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| Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, 2025 |
A few of us lit up as we talked about the benefits of a journey abroad. There was consensus that international travel is a great way to expand your horizons, get a new perspective, keep your mind active, build confidence by navigating new places and unfamiliar languages and cultures, learn about the world, and maybe learn a few things about yourself.
This conversation coupled with my recent trip to Sicily (Story coming soon!) got me thinking about travel advice. Here are a few practical tips for anyone wanting to explore the planet.
There are endless places to go and many, many ways to strike out on an adventure. This is my advice based on 15+ trips abroad since 2000. Your advice, which you can leave in the comments section of this post, is welcome but please be kind to novices and don't tell me "you're doing it wrong." I am well aware that there many things I've left out and not all tips works for all destinations.
The A-List Suggests
Meaningful Travel Tips for Adventurous Explorers
If I had to narrow my suggestions down to just one tip it would be this - do enough research so that things go smoothly but leave room for things to happen on a whim.
Picking Your Destination
• Start with places of you’ve heard of. Talk to friends, check out some guidebooks, do a web search. What catches your eye? What images capture your imagination?
• As you explore, you’ll quickly learn of more places and begin to get a feel for a place that suits your interests and will work for the time of year and amount of time you have for the trip. Some early things to research include:
o How easy is it to get there? What does it cost and how long does it take?
o Take a look at food and lodging costs. Are there any big events that might cause lodging prices to skyrocket or rooms to be scarce?
o What are the weather and crowds like at the time of year you can travel?
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| Serbia, 2013 |
Planning Your Trip
• Book your airfare as soon as you pick a location. Consider flying into one city and out of another. It may cost you more for the flight, but you'll save time and transportation costs by not having to return to your starting point.
• At a minimum, book your first night or two of lodging. You don’t want to arrive after a long flight and have to find a room.
• Get an idea for how much you’ll have to plan in advance, especially on shorter trips. Do hotels and trains book quickly?
• A note on guidebooks - At some point during trip planning, you'll probably consult a guidebook. Yes, "everything"can be found on the web these days but guidebooks are helpful as they tend to be well-researched and present a curated overview of the location you're visiting. It's convenient to have information on transportation, lodging, food, sites, local etiquette, and more all in one place. And a good guidebook will give you a brief history of the country you're exploring, which is nice as it puts what you are seeing into context and helps you understand the people and the culture.
Český Krumlov, Czech Republic, 2003
But don't become too reliable on guidebooks. Places close, train schedules change, prices go up, and on and on. Guidebooks can become obsolete quickly. Additionally, don't let them stifle your trip as many times they stick to only the well-known often crowded destinations.
You can find guide books at the library - check out a few as you plan your journey. Here are a some I've used over the years.
- Lonely Planet was a longtime favorite of mine but the more recent ones seem to lack depth.
- Early on in my traveling days I mocked Rick Steves and his hokey demeanor, but over the years I have found his books to be among the best. This was true of my recent Sicily trip where Mike and I used public transportation for half the trip and a rental car for the other - the Rick Steves book had the best information on buses, trains, and driving times.
- DK Eyewitness Guides tend to give a long list of places to visit including many off-the-beaten-path destinations, but they don't give a lot of concrete information on transportation, etc.
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| Sarajevo, Bosnia, 2022 |
Packing
• Pack light. Do wash in the sink so think about quick drying clothing.
• I travel with a backpack. Unless you plan on taking taxis, you will be walking with your luggage. While wheeled bags are easy in the airport (And are very nice to live out of compared to a backpack), Mike and I find ourselves walking up and down many cobblestone streets and steep passageways to get to our lodging during our trips so we're are always glad to have everything on our backs.
• I bring a small packable backpack with me - for day trips and to have under my seat on long flights - which can be stowed in my main pack. Hands free travel makes it easier to get around and helps reduce the risk of losing things.
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| Serbia, 2013 |
Packing list – what I brought to Sicily
o 40-liter pack – This is my sturdy, 20+ year old backcountry ski pack. All my stuff easily fit including a tapestry/bed cover Mike and I bought on our trip.
Avoid travel backpacks with zip on daypacks, slip off fanny packs, etc. as these can be cumbersome, heavy, and uncomfortable to carry.
o For many items, a good rule is three of everything. In Sicily I brought three of the following:
Underpants, bras, short-sleeve tops, socks
o Two pairs of shorts (One doubled as bathing suit bottoms)
o One skirt (Or a third pair of shorts)
o Two pairs of pants (One cropped), both lightweight nylon
o For warmth – one long sleeve light layer (Mine was Capilene. Wool works.) and one thin fleece jacket
o One button up long sleeve shirt like this one, which I picked up at a thrift store before I left. This is a quick drying nylon shirt with a collar so some may say it's "traveler dressy." It could be layered with my thin long sleeve top.
o One pair of hiking shoes
o One pair of sandals - it's always nice to give your feed a "rest" from wearing heavier shoes
Pyrenees, 2008 o Raincoat and rain pants although you could replace the pants with an umbrella depending on the nature of your trip. If you’re worried about it being cool, a raincoat can be part of your layering system.
o Tech – cell phone, tablet, chargers, power adaptor
o Plastic bags – A bigger, thicker one for groceries. (In Europe, the grocery stores only have thicker multi-use bags, which they charge for. You can buy one for a Euro or so at the places like Konzum and Spar, and Mike and I are still using one we picked up several trips ago.) A few ziplock and produce bags good for snacks, dirty or wet clothes, and other uses.
o Passports plus photocopies of my passports. The copies along with U.S. cash and an extra debit/credit card were stored in my pack away from my passports. (Don't forget, passports must be valid for six months after you return from your trip.)
o Information – we had printouts with info on hikes and the Rick Steves guide for Sicily. Of course, you can have info downloaded on your phone or tablet and you can find things with a quick web search, but I like the break from a screen and physical materials never run out of power or rely on an internet connection.
o I loathe the idea of being on a trans-Atlantic flight without reading material, so I brought a magazine and a novel I found at a Little Free Library. I took these knowing they could be left at our lodging as many places have bookshelves where travelers exchange reading materials. Again, I want to avoid screen time, but you could bring a Kindle.
o A small bag of powder laundry detergent
o Toiletries – consolidated into small bottles
o Journal, pen, pencil – even if you don’t journal some paper and something to write with can come in handy
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| Prague, 2007 |
On Your Trip
• Slow down. See things more thoroughly. Travel with the idea that you will return. Travel is not a competition to see who has the most Instagrammable moments and how many stamps fill your passport.
Thank carefully about how many places you visit. Each time you go to a new place there’s a time loss as you figure out transportation, find your lodging, and get situated. Trip logistics (Transportation planning and tickets, booking rooms, getting around, doing laundry) take time on many days so these are more reasons to slow down.
• Learn a few phrases of the language (greetings and niceties, ordering food, numbers, etc.) and use to use the language every day. During trips I try to spend a few minutes each day writing words I learned and looking up words I don’t know.
Great advice. For my bike trips, I cut it a bit more to 2 sets of cycling clothes, one pair of long pants, 1 long-sleeve travel shirt, (capilene long sleeves shirts double for cycling as well as off-bike), clothes line wrapped around a few clothes pins, string pack bag instead of the smaller back pack (because we spend minimal time hiking and it stows in under-seat pack), down vest (good under a rain jacket and doubles as a pillow in the stuff bag). I've started using Chat AI to get an initial route draft, but every part has to be checked.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Larry. Our friends who took us to the airport before our trip commented on our small packs but after reading your list I feel like we had too much with us!
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