10 Life Hacks For Travelers

If you have had a photograph of a beach in Spain on your phone for six months, and cars are noisy outside the window, this is an excuse to take tickets and fly away somewhere farther. And now you yourself are sunbathing under the palm trees, and not admiring them from the other side of the screen.

In this article, we have collected 10 life hacks for travelers on non-obvious topics that should be taken care of in advance.

Get an installment card and travel without money

It seems that you will have to save up more than one year for a cool trip, but wait, get upset. Life hack, how to travel without the need to save up for a long time and painfully, has long been invented – the Conscience installment card. You issue it for free via the Internet without confirmation of income or employment, receive it by courier and pay in the partner stores of the project. For example, you can buy a plane or train ticket, book a hotel, or even pay for an entire tour. You can view a list of all travel partners of the card here.

In fact, you will already have the tour or plane tickets on hand, and you can pay later: partners provide an interest-free installment plan from 1 to 12 months (depending on the specific partner store). At the same time, all discounts and promotions of this store for cardholders remain.

Plan your entire trip on one site

There are so many websites for finding tickets, hotels and travel entertainment that it will not be difficult to get confused among them. Therefore, KLM has collected them all in one place.

The journey begins with choosing a country. If you haven’t decided yet, the site has a special section where you can choose a direction based on your budget, region or interests: for example, filter out places with excellent spots for surfing or diving, choose from cities with a rich history and architecture, or, conversely, go there where the music does not stop all night, and the cocktails shine with all the colors of the rainbow. After purchasing your ticket, go to hotel search, car rental and entertainment search: this can also be done on the KLM website.

Additional amenities include the absence of a booking fee, the ability to order the “Time to Think” option to fix the fare now, and pay later, and round-the-clock service in social networks regarding ticket changes, seat selection and other issues.

Buy tickets with a long stopover

Do not rush to put a filter in the search engine: “No transfers”. Direct flights are usually more expensive and run smoothly. By choosing a long transfer, you will be able to see several cities at once in one trip.

It is important to calculate the time correctly and not to get involved in such an adventure if you have less than five hours left between flights: in the best case, you will have time to get to the city and immediately go back, in the worst case, you will be late. Take care in advance of your visa and so that you do not have to stand in lines: buy a ticket to the museum online, download an offline map of the area and mark on it the points you want to visit. Do not forget to think about how you will return back to the airport and calculate the time so that you will be there no later than 2 hours before the flight.

Download an offline map of the area in advance

All ingenious is simple. In order not to get lost in an unfamiliar city and simply not waste time searching for the desired point, mark all the places in advance. And the most important place is your hotel. You will get to the museum, but what should you do when you want to go back? The best app we know is MAPS.ME. In offline mode, it shows nearby attractions, hotels, restaurants, clubs, ATMs, gas stations, hospitals and much more. As long as the phone is charged, you will always get to civilization, wherever you are. We will not even take a portable charger with us to a separate point, here everything is clear anyway.

Use a single tourist card

If you are going to spend one, two or three days in the city, learn about tourist cards – they are valid in almost many popular capitals of the world. There is, for example, the CityCard program, which is being developed by the municipalities themselves. On average, these cards cost from 50 euros, but thanks to them you save much more. With it, you can travel on public transport for free, go to many museums for free or with a big discount, and book special offers for city tours.

Stay speechless – use a translator

It seems that the world-wide English will save you in any country, but no matter how it is. The French understand English, but answer in French, the Chinese will neither understand you nor will they answer, but in Chile or Tanzania you will have to explain yourself with your hands. Therefore, we add a translator to the list of must-have travel apps. Offline is desirable, but online is also useful. For example, google translate or Yandex-Translator. He will translate your speech in real time and decipher the inscription from the photo.

Leave your suitcase half empty

We understand that on vacation you want to take all the best at once, but remember how you usually zip your suitcase before flying back. You will definitely want to buy home an authentic vase, shade, several dresses, shoes, spices, tea – this list is endless. At the same time, more often than not, you will not wear half of the things, because you will buy new ones. Leave plenty of room for them.

Take photos of important documents

Of course, the trip will be successful, but it’s still worth playing it safe. Take a photo of all important documents: passports, visas, insurance, tickets, booking confirmation and upload them to a google drive or send them to your mail. It takes five minutes and helps out in any difficult situation.

Get up early for maximum emotion

The main problem of the most popular attractions is the crowds of tourists who are brought here by whole buses. Waking up early, you will find cozy streets, city squares and fountains empty. And what photos will turn out! In addition, having looked at everything that you have planned, in the morning, in the very heat, you can hide in a cafe or take a nap at a hotel.

Download the Wi-Fi Finder app

Wherever you go, you’ll always be on the hunt for three things: beautiful camera angles, delicious food, and free internet. Someone ingenious has already solved the last problem and created an application that has collected about 500,000 free Wi-Fi points around the world. Not only does he look for them offline (which is logical), the program also plots a route to the nearest point, and shares the password.

Meet the locals

If you are a little tired of all Rome’s guidebooks and bloggers taking you to the Vatican, the Colosseum, or the Trevi Fountain, learn to find alternative methods of finding steep terrain: Meet the locals. They will show you secret gardens, bustling bars, art districts and neighboring cities that are not covered in guidebooks. This is where the adventure begins.