12 Tricks That Can Make Your Travel Safe and Comfortable

Even a carefully planned trip can be ruined by unforeseen circumstances: lost luggage, cancelled hotel reservations, missing money and more. Fortunately, you can find a lot of tips online that will help you avoid these troubles. We decided to put together a few tips and tricks that will make your trip more comfortable.

Clean up before you leave.

Cleaning is the last thing on most people’s minds before going on holiday, and after a quick packing, home is often a real mess. However, it’s a bad idea to leave your home in a state like this. This mess can greatly spoil your mood on your return, and the whole effect of the holiday will go to waste.

And in order not to forget to do all sorts of important things before leaving (unloading the fridge, switching off electrical appliances and so on), it’s worth making a list on your phone and ticking off the things you’ve done. This way, you won’t painfully wonder on holiday whether you’ve turned off the iron or not.

• My husband and I saved up for a holiday for a whole year and finally went to the south for half a month. The pot plants and dog were taken to my mother-in-law, the spare keys were also left to her.
  We had a great holiday, we hadn’t had such a good time on holiday for a long time. We arrived home late at night. We enter the flat and feel something wrong right from the threshold. The smell was so strong that it brought tears to my eyes.
  We quickly found out that our fridge had got broken, and there were meat and vegetables inside. Obviously, everything had gone bad. So, we spent the whole night cleaning the fridge, and went to work angry and tired the next morning.

Make sure you choose the right bag.

Black, blue or gray suitcases seem like a sensible choice. Dirt and scratches are not visible on these colors. But the chances of losing a dark suitcase are much higher. Your luggage can be taken by mistake by another person. It is better to buy a bag of red, yellow or green color.

If you have no desire to spend money on a new suitcase, you can simply draw a yellow circle on the top and back sides with acrylic paint. In addition, you should not rely only on airline tags. Even with them, luggage can go to the wrong place. However, the staff will find the owner of the lost suitcase much faster if they find a piece of paper with the name and booking code inside.

• I’ve had expensive suitcases and the cheapest I could find. My suitcases I got from Costco lasted the longest, but finally were too heavy. Get as light as you can and don’t spend too much. The airlines have run over, torn the handles and broken the wheels off so many suitcases.
  When they ran over my suitcase, and it couldn’t even be closed and had tread marks on it, they had the audacity to tell me I couldn’t prove I didn’t bring it in that way. I now take a photo of my luggage before every flight, so it is time stamped, and I delete it after I’ve returned. © Northern_Lights_2 / Reddit
• If you need a hard-shell suitcase, opt for a polycarbonate model. It’s lightweight, durable and can withstand shocks. © Waste_Carpenter2992 / Reddit

Check the contents of the first aid kit in advance.

You should not forget the necessary medicines at home, as buying them abroad can cost a lot of money. But before you pack your first aid kit, it’s advisable to make sure that the medicines are not prohibited in the country you are travelling to.

The easiest way to do this is to enter the name of the drug and the country in a search engine. And it’s best to check multiple sources to be sure. If you are still nervous about it, you can contact the embassy or consulate of the country you are travelling to.

Copies of documents may not be enough.

In fact, losing your passport abroad is not such a rare occurrence. The copies of this document will help to speed up the process of obtaining a temporary ID card.

However, you should not limit yourself to paper copies only. They can get torn, dirty or simply lost. It’s better to take photos of your passport, credit cards and other important papers, and then send them to your email. This way you’ll be able to print out the documents you need even if you lose your phone.

• I always keep copies of my passport, insurance and driving license on my phone and in my mailbox. Last time we travelled, we needed to show ID before entering a venue, but our passports were locked away at the hotel. A photo of it was adequate. © LuvCilantro / Reddit

A waistcoat or jacket can be a good alternative to hand luggage.

Not all your little things can fit in your hand luggage, and you don’t want to pack them in your luggage. If your suitcase is accidentally lost, you may be left without a change of clothes at all.

Fortunately, there are special waistcoats for travelling, equipped with many pockets. In them, you can pack almost half, and sometimes even all the contents of a small suitcase. Besides, you can make a similar piece of clothing yourself.

• This DIY works like a charm, sewed pockets into the back of a North Face rain jacket using the built-in mesh liner. Just a matter of cutting a couple of slits in liner and then sewing outlines of pockets, liner to the jacket. Black jacket, black thread.
  Pockets are big enough for small tablet/laptop and external display. Easy to take the jacket off and just tie it around waist fully loaded. Received some impressed laughs from security. © GoLoseYourself / Reddit

Bring solid cosmetics with you.

During the flight, liquid cosmetics may leak out under pressure and stain the entire contents of the suitcase. In addition, a full bottle of shampoo or conditioner can’t be carried in your hand luggage.

Instead of pouring the necessary products into small containers, it’s better to put together a set of solid cosmetic products in advance — nowadays you can easily buy shampoo, conditioner, perfume, or deodorant like this. They won’t spill and can be taken into the cabin.

A car freshener can solve the problem of dirty clothes.

When on holiday, it is not always possible to wash dirty clothes, and if they are in your suitcase next to clean clothes, a foul smell can permeate the whole luggage. To prevent fresh clothes from emitting an unpleasant odor, simply put a bar of scented soap or car freshener in your suitcase.

Before you queue up at the airport, take a look at the other passengers.

Don’t rush to join the shortest line at the airport, either at the security check or the check-in desk. First, pay attention to who is standing in the line. A family with several children and many suitcases will check in much longer than business travelers. Therefore, if there are 10 people in suits in one line and a couple of families in the other, it’s wiser to choose the first line.

• I wanted to check-in quickly so that I still had time to go shopping and choose gifts for my relatives. I got lucky, there were only 3 people at one counter: a mom, a dad and a child. A man, puffing with effort, puts his suitcase on the scales — overweight.
  At this moment, all 3 suitcases get opened, and the stuff in them begins to be moved from one bag to another. The second attempt — again overweight. The tormented mother of the family panics, tamping something into the hand luggage.
  As a result, after 6 or 7 attempts, the parents finally managed to meet the limit, but during this time the bored child ran away to the center of the hall. I didn’t see the end of the family drama — another counter got vacated, where 20 people had stood. As a result, I had very little time to shopping.

A simple pouf can make a flight more comfortable.

Many people find it difficult to find a comfortable position during the flight. As a result, flying becomes really challenging. A neck pillow only partially solves the problem because passengers don’t know where to put their feet. Some people manage to place them on the armrests or headrests of neighboring seats, but this is not a very good thing to do, and fellow passengers may seriously resent it.

If during the flight you always try to raise your legs higher, you should buy a simple inflatable pouf. When deflated, it easily fits in your hand luggage, and after take-off you can inflate it to the required height and place it under your feet. The pouf can be a real lifesaver if you are travelling with a small child. With the help of this item, the armchair can be transformed into a mini bed.

Before booking a hotel, contact it directly.

Now you can book a hotel room by making just a couple of clicks on the aggregator website. However, after that it’s advisable to contact the hotel directly — by email or phone. Firstly, this way you can make sure that the staff has not missed your booking and the hotel isn’t closed.

Secondly, hotels pay a certain percentage to aggregators, so there is a chance that you will be offered to book a room directly at a more favorable price. In addition, emailing can help you develop a more personal relationship with the staff, and you may even be offered a free room upgrade upon arrival. Especially if you are nice and friendly.

• We had a small B&B on our street for a couple of years, and then it closed unexpectedly. It’s been a few years now, but I regularly see discouraged tourists with suitcases in front of it. Apparently on some websites the owners have removed the information, but not on others. I always feel so sorry for these poor souls.

Some things make staying in a hotel room more comfortable.

Even in the most comfortable hotel room, it is not always possible to find the necessary equipment. For example, if you decide to wash a couple of T-shirts in a hurry, but there is no laundry service in the hotel, you will have to think about where to dry them. To do this, you can make a braid of two elastic ropes at home and attach clothes pegs to the ends. Then it’s enough to stretch this rope anywhere in the room — and the drying rack is ready.

The clothes pegs can also be used to fasten the curtains in your room to keep the light out. If the air in your hotel room seems too dry, just boil a kettle a few times. It works perfectly as a humidifier.

Don’t keep your cash in the wallet.

It’s better not to keep all your money in one place, otherwise if you lose your wallet, you may lose all your cash at once. If there is no safe in the hotel room, it’s worth hiding it in not the most obvious places. An empty lipstick tube that fits perfectly even in a small pocket and does not attract attention is perfect for this purpose.

Another option is a bra. However, it is not too convenient to get money out of it in a public place. Plus, the notes will have to be wrapped in fabric, otherwise they can get wet or torn, and the sensation will not be too pleasant. If your bra has foam inserts, you can carefully stuff the cash between the fabric and the insert.

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