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Top 5 Travel Tips – Before Your Travel

I love traveling and I love my family’s comfort level to stay optimal while traveling. Visiting a new place or even familiar grounds has many factors and unknowns that can derail a trip. It’s important to think through some potential issues that may come up during travel to ensure your planning effort is worthwhile. I hope that with a few tricks of trade, you can get the best out of your trip by preparing in advance.

1. Travel apps are a must

I rely heavily on my travel apps and the one I have stuck with and cannot travel without is TripIt (available on iTunes). It’s FREE and I have never actually had to upgrade, but for a nominal fee and for some peace of mind, you may consider the upgrade. It keeps all my reservations from flight details, car rentals, activities I booked and more. You can download important travel details from your email account and if something doesn’t download then you can always add them manually. It isn’t worth the trouble to spend weeks finding a deal, locating that perfect AirBnb or hotel in the best neighborhood for your needs, bookmarking the top restaurants, and reading top 10 places to visit in a city of your choice at nauseum if you don’t know where to keep all of it together. I also highly recommend that you download an entire city map from TripAdvisor. It can include street maps, restaurants and points of interest.

TripIt is my favorite travel app.

2. Keep kids happy

Also, on the topic of technology because this is 21st Century traveling, it’s extremely helpful to have downloaded movies for your kids who don’t want to read for 20 hours or your husband who may claim he gets nauseous if he reads while traveling (heard it the last ten years but I appreciate that he still brings a book with him to try).

My kiddo watching Sing again…and again.

Netflix allows you to download movies so, do this before you go on your trip. For the mix of educational ones that you want them to watch (hello, Daniel Tiger). Also download shows and movies that bring a sense of comfort. Throwing kids into the completely new territories can be overwhelming and letting them watch Sing for the 95th time won’t be the worst thing to happen on the trip. Angry, antsy and sleep-deprived kids on the other hand will.

3. Prepare for your health

This one is near and dear to my heart because my husband has allergies, I used to get sinus infections, and my eldest child used to have ear infections following the most minor of colds. Thankfully, all our immunities have built up a bit but I still stock up on antibacterial wipes, cleansers and do the following:

  • Keep hydrated – this is so incredibly critical – put alarms on your phones to make sure that on the hour, you take your sips of water with or without electrolytes-just get it in!
  • Bring Hyland’s Homeopathic medicine – they have cold and allergy tablets, as well as Arnica for bruising if you or your kids have bruised or scraped themselves.
  • Use Essential oils such as eucalyptus oil for your stuffy noses, lavender to help you get to sleep, peppermint for nausea or upset stomach. There are also oils that reinvigorate your senses if you are feeling tired and need a boost. I would recommend you get familiar with the oils before your trip so when you need them, you aren’t researching the properties and helpfulness while frantic and/or sick yourself. The DoTerra Family Essentials Kit is my favorite and is a great essential oils starter. While it is a bit on the pricy side, it lasts a very long time and is quality oil. There are others out there, just do your research!

4. Self-care is important

Be sure to pack your favorite self-care items to make long trips more bearable. I have my favorite skin creams to keep my skin feeling hydrated (a future post). Applying hydrating creams and lotions to your skin with a gentle message can be a great self-care ritual even on travel. There are also mild hand and face antibacterial wipes that are great to keep the kids clean and refreshed while not smelling like you are spilling the tube of antibacterial on them (even though you really want to prevent them from getting every germ, it’s impossible). There are a number of choices from mild to strong.

Your skin needs hydration too.

5. Organize with packing cubes

To retain your sanity on figuring out whose stuff belongs with whom, what is clean and what isn’t, I highly recommend purchasing packing cubes. One example of assorted packing cubes can be seen here. There are tons to choose from. To make things easier, I like to color code our family’s cubes so that there isn’t any spillover and confusion.

It is also helpful to keep health and self-care items in one cube, with undergarments in another, pants in another, so on and so forth. You can do what strikes your fancy and what works for you, but the possibilities are endless with these cubes.

Now, you’re all set with my top 5 travel tips. Happy travels!

3 thoughts on “Top 5 Travel Tips – Before Your Travel”

  1. Hi Nadia – love all the ideas – especially the packing cubes. I am OCD about keeping even clean undergarments separate from the rest of the stuff. So this will come quite handy 🙂
    What is your advise regarding travel credit cards? Does American express really has an edge over other cards and provide better airport lounge access?

    1. I really suggest everyone look into Chase Sapphire either Preferred or Reserve. Like AMEX, it does have a hefty fee ($350-450 annual) if you’re looking at Reserve but that covers travel credit of $150 or more, TSA Global entry fees, Priority Pass lounges, travel insurance and protection. The AMEX offers a bit more for $550 a year but I think the Chase program is a solid one without having to go the extra costs- not to mention AMEX is not taken globally while Chase is a VISA and universal. I have not had to pay for flights in a while so point accumulation has been strong and value of points spent to have a larger dollar value has helped us a lot. What I will say is that chase has now started using Expedia as their travel experts and I don’t find them extremely reliable all the time, and I really want travel concierges to know about the destinations I’m going to or are willing to go the extra mile to call the airlines or experts when I have issues… if you ask enough, they will do it but there were days when they would offer to go to the extra mile! Those were the days!! With that said, it is still a very solid card!

  2. Mujahid.mian@gmail.com

    Great tips. Any information on which credit cards to use to maximize earning of miles or points, pre security checks, car rentals etc will help greatly. Is it better to buy the all inclusive tours or shop for each item separately? Answering all this may require another article.

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DISCLAIMER: This site is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal, or other professional advice. The content on voicebowl.com is designed to support, not replace, medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you believe you may have a condition.
COOKIES POLICY: This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to browse on this website, you accept the use of cookies for the above purposes.