Wise Travel Tips

Often when we are going to travel somewhere, we come to face the challenge on deciding what we should pack or things to bring along in our travel. Sometimes we feel we should take something, yet at the same time we feel it may not be much useful in the travel. This is true especially if you are a first time traveler. Deciding on what things to bring in your travel can really be a task.

In my personal point of view from my own experiences traveling about, it is important to travel without much weight. This gives you the freedom to move about easily from one location to another. This means you have to bring as less as you can, packing only the absolutely essentials.

When I am going on for travel, I bring only one backpack or a luggage. I seldom carry luggage. I prefer backpacking and the stuff I pack inside my bag depends to the location’s climate as well as the duration of my stay in that particular place. If I am packing clothes, I’ll only pack a few and those which I can wash easily and dry it easily in my hotel room.

That keeps me lightweight. Apart from that I will only bring enough of cash with some extra. There is no reason to bring a lot of cash in your travel. I use credit card for all my hotel or airline reservation. If I am not traveling to faraway places, I don’t bring my digital camera. I’ll just use my Sony Ericsson cyber-shot K850i hand phone to snap quick pictures.

It’s good to carry along your mobile phone because most phones come with alarm setting. You can set alarm if you need to wake up early in your hotel. Sometime you can’t really trust the wake up call from the hotel. I have personally experienced a late wake up call when I actually wanted was to wake up an hour earlier. So get a hand phone which comes with good camera as well as alarm system, but most phones today has such function so it wouldn’t be hard to get one.

If possible ensure your phone has an international roaming whereby you can call back home anytime in the event of emergency. You may also want to have a GPRS service with ability to connect to the Internet from any part of the world. This keeps you connected through emails, if sometimes you have to send messages or log on to the Internet.

On a further note, if you are carrying a lot of cash try to get a money belt. It is a belt that has many small pockets where you can keep your cash inside. The money belt is usually worn inside our clothes as to keep in hidden. This is very important as you would not know when and where a bag snatcher or pickpocket will strike.

Although dangerous, but for me I carry a waist pouch where I can keep all my important documents as well as cash and would not walk on lonely streets posting myself as an easy targets for those pathetic not working stupid thieves who might try to rob you. Take heed on this piece of advice. Some countries are so poor that they actually prey on tourist for their livelihood. So be extra careful with where you keep your valuables.

I will also carry useful first aid kit. This is one of the most overlooked items in packing many new travelers make. Although we think positive and expect nothing bad happen to us, sometimes, you just can’t avoid unexpected accidents. I have personally injured myself during one of my trekking in Nepal. The first aid kits such as bandages, painkillers or antiseptics are really useful during such travel. Because you are only going to carry the necessary, you can easily pack this one inside your backpack.

So there you go about things I bring in my travel. To put it in a nutshell, I carry one bag, with enough of clothes depending to weather condition of the country I am visiting, a camera if necessary, first aid kit, enough of cash in my money belt or waist pouch, a digital camera and a hand phone which has alarm, time as well as international roaming on and Internet connection. Last but not least, don’t ever forget a travel map. You definitely don’t want to be lost.