Rick Steves recommends memorizing and scratching off the security code on the back of your credit card. Any down side to this if one already has it memorized?
I’ve seen a recommendation to carry packing tape (which I do) rewound around a short dowel, pencil, or pen barrel to save room. Sounds good, but has anyone tried it? Will it remain sufficiently sticky?
Recommendation for an okay pair of compact binoculars for $100 or under? I don’t always want to take the good pair, which is heavy.
In addition, I’m always happy to know about other peoples’ elegant, lightweight, or entertaining travel solutions for low-luggage situations.
That security code trick sounds like a good one, although I’m not sure it’ll do much to prevent someone from using the card if they steal it.
I put a strip of duct tape on the inside of my travel bag (it’s synthetic material so it should come off cleanly) but ended up never needing it.
One thing I did that I always thought is pretty smart is find a toiletries bag made of transparent plastic so I don’t have to do anything special with my liquids when going through airport security. I always keep my eye open for travel size containers of stuff like sunscreen and shampoo because unlike with stuff like tooth paste those containers stay the same size even when they’re mostly empty.
I always bring extra earbuds when I travel and I have a little adapter so I can use my own earbuds with those weird double-pronged headphone connectors in some airplanes. I used to have noise canceling headphones but in-ear earbuds also get rid of a lot of noise and are much cheaper, don’t need any power and are tiny.
If you travel internationally even somewhat regularly (like once every two years or more), don’t change back a relatively small amount of foreign money to your own currency, but keep it and exchange it for what you need on your next trip after you land at the airport so you have some small bills and you don’t pay double commission.
I have a GPS app on my iPhone that lets me download maps for offline use as well as program waypoints. I enter my hotel and the conference location (if applicable) as waypoints and download maps of the surrounding areas so I can find those places without having to use expensive international roaming. And/or I get a local SIM card.
Carry at least two credit cards. If anything happens to one, cancel it if necessary, and still have one. Nobody ever needs the security number unless buying online or on the phone, so you won’t even need to memorize it. For a point of sale transaction, it might be rejected.
Why might you need packing tape? You can buy a roll for a buck anywhere and throw the unused portion away…
It’s been a long time since I’ve bought binoculars, but Bushnell is probably the most reliable label in the low-priced range.
Hm, most of this stuff charges off of USB anyway. So I just hook up my phone to my laptop and they both charge.
Unfortunately I have two cameras that both have their own charger, which is extremely annoying. On my trip next month I’m taking an extra battery but not the charger for the small camera (which I need because it has GPS and 20 x zoom) and the charger for the big camera (which I need for low light, high quality and maybe the super wide angle lens).
The downside to memorizing your security code is that you’ll forget it. If I did this, I’d either take a picture of the back of the credit card, and save it in a secure file on your phone OR I’d create a fake contact in my phone directory to remind me of the code.
I also took another travel site’s advice to take a photo of your passport and saving it to a secure file on your phone or iPad.
I use my camera phone a lot when I travel, and not just to take vacation photos. For instance, I take before and after photos of the rental car, in case they accuse me of putting dings in it.
I take a photo of the license plate of my rental car, so that I can find it in a crowded parking lot.
I take a photo of my hotel room number in case I forget it.
I take a photo of the long term parking area (e.g. “J3”) to remind me what area I’ve parked my car.
I take a photo of my bike lock combination when I rent bikes.
I just carry the roll & stuff something on the inside of the tube so there’s no wasted space. Usually, it’s plastic bags so my ‘rain kit’ is ready to go. Remember to fold over a corner of the tape at home before you leave so it’s easy to get started, especially if you’re in a low-light &/or cold fingers situation.
Waterproofing &/or emergency repairs. Most of my travel is to outdoor events, either races I’m participating in or events I’m production staff for. My old cyclometer was waterproof as long as you didn’t depress any of the buttons. A piece of clear packing tape meant I could press the buttons to change the screen/displayed info & still see the display.
It’s a lot easier to just e-mail the number to yourself. Before I travel, I always make up a text list of things I might need to know while traveling, and email myself the message. And I print the email and carry the sheet of paper, too. Your phone can be lost, but not your email.
For emergency money, I roll up a few $100 bills, slip them into a thin plastic bag, and keep them in the tongue of my shoe. Just pull out the tongue, put a slit in the underside of it, push the roll of money up into the slit, and tuck the tongue back under the laces. Even thieves usually let you keep your shoes, if you ask them nicely.
Interesting - and an excellent idea. Brick-and-mortar merchants don’t use this, but it would prevent someone from cloning your card and placing online orders.
Seems a waste of time (and yes, I imagine it would affect stickiness). Unless you only want part of a roll, I’d take the roll, and just use the interior space to pack something small like a pair or two of underpants.
No clue.
If you think you might have trouble making everything fit into its original suitcase at the end of the trip, or per-piece weight limit might be exceeded, a soft duffel takes up little space in the original suitcase, and can hold a significant chunk of your spare clothing.
Imagine the airline has a 2-piece-per-person, each must weigh less than 40 pounds. Now your suitcase weighs 45 pounds., Open it up. grab the duffel and an armload of clothing, stuff that in the duffel, and voila you now have one piece weighing 35, and one weighing 10.
If you are traveling to really rough places, the thieves know the shoe trick. A South African truck driver taught me that the hat is a more secure place to stash money.
I still have the old-fashioned pop server for my email, so I can’t use this method. Once emails are downloaded to my home computer, I cannot access them remotely because they’re stored on my computer’s hard drive, not a cloud.
I wrapped mine around a lighter, for extra usefulness in an emergency.
Maybe not the best idea for international plane travel, of course. But the point is the duct tape is fine and usable for years.
Duct tape is of course massively useful when you’re in the wilderness and something rips, tears, or breaks (potentially including your own skin). If you’re going hotel to hotel, you can probably find tape if you need it, so I probably wouldn’t bother.
Bear in mind, that accessing email from a new computer (should you try to do this to recover your info) may be tricky especially if you have 2-factor authentication set up.
Gmail has a way of pre-printing authorization codes when you know you won’t have access to your phone or whatever - worth doing that beforehand on such a trip.
Per last night’s Mythbusters, one should never leave home without a LOT of duct tape (a carload) and also bubble wrap (ditto). They showed them using it to make ropes to rappel down a cliff wall in Canyonlands, then make rafts out of bubble wrap and duct tape to get down the river to civilization.
Some kind of packing/duct tape, while available in many places, is hard to find in others and is, as others have said, great for emergency repairs. Also, if someone official suddenly decides your backpack needs to be checked, you can use a heavy mil trash bag (or your $1.00 rain poncho that you’ve probably already patched with tape) and packing tape as an anti-straps-in-the-belt cover. I think winding it around a pen barrel is somewhat extreme, except that intra-Asia flights have very low in-cabin weight allowances (like 7 kg) so a certain amount of featherweight packing is helpful.
I have a couple of monoculars, but I do better with binox.
Audiobooks on an iPod Nano or a Sansa MP3 player have lightened my load considerably, as has carrying only the guidebook sections I need.
I’m currently breaking in/softening up a new scrubs top, which is great for sleep, exercise, hanging around, or layering with a long-sleeved silk undershirt.
For my cameras I’ve bought Wasabi Power batteries that come with a charger. This charger is more compact than the original charger, mainly because it plugs directly into the outlet rather than having a power cord.
