Hello and welcome to another episode of Once Upon a Trip.
My name is Mary Grace Crawford
and I'm so happy that you are here today.
Marco and I and our good friend from Canada, Jason,
are going to be taking a trip to Iceland
in just a couple of short weeks from now.
So I have lately really been
in my travel packing slash planning mode.
So that's why for this week,
our episode is going to be around travel hacks.
Today I have chosen 20 of them to go through
as somebody who used to live abroad
and live basically out of a 55 liter backpack
and as somebody who is not a super minimalist packer.
I can definitely share a thing or two
about some of the packing hacks
that I have acquired throughout the years.
There are also some hacks and some tips
that are not related to packing,
but just related to knowledge and being informed
and being ready for all sorts of unexpected situations.
I know that I personally always love hearing
what other people have to share with their own travel tips
and their own travel hacks.
So I thought this would be a good opportunity
to be able to share mine.
And hopefully you can leave this episode
with some very valuable information
that you can apply to your next trip
and future travel plans.
Without further ado,
let's go ahead and jump into these travel hacks.
And if there are any of your own travel tips
that I do not mention here that you would like to share,
please feel free to comment below.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
The first travel hack is using an app called Split.
You need to download Split if you are traveling in a group
and you plan on splitting expenses.
And if you are American,
there is a good chance that you are not familiar
with this app because this is an app
that originated actually in Germany.
And I guess Split hasn't really come to the US
or at least not that much, at least not to my knowledge.
One of Marco's friends introduced us to this app
last year when we went to Columbia,
when there was a group of five of us
and we were having to split expenses.
And instead of having this complicated word doc
of who paid for what and trying to manually calculate
everything ourselves, this app saved our lives.
You just put who that charge applies to
and Split will calculate who owes what and for what
at the end of the trip.
The app is designed to do all of that for you,
making it so simple and straightforward
to pay your friends or family or partner
or whoever back fairly.
Split is completely free to use if you only plan
on doing or calculating one trip at a time.
But if for some reason you have two simultaneous trips,
then you do have to pay two or three US dollars
to be able to add that additional group.
But for most people, you will not be taking two trips
at the same time.
So you can completely use this for free.
You just need to download it on your phone
and to put in your expenses as you go along
your days in the trip.
Really take time to research all of the local apps
that you will need and can use in your given country
and destination where you're traveling.
Not every country uses Uber.
For example, in Vietnam, I know that Grab
is the app that's equivalent to Uber.
I know that in Turkey, B-Tuxi is the equivalent to Uber,
et cetera, et cetera.
Most of Europe should have Uber,
but it's good to double check this.
Any sort of local bakery app
and especially any sort of local transportation app,
any train app, and especially any metro app,
if you're going to any bigger city,
is really essential to have so that you can really
stay in tune with where you're going
and what the local schedule of buses and trains
and et cetera really look like.
And of course, there are other apps
for other miscellaneous things.
For example, when we go to Iceland in a couple of weeks,
there is a Chasing Northern Lights app
that I intend to download
because that is very, very specific for Iceland,
but that just comes to show you why it's really important
to be able to know what these apps are in advance
and really get the best use out of them.
If you are traveling in Europe,
but also this can apply to so many other places
and big cities around the world, free walking tours.
You really need to take advantage of free walking tours,
tip-based tours in every big city that offers one.
I know that when I was traveling alone,
that was always my number one go-to in every big city.
To find some sort of free walking tour
on sites like freetour.com and getyourguide.com,
those were always my top two go-to places.
On those sites, you can also find good food walking tours,
pub crawl tours.
You can find all sorts of really cheap, affordable
and free tours that you can really, really enjoy
meeting people at and getting a really local experience
from and I will link both of these websites
in the description so that you can check them out
if you are interested.
Now with packing, if you're traveling with a suitcase,
you really need to take advantage of packing
empty plastic bags for laundry and shoes,
any empty tote bag that you can use at any supermarket
since not every supermarket has bags
you can put groceries in, an empty water bottle
for you to use at the airport after you get through security
and packing an extra backpack, just an empty backpack,
putting that inside of your suitcase
for you to use for hiking, for you to use for extra space
when you get to whatever destination you're going to
is such a space saver and space expander at the same time.
I believe I made Marco do this for Columbia,
literally putting an empty backpack in a suitcase
and then we use this backpack while going hiking,
it was really a game changer.
To pack more efficiently, consider using packing cubes.
If you don't know what packing cubes are,
they are literally zippable cubes
and you can stuff your clothes into these little things
and they really help compress the space
that is in your suitcase or backpack.
If you're not a fan of the packing cubes though,
and you don't wanna have to take
every single individual cube out,
one other related hack that I did
when I was living abroad was in my 55 liter backpack,
I had something called a suitcase organizer
that would hang in any Airbnb, any hostel,
any place where there was a pole
and I could hang this thing at with all of my clothes in it.
I don't even think I really had so many packing cubes
until about a couple of years ago.
This hanging organizer was so convenient to have
because I literally would just take this thing
out of my backpack and I would hang it
and all of my clothes would basically already
be organized for me and I didn't have to do anything else.
Now, when it comes to packing in the actual cubes
or in the organizer,
rolling your clothes will really save you space.
You literally just need to roll up your shirts
and your clothes and you just need to put
all of those rolled up clothes
in whatever preferred thing you want.
Consider also getting a zippable travel pillow
that you can fill with clothes.
So if you only have a carry-on
and you really need extra space,
but you don't wanna check in a bag,
then you can literally just buy one of these
and you can put several additional shirts in this pillow
and you can just carry it with you on the plane.
There are these things called compressed towel tablets
and if you don't know what these are,
you're about to learn right now.
These are crazy and they have become so popular
because of how multifunctional they are
in so many situations.
It is literally this compressed towel
in the size of about a lifesaver.
So it's really, really small.
You can keep them in your bag or in your backpack
and whenever you spill something at the airport,
whenever you don't have a washcloth at a hotel
or in your destination, which surprisingly,
a washcloth isn't always that common to find in some places.
So it's really good to have that.
Among many other functions,
you literally just take this tablet
and you pour just a little bit of water on this tablet
and it will expand into a towel, like a square,
like a nine by nine sort of situation.
It's not like a full blown towel.
And the best part is some of these towels
can be used up to 20 times
if you really take care of them and use them enough.
A little capsule of a towel never did anybody wrong.
And if you don't have water, just take this tablet
and you can put it in between your hands
and you just kind of have to blow on it with your breath.
It sounds kind of weird.
There just needs to be a little bit of moisture
for this thing to open.
Basically, just try to get travel sized everything
as much as you can.
I know that when I was living essentially out of my backpack,
I used to travel all the time with the travel size comb,
travel sized hairspray, travel size dry shampoo.
I even used to have a travel sized LED lamp for my nails.
Which yeah, first world problems.
And I had a travel sized hair straightener slash curling iron.
So a two in one situation that I still even use to this day.
I don't use a full sized hair straightener or curling iron.
It just does the job and it has worked throughout the years.
And this of course will help you save so much space
while still giving you the access to the things
that you regularly use and need.
This next one is really important
because you will thank yourself
if you're ever in a situation
where you need to resort to this, which I hope you don't.
In your carry on bag, please be sure
to pack an additional set of clothes, a toothbrush,
underwear, and of course all of your most valuable things
because in the rare event that your suitcase gets lost,
and you can't retrieve it immediately,
you will definitely be in a not great situation
if you don't have additional clothes with you.
One of Marco's good friends in Germany
is notorious for not doing this.
He has a very, very good attitude about it, so it's okay.
But I swear, every time he travels,
he doesn't pack anything in his carry on
and he almost always loses his suitcase
in the process of traveling.
I don't know how.
I also have another friend who traveled from Russia to Serbia
and did not see his suitcase for an entire month.
I don't know how that happened either,
but he didn't have any of his very important things with him,
so he had to go shopping.
And it's not a big deal if you have time,
but if you wanna save money
and you don't wanna go through that hassle, yeah.
Having some clothes with you is very, very helpful.
This next one seems very obvious,
but you would really be surprised
at how many people do not do this.
You really need to make sure
that you do enough research
about the place you're traveling to in advance.
From the way that people dress, for example,
when I went to Columbia,
I briefed myself in advance on how the girls dress,
and most girls wear jeans,
so I wasn't about to show up there
in shorts looking like a tourist.
The same goes with Europe.
You don't wanna be that one tourist who is wearing shorts.
In a sea of pants,
the do's and don'ts of every country,
the driving rules, the eating etiquette,
how much daylight you'll have,
how quickly and normally the weather can change
in a short period of time.
So for example, Iceland, where we will be going,
is notorious for having very quick changes to the weather,
but we are very aware of that and we'll go prepared.
What the language is,
knowing a few words of the local language to be polite.
If supermarkets are closed on Sundays,
where in Germany, for example, they are closed on Sundays.
So these sorts of details are very important
for you to know,
for you to not have as much of a culture shock
when you show up and you don't have a clue
if a supermarket is going to be open.
It helps you a ton.
If you're looking to save money
and you are in a place for a little bit of a longer time,
you can definitely always save money
by taking overnight sleeper trains
or taking overnight buses where you can sleep.
It's not the most comfortable, of course,
but in terms of saving not only money,
but saving time in getting you to your next destination,
this is really a win-win.
I used to do this so many times when I was living in Europe
and buses became my most favorite form of transportation
simply just because of how cheap and how far you could go
in a short period of time when taking one overnight.
Make sure that you have the Google Translate app downloaded
and on your phone before you get to wherever you're going.
Not only that though,
make sure that you download the language of choice,
so the language that you will be using in that given country.
Make sure that you download that language
on the Google Translate app in advance
so that you can also use Google Translate offline
and you don't have to have Wi-Fi or data
to be able to use it.
There have been times in the past when I did not do this
and I had a lot of trouble communicating with people
since I didn't have a translation app
that was already downloaded and that worked
in countries where I couldn't say much more than,
hello, can you help me?
How are you?
Goodbye, like the basics.
You can also take advantage of the camera
that comes with Google Translate.
Most commonly, when you are at a restaurant
and you see a menu that is not in a language
that you understand,
you can easily just take a picture of the menu
with your Google Translate camera
and Google Translate will auto-populate
the translation for you.
Of course, like most things, it's not perfect,
but you can get the gist of what a menu says.
The same concept applies with Google Maps and Apple Maps,
and this is really important
if you are directionally challenged like me,
be sure that you download a large area
of the place that you will be staying at
and the places you will be going to.
Be sure that you download that area
on Google Maps or Apple Maps in advance
so that you can also access this
with no internet, no wifi, none of that.
You should also be sure to pin every location
in that map or general area,
just the areas of interest
that you would really like to see and stop at
if you happen to be driving or traveling
and you wanna stop at that specific spot
that you pinned in advance on your map.
It's just very convenient to be able to know
how close you are in a given moment
to some extra places of interest.
And this, in a sense, maximizes your time
and also the amount of things and places that you can see.
Make sure to have a fully charged power bank
and a really good quality one
that will charge your phone several times
whenever you don't have access to plugs.
This especially has been very useful
when I have traveled on planes that didn't have plugs
or simply just when I was outdoors
and I used my phone for taking pictures and videos
and I just needed to charge my phone.
Make sure that you have a plug adapter,
if not more than one, as well as, if you need to,
a voltage converter.
If you use a hairdryer or you use a hair appliance,
like a hair straightener, curling iron, whatever,
you really, really need to make sure in advance
that you have the proper voltage converter plug
that you can use in your selected country.
And this is extremely important
because if you try to use, let's say,
an American hair appliance in a European plug,
which produces higher voltage,
more electricity and more power,
then you really put your appliance at risk
for frying up and getting damaged.
And you don't want that.
So I would personally recommend two plug adapters
for being able to plug in and charge your phone
and one voltage converter for heavier stuff.
Better yet, you can also get one universal plug adapter
with seven different types of outlets and plugs,
along with USB ports that you can simply just use
to charge everything at once.
That will make your life so much easier.
It's also a little bit less to travel with.
Always be sure to have a few coins on you,
especially in Europe, so that when you need to go
and use the public toilet or the public WC,
that you will be able to use it because you have coins.
If you go to Northern Europe, so Scandinavia, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, these countries,
they all use credit cards, so you don't need coins there,
but there are still many places in Europe, especially,
that rely on coins and have not converted yet
to the credit card system in public toilets.
Be sure to keep a journal or a written diary,
whether it's on your phone, on your computer,
or whatever else you want,
and be sure to write about your experiences on your trip
as you go along and you experience it all.
Your future self will really thank you later
because you'll really have a live account
of what you are feeling and experiencing
in this given moment on your trip.
If keeping any sort of diary or written account
is not your thing, then I would really still recommend
that you take a lot of pictures, a lot of videos,
try to make sure that you are in those photos and videos
as much as possible,
because when you do look back on your trip as well,
yes, you can see so many beautiful pictures of the landscape
and that is important to do,
but what I think will really touch you the most
is seeing the pictures with you in them,
you experiencing the landscape,
not just the landscape being the landscape.
Befriending a local person
in whatever place you're going to in advance
is one of the most valuable, helpful, insightful things
that you can do to really be a more informed
and culturally engaged traveler
when it comes to visiting any sort of country.
This makes all the difference in the world.
And if you are not able to go on social media
and find somebody in whatever country you're traveling to,
you can at least access blogs written by locals
who give a lot of very personal recommendations
on what to see and often mention details
that most tourists overlook.
Make sure that you take pictures of your passport,
digital copies and keep them on your phone,
keep them in your email,
keep them somewhere and with someone who can access that
in the event that you lose your passport.
If you follow me on Instagram,
you will have seen this reel that I made some months ago
of an experience that I had a couple of years ago
in Toronto, Canada,
where I almost lost my passport in the snow
in downtown Toronto.
And had I lost my passport,
I would have been very screwed because I did not do this
and I didn't take pictures of my passport
to have somewhere that will really bite you in the ass
if you are not prepared.
I really hope that you took some new tips from this episode
and that you can apply them to your next trip.
Thank you so much for listening
if you are still here up to this point.
I look forward to seeing you soon
and I hope that you have a really great rest of your week.