What's your golden travel rule?

[Maca44]

Keep you passport on your person, NOT in your carry on.

 

[Forg]

Ask someone locally where to eat … even if that’s the concierge & I’m in Italy so the answer was likely bought before I asked it, it’s still worked out with a MUCH greater success-rate than sussing it out myself.

 

[Tiki]

Don't fall asleep in a lounge especially after midnight......it's very expensive when you sleep through the alarm on your phone and miss your flight home

LOL I have alarms on my phone that would wake the dead! Police siren, air raid horn, various loud sounds. Plus I always drink a lot of water before lying down, call of nature often wakes me before the phone. Then I can switch off the alarms before they go off. But just in case I set 3 separate alarms. I'm a birder, I am used to getting up at 04:30 am!

I wouldn't be in a lounge anyways, if I was in J I would be sleeping on the plane.

 

[Larko1]

LOL I have alarms on my phone that would wake the dead! Police siren, air raid horn, various loud sounds. Plus I always drink a lot of water before lying down, call of nature often wakes me before the phone. Then I can switch off the alarms before they go off. But just in case I set 3 separate alarms. I'm a birder, I am used to getting up at 04:30 am!

There wasn't any laughter in my case.....the flight I missed was still on the ground for an hour after the gate closed

 

[tassie6]

Since travelling with kids, I set a minimum of 3 nights but preferably 4 nights in any location before moving on

 

[Justinf]

Mine is don’t stress it.
Delays happen. Things happen.
Unless it’s an absolute tragedy, things will work out.
You’ll get to where you’re going eventually and even though it might be a pain in the cough, there are many worse things that can happen.
If you’ve planned well and things go wrong, then there’s nothing you can do about it. Go along with the flow, take a deep breath and remember that you’re fortunate enough to be in the position that you can travel this world.
Also when something does go wrong, I always try to remember that the people who have been tasked with fixing the problem are probably just as overwhelmed and stressed as I am.
Treat them like a fellow human being, try to understand and make sure that the first thing they see of me is a smile.

 

[VPS]

This is really good advice, and also one we follow quite religiously. It allows time to catch up on laundry, make calls home to family and friends, catch up on emails, have a sleep in, go late to breakfast, mosey around the neighbourhood, stop off for coffee and cake when you feel like it and so many other great things. I even do this when skiing if I'm not gifted with a weather day. Every third or 4th day I either have a late start or an early finish, and it is very restorative.

Another related "rule" we are enjoying now we have more time in our lives is to stay at least 2 nights, preferably more,in each location, and as much as possible avoid the different place/different hotel every night approach. I may well have some entries for travel mistakes thread coming up though as, a bit like @Scarlett, we have deliberately broken this rule for a week of travel in Iceland in August. We are travelling with Mr Seat 0A's sister and her hubby, and they are the "ants in your pants" style of traveller, so we will have a run of 5 single nights as the price of travelling with them. It will be interesting, for this and other reasons - including that I am a night owl, and my sister-in-law things 0600 is a sleep in . This may well be the first and last time we travel with them!

It is amazing travelling with people that are early risers - I do what I can do to accommodate them like eating earlier than I'd prefer but they are often less flexible. Good luck

 

[drron]

Ours is simple. Day time flights and sleep in a proper bed between flights.

 

[cjd600]

Have a beer in the lounge. Regardless of the time. My wife loves this one lol

 

[MonteCristo]

Always write down your travel learnings as they happen.

I have rolling documents for each trip (from time of rough planning, to booking phase, and updated on the trip itself), and if I encounter something I think would be applicable for future trips (packing list, itinerary items, general logistics, etc), I incorporate it into those future travel documents at the time. Over time, there are fewer and fewer learnings. It avoids making the same mistakes in the future.