5 Favorite Travel Tips

Tanya, Andi and T are doing a fun December activity and I will be participating occasionally. Might be a nice change from the usual. Today's topic was vague: a list of 5 favorite things that aren't book related!

I went with my 5 favorite travel tips! I know, this is a random topic for the day, but a lot of travel happens this time of year so maybe good things to keep in mind :)

Don't leave the shower cap!

I saw this tip somewhere on the internet and now I use it all the time. Never leave behind a shower cap at a hotel. Open it up and nestle your shoes inside of it. It keeps all of the gunk on the bottom of your shoes off of the rest of the stuff in your suitcase!

Plastic bags can be your friend!

I always pack at least 2 sturdy, handled plastic bags when I travel. They have never NOT come in handy. You can stuff your dirty laundry in them, you can use them as packaging to help protect valuable things, or wrap up your toiletries bag if you're scared that your bottle of shampoo is going to explode mid flight. The most recent time I used them was to wrap up a pair of costume butterfly wings that I didn't want to shed glitter all over my suitcase.

All the black parts? Glitter.

Always have food!

Whether you're on a plane or in a car always have SOME kind of food with you. It doesn't have to be much but you never know when you're going to get delayed on the tarmac, stuck in a snowbank, or stranded on the highway behind a terrible accident. Being hangry will always make a bad situation worse! Throw a couple of granola bars, a bag of teddy grahams, some candy or something else in your bag. It takes up no space and could save your sanity at the right minute.

Suitcase switcheroo!

When I went to Mexico with my husband for our 5 year anniversary we both packed our own suitcase. Because I am paranoid, I made him put one of my bathing suits and an outfit in his suitcase, and I put a pair of his swimtrunks and an outfit in my suitcase. That way if one of us lost a suitcase the unlucky one would have 2 outfits to live on for awhile. (One in the other one's suitcase and one outfit in your own carry on). I've never had a suitcase lost and fingers crossed and prayers to God I keep that streak alive.

And an eye opening conversation with my sister...

My sister travels for work, literally constantly, so she's a good flyer. I'm an okay flyer until things get really bumpy and then I'm very,very nervous.We were talking about flying and she said something like:

Q: Well you can put alcohol in your carry on.
W: Are you sure? I mean, they won't let me take more than 3 ounces of face moisturizer but I can bring vodka?
Q: Yeah, it just has to be under the size limit and be in the quart bag thing and you can.
W: WHAT? THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. (Scuttles to pantry and throws mini alcohol bottles in ziploc bag in anticipation of next flight which is at least 7 months away).

So obviously you don't want to get super drunk on your flight because: 1) hangover when arriving at destination 2) super dehydrated due to flying anyway 3) you might be an a-hole when you're drunk and that could get you in trouble with TSA and Homeland Security and other people who you don't want to be on their naughty list and 4) you don't want to be on passenger shaming.

Having said that I will definitely be having a couple of small bottles in my next carry on in case of turbulence. Be sure to check with your airline before doing this, of course, because all of them are different.

So there is your COMPLETELY unrelated to books post for the month.