anything goes wrong does not make it an attractive option for me. Each to their own, I guess.
Context: I used to have a motorbike. I always wore full protective equipment. Full face helmet, leather, gloves and boots. But I realize that is less practical in a hot climate.
> Part of the learning experience of such travel, is to see firsthand how the locals of these places perceive the risk.
Sorry, but this is a just financial decision by locals and not a philosophical treatise on the value of life. Once people have enough money, they'll opt to take the car-taxi, doubly-so if their child is coming along. It's fun for backpackers and I'm glad it got you out of your comfort zone.
It's not quite that straightforward. Obviously the calculus changes when you can afford alternatives, but all social classes in Bangkok and Jakarta can and do take motosai/ojeks if they're in a hurry and the traffic (for four-wheelers) is completely jammed like it usually is.
The entire 50 years is showing here. Seems like some of these tips are good, and some are awful because they're outdated. Don't crash random weddings if you're not able to pay your way out of trouble. Sketchy plans do result in kidnappings. Truly professional tour guides are wonderful assets that will 10X both your trip and your knowledge in any city.
True. Had a friend head to Central America to surf (I don't recall which country). The first cab he hailed took him to an alley where others were waiting and he was robbed of his passport, cash.
End of trip.
Please don't interpret this as my painting the whole of Central America as dangerous. This is anecdotal but perhaps a cautionary tale? I suspect if he had not grabbed a cab but rather found a bus or some other sort of mass transportation his whole trip could have turned out wonderfully.
Catching a cab from the airport in a new country after a flight is a pretty common thing to do no matter where you're going. Depending on flight length you might well be too tired to really navigate public transport in a new city in a foreign language.
Countries where you're likely to be kidnapped (or driven to a bad neighborhood, and charged a lot of money to get back, etc.). Russia, Brazil, Mexico, etc.
I don't travel to Russia anymore, and won't go to Rio or Mexico City without private security.
Nope nope nope, With a decent head on your shoulders you can safely do all kinds of unusual that idiots would otherwise end up very troubled by. I've known plenty of people that get themselves into trouble through foolishness and folly, while more wise operators finds only un-regrets. Like how in the winter some people freeze to death and some people ski, you know?
I travel 300+ days a year for work. For two years I didn’t have a place to live because I was traveling so much. I’ve been doing this for 7 years now.
1) use uber, unless public transport works well(Nordic countries, Switzerland).
2) lock everything expensive up in the hotel safety box, otherwise eventually your shit will get stolen
3) have multiple methods of payment with you, leave one on the hotel.
4) I travel mostly with my wife who does not travel light. Most of the advice in the linked article is really general lifestyle advice. I have 100 kilos of luggage in my hotel apartment. If there’s a will, there is a way.
>lock everything expensive up in the hotel safety box, otherwise eventually your shit will get stolen
Depending upon where I am, I have mixed feelings about this. In many hundreds of days of travel, I guess I've been lucky enough not to have valuables stolen, but then I take some care not to leave them in plain sight. On the other hand, I'm positive I would forget something in a hotel safe as I have in a hotel closet.
Regarding the “recharge” vs “engage” trips: If you’re restless like me then you’ll probably feel most recharged after a trip that fully engaged you. Because you can’t think about work when you’re busy navigating your way through a rural and foreign land, speaking with strangers, and straining to learn just enough of a new language to get around.
The “laser-back” tip is 100% on point. I came to know this intuitively but I’ve never seen it put into words. One caveat I’d add there is: if it takes >20 hours to get to your first destination, give yourself time and permission to just chill on the first full day there.
Also I want to strongly endorse the “carry-on only” tip. More than that, I suggest backpack only. Your options and opportunities for spontaneity increase significantly when you can just swing a backpack ever your shoulder and go. It also forces you to live with less, at least for a time, which in turn teaches you that actually you don’t need all that much to get by. Then you return home and question why you need a closet full of clothes.
We did a very interesting tour inside a Swedish iron mine. It is a shame more big factories and industrial sites don't do tours. I'm sure a tour of massive mining quarry would be much more interesting than the standard tourist attractions.
-For long flights with a stopover (e.g. Europe to NZ) you can stay in a transit hotel in the airport terminal. This means you don't have to go through immigration, security etc. So much easier than having to travel out to a hotel.
-I have found Airalo to be quite good for local data esims.
I agree in general. Underwear and socks are always in one packing cube and I carry a lightweight mesh laundry pag.
In addition, I have a few small kits I pretty much always carry in addition to my document folder. Need to replenish (and cull) from time to time but it makes the checklist a whole lot simpler for most trips.
With over 50 years of travel, the author still does not recognize the unique privilege he is in, and how inappropriate his tips are for most of the population.
What a sad take-away. All tips you give are rinsed through the lens of your personal experience. We don’t need a bunch of disclaimers every time someone enumerates some tips just to appease the “but did he check his privilege tho?” audience.
All of our tips are always aimed at people in a similar position. Just consider how your travel tips don't even apply to most of the world who can't travel.
This just sounds like sour grapes to me. Like getting worked up because someone didn't start with a land acknowledgement.
Nah, they're totally right about this one. When you exploit the global power imbalance in your favor, at least acknowledge what you're doing before dishing it out as general advice.
You might have to be a traveler who has been in a bind to appreciate that one, because it's absolutely true that being friendly can disarm a bad situation.
Right. This reads like a person who doesn't realize their ethnic visage is plot-armor, or that smiling maybe works for a different reason than they think it does.
Doesn't read as friendly in most places (we're talking out of context on the street), it reads as aloof or menacing/unknown factor. Being a white male with confidence takes care of the first assumption and leaves the second.
"People in other places are not saints. You might get cheated, swindled, or taken advantage of. Paradoxically, the best way to avoid that is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior. And vice versa. To stay safe, smile. Be humble and minimize your ego. I don’t know why that works everywhere in the world—even places with “bad” reputations—but it does."
This just got me! Its so true. That's been my experience too.
I have a feeling that male and female travel experiences may differ in this regard. "To stay safe, smile." seems pretty naive to me. Clearly, the author is male. I would proffer "always have an exit", "do not walk into something you cannot walk out of" and "do not stray too far from the crowd".
Even for white males, whilst it might help convince people you're one of the nice backpackers and not the rude backpackers or defuse situations caused by your faux pas, being trusting absolutely doesn't get you any sympathy from who make a living out of scamming or robbing tourists. Sure, escalating probably isn't the best way out either and the minor annoyances that cost you a dollar might be best overlooked, but switching your guard off is a terrible idea in a lot of parts of the world
Yeah, the author seems to be writing for a white male audience in some regards.
My wife and I host bicycle tourers when they pass through our town. One was Thomas Meixner, an East German who started travelling the world on bike when the wall fell. He's visited something like 120 countries and biked 250,000 km.
My wife asked him if he thought a solo woman could do what he did in the places he did it. He tactfully changed the subject.
My rule of thumb while travelling: Most people are good and will help you if go up to them and ask, and most of the people who initiate contact with you want your money.
While travelling I've never had a problem walking up to someone pretty much at random and asking for directions or recommendations, etc. Sometimes this turns into more than just a quick conversation, and that's great, meeting locals can be the best part of a trip. Hotel and restaurant staff are a great resource, too - ask questions.
However, most of the people who approach you as a tourist, particularly in places with lots of tourists, want your money. The swindlers and cheats aggregate in these places. They don't wait for tourists they want to rip off to approach them, they actively go after their prey, being practiced at taking advantage of their openness, confusing them, etc.
There are exceptions. Common sense goes a long way. Be way more careful when partying.
+1 Reminds me of something I heard from (I think) Penn Jillette:
In public spaces, if you pick someone out of a crowd for support, or you are randomly/unexpectedly put in a situation where you depend on a stranger, you're probably safe.
If someone else picks you without solicitation, or appoints themselves to support you, be careful.
>There are exceptions. Common sense goes a long way.
On a visit to London last year, walking down a street with some kiosks displaying pictures of aquatic life in the waters around the British isles, I was approached by a women who asked if I would mind taking a brief survey about the organization sponsoring the kiosks (Royal something or other). In the end she gave me £5 note for my time.
I noticed their list of travel accomplishments doesn’t seem to include things like “been robbed at gunpoint in South America”, “had passports seized in Southeast Asia”, or “sexually assaulted in an Eastern European hostel”. All of which I’ve experienced.
Travel, while fun, can also be very dangerous, especially the further you get from being a wealthy straight white male. Be careful and try to avoid thinking you’re a main character for whom nothing can go wrong.
> In 53 years of travelling with all kinds of people, I’ve seen absolutely no correlation between where you eat and whether you have intestinal problems, so to maximize the enjoyment of local foods, my rule of thumb is to eat wherever healthy-looking locals eat.
An interesting one. Tracks with my experience, although I have far less data. I’ve gotten sick a few times, but not after the sketchy meals that I thought would do it.
However, my guide in Nepal warned me not to eat certain things. I always listened to him, and I did not get sick on that trip. He seemed to be speaking from experience guiding other white people.
To be fair, a lot of this is attributed to your gut microbiome being adapted to the bacteria in your usual diet. Some food may not sit well with you — not necessarily because the food is “bad” but because your system isn’t used to the new bacteria.
That’s why locals are fine but tourists aren’t in most cases.
On a funny side note, when I was in Nepal we did get some food at a pretty popular restaurant. Everyone had horrific food poisoning later that night, except me since I didn’t touch the cheese!
I don't agree with all of this though I do think most of it can be good advice. I did a huge amount of travel, mostly of particular styles, latterly when I was working. Still do a fair bit though I'm trying to spend less time on flights and more on destinations.
The main thing I didn't see in there although I may have missed it or it may have been implied is travel light. You can't always go with carry-on pack of some sort if you have varied trips, e.g. smart clothing plus hiking kit. But you can probably go lighter than you think. I know I'm mostly at lightweight travel than I used to be.
+1 on traveling light. The author did mention this, too: "
Your enjoyment of a trip will be inversely related to the weight of your luggage. Counterintuitively, the longer your trip, the less stuff you should haul. Travelers still happy on a 6-week trip will only have carry-on luggage."
It's certainly not always possible if you need real dress clothing or real hiking/camping gear. (I've never gotten to the point where I can do a month-long trip that includes a long distance week-long+ walk along with some fairly formal evening wear in a carry-on.)
But you can probably get closer than you think. By myself, if I'm mostly just traveling in cities with "business casual" as dressy as it gets, I can travel almost indefinitely with a 40L travel backpack.
For men, mixed business/pleasure trips to countries with a conservative dress code can be tough (Japan for example). I have found that higher quality suits have better fabrics that are more able to recover from being stuffed in a small space. The problem I have yet to solve is shoes. In the West, not only are suits for meetings becoming rarer, but dress sneakers are acceptable almost everywhere, and they can do double duty for leisure. In Japan I would feel underdressed if I wasnt wearing standard black leather shoes. Maybe it will change with the new generation. Things are certainly lighter than in the early 2000s and 2010s, when there was a distinct echo of the infamous Burleson dress code[0]. (Though the cultural disdain for tattoos still exists.)
The last couple of trips I took to Japan were for events with essentially a developer/marketing oriented organization and I was able to comfortably get off with pretty much business casual. Maybe I wouldn't have felt as comfortable for a customer event.
The last trip I really felt I overpacked for with respect to train/transit was some time in London, followed by a long-distance walk where I really needed everything I had with me, followed by an ocean liner return where I needed jackets and real dress shoes--which, as you suggest, even Rockports aren't really general purpose. You always want more shoes than you can reasonably carry.
Wheeled vs. non-wheeled luggage is definitely a tradeoff. I lean towards non-wheeled in general and just maybe take a few more taxis if the luggage is too heavy to schlep around the city a bit.
Say my good man! Why don't we visit your mother? We can secure a filial obligation for you and an authentic experience for me! By the way, is your sister getting married anytime soon? I have a small cash token to offer in this regard, I think it will be most welcome!
No kidding. The undercurrent of colonialism — this exotic world is made for my conquest! - feels pervasive and somewhat nauseating as described here.
Western obsession with travel leads to overtourism and a fixation on “novelty”. There’s nothing wrong with a relaxing vacation but we must all learn to be content with our day to day existence to unlock true happiness.
>... I’ve seen absolutely no correlation between where you eat and whether you have intestinal problems...
Add to this one: always make sure your hands are clean before you eat. A little bottle of sanitiser will do wonders for your health in areas with poor sanitation.
Otherwise, one tip I would like to add - when in doubt, do as the locals do. Especially useful when you can't read signs.
I really appreciated airport lounges when I was flying a lot, especially when there were long connections or delays. I don't have mine any longer given I'm trying to make fewer but longer trips. And, as you say, they've gotten overcrowded in many cases. They don't also really help much for early AM departures which are what I'm doing a lot of the time. These days, $400+ a year is better spent on other travel amenities.
Nothing specific. Just some more expensive meals, maybe more theater/other entertainment. I'm pretty happy with where I am for hotels (which will chew up additional cash pretty quickly anyway). I don't really have a formal budget for travel as such. I just don't find lounges are a very good value for me these days as they were in the past.
one tip of the list I can't agree more is the www.seat61.com for train ticket, especially if you travel in Europe, where train is the most convenient way to travel between cities/nations but man is it such complex system, there are so many different rail companies and lines, this website gives a clear instruction on options, price and where to buy the ticket
I’d add…
- Learn to travel light. You don’t need more than ~4 days of clothes - laundry soap exists. Dragging large rollers around old cities is not fun.
- Checklists for prep. I have one for plane travel, one for backpacking, and one for travel by RV. Nothing unexpected on any them, but helps me avoid asking myself “did I pack the phone charger?” Or “do I have sunscreen?”
- Give yourself options - I like to list out things to do, maybe 4-5 for a location/day, but only really plan to do 2-3 of them.
- The old adage about no bad weather, only bad clothing is true. And the natural light after an evening rain is usually really nice.
Especially for mostly casual city-type stuff, you don't need a lot and it can be washed in a sink or whatever. Stuff getting really muddy on hiking trails gets harder but you can often get laundry done. (My last long distance walk in the UK I had laundry done a couple of times.)
Where it gets harder is when you need different type of clothing (especially bulkier clothing) for different legs of a trip.
Oh yeah, we did a cycling trip in Italy a while back, with days in Florence and Rome on either side. Hauling bike helmets, shoes, pedals, etc added a lot of bulk. Still made it work all carry-on with no rollers - just max size rucksacks and max size personal bags.
I spent 9 months traveling from Mexico to Buenos Aires with a backpack eighteen years ago. Spent most nights in hostels in shared rooms for a few dollars a night. It was a great experience. Carried a MacBook Pro and a digital Nikon D70. Actually had the first iPhone but hardly used it. Do have a selfie of myself on a bus somewhere in Central America.
These days I’m taking more expensive vacations in cheaper countries. You can go to the Caribbean and stay for $2000 a night or go to places like Morocco or Panama on a luxury vacation for 1/3 the price.
1/3 of 2000 USD is still 650 USD a night. This is quite a price.
I am sure that plenty of people can afford it (I could if I wanted to) but this is rather expensive when you compare to, say a stay in Chamonix (French Alps, a "posh" station) where you can have a 65 m2 appartment next to the slopes in high season for about 250-300€/night.
Are you talking about my flat in Chamonix? :) Those are top season prices, one can go much lower and mountains are still roughly the same, meaning absolutely awesome and most accessible brutal high alpine terrain in Europe, possibly globally. Skiing Vallee Blanche is top experience (just take helmet at least).
Anyway backpacking is the most intense form of travelling by huge margin, the cheaper the better. I did two 3-month trips in India & Nepal around 2010, all costs combined apart from return flight tickets were around 500$ per month. Best time of my life, literally life and personality changing experiences that will stay with me till my last breath. No plans, just 1 thick Lonely planet book
Adventures don't need to be always positive experiences, intensity is what matters much more, the further away from comfort zone one gets more impactful the experience is.
Also it feels significantly longer, each time those 3 months felt like decades, hard to describe with mere words
I don't keep track of this sort of thing in detail but I usually figure a month-long trip ends up running about $10K. Sometimes probably a bit more, sometimes a bit less. Where that money goes will vary depending on the type of trip. In cities, I usually stay somewhere nice but not top-end which I find doesn't buy me a lot incrementally. Don't usually fly business unless I use miles for part of it.
No illusions this is penniless student budgeting but it suits me.
Instead of $650 there’s always the AirBnB and living on less than $100 a day. When I backpacked I was spending probably $1000 a month. I recommend trying both.
Yeah, $650 per night in Morocco is staying in La Mamounia, famous mingling place of world leaders and celebrities with a Paul McCartney song named after it...
You can stay in quite a nice palace for a lot less than that
The “14 days is too many” rings true in my mind. My wife and I did a 2 month road trip several years ago and I distinctly remember around the two week mark we went from having tons of fun to worn out and ready to just go home.
The weird part is as we pressed on and got past week 3 I felt like we could be on the road indefinitely and be absolutely happy never returning home. There is def a lull around the end of week 2 for some reason.
3-4 weeks is about where I draw the line. And I've talked to others who have said similar.
I don't disagree with your last part though. Never tried it but I can easily imagine that once you get into a "what's this home thing mode?" there's no hard stop necessarily.
Luggage tipp: Have exactly one, easy to grab main piece at luggage that goes on your back or on wheels. Have at most one tiny extra piece to carry. The second your luggage exceeds three it becomes a massive hassle: You cannot hold on to things, you will lose one piece and your fun trip descends into a disorganized mess.
Luggage which clips together like a storage/day backpack combo is very valuable for this: Your backpack might be comically large, but you can haul all your stuff with free hands. At your accomodation, you can leave the large bag and continue on your day pack.
Free hands are critical when travelling by train or bus, or if you just wanna get a snack and drink.
This lets you maximize storage on the cheap “1x carry-on, 1x personal item” plane tickets. No checked luggage; the 45L backpack just goes under the seat in front of you.
Osprey also makes a good one. Sometimes I need to check something bigger especially if I have a long walk planned but I usually use an Osprey Porter 40Lish (may be a newer line I haven't tried). Yep. Big compartment and use some organizing cubes/bags.
I would add: learn how to say at least “hello,” and “thank you” in the local language, and a few other phrases. Even if you butcher it, the fact that you tried goes a long long way.
These are very good tips to do just before or just after your trip. Or why not even following weekend:
> If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take you to visit their mother.
> Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest!
The first one specially is likely good option after you leave the airport on the way home. And the second one is good practise to do when you are not on vacation. Find the wedding venues in your local area and hit them.
This is great advice. On his 'laser out' approach, I often find after travel I am tired and I _really_ don't want to spend hours more getting to where I'm really going, so I usually stop in the city that I landed in.
But I have a policy: never go to sleep without going to walk in the city. That is: never land and sleep. _Always_ absorb some of the local environment. Then when your brain knows it's somewhere else, then go to sleep.
This has worked to varying degrees. I always wake up with the excitement of being somewhere. But once, on my very first trip overseas, I got lost and spent three confused hours very late at night in a dark 2AM-no-one-around city trying to find my way back...
...but it sure is a good story now.
Which is very much the point of this article's advice. It seems to be: optimise for experience and stories.
Tip: your passport does not exist the morning of a trip, even though you packed it the night before. Touch it before leaving the house, and you manifest it into being.
This tip is especially important when coupled with another thing I always say: as long ans I have my passport and a credit card, every other forgotten thing is no big deal.
On a related note in Europe I tend to use their taxi apps instead of Uber. In Paris I used the G7 app because official taxis could use the HOV lane while Uber cannot. In Italy, I use the Freenow app as I found their taxis very affordable.
Yeah Freenow/Uber/Lyft tend to vary in popularity and availability across Europe and even US states. ( I feel like I took Ubers in Chicago and Lyfts in Boston )
Usually just looking at that taxi area in arrivals at the airport you can figure out which app is the one most supported.
Yeah, Uber plus whatever the relevant local transit apps are I should have mentioned. Thanks for the G7 app recommendation as I'll be in Paris in a couple months. Don't normally take taxis much there but good to know.
Apps: Airline, hotel, rental car company. TripAdvisor. FlightAware24, Loungebuddy, Terminal Buddy, At Your Gate. Microsoft Translate with offline language downloaded. Kindle, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, plex, etc. with offline downloads. Google Maps with offline maps downloaded.
I’ve been travelling the world most of my life. I think I can at least partially attribute my survival thus far to never having asked a taxi driver if I can meet his mother.
Great read but I must say I completely disagree with:
"the best way to avoid [[getting cheated/swindled]] is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior."
As someone who's lived in London for 20 years, if you trust and treat everyone well you will lose all of your money, your watch, and phone. Unfortunately, those looking to cheat you out of something have become extremely common and totally remorseless!
I get that the author is probably referring to locals but these days it's impossible to tell who's a local trying to be kind and who's trying to distract you to reach into your bag.
Maybe I'm being unnecessarily pessimistic about strangers but i guess that's what London does to you haha
A "weaker" version of this is to ask your driver personal questions. Obviously stop if they make it really clear they don't want to talk at all, but there's a psychology about talking to strangers you know you won't see again that lets many people open up in ways they wouldn't in maybe any other circumstances. I've
- Seen more baby and kid-milestone photos than I can count.
- Been told a brutal war story by a tow-truck driver in Kentucky ("did you know blood from the liver is almost black?") that - though he didn't say it, explicitly - I don't think he'd ever talked about to anyone.
- Heard about someone's life's-work in AIDS prevention.
- Learned about the Philippine Civil War from a former airforce Colonel. (Highlight: he and his best friend / roommate in the military academy chose different sides. They privately promised each other that they'd find a way to communicate if their units were ever ordered to attack the other.)
- Heard first-hand about the horrifying obstacles the US government placed in the paths of Afghani translators (for the US Army) trying to immigrate to safety in the US.
- Met a Singaporean former mercenary, who told me all about doing private security for illegal gold mines in New Guinea. He was very matter of fact (and entirely unrepentant) about having indiscriminately shot local villagers and government forces. Several of his buddies were killed by bow and arrow in an attack during which he cut and ran ("their families are still mad at me"). It was all a madcap adventure, as far as he was concerned, and then he showed me pictures of his boat.
Looking at that list, I guess don't do it if you don't want to be trauma-dumped, but I'm quite socially awkward, so you don't have to let that stop you. Most people don't seem to care - they have stories they want to tell, and will tell them, if you'll listen.
Once in Vietnam, our cab driver asked if he could pause at home on the way. We said yes. So he drove home, his wife gave him lunch, we tried it too, met her and his kids and his friendly half-street-half-pet dogs, and then went back to our hotel.
And I still remember it... whereas I cannot remember our other taxi rides!
> If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take you to visit their mother. They will ordinarily jump at the chance. They fulfill their filial duty and you will get easy entry into a local’s home, and a very high chance to taste some home cooking. Mother, driver, and you leave happy. This trick rarely fails.
Wow. What a creep. No thank you.
> When visiting a foreign city for the first time, take a street food tour. Depending on the region, the tour will include food carts, food trucks, food courts, or smaller eateries. It will last a few hours, and the cost will include the food. You’ll get some of the best food available, and usually the host will also deliver a great introduction to the culture. Google “street food tour for city X.”
No, you will get the mid eateries that pay tour guides to bring tourists. They pay tour guides because the locals know not to go there.
Almost certainly not. I used to work with someone who had to be practically strong-armed into working down his vacation days because he didn't like traveling and, aside from a couple of local-ish hobbies, got bored sitting around home.
I probably got a bit over my travel comfort limit for a while hitting about 160 days/year at peak (including vacation) but I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for whom that's not their thing.
No. Plenty of people don't have any interest in it.
It just seems like everyone likes it because it's because the new status symbol now that material consumption is looked down on. It's a way to demonstrate your worldliness and check the boxes of the zeitgeist.
But of course plenty of people just like it because it's fun too.
> The list of most coveted cities to visit have one striking thing in common—they are pedestrian centric.
if your coveted places are mostly in Europe/Japan. Los Angeles, Chiang Mai (or any city in most SEA) etc are the opposite of pedestrian centric. Do you like multi hour walks in heat among pollution and traffic or stray dogs to get to a nice coffeeshop? Yeah. Public transport is broken and literally everybody who lives there uses personal transport.
(He then goes to contradict himself and recommend unsafe moto taxi)
It took only one long solo wait at a crosswalk in Chon Buri to convince me that it was worth paying about 3 USD to travel about 6 blocks. Traffic yielding to a single pedestrian is a quaint notion and as you say a lone farang seems to be a soi dog magnet.
Some SE Asian cities are OK except for the heat/humidity like Singapore, Penang, and Hong Kong. But, yeah, most of the big SE Asian cities are pretty horrible to get around and certainly aren't pedestrian friendly except very locally.
One travel technique that has worked very well for me takes place the day before my trip: using a pre-travel prep-and-packing checklist. I created this checklist about 15 years ago and still refine it occasionally. This list has three sections:
A) Preparation tasks: Like printing essential travel documents, saving a backup to my mobile phone, buying foreign currency, activating data roaming, etc.
B) Packing list: Mine currently has about 30 or so items, covering everything from the very basics, like toothbrush and toothpaste, to the often-overlooked, like reusable ziplock bags, microfibre cloths, etc.
C) Last minute checks: These are final tasks to complete just before leaving home. This includes double-checking that passports are packed, non-essential electrical appliances and lamps are switched off, balcony doors are locked, wet waste has been properly disposed of, etc.
By the time I step into a taxi or train to the airport, I can fully focus on the journey ahead rather than worrying about forgotten items. After all, this checklist has served me well for the past 15 years. Every item is checked off before I leave home, so as soon as I get into a taxi or train, I can relax, knowing that nothing has been forgotten.
I’ve stopped caring about packing.
Now I only pack the very basics, medication, laptop and chargers toiletries for shaving etc and a few clothes. Anything else I will most likely purchase or won’t need at all. I avoid checking bags, just a small carryon and my backpack.
To me the more important items are travel requirements, road conditions, directions, etc.
I have a corollary: when I head out of my apartment/hotel/whatever, I assume I could be gone for a night or two -- you never know what will happen! This doesn't mean you need to lug around a bunch of stuff, but just enough basics to make it so you can easily say YES! at forks in the road that might require you to walk too far to get home that day, or stay overnight on a boat, or be out very late with a new group of friends. A toothbrush, change of underwear, and warm cost-thing, sunscreen, etc. Optionality is easy to prepare.
I must inform you that in my mind this makes you a wizard.
By which I mean, thinking ahead and preparing items that give you options in the event of unlikely but possible situations is a very wizard-like thing to do.
Same!
If I stay at a hotel instead of an airbnb I will not bring my toiletries.
I’ll ask the front desk and so far 100% of the time the hotels I’ve stayed at will have a shaving kit and a toothbrush and toothpaste.
I don’t live a minimalist lifestyle by any means, but when I travel with family, friends or solo I try to pack as little as possible. Sometimes no carry on, just a small backpack for a quick trip
...deodorant? Hair product? Nail clippers? Skin products?
I dunno, there's a lot of normal stuff I use a hotel isn't going to have.
Deodorant yes
Hairgel I put a tiny bit in a ziplock bag because insane tsa rules care about the co rained size not the amount inside and I’ve had hair gel containers taken away before. Now I take enough for my trip in a ziplock back and that’s it.
My trips are short, have never brought nail clippers
No skin products. I just use the hotel soap
I've started to prefer small checked bags over large carryons. Boarding a plane is more pleasant when you don't need overhead space for you bags. And you don't need special travel versions of stuff to get around carryon restrictions.
The backpack should also be small. I find 20 L the ideal size, but your needs may be different. If your backpack is too large, you'll be taking more unnecessary stuff with you everywhere at the destination.
Airlines are a disaster.
Having luggage lost is such a PITA, especially on short trips. Carry on only. I buy the smallest carry ons I can find so the carry on police at the check in counter don’t make me ever gate check.
I don't find lost luggage that annoying. It has happened to me twice out of ~300 flights, and I received the bag the following day both times. Missed connections and rerouted flights due to weather, strikes, and other random issues are more common and have a bigger impact on the trip.
I've had luggage delayed far more often than that and I've also been able to rebook because of weather only because I had carryon. Usually luggage delayed for a day isn't a big deal--if you're staying in a city (and I often leave a little slack for that reason). But if you're heading off somewhere that you can't receive a luggage delivery, that can be a big deal.
Sometimes unavoidable to be sure--you're not carrying on all your camping gear--but I'll make compromises to just have carryon.
The one thing you _need_ to pack, apart from visa docs required for travel, is a credit/debit card. Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location.
Traveling to rural Vietnam looked daunting and dangerous for people from the EU, but once there me and the friend realized all the worrying and excessive preparation was for naught. We still forgot some things, an hour or two spent at the local shops and the problem was resolved. All you need is an accepted way to pay and you could get out of almost any reasonable situation.
Now would it be cost effective? Surprisingly sometimes yes, but even if not it could give you some more stories to tell. Part of the fun of traveling is the stories you tell afterwards, and no good story starts with “everything went according to plan”.
My father once told me that as long as you have your passport, wallet and the name and address of where you're going everything else will work out fine. That advice has treated me well.
Which raises a point that is often lost today. Assume your phone breaks, gets lost/stolen, etc. How do you know where you're going? Having a printed agenda is a very good idea even if you resent the weight of the paper.
If that happens, aren’t you pretty much walking to the closest mobile phone store?
A basic device that’ll give you access to the internet, mail and maps is basically a commodity the same way a toothbrush is.
What "closest mobile phone store" in many places? I've been on a ton of trips where I probably haven't seen a closest mobile phone store for a week or more.
My point is that you should try not to be absolutely screwed if you're cut off from the Internet. I carry physical maps, itinerary, guidebook, etc. You can actually travel without Internet access. Of course, you can't mitigate any eventuality but I'd certainly argue that you should generally be able to move forward without Internet, email, or GPS.
You'll find stores selling that stuff in even the most rural parts of central Asia and Africa these days. As long as there's a reasonably sized human settlement, someone's probably selling mobile devices even if there's no local network to use it with.
I remember standing up to board my flight home, putting the phone into my pants pocket, except I was putting it into air, and it landed on the tile floor of the boarding area. The outside screen wasn't cracked, but the LC-Display cracked all across the bottom, making the display totally black. I usually don't bother having physical boarding passes, but luckily I did have it in paper format at that point.
Interestingly the phone was still working, it just can't show anything. Double-clicking the power button still opened the camera app, and I could take pictures by pressing the volume down button. And alarms would still go off, but holding the power button opened Google Assistant and it understood the command "Delete all alarms", no unlocking required.
I reluctantly use mobile boarding passes when traveling because I don't have a convenient printer when I'm not leaving from home. But presumably the counter could still look me up via my passport or other relevant ID.
The thing I haven't figured out (mostly because I haven't sat down and done so) is how I'd access mail and such—without my password manager on my own phone, I don't have access to anything.
I've sat down and tried to figure this out, and never been happy with the solution. I carry an old phone as a spare, which also has my password manager and 2 factor codes.
I asked HN about this recently because I couldn't believe everyone, especially people who aren't interested in designing backups, i.e. the type to come to HN, were all thinking this through enough to have good solutions.
HN consensus seemed to be for hardware keys like Yubikey, and paper backup codes.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42427443
this is where i'd use the keepassxc password manager. Put a password archive at a URL you can remember, and download it somewhere if you need it.
Or have a 2nd email without 2fa and use it to contact a friend to help you get your keepassxc archive.
I have a Yubikey (well, two actually) on my keychain for 2FA, gets rid of those pesky apps.
Why would we assume that the Yubikey or even the entire keychain survived whatever befell the telephone that is being replaced?
I don’t universally travel with a laptop.
Problem: with 2FA, lost phone = lost access to your email and rest of digital life, when on a trip (I’ll assume no one travels with their recovery keys).
I actually do have my Gmail recovery keys with my passport though I haven't tested in a while. But from reading other comments, I guess I'm pretty paranoid and maybe more prepared for a situation where I don't have a working phone.
But, if you use a password manager for Google, not sure if that does you any good. Honestly, regaining access to your various accounts if you need to get a new phone--perhaps especially internationally--may be pretty hard. I do sometimes travel with an older spare phone but it's getting out of support.
1Password handles this problem pretty elegantly because of their secret key system.
You can just print out your secret key and stuff it in your suitcase / backpack. Its useless for a thief unless they know your password too.
You could set an emergency / recovery contact too, but I don't know how the recovery flow would go.
Also, an eSIM will vastly complicate your bootstrapping.
And an eSIM is all my current phone has.
Not sure how much confidence I would put in getting back up and running in an international trip with 2FA vs. having paper copies of important info.
Yubikeys with a passkey for every major service. One on the keychain, a nano one permanently in the laptop. This lets you access anything with the key and a password.
Nowadays, you should probably add a smartphone to that list.
I once flew with just those plus a toothbrush. Border control was very suspicious of me and was confused why I had no luggage or backpack.
My counter to that is that, once you get out of major cities, even in the UK, there may be very few opportunities to pick up things including pretty routine first aid supplies. You probably also don't want to spend the first half-day of your vacation doing routine shopping.
So, yes, you can often pick things up but don't count on it. If you're adaptable, you can probably manage (perhaps outside of some things like medicines) but you're not necessarily just walking into a store and laying down your credit card.
My counter is if you can't produce it within a day it's most likely not a necessity.
Two small exceptions to a generally good rule:
- good shoes in certain regions may not be easy to find. don't skimp on good shoes.
- not to get into a dirtbag pissing contest about necessities, but there were also plenty of towns in Myanmar where one couldn't produce a USB-C or Lightning cable pre-pandemic
There's a ton of medical and medical-adjacent stuff (both prescription and not) that isn't going to be easy to come up with in a typical village or small town. Good to have some basic things you can use to rig a backpack strap or hole repair. There are fairly essential clothing items you may not easily replace on foot in small towns; it's raining hard and you left your rain jacket at home.
Sure. If you have wheels, it's probably easier.
I’ve gone decades without using a raincoat.
If you’re going someplace cold you’ll want warm clothing and if it’s sunny then sunblock is a big deal, but in general you don’t need much stuff on a trip.
My guess is you're not hiking for 10 miles in possibly chilly rain in England or wherever. (Or needing a shell because of wind.) An umbrella doesn't really work and you're probably not wanting to just walk all day drenched. In a city, yes, umbrellas are often a reasonable alternative.
I’ll happily spend all day wet outside as long as it’s warm enough not to want a jacket.
Which is why I just get water resistant jackets rather than raincoats.
I sure has heck don't want to waste a day of my vacation shopping for something I forgot.
If I'm on vacation and I missed something it's either (a) something I can live without; (b) something that can be procured within a day if needed, which doesn't imply I have to dedicate all of that time, but rather that I will be going to town later that day or tomorrow.
Again, we're talking travel and holidays, not an expedition.
The counter examples people gave so far:
- a cable: well, maybe you don't need that cable anyway for the reminder of your 2-4 week holidays? Maybe you can occasionally borrow one at the reception or caffe? Is it a proprietary charging cable for your headphones or bike computer? Well, that's the advanture part mentioned in that article.
- clothing: trust me, local people will have exactly what you need for local weather. Getting quality or designer brands may indeed be difficult in remote places, but we're talking about an intermediate solution.
- working remote, lost computer: I know everyone tells you that the world will end if you won't meet the next deadline but that's not true. You can get a day or two off, things happen and people will understand. Meanwhile look for alternative solution, maybe a internet caffe? Talk to the staff at your hotel or local cafe, maybe someone can borrow you something for a day or two? If it's really that important, someone will ship you replacement. Again, it's the advanture part.
- medicine: this I must admit is tough one. If your life really depends on it then you simply don't forget. Sure, your luggage might get stolen but that's beyond your control and you have to cancel the trip anyway most likely. Otherwise you have the medicine in couple places, you should have a receipt and unless you're in a warzone medicine is generally available. I've been in this exact situation couple of times (Germany, UK, Ukraine, Vietnam) and I always was able to procure whatever I needed.
A few ibuprofen and anti-diarrhea pills can make a world of difference, save you from ruining your whole day on a potentially short trip, and they take up no space.
I have a couple of very compact kits, one of which is basically walking/hiking first aid (e.g. blister stuff) and the other is the sort of stuff you mention. It's a really good idea to throw something like these in your bag which weigh nothing, take up no space, and can really be nice if you need them.
PSA: The small index card holders (i.e. about an inch deep) are really good for these kind of kits as they provide some protection.
This!
Only other thing I would like to add is CASH.
Not a lot, just enough to keep you afloat when your credit card is not cooperating.
You may end up in a place that only accepts cash and there's no atm nearby or these that are available won't accept your card for some reason.
And it doesn't have to a remote place like Laos or Bali. This happens in places like Berlin.
Yeah, some cash, debit card, and a backup credit card that is hopefully as independent of the card you normally use traveling as possible. (i.e. not two Chase cards.) Also, be careful that your backup isn't a card you normally never use--especially internationally. The card companies seem to have gotten better about random fraud alerts but they still happen.
If you're traveling with a SO and have joint accounts, check the account numbers. My wife was pickpocketed in Madrid and 2 of our 3 joint cards had the same number, meaning that even though I had the physical card, it was cancelled until we got the new cards.
We weren't aware of the issue before this happened.
> Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location.
I really don't want to lose hours of my vacation shopping for stuff I forgot.
Vacation hours are precious. It's not about the cost of the goods you're buying, it's about the unique experiences you could have been having instead.
Shopping is not what I go to foreign countries to do. Well, except for supermarkets -- discovering new fruits and veggies is fun.
Agreed in general although do your homework first. Some countries don't use the VISA/Mastercard payment system.
China is an absolute unbelievable pain due to being largely WeChat payment based now and there's a lot of restrictions on who can set this up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/16u03k4/how_the_hell...
WeChat Pay is still a no-go, but you can now set up Alipay with any foreign credit/debit card, no need for the former rigmarole of account verification with Chinese phone number/bank account. And Alipay is accepted basically everywhere. (Cash is not.)
> Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location.
Good luck buying a head torch when you find yourself arriving at a deserted campsite in the middle of nowhere just as it is getting dark.
Or your prescription meds in a country where things aren't available over the counter.
Do you mind sharing these checklists? I’d love to throw them into my Obsidian notes for the next time I travel. I do it infrequently but it’s always stressful because it’s to visit family internationally.
Make a checklist. Go on trip. Refine checklist by adding things you forgot and removing things you didn't need. Iterating on the checklist is key.
Mine is pretty short because it's only about the non-routine stuff:
- passport + passport card + visa
- make travel notifications for credit cards (seems less needed these days)
- chargers + outlet adapters
- download maps for areas in Organic Maps, bookmark important places (don't trust Google Maps' offline maps)
- write down confirmation/reservation numbers and important phone numbers
- remove pocket knife from carry-on
- headphones + earplugs + eyeshade
- spare glasses (even an old pair works. yes in Asia you can get new glasses in less than an hour)
- do you need swimwear, sunscreen, or a headlamp?
- lacrosse ball to roll out knots (very personal, but 10hr flights in a cramped economy seat can put a strain on one's back, esp as one gets older)
Again, this is my personal "perennial" travel checklist. It's written from my experiences of having a girlfriend break my glasses while needing to drive the next morning, and forgetting headphones for overnight bus rides.
Similar to susam, I've also started keeping another trip-specific checklist (e.g. any items my in-laws want from America, or bring 98% DEET for SE Asia). These get deleted after the trip.
Walk through your typical preferred travel day when traveling to build a checklist.
“I’m going to be on a plane for 14 hours,”
“I need to get ready for bed at night,”
“I am going to walk through the city”
or “I am doing a wilderness hike.”
I only say that because everyone’s checklist is very different and I think it can be too easy to overpack.
>it can be too easy to overpack
I think there are items that have a good size/weight to utility if you do end up needing them in a place where you can't just run to a store. But you also need to be careful not to fall into a "just one more thing" trap because it occurs to you something might be useful or even was useful in a very specific set of circumstances.
I have one of these. It also tells me all the things I need to turn off / check are switched off in the house.
With the prices of electricity these days I turn off everything by remote control per room each time I leave the house for work etc. Not even extension cord lights are left on, only the very bare necessities - fridge etc remain on.
Ah but the genius of such a list is that it can also cover things like closing windows, checking the gas cooker is off, watering plants... anything that you might later think "did I remember to...?", while flying to Indonesia.
You might have left your fridge switched on, but did you close the door properly?
Read somebody saying that they used their phone to take a picture of the stove knobs before leaving the house.
As a person who has returned to the house at least twice to make sure the burners were off, that resonated.
With LED lights, making sure everything is turned off isn't such a big deal these days. But, while I don't really sweat closing up the house for a day or so, it's definitely worth checking things like windows on a longer trip. There are definitely a lot of things you normally do on cruise control and it's nice to be sure they really happened.
I have a spreadsheet that I clone and edit each time I go on a trip. So if I go camping, skiing, to the beach, etc, I can look at my old checklists, find a similar one, then clone it and tweak it for my upcoming trip.
Agree. I have everything on it after one memorable trip where I forgot to pack any socks.
The pre-trip to-do list is also really useful - e.g. all the things that need charging before I go.
My list has subsections for specialised trips such as camping, wildlife experiences etc. On one camping trip I inventoried everything that came out of my car when I got back. This spotted a couple of things that I probably wouldn't have remembered for the next trip. Over the years I created a box full of tent-things that I can just lift into the car when I load up.
It's not perfect because every trip is often a bit different but compartmentalizing stuff that usually goes together (OK, I don't need my UK plug adapter if I'm going to California) helps a lot without having a checklist of every item. You want your essentials first aid kit, your standard chargers kit, your misc travel kit... goes a long way.
I use multiple packing trips. One for solo (generally) business travel. One for me and my wife traveling. And the last one is for me wife and kids.
It works really well and the lists are significantly different.
Don't buy foreign currency. Take it out of the ATM in the country, and spend it before you leave. Leave the currency in the place it belongs.
Depends on where you are going. We did a trip to India and we got charged several fees when withdrawing from State Bank of India. It would have been even higher if we had allowed State Bank of India to the currency conversion. Do your research before heading to a different country.
Why?
ATMs probably tend to be a better deal but for $100-200 amounts probably doesn't matter much. Whether you spend your leftovers at the airport depends on if you're reasonably certain you'll be back. I keep pounds and Euros but I have way too much of other currencies which between COVID and employment changes, I'll probably never use.
Sounds very well thought out. Care to share your list as a starting point for others?
You do get used to it and I keep a travel pile, but, yeah, checklists are never a bad idea.
The split in sections is really useful!
>Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest! ... They will usually feel honored. You can offer the newlyweds a small token gift of cash if you want. You will be obliged to dance. Take photos of them; they will take photos of you. It will make your day and theirs. (I’ve crashed a wedding in most of the countries I have visited.)
That will only work if a white tourist wedding crashes in a poor country. That will not work if I (as a brown-colored southeast asian) do it.
Yeah, a few of these items sound a lot like "white tourist in poor country".
Like the one about asking the taxi driver to drive you to his mom, like holy cow that's creepy. Imagine asking an American Uber driver "hey drive me to your mom's" and see how they'd respond.
It doesn't even have to be the US, that already wouldn't go well in Eastern Europe. Such things can be seen as extremely disrespectful and are a sure way to get a punch in your face in some places.
Lots of these tips seem like what you'd hear from someone regularly traveling someplace like Egypt, where the taxi drivers will openly tell you about their life/family/etc.
Say anything related to a person's mother in Russia and it will be seen as an insult.
Extremely white, somewhat gendered as well.
I travel alone as a woman a lot, and while it's not as dangerous as many people fear, I'd never ask a taxi driver to take me to (potentially) his private residence in a random neighborhood in an unfamiliar city.
also this
> People in other places are not saints. You might get cheated, swindled, or taken advantage of. Paradoxically, the best way to avoid that is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior. And vice versa. To stay safe, smile.
Idk I would recommend it to a single female traveler
Just imagine this interaction from the mom's perspective. (Because the author sure hasn't!)
You're minding your own business just doing laundry or whatever and your adult son just shows up to you house totally unannounced with a foreign stranger in tow looking for you to cook them a meal. Come on, that is really rude!
Like, it's clear this guy thinks the mom is a total NPC in this situation. It takes some serious delusions of grandeur to think the mom is "happy" about this interaction.
> a total NPC
Honestly, I think that is a great way to describe what bugs me most about this list. It's the idea that other people are there for your entertainment.
Like: 'Go to a cemetery. Look for sacred places. People live authentically there.'
Like really. Why are you going to a place to watch people grieving for your entertainment? What -is- this list? After 50 years of traveling? This mentality is what he has to show for it?
Presumably the driver knows their mom well enough to determine how she would react, or call ahead to be sure. If it still blows up, blame the driver, not the passenger who initiated the request.
A taxi driver in a poor country is doing what he needs to do to get paid, probably with a bit of a tip. That doesn't make this interaction ok. It's exploitative and RUDE!
some are entirely incorrect. Lack of hygiene is a real problem in tropical countries. Pretending that all food everywhere is equal is some crazy level of white, sheltered nonsense.
I would never recommend that anyone eat anything uncooked in a country like India. You are asking for digestive woes.
Much of this "list" is BS.
No, that one is accurate. Street food is usually made to order and has high turnover if you pick a popular stall, which means it often is safer than touristy restaurants that rely on snaring a couple of visitors a day and thus has food sitting around for much longer. I spent 1.5 years in Thailand and the only time I got sick was from a fancy, touristy seafood place in Koh Samui.
You still have to use common sense though. The water/ice used in street food is often sus, so anything uncooked is best avoided, and you probably don't want to get your larb from the lady who keeps her raw minced meat in an open bucket marinating in the sun.
I think you're agreeing. Typical cooked "street food" is probably fine (and I've done many times); uncooked may not be.
This depends. There are local places with cheap chicken rice in Thailand and locals go there but a savvy local will tell you: don't go there in the afternoon. Because they cook rice once in the morning and it hangs there all day! Usual customers maybe all have their gut adjusted but you don't
But yes I had a fair share of mild poisonings from touristy places. I blame fresh veg which in Asian cultures may not be so clean
I can't even imagine having this sort of attitude where you think that your presence is like a "celebrity guest" for strangers and and will be "making their day." You. Complete strangers.
Like, how does one have such an inflated sense of importance? And feel absolutely no shame in writing it out for the world to see.
Delusions of grandeur.
It depends on the place. I've definitely been to a couple places where people were very excited to meet me (a large white man), practice their limited English, parade me around to their friends, and ask me about where I live.
I was constantly expecting them to want something from me in return, but it never happened. Actually they would often insist on giving me things. This has happened to me probably four distinct times. It's obviously more likely to happen in small towns that don't get a lot of tourists, and also more likely to happen in countries without white people.
I imagine this might not generalize to people of all races. It also helps to have an outgoing personality.
Of course, in tourist hotspots people are probably vaguely annoyed by your presence (or specifically and intensely annoyed, like in Barcelona apparently) and will either ignore you or try to sell you things.
Even if one finds themselves in such a situation, they should allow the locals to pull them in, instead of pushing themselves on the locals.
tbf there are certain parts of the world where if you're young and white and friendly you absolutely do get the celebrity treatment, including wedding invitations[1] and especially a lot of photo requests. There are also parts of the world and families where a foreign guest unknown to most people there would be extremely awkward even if they had a genuine connection with one of the party.
I'd have gone to the wedding of the daughter of the Indian chap who sat next to me on a bus for a couple of hours the day before if there hadn't been logistical issues, because the invitation was genuine and I'd have been able to have proper conversations with the wedding party and feel like I was there for more than just free food and music. I don't think he needed me to make his day though :)
This guy is Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine. I guess he thinks people will recognize him?
I crashed a literal Greek wedding (in Greece!) once, waaaay out in the countryside, and I can confirm they were really super glad to have me.
Yeah, while I did like the Laser-Back strategy of going to the most remote location first and meandering back to the departure city, reading the names at the bottom shows only one phenotype of person wrote/edited this.
Lots of great advice here. But..
>In many parts of the world today motorcycles play the role of cars. That means you can hire a moto-taxi to take you on the back seat, or to summon a moto-taxi with an uber-like app, or to take a motorcycle tour with a guide doing the driving. In areas where motorcycles dominate they will be ten times more efficient than slowly going by car.
I would be extremely wary about this. You are so much more vulnerable on a bike. And you won't even be wearing proper protective equipment. Even if they lend you a helmet, it is unlikely to fit properly and don't know how many times it has been dropped or involved in a crash. Also the most common injuries to motorcyclists are to the legs, and I doubt they will be lending you boots or biking trousers.
No thanks!
2 years ago when backpacking in East Africa, I went from "there is no way I'm ever doing this" to taking nothing but those moto-taxis ("boda bodas") even for 40 minute inter-city rides with a 12KG backpack on my back. No helmets to speak of. Except maybe in Rwanda.
Part of the learning experience of such travel, is to see firsthand how the locals of these places perceive the risk. How they manage risk in general, and what is the "value of a human life" for them as compared to our western perceptions.
There is no "the locals" usually. It sounds a bit condescending, like the article. If people look different than you it doesn't mean they are all the same. People have different life situations. Maybe even in your home country too.
If you go somewhere on a moto taxi in Bangkok all those taxis and fancy SUVs you see are not silly foreigners who are scared of motobikes, they are also locals who manage risk.
Exactly!
I grew up in the US.
I grew up in a family where drunk driving was totally normal. Car wrecks happened with regularity. As a child I road with my parents while they were drunk and actively drinking. I road in the bed of my dads pickup truck while he was speeding on backroads while drunk. I never wore my seatbelt until I started driving. One of our cars growing up didn't even have seats, cuz my dad took them out. My dad would slam on the breaks while driving down the highway and everyone would go flying.
I always wear my seatbelt now. I would never would drive drunk now, or even slightly buzzed. I would never expose children to that sort of environment. My parents are awful people.
As a child my parents drinking/hangover is some of the worst memories but this sounds another level. Respect for not passing it on to kids.
The combination of poor road safety, lack of protective equipment and lesser health care if anything goes wrong does not make it an attractive option for me. Each to their own, I guess.
Context: I used to have a motorbike. I always wore full protective equipment. Full face helmet, leather, gloves and boots. But I realize that is less practical in a hot climate.
I will never ride a bicycle or motorcycle or scooter in any location without a helmet.
Those that do so are simply stupid. It's 2025. Helmets are such a ridiculously high cost/benefit ratio.
It's like not using a seatbelt, or smoking cigarettes. Totally insane, knowing what we now know.
Doesn't matter if it "isn't done here". TBIs work the same in Bangkok as Boston.
> Part of the learning experience of such travel, is to see firsthand how the locals of these places perceive the risk.
Sorry, but this is a just financial decision by locals and not a philosophical treatise on the value of life. Once people have enough money, they'll opt to take the car-taxi, doubly-so if their child is coming along. It's fun for backpackers and I'm glad it got you out of your comfort zone.
It's not quite that straightforward. Obviously the calculus changes when you can afford alternatives, but all social classes in Bangkok and Jakarta can and do take motosai/ojeks if they're in a hurry and the traffic (for four-wheelers) is completely jammed like it usually is.
The entire 50 years is showing here. Seems like some of these tips are good, and some are awful because they're outdated. Don't crash random weddings if you're not able to pay your way out of trouble. Sketchy plans do result in kidnappings. Truly professional tour guides are wonderful assets that will 10X both your trip and your knowledge in any city.
True. Had a friend head to Central America to surf (I don't recall which country). The first cab he hailed took him to an alley where others were waiting and he was robbed of his passport, cash.
End of trip.
Please don't interpret this as my painting the whole of Central America as dangerous. This is anecdotal but perhaps a cautionary tale? I suspect if he had not grabbed a cab but rather found a bus or some other sort of mass transportation his whole trip could have turned out wonderfully.
That just sounds like terrible luck to be honest.
Catching a cab from the airport in a new country after a flight is a pretty common thing to do no matter where you're going. Depending on flight length you might well be too tired to really navigate public transport in a new city in a foreign language.
There's not a lot to learn from that.
In certain countries I will always ask the hotel to get a ride for me from the airport, and I will not hail a random cab.
Certain countries? Maybe. I have ordered a hotel limo in Bangkok but certainly not the norm and probably a bit extravagant.
Countries where you're likely to be kidnapped (or driven to a bad neighborhood, and charged a lot of money to get back, etc.). Russia, Brazil, Mexico, etc.
I don't travel to Russia anymore, and won't go to Rio or Mexico City without private security.
If I felt that way about a country, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't travel there.
Nope nope nope, With a decent head on your shoulders you can safely do all kinds of unusual that idiots would otherwise end up very troubled by. I've known plenty of people that get themselves into trouble through foolishness and folly, while more wise operators finds only un-regrets. Like how in the winter some people freeze to death and some people ski, you know?
I travel 300+ days a year for work. For two years I didn’t have a place to live because I was traveling so much. I’ve been doing this for 7 years now.
1) use uber, unless public transport works well(Nordic countries, Switzerland).
2) lock everything expensive up in the hotel safety box, otherwise eventually your shit will get stolen
3) have multiple methods of payment with you, leave one on the hotel.
4) I travel mostly with my wife who does not travel light. Most of the advice in the linked article is really general lifestyle advice. I have 100 kilos of luggage in my hotel apartment. If there’s a will, there is a way.
>lock everything expensive up in the hotel safety box, otherwise eventually your shit will get stolen
Depending upon where I am, I have mixed feelings about this. In many hundreds of days of travel, I guess I've been lucky enough not to have valuables stolen, but then I take some care not to leave them in plain sight. On the other hand, I'm positive I would forget something in a hotel safe as I have in a hotel closet.
In Asia use Grab instead. Uber either won't work or will just be less popular.
Thanks for the info.
Fantastic list. Brings back many memories.
Regarding the “recharge” vs “engage” trips: If you’re restless like me then you’ll probably feel most recharged after a trip that fully engaged you. Because you can’t think about work when you’re busy navigating your way through a rural and foreign land, speaking with strangers, and straining to learn just enough of a new language to get around.
The “laser-back” tip is 100% on point. I came to know this intuitively but I’ve never seen it put into words. One caveat I’d add there is: if it takes >20 hours to get to your first destination, give yourself time and permission to just chill on the first full day there.
Also I want to strongly endorse the “carry-on only” tip. More than that, I suggest backpack only. Your options and opportunities for spontaneity increase significantly when you can just swing a backpack ever your shoulder and go. It also forces you to live with less, at least for a time, which in turn teaches you that actually you don’t need all that much to get by. Then you return home and question why you need a closet full of clothes.
> Getting an inside tour is the ultimate travel treat. How about a factory tour,
Yes, I'm glad I did some factory tours in Japan, they were really interesting!
Link is to archive.org since JETRO seem to have taken down the site during the pandemic and not put it back up again: https://web.archive.org/web/20190407170023/jetro.go.jp/en/in...
We did a very interesting tour inside a Swedish iron mine. It is a shame more big factories and industrial sites don't do tours. I'm sure a tour of massive mining quarry would be much more interesting than the standard tourist attractions.
A couple of tips from my own experience.
-Have a checklist, so you don't forget stuff.
-Packing cubes make packing a bag much easier.
-For long flights with a stopover (e.g. Europe to NZ) you can stay in a transit hotel in the airport terminal. This means you don't have to go through immigration, security etc. So much easier than having to travel out to a hotel.
-I have found Airalo to be quite good for local data esims.
https://maya.net/ is just as reliable and cheaper in my experience
>-Packing cubes make packing a bag much easier
I agree in general. Underwear and socks are always in one packing cube and I carry a lightweight mesh laundry pag.
In addition, I have a few small kits I pretty much always carry in addition to my document folder. Need to replenish (and cull) from time to time but it makes the checklist a whole lot simpler for most trips.
So many people got enraged enough about one or two tips to comment on them, to the exclusion of all else.
Do yourself a favor.
Copy paste the article’s text to somewhere you can edit.
Delete the tips you don’t agree with.
Read the article without them.
Now take note of what you do notice.
With over 50 years of travel, the author still does not recognize the unique privilege he is in, and how inappropriate his tips are for most of the population.
Maybe they do, and it's okay to write from experience.
What a sad take-away. All tips you give are rinsed through the lens of your personal experience. We don’t need a bunch of disclaimers every time someone enumerates some tips just to appease the “but did he check his privilege tho?” audience.
telling people to crash random weddings? Telling people that all food is hygienic?
Oh please, stop with this victim nonsense. Your personal experience can be personal while also admitting that you come from tremendous privilege.
You can REALLY tell that this "list" was written by a white male.
So what if it was?
All of our tips are always aimed at people in a similar position. Just consider how your travel tips don't even apply to most of the world who can't travel.
This just sounds like sour grapes to me. Like getting worked up because someone didn't start with a land acknowledgement.
Just ask how often the author is inviting the local homeless in his city to meet his mother and crash and his weddings.
Probably close to Zero. But he expects to be treated like a special when he is traveling.
Nah, they're totally right about this one. When you exploit the global power imbalance in your favor, at least acknowledge what you're doing before dishing it out as general advice.
> To stay safe, smile.
You might have to be a traveler who has been in a bind to appreciate that one, because it's absolutely true that being friendly can disarm a bad situation.
Right. This reads like a person who doesn't realize their ethnic visage is plot-armor, or that smiling maybe works for a different reason than they think it does.
Doesn't read as friendly in most places (we're talking out of context on the street), it reads as aloof or menacing/unknown factor. Being a white male with confidence takes care of the first assumption and leaves the second.
"People in other places are not saints. You might get cheated, swindled, or taken advantage of. Paradoxically, the best way to avoid that is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior. And vice versa. To stay safe, smile. Be humble and minimize your ego. I don’t know why that works everywhere in the world—even places with “bad” reputations—but it does."
This just got me! Its so true. That's been my experience too.
I have a feeling that male and female travel experiences may differ in this regard. "To stay safe, smile." seems pretty naive to me. Clearly, the author is male. I would proffer "always have an exit", "do not walk into something you cannot walk out of" and "do not stray too far from the crowd".
Even for white males, whilst it might help convince people you're one of the nice backpackers and not the rude backpackers or defuse situations caused by your faux pas, being trusting absolutely doesn't get you any sympathy from who make a living out of scamming or robbing tourists. Sure, escalating probably isn't the best way out either and the minor annoyances that cost you a dollar might be best overlooked, but switching your guard off is a terrible idea in a lot of parts of the world
Yeah, the author seems to be writing for a white male audience in some regards.
My wife and I host bicycle tourers when they pass through our town. One was Thomas Meixner, an East German who started travelling the world on bike when the wall fell. He's visited something like 120 countries and biked 250,000 km.
My wife asked him if he thought a solo woman could do what he did in the places he did it. He tactfully changed the subject.
My rule of thumb while travelling: Most people are good and will help you if go up to them and ask, and most of the people who initiate contact with you want your money.
While travelling I've never had a problem walking up to someone pretty much at random and asking for directions or recommendations, etc. Sometimes this turns into more than just a quick conversation, and that's great, meeting locals can be the best part of a trip. Hotel and restaurant staff are a great resource, too - ask questions.
However, most of the people who approach you as a tourist, particularly in places with lots of tourists, want your money. The swindlers and cheats aggregate in these places. They don't wait for tourists they want to rip off to approach them, they actively go after their prey, being practiced at taking advantage of their openness, confusing them, etc.
There are exceptions. Common sense goes a long way. Be way more careful when partying.
+1 Reminds me of something I heard from (I think) Penn Jillette:
In public spaces, if you pick someone out of a crowd for support, or you are randomly/unexpectedly put in a situation where you depend on a stranger, you're probably safe.
If someone else picks you without solicitation, or appoints themselves to support you, be careful.
>There are exceptions. Common sense goes a long way.
On a visit to London last year, walking down a street with some kiosks displaying pictures of aquatic life in the waters around the British isles, I was approached by a women who asked if I would mind taking a brief survey about the organization sponsoring the kiosks (Royal something or other). In the end she gave me £5 note for my time.
I noticed their list of travel accomplishments doesn’t seem to include things like “been robbed at gunpoint in South America”, “had passports seized in Southeast Asia”, or “sexually assaulted in an Eastern European hostel”. All of which I’ve experienced.
Travel, while fun, can also be very dangerous, especially the further you get from being a wealthy straight white male. Be careful and try to avoid thinking you’re a main character for whom nothing can go wrong.
> In 53 years of travelling with all kinds of people, I’ve seen absolutely no correlation between where you eat and whether you have intestinal problems, so to maximize the enjoyment of local foods, my rule of thumb is to eat wherever healthy-looking locals eat.
An interesting one. Tracks with my experience, although I have far less data. I’ve gotten sick a few times, but not after the sketchy meals that I thought would do it.
However, my guide in Nepal warned me not to eat certain things. I always listened to him, and I did not get sick on that trip. He seemed to be speaking from experience guiding other white people.
To be fair, a lot of this is attributed to your gut microbiome being adapted to the bacteria in your usual diet. Some food may not sit well with you — not necessarily because the food is “bad” but because your system isn’t used to the new bacteria.
That’s why locals are fine but tourists aren’t in most cases.
On a funny side note, when I was in Nepal we did get some food at a pretty popular restaurant. Everyone had horrific food poisoning later that night, except me since I didn’t touch the cheese!
> I’ve seen absolutely no correlation between where you eat and whether you have intestinal problems
Well of course, that's the wrong correlation to be looking for.
It's not where you eat, it's what you eat. Have all the cooked meat and veggies and carbs you want, but raw salads and tap water on the other hand...
I don't agree with all of this though I do think most of it can be good advice. I did a huge amount of travel, mostly of particular styles, latterly when I was working. Still do a fair bit though I'm trying to spend less time on flights and more on destinations.
The main thing I didn't see in there although I may have missed it or it may have been implied is travel light. You can't always go with carry-on pack of some sort if you have varied trips, e.g. smart clothing plus hiking kit. But you can probably go lighter than you think. I know I'm mostly at lightweight travel than I used to be.
+1 on traveling light. The author did mention this, too: " Your enjoyment of a trip will be inversely related to the weight of your luggage. Counterintuitively, the longer your trip, the less stuff you should haul. Travelers still happy on a 6-week trip will only have carry-on luggage."
Ah. Missed that.
It's certainly not always possible if you need real dress clothing or real hiking/camping gear. (I've never gotten to the point where I can do a month-long trip that includes a long distance week-long+ walk along with some fairly formal evening wear in a carry-on.)
But you can probably get closer than you think. By myself, if I'm mostly just traveling in cities with "business casual" as dressy as it gets, I can travel almost indefinitely with a 40L travel backpack.
For men, mixed business/pleasure trips to countries with a conservative dress code can be tough (Japan for example). I have found that higher quality suits have better fabrics that are more able to recover from being stuffed in a small space. The problem I have yet to solve is shoes. In the West, not only are suits for meetings becoming rarer, but dress sneakers are acceptable almost everywhere, and they can do double duty for leisure. In Japan I would feel underdressed if I wasnt wearing standard black leather shoes. Maybe it will change with the new generation. Things are certainly lighter than in the early 2000s and 2010s, when there was a distinct echo of the infamous Burleson dress code[0]. (Though the cultural disdain for tattoos still exists.)
[0] https://archive.is/Shp8G
The last couple of trips I took to Japan were for events with essentially a developer/marketing oriented organization and I was able to comfortably get off with pretty much business casual. Maybe I wouldn't have felt as comfortable for a customer event.
The last trip I really felt I overpacked for with respect to train/transit was some time in London, followed by a long-distance walk where I really needed everything I had with me, followed by an ocean liner return where I needed jackets and real dress shoes--which, as you suggest, even Rockports aren't really general purpose. You always want more shoes than you can reasonably carry.
Wheeled vs. non-wheeled luggage is definitely a tradeoff. I lean towards non-wheeled in general and just maybe take a few more taxis if the luggage is too heavy to schlep around the city a bit.
Say my good man! Why don't we visit your mother? We can secure a filial obligation for you and an authentic experience for me! By the way, is your sister getting married anytime soon? I have a small cash token to offer in this regard, I think it will be most welcome!
No kidding. The undercurrent of colonialism — this exotic world is made for my conquest! - feels pervasive and somewhat nauseating as described here.
Western obsession with travel leads to overtourism and a fixation on “novelty”. There’s nothing wrong with a relaxing vacation but we must all learn to be content with our day to day existence to unlock true happiness.
My version of his advice would be "if a stranger invites you to a party, don't turn them down."
Also, your comment reminds me of this classic SNL skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbwlC2B-BIg
"If you're sad now, and you get on a plane to Italy, the 'you' in Italy will still be the same sad you from before! Does that make sense?"
"People travel to change themselves, but they only change the scenery."
>... I’ve seen absolutely no correlation between where you eat and whether you have intestinal problems...
Add to this one: always make sure your hands are clean before you eat. A little bottle of sanitiser will do wonders for your health in areas with poor sanitation.
Otherwise, one tip I would like to add - when in doubt, do as the locals do. Especially useful when you can't read signs.
One thing I didn’t see mention is the utilization of airport lounges. It really helps to relax before boarding.
Though in recent years lounges are getting overcrowded.
I really appreciated airport lounges when I was flying a lot, especially when there were long connections or delays. I don't have mine any longer given I'm trying to make fewer but longer trips. And, as you say, they've gotten overcrowded in many cases. They don't also really help much for early AM departures which are what I'm doing a lot of the time. These days, $400+ a year is better spent on other travel amenities.
What amenities would you recommend around that annual budget? Honest question, I’m finding the lounges to be less helpful these days.
Nothing specific. Just some more expensive meals, maybe more theater/other entertainment. I'm pretty happy with where I am for hotels (which will chew up additional cash pretty quickly anyway). I don't really have a formal budget for travel as such. I just don't find lounges are a very good value for me these days as they were in the past.
one tip of the list I can't agree more is the www.seat61.com for train ticket, especially if you travel in Europe, where train is the most convenient way to travel between cities/nations but man is it such complex system, there are so many different rail companies and lines, this website gives a clear instruction on options, price and where to buy the ticket
I’d add… - Learn to travel light. You don’t need more than ~4 days of clothes - laundry soap exists. Dragging large rollers around old cities is not fun.
- Checklists for prep. I have one for plane travel, one for backpacking, and one for travel by RV. Nothing unexpected on any them, but helps me avoid asking myself “did I pack the phone charger?” Or “do I have sunscreen?”
- Give yourself options - I like to list out things to do, maybe 4-5 for a location/day, but only really plan to do 2-3 of them.
- The old adage about no bad weather, only bad clothing is true. And the natural light after an evening rain is usually really nice.
Especially for mostly casual city-type stuff, you don't need a lot and it can be washed in a sink or whatever. Stuff getting really muddy on hiking trails gets harder but you can often get laundry done. (My last long distance walk in the UK I had laundry done a couple of times.)
Where it gets harder is when you need different type of clothing (especially bulkier clothing) for different legs of a trip.
Oh yeah, we did a cycling trip in Italy a while back, with days in Florence and Rome on either side. Hauling bike helmets, shoes, pedals, etc added a lot of bulk. Still made it work all carry-on with no rollers - just max size rucksacks and max size personal bags.
I spent 9 months traveling from Mexico to Buenos Aires with a backpack eighteen years ago. Spent most nights in hostels in shared rooms for a few dollars a night. It was a great experience. Carried a MacBook Pro and a digital Nikon D70. Actually had the first iPhone but hardly used it. Do have a selfie of myself on a bus somewhere in Central America.
These days I’m taking more expensive vacations in cheaper countries. You can go to the Caribbean and stay for $2000 a night or go to places like Morocco or Panama on a luxury vacation for 1/3 the price.
1/3 of 2000 USD is still 650 USD a night. This is quite a price.
I am sure that plenty of people can afford it (I could if I wanted to) but this is rather expensive when you compare to, say a stay in Chamonix (French Alps, a "posh" station) where you can have a 65 m2 appartment next to the slopes in high season for about 250-300€/night.
Are you talking about my flat in Chamonix? :) Those are top season prices, one can go much lower and mountains are still roughly the same, meaning absolutely awesome and most accessible brutal high alpine terrain in Europe, possibly globally. Skiing Vallee Blanche is top experience (just take helmet at least).
Anyway backpacking is the most intense form of travelling by huge margin, the cheaper the better. I did two 3-month trips in India & Nepal around 2010, all costs combined apart from return flight tickets were around 500$ per month. Best time of my life, literally life and personality changing experiences that will stay with me till my last breath. No plans, just 1 thick Lonely planet book
Adventures don't need to be always positive experiences, intensity is what matters much more, the further away from comfort zone one gets more impactful the experience is.
Also it feels significantly longer, each time those 3 months felt like decades, hard to describe with mere words
I don't keep track of this sort of thing in detail but I usually figure a month-long trip ends up running about $10K. Sometimes probably a bit more, sometimes a bit less. Where that money goes will vary depending on the type of trip. In cities, I usually stay somewhere nice but not top-end which I find doesn't buy me a lot incrementally. Don't usually fly business unless I use miles for part of it.
No illusions this is penniless student budgeting but it suits me.
Instead of $650 there’s always the AirBnB and living on less than $100 a day. When I backpacked I was spending probably $1000 a month. I recommend trying both.
I had a similar reaction. I think of Panama as being one of the higher COL areas in that region.
In a lot of areas in the US $650/night is a posh hotel/airbnb.
OPs numbers are weird. Marocco should get you great accommodation for a tenth, not a third.
Yeah, $650 per night in Morocco is staying in La Mamounia, famous mingling place of world leaders and celebrities with a Paul McCartney song named after it...
You can stay in quite a nice palace for a lot less than that
As a lifelong traveller, $2000 will generally last me 1-6 months, depending on the country.
Paying that per night means you are not the kind of traveller the author or many of us are, the name is probably vacationeer or something like that.
The “14 days is too many” rings true in my mind. My wife and I did a 2 month road trip several years ago and I distinctly remember around the two week mark we went from having tons of fun to worn out and ready to just go home.
The weird part is as we pressed on and got past week 3 I felt like we could be on the road indefinitely and be absolutely happy never returning home. There is def a lull around the end of week 2 for some reason.
3-4 weeks is about where I draw the line. And I've talked to others who have said similar.
I don't disagree with your last part though. Never tried it but I can easily imagine that once you get into a "what's this home thing mode?" there's no hard stop necessarily.
These are the best travel tips I've seen anywhere - surprising and unconventional and I can see why each of them would work.
Luggage tipp: Have exactly one, easy to grab main piece at luggage that goes on your back or on wheels. Have at most one tiny extra piece to carry. The second your luggage exceeds three it becomes a massive hassle: You cannot hold on to things, you will lose one piece and your fun trip descends into a disorganized mess.
Luggage which clips together like a storage/day backpack combo is very valuable for this: Your backpack might be comically large, but you can haul all your stuff with free hands. At your accomodation, you can leave the large bag and continue on your day pack.
Free hands are critical when travelling by train or bus, or if you just wanna get a snack and drink.
Get a 45 liter backpack with one single massive compartment.
I love this one https://www.peakdesign.com/products/travel-backpack?Size=45L...
And then get a duffle bag carry-on.
This lets you maximize storage on the cheap “1x carry-on, 1x personal item” plane tickets. No checked luggage; the 45L backpack just goes under the seat in front of you.
Osprey also makes a good one. Sometimes I need to check something bigger especially if I have a long walk planned but I usually use an Osprey Porter 40Lish (may be a newer line I haven't tried). Yep. Big compartment and use some organizing cubes/bags.
Prefer http://web.archive.org/web/20211126054838/https://artoftrave...
I would add: learn how to say at least “hello,” and “thank you” in the local language, and a few other phrases. Even if you butcher it, the fact that you tried goes a long long way.
These are very good tips to do just before or just after your trip. Or why not even following weekend:
> If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take you to visit their mother.
> Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest!
The first one specially is likely good option after you leave the airport on the way home. And the second one is good practise to do when you are not on vacation. Find the wedding venues in your local area and hit them.
This is great advice. On his 'laser out' approach, I often find after travel I am tired and I _really_ don't want to spend hours more getting to where I'm really going, so I usually stop in the city that I landed in.
But I have a policy: never go to sleep without going to walk in the city. That is: never land and sleep. _Always_ absorb some of the local environment. Then when your brain knows it's somewhere else, then go to sleep.
This has worked to varying degrees. I always wake up with the excitement of being somewhere. But once, on my very first trip overseas, I got lost and spent three confused hours very late at night in a dark 2AM-no-one-around city trying to find my way back...
...but it sure is a good story now.
Which is very much the point of this article's advice. It seems to be: optimise for experience and stories.
Tip: your passport does not exist the morning of a trip, even though you packed it the night before. Touch it before leaving the house, and you manifest it into being.
This tip is especially important when coupled with another thing I always say: as long ans I have my passport and a credit card, every other forgotten thing is no big deal.
This guy is proud enough of his tips that he's sharing it. God help the person who sits next to him on any of his trips.
> If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take you to visit their mother. They will ordinarily jump at the chance.
This is deluded.
> They fulfill their filial duty and you will get easy entry into a local’s home, and a very high chance to taste some home cooking.
Oh I see, he's probably traveling in a very poor country.
> Crash a wedding.
What? No. That's rude.
> You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest!
Oh I see, probably a white person from a rich country traveling in a poor country.
> They will usually feel honored.
I stopped reading and CTRF-F for primae noctis. Disappointed. He had me going.
I like his list of recommendations for apps and websites. Are there any other recommendations?
FlightAware
Google Maps and Translate
Booking.com
Seat61.com
I find TripIt pretty indispensable even if I'd love to give "notes" to the designers
Maybe Expedia too though I often make the final reservation directly
One of the OSM mapping apps. I use MapOut
TripAdvisor and Yelp are "OK." Often better than nothing.
Various carrier or hotel chain-related apps depending on your preferences
On a related note in Europe I tend to use their taxi apps instead of Uber. In Paris I used the G7 app because official taxis could use the HOV lane while Uber cannot. In Italy, I use the Freenow app as I found their taxis very affordable.
Yeah Freenow/Uber/Lyft tend to vary in popularity and availability across Europe and even US states. ( I feel like I took Ubers in Chicago and Lyfts in Boston )
Usually just looking at that taxi area in arrivals at the airport you can figure out which app is the one most supported.
Yeah, Uber plus whatever the relevant local transit apps are I should have mentioned. Thanks for the G7 app recommendation as I'll be in Paris in a couple months. Don't normally take taxis much there but good to know.
To add to that:
- Maps.me (offline maps)
- GPX Viewer (offline + hiking)
- Wikiloc.com (for trails and walking routes)
- Geocaching (fun to play in new countries)
- Facebook/WhatsApp/Telegram/LINE/Kakao/WeChat: depending on the country you visit
- Airalo/Keepgo: eSIM for some countries (if you go to Asia or Africa for more than 1 month, you might spend less by buying a local SIMs instead)
- Reddit/Meetups: to find other people to hang our with
- Couchsurfing
- Workaway (if you want to also work/volunteer while travelling - requires a small subscription fee)
- Something like Revolut for withdrawals worldwide
I've found Wikivoyage is usually a good source of info, though the quality of the articles varies depending on the location.
Apps: Airline, hotel, rental car company. TripAdvisor. FlightAware24, Loungebuddy, Terminal Buddy, At Your Gate. Microsoft Translate with offline language downloaded. Kindle, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, plex, etc. with offline downloads. Google Maps with offline maps downloaded.
I’ve been travelling the world most of my life. I think I can at least partially attribute my survival thus far to never having asked a taxi driver if I can meet his mother.
Great read but I must say I completely disagree with:
"the best way to avoid [[getting cheated/swindled]] is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior."
As someone who's lived in London for 20 years, if you trust and treat everyone well you will lose all of your money, your watch, and phone. Unfortunately, those looking to cheat you out of something have become extremely common and totally remorseless!
I get that the author is probably referring to locals but these days it's impossible to tell who's a local trying to be kind and who's trying to distract you to reach into your bag.
Maybe I'm being unnecessarily pessimistic about strangers but i guess that's what London does to you haha
> If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take you to visit their mother.
Uhh, I really can't imagine this one working well in a Western country.
A "weaker" version of this is to ask your driver personal questions. Obviously stop if they make it really clear they don't want to talk at all, but there's a psychology about talking to strangers you know you won't see again that lets many people open up in ways they wouldn't in maybe any other circumstances. I've
- Seen more baby and kid-milestone photos than I can count.
- Been told a brutal war story by a tow-truck driver in Kentucky ("did you know blood from the liver is almost black?") that - though he didn't say it, explicitly - I don't think he'd ever talked about to anyone.
- Heard about someone's life's-work in AIDS prevention.
- Learned about the Philippine Civil War from a former airforce Colonel. (Highlight: he and his best friend / roommate in the military academy chose different sides. They privately promised each other that they'd find a way to communicate if their units were ever ordered to attack the other.)
- Heard first-hand about the horrifying obstacles the US government placed in the paths of Afghani translators (for the US Army) trying to immigrate to safety in the US.
- Met a Singaporean former mercenary, who told me all about doing private security for illegal gold mines in New Guinea. He was very matter of fact (and entirely unrepentant) about having indiscriminately shot local villagers and government forces. Several of his buddies were killed by bow and arrow in an attack during which he cut and ran ("their families are still mad at me"). It was all a madcap adventure, as far as he was concerned, and then he showed me pictures of his boat.
Looking at that list, I guess don't do it if you don't want to be trauma-dumped, but I'm quite socially awkward, so you don't have to let that stop you. Most people don't seem to care - they have stories they want to tell, and will tell them, if you'll listen.
Almost certainly would seem weirder in some places or circumstances than others. One of those things in the list I have certainly never considered.
Once in Vietnam, our cab driver asked if he could pause at home on the way. We said yes. So he drove home, his wife gave him lunch, we tried it too, met her and his kids and his friendly half-street-half-pet dogs, and then went back to our hotel.
And I still remember it... whereas I cannot remember our other taxi rides!
Anyone got tips when traveling with kids?
From what I learnt from other travelling families:
- Be a team
- Learn effective communication (verbal and non-verbal)
- Be a team
And if they are very young (less than 6yo or so), you will need to teach them to be calm in most situations and let you handle it.
I would imagine that is practically a separate category of tips
Don't.
Plenty of great advice that, in its essence, is: "Be water, my friend."
> If you hire a driver, or use a taxi, offer to pay the driver to take you to visit their mother. They will ordinarily jump at the chance. They fulfill their filial duty and you will get easy entry into a local’s home, and a very high chance to taste some home cooking. Mother, driver, and you leave happy. This trick rarely fails.
Wow. What a creep. No thank you.
> When visiting a foreign city for the first time, take a street food tour. Depending on the region, the tour will include food carts, food trucks, food courts, or smaller eateries. It will last a few hours, and the cost will include the food. You’ll get some of the best food available, and usually the host will also deliver a great introduction to the culture. Google “street food tour for city X.”
No, you will get the mid eateries that pay tour guides to bring tourists. They pay tour guides because the locals know not to go there.
Here are mine - go and do something that excites you, whatever it is. Also, be respectful of the local culture and have common sense, et voila.
Whatever you do...
I stopped reading here. PLEASE don't do this. It's extremely disrespectful.> Crash a wedding. You are not a nuisance; you are the celebrity guest!
Urgh. Really?
Am I the "odd man out" for not wanting to travel, and not enjoying it when I do?
Almost certainly not. I used to work with someone who had to be practically strong-armed into working down his vacation days because he didn't like traveling and, aside from a couple of local-ish hobbies, got bored sitting around home.
I probably got a bit over my travel comfort limit for a while hitting about 160 days/year at peak (including vacation) but I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for whom that's not their thing.
No. Plenty of people don't have any interest in it.
It just seems like everyone likes it because it's because the new status symbol now that material consumption is looked down on. It's a way to demonstrate your worldliness and check the boxes of the zeitgeist.
But of course plenty of people just like it because it's fun too.
Wow, that's actually a really good list.
I'd add if a journalist has done it, you can do it. Search HN for you location (which also has most of Atlas Obscura in it)
Lots to disagree about like
> The list of most coveted cities to visit have one striking thing in common—they are pedestrian centric.
if your coveted places are mostly in Europe/Japan. Los Angeles, Chiang Mai (or any city in most SEA) etc are the opposite of pedestrian centric. Do you like multi hour walks in heat among pollution and traffic or stray dogs to get to a nice coffeeshop? Yeah. Public transport is broken and literally everybody who lives there uses personal transport.
(He then goes to contradict himself and recommend unsafe moto taxi)
It took only one long solo wait at a crosswalk in Chon Buri to convince me that it was worth paying about 3 USD to travel about 6 blocks. Traffic yielding to a single pedestrian is a quaint notion and as you say a lone farang seems to be a soi dog magnet.
Some SE Asian cities are OK except for the heat/humidity like Singapore, Penang, and Hong Kong. But, yeah, most of the big SE Asian cities are pretty horrible to get around and certainly aren't pedestrian friendly except very locally.
Hong Kong is one of the most walkable of them yep. But if it is "lists of coveted cities", idk how coveted it is;)
I'd say Hong Kong is pretty coveted, albeit expensive.