8 Travel Hacks & Must-Haves

Posted by Luis Soeiro In: Stuff We Like, Technology, Travel

Humans love to Travel. Honestly, it even goes beyond that: we’ve been urging to travel since the first fish tried to make it to dry land, and that was a long time ago. Since then, we travelled to find good soils to grow food, to hunt for food, and even to escape from tribes trying to turn us into their food. Centuries have passed, and if back then a good pair of sandals was more than enough, now we may need a little extra gear and some additional, sneaky tricks.

Here are some travelling hacks from the most experienced travelers that we could find…in the office…late in the evening.

Mark your luggage as “Fragile”

There’s no time for guilty conscience when travelling. Remember that passenger that took off his shoes during an 8-hour flight, and slept on your shoulder? It’s a jungle out there. So, put your goodwill aside and mark your luggage as fragile. It will be handled differently and it will be loaded last in the plane, thus being the first to show up in luggage claim. Just destroy this after reading, ok?

Roll your clothes

We all know that you won’t be attending the Opera night in Vienna (if you are, congratulations, you’re a lucky Human Being) so instead of folding your clothes when packing, try and roll those polka dotted shorts and white socks. Using this trick, you’ll end up fitting 3x more clothes in the same cheap bag. Then you can spend that week in the Caribbean wearing the same t-shirt over and over.

Scan your Documents

Ok, we don’t mean to forge documents by scanning someone’s Passport and glue the photo you took against your room wall. By scanning your documents, you are safekeeping a copy of vital items that may keep you from ending your vacation on a small, dark prison in Nepal. Just take pictures of your documents and mail them to yourself. After that, save them as pdf on your phone. If nothing works, you can always trade your phone for a forged passport in that same prison.

Use Airport ATM’s

So you made it to the destination. The plane landed safely, everyone clapped and you fought your way through the hundreds of tourists trying to leave Economy class at the same time. Now you need “dinero” to pay for those beautiful fridge magnets that will cost you half the vacation budget. Choose the airport ATM’s to withdraw local currency. Fees are always lower than the ones charged by exchange offices and that one-eyed man standing outside Arrivals area.

Follow the flight crew

Although the title may seem to imply something like trying to mingle with those beautiful men and women that graciously flew you to Paradise, it’s actually not that. Airports can be quite confusing and finding your way out may become your greatest adventure of the entire trip. One way to quickly and effectively navigate through luggage claim, customs and suit-up men with boards saying “Mr. Chu” is to follow the cabin crew. They’ve certainly been at that airport dozens of times and are rushing to the exit. Just keep a safe distance, ok? Nothing creepy.

Use the Hotel room TV as charger

Forgot your tech devices charger? Great, throw them all in a drawer until the last day of the trip. Or, if you prefer to lose your nerves trying to connect with the crappy Hotel Wi-Fi or spending 2000 Dollars in 5 minutes of roaming fees, look no further. Check the back of your Hotel room flat TV (we’re assuming that you were wise enough to book a 21st Century Hotel) and there’s a good chance that you’ll find a usb plug. Now go and like all your preferred Celebrities Instagram photos.

Unpack Smartly

This one is quite simple. Don’t waste your first day abroad trying to unpack everything and organizing clothes by color, gradient, shape, day of the week, etc. Just take out your basic objects, like the toothbrush, toothpaste and the cologne that will be responsible for all the mosquito bites. You’ll thank us on the last day, when this tip prevented you from missing the flight back to reality.

Get Karta GPS

Someone asked us to put this one. Karta GPS is an offline navigation app, made for iOS and Android phones. It comes packed with free downloadable World maps, safety cameras, traffic information and a lot of curated lists from Yelp and Foursquare, assuring that you will always have the best places to visit and experience, at hands-reach. Karta GPS is free to download and it’s also made by awesome people. Get it now from here and enjoy your trip.