Tips For Travelling

1. Mistakes will be made

The first time travelling solo or without the moral support of having your dad there (talking to myself) you will make mistakes. When I first travelled with my friends, no parents in sight, nothing seemed to go right for us. Even though I had spent my whole life travelling with my family and watching my dad handle everything I was learning on the job when it came to being the leader of the group. We were supposed to be a group of four but one friend dropped out two weeks before we were due to leave and it was too expensive to change the name on the flight so we went as a trio. I left my hat at security in a rush to help my friends gather their items, our hotel only had one room for us because they had over-booked and one of my friends had to stay in a hotel down the street. I hadn't done my proper research and our hotel was a twenty minute walk to the city centre, I lost my wallet and my friend left my camera in a taxi and had to track it down. Would I have preferred for the holiday to go smoothly, of course, but I learned more in that week than I had watching my dad all those years and these were mistakes that I never made again. Mistakes are the way we learn and at the end of the day none of these situations were the end of the world.

2. Always get travel insurance

I cannot stress to you enough the importance of travel insurance even if you're only taking a short trip always get some travel insurance. In the UK travel insurance is dirt cheap, for a three day city break you'll pay like 6 quid for insurance and it covers any medical bills, personal property damage and cancellations. Its definitely worth having.

3. Public Transport is your best friend.

In most European countries public transports is the cheapest and easiest way around a city (unless you come to the U.K, where it's cheaper to buy a three course meal than use public transport). In Athens I payed 14 Euros for a week pass for the subway, that's nothing. And a lot of cities have a combined ticket that allows you onto all forms of public transport for next to nothing. On my holiday with my friends we legit walked everywhere in 35 degree heat because we hadn't done any research into public transport. There's no point in paying for taxi's or walking huge distances when the public transport in most places is excellent and much cheaper. Also most airports offer public transport into any city centre and it's such an easy and cheap way to get to your hotel. The only time I've ever used a private transfer was that first holiday and they were really late picking us up for our return flight, public transport is often more reliable.

4. Check for city passes

A lot of travel destinations offer city passes that give you access to bus tours, museums and other attractions. In most instances it can be cheaper to buy the city pass rather than pay to get into all the attractions seperately depending on what you want to see. If you do the proper research and figure out exactly what you want to see you can figure out whether or not you're better off with a city pass. My parents don't find the city passes to be beneficial because they're not big on museums and do a lot of walking around, whereas myself and my friend always get a city pass because we love musuems and art gallaries. Some websites will even do the math for you, if you tick of what you want to see they'll tell you whether you're better with the city pass or paying seperately.

5. Student privileges

In some European cities if you are a student and have a student pass or if you keep your passport handy and are from an EU country and are under 25 you can enter some museums, art gallaries and historic attractions at a discount or sometimes for free. Ask at the front desk or occasionally the person working admissions will ask how old you are or ask to see your passport so they can give you the discount price. Sometimes even a picture of your passport on your phone is enough. It's always worth asking.

6. Get lost

One of the best ways to explore a city is to just walk around and get the vibe. Getting lost in the city allows you to admire the architecture, meet the locals, find some places to eat etc. You'll never truly be lost with smartphones but sometimes it's a good idea to explore without any particular goal in mind and find things to do along the way.

7. Ask the locals for recommendations

Ask the receptionist at your hotel where the best places in the area are to eat, ask tour guides for interesting activities that aren't in the guide books and ask the locals on the street where the best entertainment is. Sometimes the best places are tucked away out of sight and kept secret from the tourists but one of the locals just might let it's location slip. The people in these cities have most likely been living there their whole lives and will know all the best spots to hit, it's how I've found some of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at.

8. Don't Worry

Especially if you are in inexperienced traveller, worrying about things going wrong or being in a certain place at a certain time is just no fun. Recently I took a trip with my cousin to Budapest and my Auntie asked for an itinerary, I laughed in her face. I take my getting to and from the airport very seriously but after that I have no place, I just sort of vibe the rest. We'd wake up in the morning and go for walk, check out what was on our list of things we wanted to do and just sort of end up doing them. We'd have late lunches and even later dinners because who wants to worry about being on time for everything, it's your trip there is no on time. There are no rules that dictate you have to plan every single moment of your trip. Take it easy, live life on the edge.

9. Look at deals

You don't have to spend a huge amount of money to stay in a fancy hotel. Most of the time I travel, my friend and I stay in nice 3 or 4 star hotels for about 60-70 quid a night, that's not bad. However if you don't have that kind of money some hostels are really nice to stay in and cost next to nothing. When travelling to Warsaw with some friends we actually got a discount on our hostel room because we booked the whole room, don't be afraid to chase those deals.

10. Pick a place that's pretty central

I know I said that public transport was useful, but staying as central as possible in a city is always a plus because that's the best place to walk around. The more central you are the easier it is to get public transport to the city outskirts for the attractions out there. However most museums, bars etc will be right in the city centre and so that's the best place to stay.