Travel tips to become a better, safer traveller
By Darren Cronian on Sunday, July 13th, 2008

During the next seven days we’ll feature travel tips and advice that may appear obvious but no matter how many times you tell people to remember their passport, or take out adequate travel insurance, you’ll be surprised how many people forget.

Travel tips to become a better, safer traveller

Jack Norell of the Eye Flare blog reveals his travel tips for safety and how to become a better traveller.

Five tips for safety

» Try to blend in wherever you’re going by paying attention to local customs in clothing and action.
» Carry your wallet as you usually do, but put the most of your money somewhere else.
» Don’t trust fellow travellers or the hotel staff with your belongings. Lock them up yourself
» Stay relatively sober when you’re out and don’t accept drinks from strangers
» Remain aware of your surroundings at all times.

Five tips for being a better traveller

» Take a notepad and map instead of a guidebook
» If you can help a fellow traveller out then do. Good deeds do come back to you
» Bring a bag half the size of what you think you’ll need.
» Bring a second camera and extra memory cards. Photos are your best souvenirs.
» Be polite and smile. It’s their country and you’re a visitor. You’ll get treated better

Great point about being polite, it’s amazing how many Brits I have seen on my travels that have been rude or arrogant, and this gets you no where. As for smiling I am at my happiest when travelling around so the smile comes natural.


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6 responses to “Travel tips to become a better, safer traveller”

James | 13 July, 2008 at 4:26 pm

I always see the “blend in” advice on travel sites – to think that some 6’4 blond haired, blue eyed white guy can go low-profile in Southeast Asia is funny – lol

I know expats that wear cut-offs and flip-flops and expats that wear solid gold Rolex watches. It’s more about being aware of your surroundings and listening to your gut

But overall good advice dude and cool blog

~James

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Nomadic Matt | 13 July, 2008 at 5:03 pm

Look forward to the series

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Jack | 13 July, 2008 at 5:48 pm

It’s true that it’s sort of hard to blend in sometimes. But the spirit of the advise is to try and look like you belong and know what you’re doing there. So, if everyone is loud and shouting at the bar, do the same, but if people are orderly queueing up in thepost office then don’t jump the line. It’s quite possible to blend in while looking different.

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Darren Cronian | 13 July, 2008 at 7:50 pm

@ James

Good point – I’m a short arse, so I stand out a mile but Jack makes a good point that you can blend in without looking different. When I travel I don’t hang around street corners with a map, because you stand out as a tourist.

@ Jack

I agree but I wouldn’t recommend copying others if it can lead you into trouble, i.e. copying someone jumping up and shouting at the bar is probably not a good idea, if it means your going to get banned from the bar!

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Rohan | 13 July, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Great tips.

I always take a hand held camera and SLR camera, but because we are spending part of our holiday in a cabin in the middle of no where we are going to take two hand held cameras which still take great photos.

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Darren Cronian | 14 July, 2008 at 12:48 pm

@ Rohan

I use my Nokia N95 when going on short trips, and I’ve been impressed with the quality of the photographs that takes. I wouldn’t take that as my only camera if I was going on holiday though.

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