What's your golden travel rule?

[Quickstatus]

Which is why I added the caveat.

Yes. Invariably the queues are deliberately long and not worth it.

 

[Aeryn]

Yes. Invariably the queues are deliberately long and not worth it.

Not my recent experience, I claimed on a new mobile (was under $900) on Easter Saturday. Did paperwork on line, wait time was 5 mins, all processed in less than a minute. Was happy to have the GST back.

Some other people were taking much longer because they were disorganized and did not have their receipts, credit card and goods ready for inspection.

Zero issue on return, declared it and some tea I was unsure about. Customs didnt want to see either, just xrayed my bags and waived us out.

 

[RooFlyer]

Of course, when seeking to leverage the TRS, make sure you give yourself plenty of time and on the occasion that the TRS claims area is a total zoo, accept that it's just not worth the time and effort of waiting in that ridiculously long queue, cut your losses and move on as it simply ain't worth the stress ahead of your flight.

Never claimed it.

 

[Franky]

I use a contour memory foam pillow at home and have had a travel size one for many years now.

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It easily fits into a domestic size carry-on bag and squashes down easily when necessary.

Unfortunately, I can’t deal with firm mattresses anymore - get extreme pain in shoulders and across top of my back - so I refuse to travel without a foam mattress topper. Even vacuum sealed, it does occupy a bit of space, but is worth my sleep to have to fit it in! (Needless to say, I can’t manage HLO anymore…)

I have one of those, and they really make a difference. To save space, instead of rolling it up, I fold it into a square with the valve on the top, and then just sit on it for about 10 seconds which squezzes all the air out, and then slip it into a small plastic bag, which then sits in the bottom of my roll-on back pack.

 

[Forg]

you will also know ‘The Band’ - one of my favourites

Oooh, Clapton & Robertson on Further On Up The Road from The Last Waltz!

 

[Scarlett]

I’ve used plenty of hotel kettles: no sickness or even odour noted from the kettles. Clearly I don’t stay in the same kind of places…

Checked luggage only! (CLO)
My golf bag weighs 12-13 Kg depending on the airport scales.
My suitcase generally weighs under 20Kg; on average about 16Kg. That’s a good thing, as my under utilisation is generally taken up by Mrs Scarlett being a couple of Kgs over…

Never had a problem with my stuff in a hotel safe, certainly not that I’m aware of.

Love my sleep-ins, so concur with the no early flights where possible.

J long-haul where possible.

 

[bertflyer]

Always confirm your European hotel has aircon if travelling in summer! Too many times in the past I’ve returned to the hotel room at the end of the day to find the room is at a toasty temp with no chance of cooling down overnight (and this includes expensive hotels - I’m looking at you Copenhagen!!). I like a cool room to sleep best. And, those daggy cargo pants for long haul flights to use the side pockets for passport/ boarding pass storage. These pants only get used for flights…

 

[Julesmac]

We are all different, and so yes a golden rule is to travel in the style that suits YOUR NEEDS best, including choice of luggage and weight.

Sorry if my post above was misleading as the example given was more ultralight on that particular trip than what I would deem as travelling light. Though it did also highlight how the couple behind us had very different luggage needs than we did. It was just topical as it was my last international trip. We travel light, but normally always travel with checked in baggage as we did this time.. We just forgo the using all of the 40/60/80kg allocation that we might be entitled to on our trips

What bags and weight we take we tailor to each trip. Though lol "bragging rights" is never a consideration.

For most of our trips, particularly say 6 weeks or more in Europe, my wife and I will travel with one medium wheeled suitcase each (small enough that travel on trains is easy on trains as we often use trains in Europe) and one small day packpack that we also use as our flight in cabin bag. The small laptop I use will go in that. We might also within Europe hop around on cheap local flights, so meeting their typical weight limits we will bear in mind as part or planning.

Each suitcase will not exceed 20kg (though is often less) and will include all the items that you have listed. Our flight may well have to Europe and back may well have a 40/60/80kg allocation, but we will not use it. Occasionally we will come home with a bit extra and will just put those items in a lightweight duffle bag.

We also tend to go to out of the way off the beaten track type places., and for us personally have more nags than this is a great hassle.

If say short trip to say Thailand then we will use small wheelie bag each.

If say Island hopping in Greece, or mountain villages, a travel backpack will be used. If say more a hiking holiday then a hiking backpack.
While we are both now 64, we find backpacks still easy to carry. Wheelie bags can be painful on cobbled streets, or where many steps are involved...and when staying at places that taxis might not get near too.

I have never been able to use "Overseas Travel" and "Pack Light" in the same sentence

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Never had a problem with my stuff in a hotel safe, certainly not that I’m aware of.

I note your comment "certainly not that I’m aware of."


I had a Hotel Manager take 10% of the cash I had in the room safe in Nairobi who relied on people not noticing that he was taking part of the cash left in the room safe.

Another guest we were about to go on a 5000km overland drive to Victoria Fall via multitude of Game Parks, each in our own Land Rover's also had 10% missing.

Due to this we both had to pay the company that was providing the Land Rovers on the morning that we were checking out., which is when we both realised we were exactly 10% short. We had flown in on different flights, us from Melbourne and they from Scotland.


So clearly someone had taken the 10% of cash from the safe.

We approached the hotel manager about the theft, who initially stated it was impossible at that we were mistaken.
I told him I new that the hotel, as all hotels can, could open the safe. Initially he denied it, but we kept pressing only to them be told various versions initially none of the staff had access, only him, that code was kept in his laptop, and later after we called the police he said it was kept in the hotel office safe.


A bit of online investigation, including contacting some past guests, and a pattern emerged of other past guests who were also missing 10% of cash.

It turned out he had been skimming roof safe's for years. He only took 10% each time as guests would in the main not count their cash, that it would still look right (mine was in bundles with a lack band around each) and that guests would perhaps not realise till later in their trip when they had fallen short, or even if they had been short changed first.

We had double counted our cash prior to flying and so knew what it should have been.

We followed up with the company that was providing the Land Rover's, and who had also booked our hotel to advise them that there was a pattern of theft at the hotel that they had provided for us. They in turn followed up with the owners who lived in England and who on making their own investigation confronted their manager and sacked him. Our tour company got back to us about a moth later to update us.

 

[JohnK]

Never fly economy

If someone else is paying.

Hello, I'm [email protected]

I'm [email protected]

 

[dajop]

I think the important points of this thread are :

1) Follow some basic rules if your actions affect others (outside your immediate travelling party).
2) If not, "you do you" . People have different risk tolerancesm different preferences for activities, accom, even luggage, they will have different economic means, so will have different rules.