Traveling on a whim

A few travel tips for the average person

Traveling to another country can be fun and exciting. its can also be scary if its done without any research. Use these travel tips to get ahead of the rest of the travelers and make the most of your vacation!

1. If you haven’t been to the place your visiting before and didn’t get a true recommendation from a friend.  Book a single night at the hotel and test it before commiting to a whole week. It’s better to find out what the hotel is like before getting stuck. I know I personally need a comfy bed. I’ve booked extra nights and was stuck with a stiff bed. Now I get one night and try it out. If its good, I’ll then book the week. If the area is going to be booked then you might consider sucking it up and getting the week if needed.
2. Know the rules of the land: in Buenos Aires it’s common for foreigners to get scammed right away when arriving at the airport. I wish I knew this before I arrived and got robbed by that scum of the earth bastard! I hope he crashes in a fiery blaze of death! In Ireland we had to figure out how to rent a car and how to drive on the wrong side of the road.

RESEARCH

1. Arrive during the day if at all possible. Do not arrive at night. Know your surroundings. Arriving in Buenos Aires at night and getting robbed by cabbie…. would have been much scarier. Glad we took the red eye and arrived at 0900.
2. Know if a cab driver grabs your phone to give you pointers about losing your phone… You can bet he is making sure you are not photographing him! I sure wish I took photos of him the cab plate and my money before I got in the cab. That’s a fact!!
3. Your idea of one place and reality can be two separate things. Check in with friends etc. do your research.
4. In the US you can only buy water after security and take on the plane. In Argentina you cannot. I bought water after security and it was taken from me. When I got on the plane they told me I could’ve taken the water. Of course I wasn’t about to argue with anyone right before I’m finally leaving.

USE OF TECH

1. Google Street view: Use it to know the streets you will be staying at. You could think your staying at a nice hotel. We booked a 4 star hotel that was located on a side street filled with homeless, cracked streets and sidewalks. Street view helped pick our second one.
2. Google Maps: Download offline maps. You can download an entire area and have it saved on your smartphone. This is probably one of the best travel tips I could offer you.  When traveling abroad the use of cell service especially data can be pricey. You can download these maps and use google maps even when your phone is in airplane mode. You will still receive location and can still get directions even in airplane mode. All without data, saving you money!
3. Google translate: Download offline languages. Same idea here you can download languages and still communicate in a country where you don’t speak the language.
4. Have an extra iphone or ipod laying around? Use it as your offline companion. I wish I used just some of these travel tips before I went to Argentina.

Have more travel tips?  Write a blog post for us or send us your travel tips and we will consider adding them.