What Are Your Favorite Travel Tips?

You all know that I love traveling. I read guide books the way other people read romance novels. I don't know why, but I'm just fascinated by visiting other places. If you asked me to join you on a trip, I'd be there.

Yesterday, Dave gave me an early birthday present of a small book of travel tips. Some of them were ho hum, some were a little out there, but some were ingenious. (As an aside, Dave had no gift wrapping paper to use, so he wrapped the book in newspaper. If only he hadn't used the obituary section!)

It got me thinking about a few travel tips that I have picked up on my own and I thought I'd share them with you.

1) If you like to send postcards like I do, print a sheet of address labels to take with you. You won't need to spend any time transcribing every one's address onto the cards. Now you have the extra time to really write a personal note and still send lots of cards.

2) Speaking of postcards, bring a few from your home. On every trip, I meet a local who has been particularly kind. Sometimes it's a bartender. Sometimes it's an innkeeper. When we were in Germany, we had a very long conversation at a bar with a local guy who then insisted on giving us a walking tour of Koln with a few stops at other local bars. Use the postcards to write a thank you note and include your contact information. Who knows? You may return years later to find your postcard still on the wall behind the bar. And the person who receives it will learn something about where you come from, even if it's only one picture of your city.

3) Bring a pocket compass. I can't tell you how many times I've wandered through winding streets surrounded by buildings only to get lost. Usually I know that my hotel is, let's say, along the river. And I usually know that the river is somewhere to my west. If I could just find the river, I could find my way back to the hotel. Seems like an obvious tip, but how many times have you ever seen anyone use a compass? You'll be so glad you had that baby in your pocket the next time you find yourself lost in a foreign city.

4) Bring a flash drive with a password-protected spreadsheet on it. Put your passport number, your confirmation numbers, your credit card numbers and their customer service phone numbers....everything you can think of that you might need if you lose something. I had my wallet stolen in Spain and I can't tell you how hard it was to contact the credit card companies without that information. If you should need the information, any hotel or internet cafe should be able to help you use your flash drive.

So what travel tips do you have to share? For those of you who are not aware, you can click on the "comments" link below this post to leave a comment for everyone to read.

Happy travels!