Having eaten satay in Singapore, pizza in Italy, apfelstrudel in Austria, wiener schnitzel in Germany, stroopwafels in Holland, croissants in Paris and, of course, tea and scones at Kensington Palace 🙂 I thought I’d compile some tips in case someone finds it helpful! I’ve told a few people about how I didn’t suffer from jet lag and what I did to avoid it, so I’ll include that information too.
In this day and age we’re used to just booking everything related to a trip online. While we did book most of our accommodation, trains and rental cars ourselves, we didn’t book the flights there and back. We’d recommend using a travel agent (specifically Christine Davis at Kiwi Travel Guru) when you’re traveling overseas with multiple connections. The reason we used a travel agent is not only because the cost is about the same, but also because travel agents know things we don’t. Such as new flights coming out, specials, and they are just a wealth of information on travel; at least Christine is, she’s done bookings for us for about 20 years now! One of our close connecting flights, because it was a “legal connection” meant that if we had missed it, the airline would have put us on the next flight. However, if we had booked the flights ourselves instead of through Christine, this would not have been the case; they would have been viewed as separate, individual flights. Travel agents have access to some things that the average Joe Bloggs doesn’t. Just something to be aware of if you’re trying to be your own travel agent!
Now for the tips.
- When you’re planning your trip, talk with friends who have been to the same places you are going. They can offer very valuable advice! And where possible, meet up with people while you’re away. Traveling isn’t just about visiting places, but people! Our trip was a delightful mix of visiting people and places; where possible we fitted our itinerary around meeting up with friends.
- Travel light, especially if you are traveling on trains like we were. We had just one checked in bag, a duffel bag with wheels on it. If we’d had a suitcase it would have been far more difficult to get on and off trains, and to go through the narrow turnstiles! We saw tourists struggling with this, not to mention lugging baggage up and down stairs. Below is a picture of the bag we took, and we were very impressed with its performance: http://www.luggagedirect.com.au/high-sierra-composite-84cm-wheeled-duffle-black-63218.html It not only had wheels, but also had a hard base which meant it could stand up on its own without falling over and was strong and sturdy. It also had a section at the bottom for shoes, and the zips could be locked together. We used TSA combination locks. I can’t stress enough how excellent this bag turned out to be. It had handles all around so you could easily grab it, and it unzipped to easily access everything, plus it had wheels and a handle. It also had backpack straps, but we didn’t use it as a backpack.
- Take packing cells. If you don’t have any, buy them, they are well worth the investment! These were by far the best thing we bought for our trip, along with the bag I just mentioned. We had 3 cells each and they kept our clothing organised and meant that packing up took only a couple of minutes. Literally! Here’s a link to the cells we had: http://www.kathmandu.co.nz/packs-and-bags/packing-solutions/cells.html
- Stay healthy! You don’t want to be sick while traveling so take at least 1000 mgs of Vitamin C each day. Mike didn’t do this and got a cold in Germany that he had for 4 weeks. No joke! He just couldn’t shake it. I got his cold from him 2 days after he got it and I had it for only 24 hours. Again, no joke! You can’t underestimate the value of a healthy immune system, and related to this: eat well! And by that, I mean eat sensibly! Avoid junk food and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables to keep healthy while you travel.
- Be selective where you eat. We had amazing food everywhere we went, partly because we avoided the main tourist food places if we could, and aimed for smaller places in back streets. We also tried to select the local food choices instead of things we were more used to.
- Don’t expect to see or do everything. Avoid being so organised or so rushed off your feet that you can’t enjoy the spontaneity and fun that comes with just casually walking around exploring a new place! There’s a fine balance there, you need some things to be organised, but ideally you need some leeway for free time to just wander too. I loved “stumbling” on to things I hadn’t expected or anticipated! This was partly thanks to my excellent tour guide, Mike. He often knew what was coming up, but wouldn’t let on, so that I could enjoy the surprise! 🙂
- If you travel between seasons, take 100% merino clothing layers. The merino performed superbly, it dried quickly when washed, and didn’t retain body odours. I took merino tops, socks, cardigans and jackets and felt just the right temperature no matter where we went, whether 6 degrees celsius or 20 degrees.
- Take your most comfortable shoes and socks, you will do a LOT of walking. Avoid socks with seams. My shoes had memory foam in them and were super comfortable the whole trip. Even after days of 8-10 hours of walking, my feet weren’t sore!
- And at last: how to not be jet lagged! I researched this before we left and decided to try changing when I ate as opposed to changing when you sleep, which I’ve tried before and doesn’t work. I couldn’t find the link where I read about this though, so here is what I did, and it worked for me! This is for flying west, which is the recommended direction to fly if you want to avoid jet lag. Two or three days before you leave, start having your meals later than usual by an hour or two, to try to get more in sync with the time zone of where you’re flying to. On the day of travel, eat lightly. Don’t eat much at all, and keep your fluids up. If you’re leaving in the evening like we were, don’t have breakfast on the day you leave. Instead, at lunch time have a light breakfast, and at dinner time have a light lunch, then you have a light dinner on the plane. When they offer you water on the plane, take it, it’s important to stay hydrated. At the end of the 10-12 hour flight you get breakfast just before you land. With your breakfast have a good quality slow-release Vitamin B Complex. The B Complex helps your body deal with stress. And that’s all I did. And it worked! Every single time!!! Our first flight was Wellington, Auckland, Singapore. We left home at 4pm and arrived in Singapore at 6.30am local time – 18 hours after we’d left home. We then looked around Singapore all day before going to bed at a decent time in the evening, and I wasn’t overly tired! Our flights were long, at least 10 hours long, with big time zone changes. Mike didn’t do this, and he was a little jet lagged, but I wasn’t. Normally he complains about me being jet lagged and he’s not, so this was quite a change and I will certainly use the same technique again in the future. For me at least, it totally works! 🙂 Bear in mind if you are flying east instead of west, you need to have your meals earlier instead of later.
- And lastly… don’t do a travel blog. Ha! That is, unless you’re prepared to dedicate a couple of hours a day to it. I found it hard to find the time. I usually did it in the early morning or late evening. And I didn’t bother editing photos, the blog would have been better if I’d had more time, but when you’re traveling as much as we were, time is very limited. I was usually several days behind. I persisted though, as it was an excellent way of keeping our kids, and friends and family, in touch with what we were doing, where we’d been, and who (and what) we’d seen.
So there you go. My top tips for traveling around the world! Hope somebody finds them helpful! Now we’re back in Wellington settling into life as normal, which so far has included a 7.8 earthquake followed by a tsunami, followed by a month’s rain the next day, followed by continuing aftershocks… but that’s another story. 🙂
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” – St. Augustine
(A book I saw in the Victoria and Albert museum in London.)
Very helpful tips indeed, and I especially am glad that you did pay attention to abiding by #10. I feel like I had a mini-vacation moment whenever I read your posts!
Cool, thanks Marti, so glad you “traveled” with us!!! 🙂
Your Mum and Dad were also glad you took the time to do the blog. Thank you. Fantastic pictures, it was like we were there with you the whole way.
Always looked forward to the next blog to see what you had been up to.
What a great blog and thank you for recommending me.
I will definitely be trying your tips on eating etc with regard to jetlag. I have used Melatonin over the last few years which has helped but yours sounds like a great and clearly worked.
Plus my friends over from the UK travelling with their family swore by their packing cells. For a travel agent who travels as often as possible you would be mortified at how I pack – typical travel agent …..normally working up until hours before I leave at which time I open up the suitcase and throw in as much as my allowance will allow!!
I’m glad you had a great trip
Yep, the eating thing really worked for me. A better test of it would be flying east instead of west!!! It was so good not to be hampered by jet lag though! And yes, you really must try getting some packing cells, it makes packing so, so much easier! Kathmandu often have them on sale. Using them might require a little more time though as you don’t throw things into cells, you roll them up and put them in nicely. Ha! 😉