hey guys thank you so much for joining me today here in Montana I have my little
dog here which by the way if you're ever considering getting a dog I highly
recommend this kind he's super sweet but anyways he may pop out here and
there but I'm going to talk about 10 travel tips that you should know before
you go so let's get started tip number one be sure you have the necessary
documents and travel immunizations now if you're not traveling
international you probably just thought Janet this doesn't apply to me but you
would be wrong starting in 2018 all US driver's
licenses will need to be Real ID compliant now if you don't know what
that means or if yours complies I put a link on my blog site where you can go to
the government site it will give you all the nitty-gritty details but basically
five states have yet to comply and unfortunately mine is one of them now if
you are traveling international you probably need a passport and you
probably already know that but did you know that some destinations require your
passport to be good for six months six months after you return to the States so
double check your destination and make sure yours complies visas and
immunizations you may or may not need but if you do need them start early some
immunizations can take up to three months to complete after that you're
going to want to research if you need any other paperwork when we went to
South Africa we needed to bring our daughter's birth certificates along with
their passports and if I had wanted to take them without my husband I would
have needed a letter from him granting permission signed and notarized and vice
versa if he wanted to take them without me and then you're going to want to
double-check travel alerts and warnings for your destination don't get all
freaked out about these it's probably not good where you live if you check
that out either but to just be wise check them out and know before you go
all right moving on tip number two expect something to go wrong now this
sounds negative but I'm really a positive person
it's just that history has shown me something goes wrong every time and I
for one respond better and I'm a whole lot kinder if I prepare for it mentally
if you're making these plans and you're thinking I'm spending thousands of
dollars on this trip it better be perfect you're going to be disappointed
you're going to be frustrated and it makes sense people are tired they're
hungry you're making a million-in-one decisions you don't normally make and
everything's new so just give extra grace and be prepared that something
will happen when we arrived in Paris we were going up the escalator with our
luggage and this guy in front of me just stopped he wouldn't move we all started
piling up eventually I had to push him because there was no where to go he started
circling us and our bags and grabbing at our stuff it was very unsettling
welcoming to Paris and not something we could have planned for after a day of
sightseeing I looked at the Metro name well the first word in the Metro name
and I said this is the one we need hop on well after a little bit we realized
we were going the wrong direction out of town late at night with a limited
train service back and very few people who wanted to speak English and
help us out that was all my fault so I was thankful that everybody else
just gave grace and didn't start yelling at me because I probably would have
burst into tears so plan for it and it's going to go better when it does happen
alright tip number three research weather and special events before you go
now this one sounds like a no-brainer but when I say research weather also
know what that means when I went to California in February I looked at the
weather it said high 50s low 60s and cloudy and I'm a Montana girl so I was
like this is a heat wave I'm not bringing my coat I don't need it and I
wish I had my coat it was like misty and rainy and the wind from the ocean
was cold and every day I just wanted to get back and take a hot bath so know
what it means when you read it and then special events there may be something
you really don't want to miss but if you're not interested in an event and
it's going on it's going to bring extra crowds higher costs and make it more
difficult for you to see what you really want to see so just research that before
you go and avoid those events if you have no interest in them all right tip number
four this is my personal favorite try to find at least one out-of-the-way place
at your destination you can do this by watching videos before you go I like to
use Pinterest and just put in the name of my destination and scroll through
photos until I find something that catches my eye or you could just be
spontaneous when you get there and go wherever you feel like it but try to get
away from the touristy spots it will help you get a better feel for the culture
the locals and it will be a good experience it doesn't always work out
you may have seen photos of the amsterdam street art that is no longer
there we went on a hunt for it but we did find the remnants of it and an
amazing restaurant and a newfound love for stamppot and profiteroles so it wasn't
all a loss and in Venice we did find the bookstore the acqua alta bookstore which
is super fun so just find something that will make your trip stand out from
the rest tip number five when you arrive at your
destination take a moment to stop by the airport information desk and or your
hotel concierge now if you're like me you're going to be tempted to skip this
step and just get to where you're going but don't don't do it they have saved us
hours of time in Amsterdam we were able to buy our tickets there for the Anne
Frank House and save two hours waiting in that queue in Denver when we arrived
at Union Station the man there saved us time by telling us not to bother with
the mint that tickets were all sold out for the day he recommended the federal
money museum instead so take the time they also usually have useful Maps and
transportation information and it will be worth the few minutes that you spend
tip number six know your travel personality now when I say personality I
just mean are you the type of person that has a checklist of items you have
to see you don't even care how much time you spend there you just want to check
them off or are you the kind of person that likes to just stroll through the
streets and people watch and absorb the sight and the smells and
the sounds and stop for coffees or lattes or pastries and wine that's me if
you can't tell or are you super into museums and art and theater you could
just spend all day there and never get bored or are you high adventure you need
to bungee jump or climb that mountain knowing these things before you go are
really going to help with your planning and not just for yourself you need to
know for everybody that you're traveling with so you may need to split up at some
point if you're very different or just be patient and incorporate something
that everybody loves we are a family of four plus the dog sometimes so we have
to take breaks we have to stop at parks and beaches for the girls Fletcher our
dog we have to stop for and make sure he gets the breaks that he needs so yeah it
just is going to go a lot better and everybody's going to enjoy the trip a
lot more if you take this into account alright tip number seven money and
phones I am sad to say I don't have a foolproof method for this if you
absolutely must make calls and it's super vital I would go through your
local carrier it's going to be more expensive but at least if you have
problems there's a helpline you can call and they can walk you through it if you
want to be a little more adventurous save a little money and it's not as
vital you can try the sim card option when you arrive in South Africa we did
this and you just we found the phone store in the airport when we arrived and
it was super easy they had like a chart with all these
different plans you just picked one they charged us the lady put our the new SIM
card in took our old one out just be sure you don't lose your old card and it
worked like a charm so I told everybody in Amsterdam when we were going no don't
get the plan save money you do the SIM card well there it was not so easy
there wasn't a phone store and it was they were just lined up like gift cards
you picked your card and tried to follow the directions and it worked for some of
us it didn't for others it was super frustrating so that one is kind of hit
or miss and then I've also heard that you can buy a phone
if you just want to make local calls when you arrive but I haven't even tried
that one out so good luck with that but do you think about it and know what
you're going to do before you go and then money now we all know I think that
we need to call our bank and our credit companies before we leave so they don't
freeze our accounts tell them when we're traveling and to where I still forget to
do this sometimes in the state and it's super frustrating because then I'm
usually in a public place they need all this personal information that I can't
give so remember remember to do that before you go and then once you do if
you're traveling international you're going to need to figure out how you're
getting the local currency typically we just swing by an ATM and put our bank
card in and it will spit out euros or pounds or South African Rand instead of
US Dollars and this is the most affordable way and the easiest way to do
this however I know a few years ago in India there were problems with this so
double-check your destination and make sure that's an option before you go if
not you're going to need to call your bank and have them order the money the
currency or stop by an exchange booth when you arrive and both of those
options are going to cost you a little bit more money because of the fee all
right tip number eight if you are traveling internationally take some time
and learn a couple key phrases in their language just please thank you sorry
where's the bathroom all good things to know if you are like me this
is going to be a little harder I'm introverted I really don't like putting
myself out there to sound like a fool which I'm sure I do a lot of the time
but it's always worth it I'm always glad I tried the local culture appreciates it
that you're not just assuming that they'll speak your language in their
country and you learn new things in Amsterdam we would say dankuwel
thats thank you and they'd always respond graag gedaan so which I'm assuming
is your welcome now we know another word so just branch out and learn a few
phrases and challenge yourself to use those when you go all right moving on
tip number nine when you arrive at your accommodation take a moment to grab a
business card or write down the address and phone number of where you're staying
now I know you're thinking Janet really old-fashioned I have a phone and
it has all of that information on it but I submit to you what if your phone is
lost what if it dies what if it's stolen or what if you can't access your data
just take a few seconds write this down on the rare chance that you might need
it and if you are traveling with children make sure they have a copy too
just in case you get separated it's also really handy to hand to uber drivers or
taxi drivers or tuk tuks or whatever it is you're taking at your destination
all right tip number 10 woohoo you made it watch some youtube videos or other
touristy videos before you go about your destination this is going to help you
with your planning get a feel for what to expect and I really like Rick Steves
he does a lot of history and local culture and some food if you are a
foodie you're probably going to want to watch Bizarre Foods delicious
destinations by Andrew Zimmern we did this when we went to California my
daughter and I and we wrote down everywhere he went and made it kind of
like a scavenger hunt thing to go to each place and try everything he tried
which was a lot of fun I also put on my blog a couple other youtubers that you
may or may not enjoy depending on your interest to check that out all right you
made it we're done with ten and because you stick with me I have one bonus one
for you now you know probably that I work for the airlines so I'm going to
say if you are flying please please please do not use black luggage it
blends in there's thousands of them if for some reason you need us to pull your
bag and you say oh it's a black roller blag about this big this tall our eyes
roll to the back of our heads literally you can't find that also we had to call
customers for taking somebody else's black bag because they thought it was
theirs now if you already do have black luggage and you're thinking I'm not
spending a hundred bucks on a new suitcase Janet I can appreciate that I'm
a budget girl however put something on there to make it stand out I don't care
if it's a neon pom-pom a big strap rainbow strap I've seen those come
through or if it's a giant photo of yourself whatever you do find some way
to make sure nobody else takes your bag and that if
you need us to find it we can do so expediently for you and also if you are
traveling with a backpack and I've seen this in Europe please please please
don't wear on your front its a back pack and I'm not a criminal
but I kind of want to pick on those people because it's such an easy
paranoid target if you're really concerned about it get
teeny-tiny padlock and just put it on there the two zippers and be discreet
the goal here is to blend not to stand out as a tourist alright that's it thanks so
much for joining me today guys until next time bye if you found anything in
this video helpful please give it a thumbs up below feel free to leave any
comments with additional tips questions or ideas for future videos and as always
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