Being the very well experienced traveler that I am I’d like to share some of my ‘definitely do not travel without putting into action’ tips just to help make your holiday an especially memorable one. Knowing only too well that preparing for your trip doesn’t leave you with a great deal of free time beforehand so I’ve tried to narrow it down to the most critical.
Starting off with luggage, make sure that it is very securely fastened and by the way beware of balancing your luggage at the top of the travelator at Singapore airport, directly above the fancy fountain and ensure that any embarrassing items like all your fancy frilly underwear or any other sensitive personal items are discretely camouflaged within your luggage just in case you overlook the first bits of advice and your luggage isn’t securely fastened and you do try to dangerously balance it at the top of the travelator and as a consequence of not taking heed it slips from your grip and straight into the fountain. You then have to rescue all your now soaking wet items which gets even more embarrassing when onlookers try to be helpful and collect usually the most embarrassing items, which brings me to another tip it’s probably best to avoid brightly coloured underwear as guaranteed they will be the pieces that helpful onlookers will be subconsciously drawn to. You now have a new challenge of what to do with all the wet clothing which if you can imagine will become quite smelly if you have to shove it back into your luggage and then have a long flight ahead before you can hang it out to dry. So it absolutely makes sense to listen carefully to those first critical tips.
So now that lesson has been learnt, you definitely make sure that you have very efficient closures on your luggage which are then secured with a padlock. Don’t forget to make sure that you have a spare key for this lock that is obviously kept in a completely different place to the first key; no point keeping them in the same place as no doubt when you lose the first key or your bag gets stolen etc you don’t want to lose them both. Because it is also extremely frustrating to have to lug a huge heavy suitcase around particularly on a contiki tour or similar, that you actually are unable to open and have to then purchase clothing, toiletries etc at premium prices and just to add salt to the wound end up paying excess luggage for. This brings me to another really useful, a little sneaky, but exceptionally clever travelling trick; always try and travel with someone who travels exceptionally lightly and hates shopping. This way you can always use up some of their luggage allowance and consequently avoid paying excess.
Last little luggage tip is to attach some unique identifier like a brightly polka dotted bow to all your suitcases so you know exactly which ones are yours when collecting from pickup point, but this tip is only useful if you are sure that you can remember what obscure unusual identifier you attached.
But probably the most important; nothing makes a holiday more enjoyable than doing your research before hand so that you will be totally prepared. It’s the little things that can really spoil your whole trip. Imagine travelling to some out of the way country where they don’t use toilet paper and don’t even have toilet paper like anywhere in the whole country. Your holiday will definitely be hugely more enjoyable if you thought to ring ahead and check and then on finding that they don’t have it, take sufficient stocks with you. Think of the valuable holidaying time that you save not frantically searching unsuccessfully for one of life’s little essentials that we take for granted.
And finally especially make sure it is the adventure of a lifetime.
