Travel Must Takes

You know, those things you have to take when you travel. I'm talking about beyond the basics of toothpaste, band aids and dental floss. Every traveler has stuff that gets packed regardless of where or for how long they are going. Here's my list of eight don't forgets:

Plastic bags

Not even zip locks. I'm talking about the kind you get at the grocery store when you checkout. Countless times these have come in handy for wet clothes, opened shampoo bottles or the shells we found on the beach.  Usually I wrap shoes in them on the outbound trip so they keep the rest of the clothes clean and don't take up extra space.

 Coffee, sugar and my mini French press. 

I admit it, I'm a bit if a coffee snob. I'm not one of those people that has to get my double espresso, macchiato with skim milk and a shot of hazelnut coffee shop snob, but I also never had a cup of coffee from one of those in-room machines that tasted any better than tar. I use the in-room machine to heat the water and then enjoy a nice cup of coffee. Since I don't drink crap coffee at home why drink it on vacation?

String bag

Another little thing that comes more in handy than you
might think. Who wants to lug around a big backpack or even purse when you are out sightseeing or on a hike? Conference totes work ok too. Zipper pockets hold the phone or camera. It's easy to pack flat and makes bringing back stuff simple. Or you can toss it if it was a freebie.

Big scarf or pashmina

They say that the blankets on a plane get dry cleaned after use but I'd rather use a big scarf or pashmina as my blanket, thank you.  And you never know when you'll be stuck next to one of those travelers. They also come in handy if you're visiting a country where you may need a head scarf.

 

Sanitary wipes

Who knows who was in that seat before you? I've seen people change diapers on the tray table! Or when a bathroom is out of paper towels? Or worse yet, TP! Or when the kid gets a little messy. There are a thousand uses for these wonderful little things.

Snacks

Granola bars, peanut butter crackers, chocolate bar. Staving off the growling stomach while in the air or after the crew comes back from a dive and they are ravenous, I've always found its worth it to schlepp some snacks along on every trip.

Cough drops

Good for the plane, good when someone gets a sore throat, good for the annoying coughing passenger next to you.

Triple antibiotic

Solves so many problems it's hard to list them all. Just take it.


What's on your list of must takes?

So Who is Your Travel Agent?

I get asked this a lot and it's always fun to reply: ME!

But I work at it. Some trips harder than others.  Maybe that's because our family likes to travel a certain way? 

If you looked at my TripAdvisor travel style you'd see beach goer, history buff, upscale and like a local. Which means we don't camp. (heaven forbid!) But we don't have the wealth to do the fist class airfare (every trip) private yach, villa with chef, butler and pool boy.  Then we're not Motel 6 people either. We prefer Marriott over Hilton but not over Four Seasons or the Ritz. And mostly we like to see wherever we are from the locals perspective.

[Note: NatGeo just published How to Be a Good Traveler in 10 Easy Steps which includes how to explore like a local]

So put that altogether and what you get is a lot of research and a lot of work. Generally I start with Google Earth and pick a spot that we think we want to go or try to zero in on an island or country or the city and plan from there.

TripAdvisor is always my first stop I look at all the hotel offers based on what our family tends to like. Beach. pool. Historical sites. If we are headed to a city, we usually want to be close to all the attractions.  If I don't find a hotel to our liking on TripAdvisor then my next stop is VRBO this is the be-all end-all for home away from home rentals and I've had great success finding us places to stay. Generally I use vacation rental by owner if were going to stay somewhere for a long period of time say 10 days or more. This way we have a place to come back to at the end of the day where we can make a simple meal and relax and not be forced to eat out every meal and be stuck in a  hotel room.

Just like buying a property it's all location location location. This is where you really have to do your work if you care about where you're staying. I tend to look at what is most attractive to us, check the map and see if any of the properties I've found match up. And you can't take the listing as truth on the location.  I've seen apartments listed in NYC as Upper West Side that are on 121st Street. Ummm, no. Note even close. Make sure you get an exact address before you book.

UWS = 59th to 110th

I just recently tried Airbnb.com for the first time. Again, gotta really look at the map and know where you want to be. I asked one owner about public transit near his rental and he said "there's a bus stop but you don't want to use public transit, it's not safe." Ok, apparently you don't want to rent your house. NEXT!  

After finding suitable hotel/housing next comes airfare. Usually. Sometimes I find a great place but airfare is prohibitive so I have to drop back and punt. [insert The Azores here]

The Azores - Gotta find the 'off season' to go here.

I like to first check Hopper to see what they have to say about timing of buying a ticket to our chosen destination. Then it's on to kayak.com to dig out a fare. I've always found the best days to find a cheap(er) flight is early Sunday morning or Tuesday. Usually I set up a daily email and watch the fare for a while before I buy.

But the one thing I always do is once I find flights I like, I go through the process of buying them so I can see how filled the seats are on those flights. If I have a lot of lead time then I'll do this a couple of times before I buy the ticket. I try to take note of how many seats are filled the first time and then look and see if they've filled up and do I need to buy sooner rather than later.

[Side Note: On a recent trip to Turks and Caicos the first time I looked at the flights and found one I like and then looked at the seating chart and realized I needed to book sooner and I bought tickets 8 months in advance of the trip. Otherwise we would've been able to get flights at all.]

Make sure you always check directly with the airline site and don't just go with what you see on Orbitz or Travelocity or even Kayak you want to make sure that the flight that you're seeing is really a good flight and you could actually get it as it's offered.

Once you've got your location your hotel and your airfare booked you're ready to go and the rest is easy. If you're a scuba diving family like we are then you have to make sure that you've got reservations on the dive boat for the days that you want to dive going to the places that you want to go.

Will Cypha aka rental car

Otherwise the only thing left his car rental, if you need one. If we're traveling stateside I go through Hotwire.com because I don't really care who I rent my car from as long as it's got four wheels and it's going to hold the amount of luggage that we're going to carry. Hotwire always gives me the best deal for car rentals often times it's half or even less than half of what the carriers are offering out right.

Ultimately you have to know what kind of traveler you are before you book the hotel or airfare or make the first travel plan.  

Twice the $: Half the Clothes

I'm always amazed at how people pack for travel. 

The people that get me are those that don't understand that generally you can't fit a 48"+ rollerboard in an overhead compartment. Clearly they don't have a clue how to pack particularly if you're lugging that on an overseas flight where you get one free bag with most airlines.  OK, maybe they don't want to wait for their luggage but seriously... get a clue!

We travel a lot for work and pleasure in our house. And we travel for long stretches of time, like up to two weeks and we manage to get it all in one bag per person + carry ons, which I have to say we keep to a minimum. Sometimes this includes our scuba gear. So here are my rules for packing bags:

Rule one: find out if you have laundry facilities where you're going.  

Granted if your on a "If this is Tuesday, This must be Belgium" type of vacation, then probably not.  But if you're like us and typically go somewhere and stay in the same 'home base' for the trip, see if they have washer/dryer OR laundry service before you go.
[Hint: Most European hotels will get your laundry done for really cheap!]

Rule two: Pack mix & match. 

It kills me that the women I work with have to have matchy-matchy clothes, shoes, jewelry, hair accessories etc. for every single day! Really??? Makes me think of Mrs. Roper on Three's Company. Take stuff that you can wear more than once  like black bottoms or shoes and go with more than one thing.
[Hint: spot remover pens are a good thing to carry with you]

Rule three: Roll your clothes when you pack. 

You get a LOT more in your suitcase if you do this. Maybe it seems counter-intuitive but you can really make a lot of extra space using this over 'flat packing'.

Rule four: Pack things that don't need to be ironed. 

[OK, if you're going to a special event you get a #freepass] But do you really want to spend time on vacation ironing?

Rule five: If you are on the fence about something, don't bother you probably won't need it.

Golden rule: Take twice the $$$ and half the clothes.