My Best 51 Travel Tips to Make You the World’s Savviest Traveler

Travel savviness is a process born of missed buses, foolish behavior, cultural unawareness, and countless tiny errors. eventually, after many lessons learned, you begin to seamlessly move through airports and integrate yourself into new cultures like a fish to water. Use these tips to become a savvier traveler and to avoid all the mistakes that I made! The post My Best 51 Travel Tips to Make You the World’s Savviest Traveler appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site. Most people aren’t born savvy travelers. It’s something that only comes with on-the-road experience. Travel savviness is a process born of missed buses, foolish behavior, cultural unawareness, and countless tiny errors. Then, one day, you begin to seamlessly move through airports and integrate yourself into new cultures like a fish to water. In the beginning, you’ll make a lot of travel mistakes.But I want to help speed up the process and help you avoid my mistakes (and I often make a lot of them), so I put together this giant list of my best travel tips that cover everything under the sun to help you reach your full travel ninja potential. I’ve learned these tips over almost twenty years of being a nomad. These tips for traveling will have you saving money, sleeping better, getting off the beaten path more, meeting locals, and just being a better traveler. So, without further ado, here are the best 61 travel tips in the world: 1. Always pack a towel. It’s the key to successful galactic hitchhiking — and plain common sense. You never know when you will need it, whether it’s at the beach, on a picnic, or just to dry off after a shower. While many hostels offer towels, you never know if they will or not, and carrying a small towel won’t add that much weight to your bag. Make sure it’s a lightweight, quick-drying towel since regular towels are too bulky and heavy (and they take a long time to dry). Dry Fox travel towels are my favorite (use the code “nomadicmatt” for 15% off your purchase)! 2. Use a small backpack/suitcase. By purchasing a small backpack (I like something around 35–45 liters), you will be forced to pack light and avoid carrying too much stuff. Humans have a natural tendency to want to fill space. Even if you pack light initially but have lots of extra room in your bag, you’ll end up going, “Well, I guess I can take more” and fill that space.” You’ll regret it later as you’ll be carrying around a bunch of stuff you don’t need as well as more weight on your shoulders. This article has more tips on finding the best travel backpack for your needs. The same rule applies to suitcases. Don’t take a huge suitcase because they are a pain in the butt to lug around, especially if you’re traveling long term (short term, not so much). I like Level 8 suitcases. They are durable, quite spacious, nicely designed, and well-priced (luggage can be pretty damn expensive). Plus, they have a TSA lock built into the zipper. You can click here to learn more and buy one. I also recommend packing cubes, which are essential if you’re going to be living out of a backpack for a few weeks (or months), or you just want to keep your suitcase better organized. They come in a variety of sizes, allowing you to store items big and small. They’re great for making it easy to find everything in your backpack or suitcase. 3. Pack light. Write down a list of essentials, cut it in half, and then only pack that! Plus, since you bought a small backpack like I said above, you won’t have much room for extra stuff anyways! Take half the clothes you think you will need…you won’t need as much as you think. It’s OK to wear the same t-shirt a few days in a row. I love Unbound Merino, as their travel clothing can be worn daily for weeks without getting smelly. They are super light and they look stylish too. I really love the material, they’re comfortable, they hardly ever need a wash, and they last forever! (I wrote a review of the company here.) But bring extra socks! You’ll lose a bunch to laundry gremlins, wear and tear, and hiking so packing extra will come in handy. Take a few more than you need. Trust me on this. For a complete list of what I pack, click here to read my post. 4. Stay in hostels. They are cheap, organize events, you’ll meet a lot of people, and they are just tons of fun! Plus, hostel bars sell cheap beer. Hostelworld is the best hostel-accommodation site out there, with the largest inventory, best search interface, and highest availability. I use it for all my hostel bookings. Here’s my list of all my favorite hostels around the world broken down by city. If you’re planning on backpacking Europe, it’s worth getting HostelPass, a card that gives you up to 20% off hostels throughout Europe. It’s a great way to save money, and they’re constantly adding new hostels too. I’ve always wanted something like this and so I’m glad it finally exists. Use code NOMADICMATT for 25% off. 5. Take an extra bank card and credit card with you Disasters happen and things get stolen or compromised. I once had a card duplicated and a freeze put on it. I couldn’t use it for the rest of my trip. I was very happy I had a backup. You don’t want to be stuck somewhere new without access to your funds. This happened to a friend once and they had to borrow money from me for weeks while they waited for their new card to arrive. Here are some helpful articles on banking: How to Avoid Banking Fees While Traveling 20+ Ways to Cut Your Expenses and Have Money for Travel How to Pick the Best Travel Credit Card 6. Make sure to use no-fee bank and credit cards. Don’t give banks your hard-earned money. Keep that for yourself and spend it on your travels. Get a credit card and debit card that doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee or an ATM fee. Over the course of a long trip, the few dollars they take every time will really add up! This article will tell you how to do that. 7. Don’t always fly direct. When booking flights, sometimes it is cheaper to fly to airports close to your final destination, and then take a train, bus, or budget airline to your final destination. To use this method, find out how much it is to go directly to your destination. Then, look at prices to nearby airports. If the difference is more than $150 USD, I look to see how much it is to get from the second airport to my primary destination. My favorite flight search engine is Skyscanner. This is my go-to website for finding cheap flights. It searches a lot of different airlines, including many of the budget carriers that larger sites miss. 8. Travel by yourself at least once. Solo travel teaches independence and confidence. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. Traveling solo taught me how to fend for myself, talk to people, and handle unfamiliar situations with ease. It can take some getting used to if you’ve never done it before but do it at least once. Make yourself uncomfortable and surprise yourself. You’ll learn valuable life skills when you push yourself! Here are some helpful articles on solo travel: Why I Travel Alone The Joy of Solo Travel Travel: The Ultimate Personal Development Tool How to Overcome Being Alone 9. Always visit the local tourism information center. This is probably one of the most underused travel tips in the world. Tourism information centers know about everything going on in town. They can point you to free activities, special events happening during your stay, and everything in between. They even offer discounts on attractions and transportation. It is their job to help you experience the destination better. They are staffed by locals who can tell you all the ins and outs of their city and where to eat or drink that aren’t filled with tourists. Plus, they often offer city tourism cards that can get you into multiple attractions for one set price, saving you a lot of money if you are going to do a lot of sightseeing. 10. Take free walking tours. Besides being free, these tours will give you a good orientation and background of the city you are visiting. I love, love, love taking walking tours when I travel. You pass the time, you get to pepper the guide with questions, and you get to learn so much about where you are. And, in the last few years, they have exploded in popularity and now most cities around the world have one! This page here lists all my favorite walking tour companies, broken down by city. If you’re looking for paid tours, Walks is one of my favorite paid walking tour companies, offering in-depth history and cultural tours in cities around the world (especially Europe). Its small-group tours also tend to offer exclusive behind-the-scenes access you can’t get elsewhere. For fellow foodies, Devour Food Tours has all kinds of amazing food tours around Europe. You can also use Get Your Guide to find plenty of unique day tours. 11. Don’t be afraid to use a map. Looking like a tourist isn’t as bad as getting really lost and ending up in the wrong neighborhood. Don’t be afraid to use a map or ask for directions and look like a tourist. After all, you are one! 12. But don’t be afraid to get purposefully lost. Wandering aimlessly through a new city is a good way to get to know it, get off the beaten path, and away from the tourists. You might be surprised by the hidden gems you find. I like to wander around and try to find my way without using Google Maps. Travel is the art of discovery and you never know what cool little spot you’ll come across. 13. Ask hostel staff for information — even when you aren’t staying there. Hostel staff deal with budget travelers all day, every day. They know exactly where to go for cheap meals and attractions. They also tend to be locals so they know the city very well. Ask them for all sorts of information. Even if you aren’t staying in one, just pop in and ask for help. They’ll usually give it. 14. Sign up for flight deals. When it comes to travel, your flight(s) will likely be your biggest expense. Save money by signing up for flight deal websites. You’ll get epic flight deals straight to your inbox, saving you time and money. Also be sure to sign up for airline newsletters, since that is where they will announce their sales first. The best websites for finding travel deals are: Going.com – The BEST for upcoming US flight deals. The Flight Deal – Great for global flight deals. Holiday Pirates – The best for European flight deals. Secret Flying – A great site for flight deals from around the world. 15. When you go out, take only what you need. Limit the amount of cash and bank cards you carry with you when you go out, so if something does happen, you can easily recover. Never take more than one credit card or ATM card with you. My rule for cash is to limit what I carry to $50 USD. 16. Always carry a lock. Carry a small combination lock with you when you travel. They come in handy, especially when you stay in dorms. Most hostels use lockers, so budget travelers need to provide their own travel lock to keep stuff secured. While you can usually rent or buy them at hostels, it’s much cheaper just to buy

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