Travel ready

TIPS: THREE PLACES YOU SHOULD IDENTIFY IN A FOREIGN CITY

Eric Ravenscra

When you leave home to travel, you’re leaving behind your support system. It’s easy to forget all the things you rely on – like regular access to food, medicine, money and information – until you don’t have them anymore.

Fortunately, you can find a substitute for your basic needs in every city you travel to.

Whether you’re travelling for vacation or business, there are three places you should identify, preferably within a short distance of your hotel. Once you know the location of all three, you’re prepared to tackle almost anything a new city can throw at you.

First, find a pharmacy Few places are more useful to a traveller than a pharmacy. While you can bring some medicine with you when you travel, you never know what’s going to come up. If you sprain your ankle or catch a cold, you’ll need to know where to get supplies.

Additionally, most pharmacies have a selection of food, drinks and other merchandise that you might need. You can’t bring your refrigerator with you, and restaurants can be expensive. If you’re staying somewhere for a long time, find a proper grocery store, but if you’re only staying for a few days or a week, knowing the closest place to grab a light meal can be a lifesaver.

Some pharmacies are even open 24 hours, so you can pick up some snacks after other stores are closed.

Locate an ATM (or currency exchange)

If you’re travelling domestically, your credit or debit cards might serve you well (just be sure to let your card carrier know that you are travelling). When you need cash, you’ll find that pharmacies often have ATMs inside, so you can kill two birds with one store. If you can find an ATM that doesn’t charge a fee, all the better.

This becomes even more important when you’re travelling out of the country. You can usually get local currency at banks or airports before you leave, but you can’t plan for everything.

If the closest drugstore doesn’t have an ATM, find a place to exchange your money without exorbitant fees.

Find a Wi-Fi hot spot Navigating any new, unfamiliar city is easier when you have steady access to information.

At home, your phone’s reception is likely reliable enough to get by, but when travelling it helps to know where your hot spots are in case you lose service or need to avoid data charges.

Ideally, your hotel will have WiFi available, but it might be unreliable or cost too much.

With that in mind, finding an open, free hot spot near your hotel can be a good fallback.

More important, if you’re planning to be away from your hotel for a while, find a hot spot near where you’ll be spending the day.

The simplest way is usually to locate a restaurant or coffee shop that has free Wi-Fi.