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50 Years of Travel Tips

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Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#101

Post by Retric »

ghaff wrote: post #73
Retric wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve gone decades without using a raincoat. If you’re going someplace cold you’ll want warm clothing and if it’s sunny then sunblock is a big deal, but in general you don’t need much stuff on a trip.

My guess is you're not hiking for 10 miles in possibly chilly rain in England or wherever. (Or needing a shell because of wind.) An umbrella doesn't really work and you're probably not wanting to just walk all day drenched. In a city, yes, umbrellas are often a reasonable alternative.

I’ll happily spend all day wet outside as long as it’s warm enough not to want a jacket.

Which is why I just get water resistant jackets rather than raincoats.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#102

Post by JKCalhoun »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #72

The entire 50 years is showing here. Seems like some of these tips are good, and some are awful because they're outdated. Don't crash random weddings if you're not able to pay your way out of trouble. Sketchy plans do result in kidnappings. Truly professional tour guides are wonderful assets that will 10X both your trip and your knowledge in any city.

True. Had a friend head to Central America to surf (I don't recall which country). The first cab he hailed took him to an alley where others were waiting and he was robbed of his passport, cash.

End of trip.

Please don't interpret this as my painting the whole of Central America as dangerous. This is anecdotal but perhaps a cautionary tale? I suspect if he had not grabbed a cab but rather found a bus or some other sort of mass transportation his whole trip could have turned out wonderfully.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#103

Post by astura »

magneticnorth wrote: post #82
pocketarc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a few of these items sound a lot like "white tourist in poor country". Like the one about asking the taxi driver to drive you to his mom, like holy cow that's creepy. Imagine asking an American Uber driver "hey drive me to your mom's" and see how they'd respond.

Extremely white, somewhat gendered as well. I travel alone as a woman a lot, and while it's not as dangerous as many people fear, I'd never ask a taxi driver to take me to (potentially) his private residence in a random neighborhood in an unfamiliar city.

Just imagine this interaction from the mom's perspective. (Because the author sure hasn't!)

You're minding your own business just doing laundry or whatever and your adult son just shows up to you house totally unannounced with a foreign stranger in tow looking for you to cook them a meal. Come on, that is really rude!

Like, it's clear this guy thinks the mom is a total NPC in this situation. It takes some serious delusions of grandeur to think the mom is "happy" about this interaction.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#104

Post by notahacker »

ngneer wrote: post #56
padiyar83 wrote: post #49

"People in other places are not saints. You might get cheated, swindled, or taken advantage of. Paradoxically, the best way to avoid that is to give strangers your trust and treat them well. Being good to them brings out their good. If you are on your best behavior, they will be on their best behavior. And vice versa. To stay safe, smile. Be humble and minimize your ego. I don’t know why that works everywhere in the…

I have a feeling that male and female travel experiences may differ in this regard. "To stay safe, smile." seems pretty naive to me. Clearly, the author is male. I would proffer "always have an exit", "do not walk into something you cannot walk out of" and "do not stray too far from the crowd".

Even for white males, whilst it might help convince people you're one of the nice backpackers and not the rude backpackers or defuse situations caused by your faux pas, being trusting absolutely doesn't get you any sympathy from who make a living out of scamming or robbing tourists. Sure, escalating probably isn't the best way out either and the minor annoyances that cost you a dollar might be best overlooked, but switching your guard off is a terrible idea in a lot of parts of the world

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#105

Post by ThinkingGuy »

rawgabbit wrote: post #39

I like his list of recommendations for apps and websites. Are there any other recommendations? FlightAware Google Maps and Translate Booking.com Seat61.com

I've found Wikivoyage is usually a good source of info, though the quality of the articles varies depending on the location.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#106

Post by Gud »

I travel 300+ days a year for work. For two years I didn’t have a place to live because I was traveling so much. I’ve been doing this for 7 years now.

1) use uber, unless public transport works well(Nordic countries, Switzerland).

2) lock everything expensive up in the hotel safety box, otherwise eventually your shit will get stolen

3) have multiple methods of payment with you, leave one on the hotel.

4) I travel mostly with my wife who does not travel light. Most of the advice in the linked article is really general lifestyle advice. I have 100 kilos of luggage in my hotel apartment. If there’s a will, there is a way.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#108

Post by ghaff »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #90
mglz wrote: post #62

Luggage tipp: Have exactly one, easy to grab main piece at luggage that goes on your back or on wheels. Have at most one tiny extra piece to carry. The second your luggage exceeds three it becomes a massive hassle: You cannot hold on to things, you will lose one piece and your fun trip descends into a disorganized mess. Luggage which clips together like a storage/day backpack combo is very valuable for this: Your bac…

Get a 45 liter backpack with one single massive compartment. I love this one https://www.peakdesign.com/products/travel-backpack?Size=45L... And then get a duffle bag carry-on. This lets you maximize storage on the cheap “1x carry-on, 1x personal item” plane tickets. No checked luggage; the 45L backpack just goes under the seat in front of you.

Osprey also makes a good one. Sometimes I need to check something bigger especially if I have a long walk planned but I usually use an Osprey Porter 40Lish (may be a newer line I haven't tried). Yep. Big compartment and use some organizing cubes/bags.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#109

Post by ghaff »

antiquark wrote: post #89

Am I the "odd man out" for not wanting to travel, and not enjoying it when I do?

Almost certainly not. I used to work with someone who had to be practically strong-armed into working down his vacation days because he didn't like traveling and, aside from a couple of local-ish hobbies, got bored sitting around home.

I probably got a bit over my travel comfort limit for a while hitting about 160 days/year at peak (including vacation) but I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for whom that's not their thing.

Re: 50 Years of Travel Tips

#110

Post by ghaff »

dpb001 wrote: post #36
throwaway290 wrote: post #30

Lots to disagree about like > The list of most coveted cities to visit have one striking thing in common—they are pedestrian centric. if your coveted places are mostly in Europe/Japan. Los Angeles, Chiang Mai (or any city in most SEA) etc are the opposite of pedestrian centric. Do you like multi hour walks in heat among pollution and traffic or stray dogs to get to a nice coffeeshop? Yeah. Public transport is broken…

It took only one long solo wait at a crosswalk in Chon Buri to convince me that it was worth paying about 3 USD to travel about 6 blocks. Traffic yielding to a single pedestrian is a quaint notion and as you say a lone farang seems to be a soi dog magnet.

Some SE Asian cities are OK except for the heat/humidity like Singapore, Penang, and Hong Kong. But, yeah, most of the big SE Asian cities are pretty horrible to get around and certainly aren't pedestrian friendly except very locally.
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