A travel hack either saves you time or money, or makes your trip that little bit more memorable. In all of the tips outlined below, you’re going to learn how to make your next solo adventure a little easier, a little less stressful, and a lot more fulfilling. Read on to discover some of the best ways to organize your travels in this decade, fusing technological hacks with some of the best insights from global travelers in 2020, helping you to make the most of every single trip that you take.
Using Booking Sites
As a solo traveler, you may well be used to rocking up in a destination, finding the cheapest hostel in town, and bunking up with a host of strangers from all over the world. This method is exciting and fun, until it goes wrong and you’re left without a bed.
Actually, booking is far and away the best way to travel – and it usually guarantees you the lowest prices, too. This can be said of parking bookings at airports, where online booking can be achieved through Parkon.com, and for flights, where comparison websites will offer you the very best deals. It’s also true for hotels, resorts and even Airbnb – booking in advance really helps here.
Where to Eat?
There’s a long-shared piece of travel wisdom that constitutes your great hack when it comes to chowing down on local food when abroad. Ignore the guide books and the travel recommendation apps – simply take a walk around the city or town that you’re in, and choose the eatery with the most locals in it. That’ll be the place where you’ll enjoy the most authentic, delicious food on offer in your given destination.
Packing Light
When you’re heading off on a longer trip, you’re likely to want to take a backpack over a wheelie suitcase. The likelihood is, after all, that you’re going to have to walk at least a short distance, from time to time, with your luggage. You need therefore to pack light, and you can do this by:
- Packing laundry soap, and hand-cleaning your clothes daily, thus saving on extra clothes to pack
- Rolling up all your clothes instead of folding them – it gives you more space
- Only carrying essential items, and buying miniature versions of what you need where possible
- Using local shops and second-hand stores to buy the things you feel you’re missing on your travels
If you pack light, you’ll enjoy the freedom of your trip that little bit more – and you’ll be far more flexible when it comes to making decisions.
Language Cheat Sheet
It takes time to learn a language – and often, we simply don’t have the patience to follow through on our ambitions. The tip here is a simple one: make yourself a one-sheet cheat sheet, full of the words and phrases that you’ll need to get by in your destination. Make sure you include the words for ‘help’ and ‘thank you’ in order to ensure you’ll always be able to rely on the kindness of strangers on your trips away.
There you have it: four key travel hacks to help you on your next adventure.
