While vacations are always going to be fun, there will be those headache moments. Whether it’s your bank card getting declined or having no power for your tablet on an eight-hour flight, these are problems that can be easily avoided. Here are some ideas to try to make that next vacation an awesome one.
1. Bring your own power strip charger to the airport
You’ll quickly become the most popular person in the airport when you pull out a power strip with 5 or 6 plugins. Either that or you can charge your phone, laptop, tablet, and camera all at the same time!
2. Get yourself a USB Battery pack
Portable battery packs are incredibly valuable on long flights. Some airlines such as Delta have USB plugins on the back of their seats, but most airlines will not provide you a way to charge your phone. Check out monoprice.com and you’ll find a pack that can fully charge 2 devices for just under $20.
3. Download TripIt onto your mobile device
TripIt is what we find to be the most comprehensive travel application on the market. TripIt offers both a free and a premium account, but we have found that the functionality of the free application is just fine. TripIt syncs to your Gmail account and will auto-populate your reservations into the application so that it can create itineraries for you. It will even get as granular so as to provide you directions from your destination airport to your hotel.
4. Find your flights, hotels and rental cars on Skyscanner
Don’t waste an hour or two comparing flights on 10 different sites when Skyscanner will do it for you in a matter of seconds. You can even use the Everywhere search feature to find a place that will inspire you.
5. Simplify your payments with Apple Passport
The Passport application is great as you can add your boarding passes, Starbucks card, and even sporting/concert tickets to this for easy access. You’ll have to download the applications (i.e. Delta, British Airways, etc.) to use this feature. Then you’ll be able to simply import your boarding passes to the Passport. A great feature of this is that your boarding pass will stay on your lock screen so that you can open in easily as you’re going through security.
6. Known when it’s the best time to book
Booking and flying on Tuesdays is generally the most cost effective way to travel. You’ll find that airlines provide the cheapest seats to you if you book Tuesday mornings.
7. Know how to book the best flights possible
Search incognito or clear your history after each search. Some airlines will cache your data and inflate prices on subsequent searches. To avoid this, simply leverage incognito search.
8. Call your banks/credit card companies
If money is freedom, then the lack thereof would be quite like imprisonment. Having experienced being halfway around the world with both a bank and credit card locked for security reasons, we can tell you that it is not fun. Make sure to contact your banks and credit card companies to notify them of the timeframe of your travels as well as your planned destinations. This is especially important for solo travelers who do not have the option of leveraging a friend and paying them back.
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