Don’t stay in big hotels. Sure they are nice and offer a lot of luxury but the money really doesn’t help the local population. Travel is about broadening your horizons and expanding your mind but also about learning and helping the local population live better. If you go anywhere, whether it’s France or Thailand or Australia, and stay in a big corporate hotel, most of that money will be sent back to the corporation headquarters and the local economy will only see a fraction of that money. However, if you stay at a local guesthouse or bed and breakfast that money will go help the people right in the area. The owners will be locals who put that money right back into the local economy which will help the local people much more than if you see only a little money from a faceless corporation. If you really want to help the people you are visiting, don’t stay at a big hotel. Stay at a local guesthouse and you will do much more good. Moreover, you will get a much more personal experience. You won’t be bothered by a tourist desk- you’ll be welcomed by the owners as part of the family. They will be able to tell you all the local things to do, good restaurants, and might even act as tour guides. All in all you get a much more personal experience than you would if you had been going to a big hotel. Go local the next time you travel- it will help people more and you’ll have a better experience.

Research. People don’t do enough of it. If you want to have a good vacation you need to do the research. You need to look up your destination, see what there is to do, check prices, and look up maps and such. A lot of people just roll into cities without any planning and end up wasting time figuring out what to do. If you do it ahead of time you can solve that problem. You’ll why you came to that city and what you want to do. I’m not saying you need to plan every minute of your holiday- no that is boring. But what you need to do is have an idea as to what to expect when you get there. If you didn’t know the line was 4 hrs long to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, you would be wasting a whole. Good research can help you avoid the lines, learn how much things will cost you, help you get an idea of the layout of the city, and more. Don’t over plan but go in with any idea of what you want to do and you’ll find that you trip goes a lot smoother and things happen a lot quicker. There are so many free travel guides out there that not doing research is just a sign of laziness because it doesn’t cost anything. So go, get off your butt, and put in a little time to do some research.

If you are going away, you need to get travel insurance. Travel insurance is offered by a lot of companies and your credit card company might even cover you for a lot of things. However, if they don’t, go buy travel insurance. Travel insurance will protect you if you get sick, injured, lose your stuff, get your stuff stolen, or have a tour canceled on you. In short, it covers you for everything.

You never know what might happen while you are traveling and chances are nothing will. You’ll probably be fine but you never know. Travel insurance is only a few dollars per month. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and will cover you for everything. I’ll pay 20 dollars to make sure if my laptop breaks I can get the money to buy a new one.

When you are buying travel insurance, make sure you consider a few things: 1. it covers health care 2. it covers all the countries you are going too 3. it protects against trip cancellation 4. it protects against lost or stolen items

You pay not get travel insurance for a short trip to Paris but if you are traveling long term, it is worth getting. The longer you travel, the more things will go wrong. Travel insurance can be there to protect you. Moreover, if you are doing an active holiday, you run a higher risk of accidents. Get travel insurance. Be smart. It’s only a few dollars.