7 travel tips to keep in mind to enjoy trip abroad
TRAVELING abroad is always fun and exciting. Common travel advice like keeping an eye on wallets or not drinking tap water is indispensable to hear before taking a trip. However, there are some more exceptional issues and travel taboos that one must be aware of when going abroad. Bear these seven tips in mind on what not to do in order to be sure and enjoy your trip.
■ Trusting the hotel safe
You may be used to stowing your passport, money, tickets and other valuable items in the hotel safe, to avoid losing them when you are out and about, or getting robbed.
How safe are hotel safes, though? Not particularly – some very old models can be opened if the power supply is cut. Other safes can be opened if they are returned to their factory setting. Then there are those that spring open if you punch the lid. Safes in hotel rooms often present a little obstacle for thieves as they are only mounted in the wardrobe or on the wall with screws so they can easily be removed from the site, a German consumer advice center warned in 2019.
It is safer to use the safe at the hotel reception, where you can drop off your valuables. You’ll get a receipt and your items will be fully insured – unlike if you use the room safe.
■ Making phone calls or downloading a video onboard a ship
If you’re on a ferry, say from Germany to Sweden or Norway, you might not think twice about reaching for your smartphone, after roaming charges in the EU and some other countries were dropped back in 2017.
But that only applies to land-based networks. As otherwise, passengers would not have a mobile phone connection at sea, major ferries often have an onboard mobile phone network, connected to a satellite network.
Sadly, these onboard networks are very expensive and the costs are not capped at a certain level. A brief call costs between €3 ($3.17) and €7 per minute.
■ Packing your check-in bag
Another piece of vital travel advice is to put your necessities in your hand luggage. In 2019, airlines worldwide lost around 25.4 million luggage items, or just over 5.5 suitcases per thousand passengers, according to IT service provider Sita.
That is not necessarily a cause for concern, as 99.5% of all missing luggage turns up, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). But if you want to avoid being among the remaining 0.5%, make sure your bag doesn’t have loose straps dangling off it, and ensure your suitcase is not excessively worn.
■ Skipping a leg of a flight
It seems odd that a flight ticket from Oslo to New York via Berlin costs less than a ticket from Berlin to New York, without the first leg. You might wonder, do I really have to board the plane in Oslo? Yes, you do. If you skip a leg of the journey on your ticket, the airline may charge you the difference compared to the regular route price. Legally, that may be a grey area, but it could be an expensive headache afterward.
■ Being unaware of local laws
Most travelers make an effort to be sure they abide by local laws but sometimes that requires some extra research. Be aware that if you are in Thailand for example, you don’t want to place your foot on a banknote, as there’s a picture of the king on it, so you could get into trouble.
Meanwhile, in Buddhist countries, some people don’t like to see tourists posing playfully by Buddha statues. If you’re in the native islands of the Maldives, that aren’t part of tourist resorts, bikinis are banned. In Bhutan, you may not smoke in public. And if you are in Singapore, you may not transport the musty-smelling durian fruit underground.
■ Being careless with your medication
There are pills for everything from tension to fear of flying but think twice about whether to pack them when traveling. Many countries have strict drug laws such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Malaysia and many others, so while a drug might be commonplace in Europe, for example, even a small quantity could land you in jail abroad.
■ Checking your bank balance at the hotel
It’s a bad idea to do online banking at the hotel particularly if the wi-fi is not password-protected. You might wind up in the wrong network if you see something like “Guest” on the list of free networks and assume that is the one for you. It could be a scam set up close to the hotel and if you are unlucky, thieves can find your email log-ins and bank passwords, track all your activities, install malware or redirect the connection to phishing sites.