The Ultimate Travel Hacks You Do Not Need To Know
Pinterest is full with tricks and hacks to make our travels easier and simpler … But to me most of these ideas haven’t changed my life – they made me philosophically analyse them and question myself, and I came to the conclusion that they possibly made my life more complicated when they were supposed to make it easier …
When it comes to packing there are hundreds of how-to’s, videos and info graphs, but don’t waste your time on those. There is only one person who can pack like a pro and teach you the hows and whats of packing – your mother.
They say to use straws to make your own travel-size carry on portions of ‘liquids’ (as airports say) – products like shampoo, conditioner, SPF and I say: ain’t nobody got time for that. Seriously … buy miniatures or steal them from hotels. Straws should stick to what they’re good at – the perfect accompaniment for a cocktail.
Apparently people use a shower cap to cover the bottoms of shoes, because you know … this way the soles will not touch your clean clothes. But it’s ok for your hair to get the dirt?
My favourite has to be this tip for solo female travellers: wear a fake wedding ring and pretend to be married. I’m not sure this will put off pushy men, and they have the internet too – I bet there is a forum thread devoted to uncovering women using this trick.
When travelling together reserve the aisle and window when confirming your plane tickets. The idea is that you book the aisle and window seat in the hope it will remain empty if the flight is not full … and if this is not the case and the seat gets booked, you can ask them to switch with one of you. What’s the deal with this? Why all the hassle for almost nothing? Also … you are technically not allowed to switch seats.
Putting underwear in your shoes to save a tiny pit of space? Not sure what about you, but I like to at least try and keep things hygienic.
Keeping some cash in empty lip balm in case your wallet gets stolen or to make it less appealing for thieves during a day on the beach – now this seems smart at first, but I don’t know about you guys but my lip balms have their own travel adventures and often barely last a week in my company!
This is apparently an easy travel idea to keep toothbrush to dry quickly between uses. It’s a good thing we always carry a clothes pegs with us, am I right?
Bringing more clothes than you need has always been an issue for women. I often read that you should bring clothes that dry quickly so you can wash them and wear them again to supposedly cut down on the amount of clothes to pack. But are we really looking to reduce our clothes? I much prefer to have a list of excuses on why I need extra clothes!
Do travel hacks work for you?
Haha, these are funny. But I do have to disagree about one – I’ve done the booking seats A and C on the plane with a friend, and it’s worked out a couple of times… and when it does, it’s SO nice! Especially on a 15 hr flight to Asia. Plus the person in the middle seat gets pretty excited about getting to pick an aisle or a window seat ‘upgrade’ (I always give them the option)
But yes, some of these tips are totally ridiculous.
These are truly the best travel tips I have ever seen!!!! I was just thinking about how unuseful so many tips are! And that chapstick one….I haven’t met a living human who has ever finished a tube of chapstick.
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Someone had to say this and you did it in the most amuzing way! Seriously, people worry too much about the unimportant things. Instead of researchig ways to pack, better research place you’re visiting in order not to miss anything that is actually IMPORTANT for the sake of traveling 🙂
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You are spot on, those hacks can be pointless! My one travel hack is to do a packing list – when I don’t then I always forget to take something
Suze | LuxuryColumnist
LOL I love this post – you are completely right. Some of these things are such a waste of time and energy.
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Ha ha, some of these are so true. I haven’t seen the clothespin one, but I always just leave my toothbrush hanging over the sink to dry… usually works out just fine. I’ve heard that wedding ring one before, which is so absurd. It’s like the idea of men wearing wedding rings to try and pick up women. That sort of thing can only backfire on you…
hahaha this was hilarious-a great read! I didn’t even think about that chapstick thing-so true though! I lose mine in like a day…….
Totally true! I lose so many lipgloss containers it’s not even funny. Same with bobby pins. Common sense people!!!
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This post dedinity made me laugh. So happy I don’t do any of these (usually)! Except packing, I do roll my clothes. Oh and every year when I come to Sweden with one 50 pound suitcase and a carry on, I definitely jam my shoes full of clothes in my carry on. I wash everything when I arrive anyways!