Tips and Tricks for travel abroad and close to home

Dos and Don’ts of Traveling. What to bring. What to leave.
This is a work in progress so I hope to add more info and tips here 🙂

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First I pick a place (which may be obvious but it can be hard if you have a lot of places you want to go). This decision involves budget, weather, activities, distance, scenery, time of year, how long I have off, etc.
Once I have a place in mind I start looking at where to stay. Hotels, motels, hostels, Airbnb, family’s place–these are dependent on budget and safety. Read reviews and look up the area. I like to read reviews from a few sites like booking.com, Google, TripAdvisor, or whatever your preferred sites are. 3 star reviews are what I like to look at since they seem to be very middle of the road and no bias one way or the other.
Then from there it’s up to you and what kind of traveler you, or your group, are. Do you need every minute planned? Get all of your activities booked in advance–some sites do reserve now, pay later options.
Would you rather roam around and chill? Then have fun relaxing but don’t get mad if a popular activity or tour is already sold out by the time you decide to do it.

Whether this is needed or not does depend on your destination (local vs international, etc.) and is obviously completely up to you

• Medicine: amount, strength, type of meds are different everywhere and have different difficulties to obtain. Bring any *legal* medicine with you on your trip unless you know you can get it where you are going
• Portable charger: your phone will die. It’s going to happen. Find a good portable charger if you want to spend the money or even a cheap one that can do the job when desperate. I started using this one during my long trip and love it: INIU Portable Charger, 22.5W 20000mAh USB C in & Out Power Bank Fast Charging https://a.co/d/dRbwAG5
• A mini first aid type kit with some small essentials like Band-Aids just so you have something ready if you do need it
• Sunscreen/aloe–you should also be able to buy this places but there will be brand/price differences and if you are at a touristy spot those prices might be ridiculous
• Clothes!!!! Please don’t forget those. That includes the underwear and socks
• Water bottle. Look, if you are traveling somewhere then you are probably a tourist and you’re going to most likely look like a tourist and you should! That’s what you are! And hydration is cool so bring a reusable water bottle ESPECIALLY if you are a non-European going to Europe and you drink a lot of water. (Yes, I’m an American who complains about that as well). Know whether where you are going has clean drinking tap water or not beforehand.
• Appropriate shoes. I bought these for my Europe trip since it’s so much walking and I liked them for my feet: Ryka Women’s Sky Walk Sneaker https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZRY5MGY?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
• Something to take pics with–for most of us now that is a cellphone but again, your phone is probably going to die
• Adapters –if you are going to a different country you may need different plug ins. This is usually pretty simple to google to see what kind you need and some packs come with one for multiple different countries/continents.
• Toiletries–these are something you can buy everywhere too if you aren’t set on certain brands and are trying to minimize the amount you are packing
• PADS/TAMPONS–if you are going to a different country they may not have your brand and that would suck so be prepared
• I’m sure I’ll add as I think of things but remember to leave space for souvenirs

I use TripAdvisor for tours basically exclusively unless I find something that’s not on there. I have never had a bad experience with them and they offer the reserve now, pay later option.
Generally, booking directly with a legitimate website is safe as well
Some places will say they offer tours through where you are staying which, depending on where that is could be safe and/or fun. I know our place in Egypt offered to help us book things (we had already booked through TripAdvisor) and it seemed there were mixed reviews for that just like everywhere.
My rule of thumb is if it feels sketchy, then it may very well be sketchy. If you can’t find proof otherwise, or don’t want to risk it then find something else.

This one is a big one and I can NOT say whether a place is safe or not or whether something will happen to you. It took me a while to start going places by myself because of people saying this but I realized I need to live my life and statistically I’m more likely to be hurt by someone I already know.
Now, I would still research places and things to do to ensure you are being the safest you can be.
Doing group guided tours can be good since you are there with someone and in a group setting while exploring.
Make sure someone knows where you are
Don’t tell people you are staying by yourself (this can be a hard one especially if you are obviously alone on a group tour and are bad a lying but you can dodge or just go with “no one else wanted to do this so they’re chilling at the hotel”)
Try some travel groups and meetups to where you don’t HAVE to go alone–there are female only ones out there (not sure on the inclusivity of that term within every group)
You can buy a lock thing for your door–this one comes recommended but I have not personally had it tested with someone trying to get in: Portable Door Lock 2Pack Extra Lock for Additional Privacy and Safety in Home,Hotel and Apartment https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TPGR5WJ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&th=1
And check out some of my Solo Trips (on the way)

This isn’t necessarily a budget blog but I do have a few tips when wanting to go on a budget.
For tours, a lot of day tours and city tours have the stops they will go to listed out which can help you decide what to go see and not see without actually paying for the tour (obviously you won’t get the guide and facts that way but you can google things about it too).
Check low cost travel times. There are usually times of year where flights/hotels are cheaper.
Food gets expensive fast especially if you add drinks in so have a budget for that and if drinking, try to drink at ‘home’ at the end of the day instead.
Nature things in the US, especially as day trips, are usually great low to no cost trips that can also be gorgeous (they may be great and low cost a lot of other countries too but didn’t want to make a blanket statement).