Vacation coming up? Consider these ideas to make the trip go smoothly
There’s still more than a month until summer unofficially ends on Labor Day, so if you find yourself lucky enough to get away soon — or really anytime — here are some tips to make your travel experience go smoothly.
Before leaving the house
Scan or “screen grab” important documents and information. Even if you’re holding a physical boarding pass, it never hurts to take a photo or screen grab of the QR code, itinerary or other details in case you lose the hard copy. That way, you can easily access all the important information. It’s also a good idea to save scans of your passport, driver’s license and other essential documents, just in case you misplace them or get pickpocketed.
Best time to buy airline tickets? Usually Tuesdays, from 2–4 p.m. That’s when most airlines start discounting, especially for short-term purchases.
Travel-size refills. Rather than buy the usually-overpriced travel sized items over and over, just buy them once and refill. Or hit The Container Store and get free vials and tubes and put all your speciality products in them rather than buying what’s available at the drug store.
Saving space. Rolling your clothes saves luggage space. You can also fill your shoes with items like rolled-up socks, a spare pair of glasses or even chargers to maximize storage.
Packing your shoes. If you wrap a disposable shower cap around your shoes, you can keep the grime of the city from transferring to your clothes.
Maintaining freshness. Add a disposable dryer sheet to the bottom of your bag, and clothes will maintain a fresh smell longer.
At the airport
Free airport wifi. Don’t want to pay for pricey and/or limited wifi offered at most airports? Check out comments on sites like FourSquare or Yelp! to see if generous travelers have posted the password already. Another option? Adding the suffix “?.jpg” at the end of most URLs should grant you free logon privileges.
Power strip hero. Ever needed to recharge at the airport, but all the plugs are taken? Bring along a small power strip and you can unplug one of those, give the removed plug a space on the strip and have leftovers for yourself.
Once you arrive
Recharging your devices. If you forget the wall adaptor and don’t have your laptop handy, most modern TVs have a USB port on the back where you can plug in and charge up.
Keeping a map, even off-line. Type in “OK maps” in the search area of Google Maps, and the visible area will be stored even when you’re not connected to the Internet. You can also use “Airport Mode” and use the GPS function without being logged in.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 25, 2014.