4 Hacks for Easier Traveling

by Let's Organize - October 16, 2017

Travel tips

Our family just returned from 2 awesome weeks in Koh Samui, Thailand.

The journey from Cape Town to Koh Samui takes us 25 hours, with 2 stop overs, 1 in Dubai and 1 in Bangkok.

We have been travelling a lot as a family; however, I learnt a few things on this recent trip.

Duty-free shopping and gifts on the aeroplane for children

If you plan to do lots of duty-free shopping during your stop-overs, I would suggest the following:

Take an empty, cabin-size suitcase with you.

After all the shopping and the toys and books that the children receive on the aeroplane, you end up with so many loose bags, that do not fit into your backpacks. You need your hands on the airport with having to pull out your passports and boarding passes all the time. Being stuck with shopping bags becomes a bit frustrating.

Add all the shopping bags to the empty cabin-size suitcase. The same applies to the goodies that the children receive on the aeroplane. It makes the stop-overs and getting into the taxis just so much easier.

Passports

If you travel as a family, I would highly recommend that you label each passport on the outside with each family member’s name. You will not believe how many times a passport and boarding pass must be taken out.

It becomes time consuming to page through the passports to establish whose is whose.

Being in transit

Sometimes a stop-over at an airport can be very long. If you are travelling with children make sure you have enough snacks, water and activities for them. Food and beverages are very expensive at the airports, especially if your currency is not strong. As mentioned in a previous blog, pack all these items in your child’s backpack when leaving home. Also put in a warm jacket – some airports are very cold.

On Emirates we get sealed water cups. I keep these when we disembark. They come in very handy on the bus transits between the aircraft and the airport building.

Shopping while on holiday and packing

If you shop as much as I do during holidays, especially in Thailand, you will end up running out of space in your suitcases. Before heading out and buying an extra suitcase, try the following:

· Roll-up all your clothing items. It takes much less space than folding the clothing.

· All shopping – remove the packaging and price tags. If it is clothing, then roll these up too.

· Utilise space, such as the inside of your shoes. Also use the space of your shopping, e.g. the inside of a décor item, bag or container.