New Year’s Resolutions For Travellers

I hope you are having a great start to the new year! How many of your resolutions have you broken? It’s never too late to add new ones and with that in mind I’ve put a few travel related ones together we can actually keep this year.

Travelling should be fun, not stressful so let’s promise each other to check-in the night before and avoid the madness at the check-in counter on the day of travel. While we are at it: print your ticket out or make sure you have enough battery if you use an app to avoid the budget airline £60 printing fee. Spoiler alert: they don’t print it on gold.

When on a budget trip don’t ask for the cheapest wine – if wine is not your fuel then switch it for something else. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your taste buds and enjoy at least one thing.

So many countries, so many currencies, so much money wasted on exchange rates. This year plan ahead and get familiar with the exchange rates or get an app so you know how much you’re spending at all times.

I know this is a hard one for about half of us, but we can at least try to pack on time. Also … overpacking – the rule of thumb should be: if you haven’t worn those 12 inch heels for the past 10 months you’re not going to need them for your next city trip.

Don’t forget to inform your bank of your travel plans as a lot banks flag foreign transactions in case of fraud and they might end up freezing your account, so be sure you inform your company ahead of time.

Make sure to check the entry and exit requirements for the destination you’re headed to next. And check the expiration date on your passport to make sure it precedes the date of your flight home, don’t forget some countries require that passports be valid for six months past the date of your flight home while most European countries require that passports be valid for three months past.

Eco/green/sustainable travel is the trend for 2017 so why not jump on that bandwagon and travel more responsibly? I will go into this in another post, but it can be as simple as asking housekeeping not to change towels every day and invest in a re-usable bottle so you can stop buying plastic bottled water and plastic cups. Baby steps.

And last but definitely not least. Stop.comparing.yourself.to.other.travellers.on.social.media. Those fulltime travel bloggers you follow who go around from place to place? Well done for them! But it’s not a competition! Let’s raise a glass to realistic expectations.

What are your resolutions?