Whether you’re planning a road trip or backpacking through Europe, here’s 15 travel hacks that will make you a better traveler!
Traveling is one of the best parts of life. Getting out and taking an adventure has a way of opening up our imagination and filling your heart with amazing memories unlike anything else.
And yet travel can also feel stressful. After all, you have luggage to keep up with that often gets lost, there are delays, unexpected expenses, as well as foreign customs and language barriers to deal with.
Learning travel hacks is a great way to make travel easier. And the best travel hacks help save money, stay organized, and make getting where you need to go a breeze. Let’s take a look at a few that you could start using today.
Taking An Adventure? Here Are 15 Travel Hacks That’ll Make You a Better Traveler
Whether you’re planning a road trip or backpacking through Europe, here’s 15 travel hacks that will make you a better traveler!
1. Mark Your Luggage as Fragile
Here’s a cool little tip for collecting your bags as quickly after a flight as possible. Even if there’s nothing breakable in your bags, tag them as “fragile”.
Why? Because airlines typically place fragile bags at the top of the pile, meaning those bags will also be unloaded first. Thus you’ll have your stuff and be on your way while everyone else has to wait.
2. Pack Some Dryer Sheets in Your Bags
It’s often a challenge to find a convenient place to do laundry while you’re away from home. You might have to go several days or a week between washes. And if you’re wearing clothes repeatedly, they will eventually start smelling funky.
A cheap and easy solution for this is to toss a couple of dryer sheets into each of your bags. These sheets are scented and designed specifically to make clothes smell fresh.
You can also stuff them into extra shoes you’ve packed, and even stick one in the pillowcase at the hotel to freshen it up.
3. Book Your Airfare On a Private Browser
One of the dirty little secrets of airline websites is that they store the cookies from your web browser, which provides them with tons of information about your travel plans. This enables them to know where you plan to fly so they can alter their prices accordingly.
The best way to avoid this is by setting your web browser to incognito mode. This way you are free to search fares privately and get the best rates possible.
4. Pack a Fake Wallet
You never know what to expect when you travel, and there is always a chance you’ll encounter a thief. If so, having a fake wallet handy, loaded with three or four dollars in cash and few random cards to make it look legit can help get you out of a tight spot in a hurry without risk of losing all your cash and credit cards.
5. Make a Home-Made Mobile Phone Speaker
Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Well, here’s a great example. Are you needing a little more volume than your mobile phone is able to provide? Check the trash in your room for a used toilet paper roll. Cut a slit in the side and insert your phone. Bingo…you’ve now got a speaker!
As a bonus tip, an empty cup will also work well. Don’t expect the highest quality sound, but at least it will give your volume a bit of a boost.
6. Put Fragrances in Plastic Bottles
You don’t need full bottles of perfume or aftershave when traveling. So transfer a small amount to a small plastic bottle. This will not only save space in your bags, it reduces the odds of a glass bottle breaking and turning your clothes into a walking billboard for your favorite fragrance.
7. Learn Popular Pop Songs
If you have any musical skills at all, this is a great hack for being social and making new friends. When you’re out and about in the world, there will be plenty of times you’ll find yourself in a bar and somebody hands you a guitar. This is a moment when it pays to know the three chords to a random Pearl Jam tune.
There’s no better way to become popular fast and earn yourself a free beer than leading a sing-along while everyone around you gets drunk.
8. Keep Change in Your Pocket for the Homeless
No matter where you go in this world, you’re going to encounter the homeless. This can seem like an irritating experience to some people, but handing them some change not only costs you less than a buck, it’s good karma.
Don’t worry about where the money is going, or how they smell, or what your personal philosophy is on begging. Just say hello, or nothing at all, hand over the change so they can eat or buy coffee, and then walk away.
The simple truth is that your heart will smile a little knowing you did the right thing.
9. Turn You Water Bottle into a Lantern
This hack is especially great when hiking or camping. Take your headlamp and use the strap to attach it to the side of a bottle of water. The light refracting through the water produces an ethereal glow and a surprising amount of light, allowing you to read in the tent before bed or hang out with friends.
Check out this site to discover more about the amazing experiences awaiting you in the Galapagos Islands.
10. Take Advantage of the 24-Hour Rule
Traveling hacks like the 24-hour rule take some of the stress out of booking airfare. Go ahead and book your flight, but keep in mind that if you find a better rate with 24 hours, you can cancel and get a full refund without being charged a booking fee.
Just always be sure to read the fine print before clicking to purchase.
11. Scan Your Documents
There’s nothing worse than misplacing documents while on the go. This is especially true when traveling outside the country. Documents such as your passport and other forms of ID are required in order to enter and exit foreign countries.
Experienced travelers know to scan these documents and email them to their phone just in case something goes wrong.
Also be sure to take screenshots of the travel itinerary and confirmations to keep on your phone, tablet or laptop so that you don’t have to worry about not having Wifi to pull them up online.
12. Pack an Empty Water Bottle
Let’s just say it…the TSA has weird rules. One of them is that liquids aren’t allowed to pass through security screening. So if you don’t want to spend a fortune on a bottle of water at an airport kiosk, simply bring your own reusable water bottle.
Dump it in a restroom sink before entering the security line, and then refill at a water fountain on the other side. You’ll be shocked to discover just how much you come to love the taste of free water.
13. Only Pack What You Need
It’s only natural to want to bring along everything you can fit in your bag. Your mind is will try to imagine every possible scenario for things you might want to do and what you’ll need, and it can drive you crazy not wanting to forget something important.
Smart travelers understand that packing only the minimal amount is the best policy. Traveling light allows you save time by packing quickly, keep track of less luggage, and reduces the odds of forgetting something in your room.
Packing light is freedom, and you’ll quickly learn that you need far less than you would have imagined.
14. Roll Your Clothes
When packing light, every inch of space matters. Especially if you are traveling with only one bag. Thus you don’t want to waste space by folding the clothes you’re packing for the trip.
Rolling clothes saves a ton of space. You’d be amazed how much more you can fit inside a bag or a backpack just by rolling shirts and jeans and cramming them in. This also allows you to work items in at odd angles because a shirt is now a compact little tube of fabric rather than a bulky rectangle.
15. Use the Hotel TV to Charge Your Devices
This is a great hack for hotel rooms that lack extra outlets, or in case you’ve lost your wall adaptor. Most modern TVs have multiple USB ports where you can plug in your charging cable.
Plug in your devices and let them charge overnight. This way everything will be fully charged and ready to go when it’s time to head out the door in the morning.
Tips to Make the Most of Your Trip
When you’re on the road, every little tip helps. Whether that means saving money or saving space, travel hacks make life easier.
For many people, travel is a lifestyle. Exploring the world, meeting new people and making memories you’ll never forget makes life worth living. We encourage you to use these vacation hacks to streamline your travel routine and make the most of your next trip!
