Travel Tips (English version)

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Tip 1: Be ready to sleep anywhere

 Jumping on and off buses, exploring a new city all day on foot, dealing with relentless vendors, it’s all part of what makes travelling great, but it can be tiring! When that opportunity comes to grab some much needed sleep you better be ready to take it. Unfortunately, a comfy bed or a spot on the beach isn’t always the available option. Being prepared to sleep on an airport floor, over the back wheels of a rickety old bus (worst seat on the bus!) or on the bench outside a train station is vital to staying restedand keeping your energy up for the next day of your trip.

Your essential items to be ready to sleep anywhere are an eye-mask, ear plugs and a small inflatable neck pillow. If you have a light blanket/shawl/sleeping bag you’re better prepared again. Keep them in an accessible part of your bag and be ready to sleep anywhere, anytime!

Tip 2: Eat REAL local food

Seriously, we can’t stress this enough! If you really want to experience a country, it’s culture and it’s ways then eat their food and we don’t mean the overpriced, often incredibly mediocre versions you’ll find in the tourist restaurants, we mean REAL local food. Support local business!Find a local restaurant, packed with local people and you can be sure you’re onto a good thing. They know the food better than anyone, they know the area better than anyone, so you can be sure you can trust their opinion over that of your guidebook! Guidebooks are not current and standards rise and fall all the time so the restaurant that did the best whatever last week, might not be the best in town next week. Find thebusiest restaurant in town where you don’t understand the menu, where the food looks a bit weird and you’ll probably have the best time, most interesting conversations and most delicious food on your entire trip!

Tip 3: How to get a FAIR taxi fare

You’re in a foreign country and you’re jumping in a taxi to get from A to B, how are you supposed to know how much it’s going to cost? Taxi drivers have reputations for ripping off backpackers so take these simple steps to avoid becoming another victim of the taxi mafia.

1.   When taking a taxi from the airport research before hand how much it should cost to get to where you’re going. Find out are there pre-paid taxi booths, are they cheaper or more expensive than non pre-pay? Sometimes it’s better to walk outside the airport to get the best fare. Do your research and you’ll stand a better chance at getting a fair price.

2.   Ask at your guesthouse, in a restaurant or cafe or even in the local convenience store how much the fare should roughly be. People don’t want to see you get conned and will usually help out as much as they can.

3.   Look at a map! If you can get an idea of approximately what distanceyou’ll be travelling and know how much a taxi costs per kilometre, some simple maths should get you the fare!

4.   If the taxi uses a metre and it’s common practice for the drivers to actually use the meter then make sure it’s been turned on. If it’s “broken”, “old” or anything else other than in perfect working order, ask the driver to stop and get in another taxi.

5.   Ask other travellers you meet along the way how much they paid to get from here to there and get an idea of what the cost should be.

At the end of the day, depending where you’re travelling,  you must accept that you may never get a real, ‘local’ price but with these tips hopefully you can at least get a FAIR price.

Tip 4: Take Local Transportation

Taking local transport, whether it’s buses, rickshaws, trains, tuk-tuks, or whatever, is always the better option when you’re travelling. Okay, so it’s not always the more comfortable option but those are the stories you take away with you. Nobody comes back from a trip away and tells you about the amazing, modern, A/C private tourist bus they took to get to where they were going. Take local transport and earn your traveller stripes. Have the stories that start with ‘so, we were the only foreigners on the bus’, ‘it took ten hours on the dodgiest roads’ or ‘I can’t believe the bus even moved, the condition it was in’.

As an added bonus, taking local transport means you’ll get off the highways, pass through little towns and villages you wouldn’t see otherwise. They’ll cost you much, much less than any of the private bus companies, you’ll stop at rest stops for locals, not private ones for tourists where the price is jacked up and you’ll meet local people. Taking local transport we’ve seen guys getting on with boxes of live chickens, goats under their arms, goats in the boot, people on the bus roof (us included), people hanging out train doors and loads of other things you just wouldn’t see unless you took local transport and travel for real.

Tip 5: Keep Your Camera Battery Charged

I hear you, “it’s so obvious and so straight forward! It would take some fool to forget to charge their camera battery when there’s so much to photograph”. Well, I’ve been that fool and I definitely recommend you not to be!

In preparation for a trip to Gyeongju, Korea I charged my battery the night before and was all set to start snapping when I arrived. Shortly after we arrived, I realised that, stupidly, I had forgotten to bring the charged battery with me and so the camera was just a dead weight for the entire trip! Double check you’ve charged your batteries too, I now carry three batteries with me but only last summer, after hiking to the top of Galtee Mor in Ireland, I went to replace my battery for some shots at the summit and guess what, no juice in any of them, I was so angry with myself as the sun was setting and we had clear skies, it was picture perfect!

Get into the habit of charging your battery every night of your trip and carrying spare charged batteries with you at all times. Just remember to bring them with you!

Tip 6: How to Haggle

As a tourist it’s often assumed that you don’t know the real price of anything and some people will try to attempt to take advantage of this. Follow these tips and haggle with confidence.

1.   Price Around

When you arrive in a place and you’re strolling around getting a feel for the area, ask the price of things. You don’t need to haggle, just ask their starting price and keep walking. At least then you have a bench mark to work from when you are going to buy. If you meet other travellers ask them how much they paid for things too, the more information you have the better!

2.   Start Low 

Don’t be afraid to offer half or even a third of what they are asking. We know it might seem like a ridiculously low price but better to start low and work up. You can judge by their reaction whether you’re gone too low or not.

3.   Be Willing To Walk AwayUsually the vendor you’re dealing with is not the only person selling whatever it is you’re looking for. If they won’t come to a reasonable price just walk away and try somewhere else.

4.   Keep Your Cool

Don’t get worked up if they won’t come down to a fair price. Keep smiling, have a bit of a laugh, drop in a sir or a madam and see where that takes you. Getting angry or worked up won’t help the situation in any way.

5.   Be Willing To Agree On A PriceDon’t spend twenty minutes standing in a sweaty market debating over the price if you don’t even know if you’re going to buy. If you’re genuinely interested then get haggling, otherwise you’re just wasting the vendors time and your own.

6.   Enjoy it!

Learn to play the game. Haggling is a way of life in a lot of parts of the world. You’re not going to offend anybody by asking for a low price (don’t ask, don’t get!) and don’t be offended if they ask for a high price. It’s all part of the game and if you play it well you’ll earn yourself a few bargainson your travels and maybe a good haggling story too!

Tip 7: Dress Respectfully

Sorry girls, but unfortunately this is more of an issue for you than it is for the fellas. Look at what the locals are wearing and then look at the locals who fall into a similar category (age, marital status, etc) as you and go with that.

For girls, a scarf/shawl is always handy for covering up shoulders and can be used to keep the sun off your head in hot weather. Usually keeping the legs to the knee and also shoulders covered is fairly safe. Loosebaggy fitting clothes are always a good option in hot countries to keep cool and dress respectfully.

Not only does dressing respectfully show that you care about the local culture but it will benefit you too. You can avoid a lot of unwanted attention by dressing as the locals do. In fact, a lot of solo female travelers in India will wear saris because they can blend into the crowd better avoiding any unwanted attention.

Visiting temples, churches, mosques and other places of worship, it’s usually not even an option. If you want to go inside, you must meet the dress code, that goes for guys and girls. At the end of the day, you are a guest, you are always a guest, so do your best to do as the locals do and make your travels easier so you can enjoy your experiences more.

Other tips are here:

Travel Tips

Travel Essentials

First Time Backpacker Essentials

Land Border Crossing Checklist
How to Travel the World for Free
Travel Safety: 50 Tips for Solo Travelers