Ten things… to take with you
- Your camera – digital compact, DLSR, smartphone, tablet or even film!
- Travel towel – to dry self or roll laundry in when washing on the road…
- Wet wipes – to clean up after spare ribs, fixing a bike or on a hot day!
- Body spray – high temperatures and it’s sweaty when you’re in a crowd!
- Bottle of water – handy at any time (sparkling rather than still).
- Trousers with zipped pockets – to keep thieves at bay
- Bags that can be locked or have pull-tight openings – see number 6!
- Copies of passport, travel docs & insurance (and phone numbers).
- Comfortable shoes, sandals or boots suitable for what you’re up to
- Loose change – for purchases in shops that don’t want €20 notes…
Insurance…
It was a long way down from this spot!
One thing that’s surprised me over the last few months is how many people are logging onto forums or asking questions on newspaper websites as to whether they should take travel insurance or not.
To me, it’s a no-brainer. Yes, you should is always my answer as I have pre-existing conditions that have to be declared in the wake of having had a stroke, but I’m also aware that the EHIC card doesn’t cover you for all eventualities or things like repatriation in the event of a biggie occurence.
Yes, specialist cover should be sought for dangerous sports etc, but even if you aren’t going paragliding or doing free-fall, there’s always the possibility that something unexpected might happen.
My stroke happened three days after a medical at a new GP practice and a few months after a nasty infection occurred following a small graze on my left leg (open leg wound for 3 months and an abcess inside open leg wound too).
There’s always the effects of liquor mortis to consider – either down to your consumption or a visiting meathead intent of drinking themselves into oblivion. Or inattentive drivers, unknown allergies or stumbles in the street…
Yes, the insurance premium will add more pounds or whatever to the cost of the trip, but it may be a lot less than the medical bills or those for repatriation to a hospital in say the UK after a crash or medical problem, especially if it’s happened on the other side of the world or in the US of A…
Treat ’em and street ’em may not be possible!
Music on the move…
Live is best, but when you’re on the road, unleash the CD or iPod!
After spending a great deal of time listening to all kinds of music during my time as a music fan, writer and band manager, when it comes to listening to songs when I’m driving here in the UK or plugging in the iPod elsewhere, there are some songs that choose themselves.
Naomi and Bel set me thinking yesterday morning when they posted one of their playlists on magazutravelling yesterday morning. The link to their post is highlighted below, but this is what I came up with as a master playlist culled from the batch of CDs that I’ve made to play in the car which just happen to also be saved on various playlists on my iPod too…
- Hey Ya – OutKast featuring Andre 3000
- Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson
- Song 2 – Blur
- Rock & Roll – Led Zeppelin
- Ace Of Spades – Motorhead
- Caroline – Status Quo
- Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
- Born Slippy – Underworld
- Barber’s Adagio For Strings – William Orbit
- Street Fighting Man – Rolling Stones
- In Between Days – The Cure
- Deliverance – The Mission UK
- White Feather/Childhood’s End – Marillion (with Fish, not H)
- Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters
- Firestarter – Prodigy
- Higher Ground – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
- Extreme Ways – Moby
- Keep On Rocking In The Free World- Neil Young
- Shot By Both Sides – Magazine
- I Am The Resurrection – The Stone Roses
Bubbling under…
- Valerie – Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse
- Bring Your Daughter To Slaughter – Iron Maiden
- The Boys Are Back In Town – Thin Lizzy
- Enola Gay – OMD
- 1999 – Prince
- Whiskey In The Jar – Metallica
- 1812 Overture – used for the two explosive set pieces in V For Vendetta
- Tiny Dancer – Elton John
- Hurricane – Bob Dylan
- Sylvia – Focus
And that link to Naomi and Bel’s playlist?
https://magazutravelling.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/roadtrip-playlist/
Easier when you know how…
Easier to book a flight to here than do an online supermarket shop!
I can book flights, buses, train rides, coast-hugging catamaran journeys and sort out travel insurance, car insurance and road rescue cover online without too much trouble, even though I use Apple rather than Windows machines.
Yes, there were problems recently regarding a set of rail tickets, but that was down to details of bus replacement services not being explained in full online rather than different machines talking to each other.
But the most frustrating thing this week has been trying to sort out an online supermarket shop for the first time.
The car is sat outside wisepacking towers at the moment thanks to the clutch breaking last week somewhere near Ilkley Moor.
So no supermarkets sweeps for us until the car gets repaired, but yours truly came up with the bright idea of doing our monthly shop online rather than hitting our preferred supermarket – Lidl.
After three attempts on three different supermarket sites, I gave up in frustration, had lunch and then went back to it once more.
This second attempt got the job done, but will I be doing it again?
I don’t think so somehow – once the car’s sorted and back on the road, it’s back to pushing a trolley up the aisle when there’s shopping to be done!
Give me booking flights or holiday stuff anytime!
LDN kit & caboodle
We saw plenty of posters and displays for London Fashion Week when we hit London last Thursday, but practicality and warmth factors were in our minds when we were choosing clothes, footwear, bags and tech for the trip.
As it turned out, it wasn’t that cold and we did see a few city types wandering around in shirts rather than suited and booted.
There was a fair amount of Rohan and Peter Storm stuff worn last Thursday as both of us wore merino wool base layers under fleece jumpers and windproof (Caroline) or furry finish (me) fleece jackets and either travel jeans (C) or soft shell trouser (me).
Caroline’s Reiker shoes did the business over the fourteen or so miles walked in the course of the day. Although I’d chosen to wear a newish pair of specialist shoes from a respected brand, the cushioning wasn’t what was required for a day of pavement pounding – replacements are already being eyed up in running rather than outdoor shops…
Our day bags came courtesy of Healthy Back Bag (C) and the man bag I’d bought at Imperial College about eighteen months ago.
Travel toothbrushes and toothpaste kept the breath fresh whilst Tea Tree wipes and small size body sprays kept things smelling sweet (as did the decision to wear merino wool based tops under our fleece jumpers).
M & S socks with silver content also came in useful too as a means of combatting any trainer induced smelly feet…
Anything else? Well, the iPad Mini came in useful as I still hadn’t got a paper copy of the latest Pocket Rough Guide London before we set off, as did a mini map of the touristy bits of the city.
The iPad wasn’t used that much, largely because local knowledge gleaned from thirty years of visiting London came in useful. It did however get used for deciding what our next moves should be as we respectively quaffed a pint of bitter shandy and a half of Aspalls cider in a pub just off Piccadilly.
Did the choice of clothing, footwear, bags and tech cut it? Yes, providing you discount the battering my feet got because of those shoes!
The tech worked fine (the above pic from Harrods is from the iPad – my Nikon digital compact was also used on the day) and that’s just about convinced me to take the iPad out and about on a more regular basis…
And yes, this is the second iPad only posting on wisepacking!
The right guide?
Which guide is the right guide for you?
There’s a whole lot of reading going on, largely because the weather around wisepacking towers is not that condusive to heading out, no matter what clothing/footwear is being used at the time…
There’s four paper guidebooks and two language helpers on the desk in readiness for our next trip and a new one on the Kindle section of my iPad too (this one’s a brand new revision of an existing title and I haven’t as yet found anyone selling the new paper version…).
The four on the desk are from Rough Guides, Lonely Planet and DK Eyewitness whilst the new Kindle on the iPad is a Pocket Rough Guide.
Why four books and why are they from different publishers?
That’s all to do with getting a more rounded picture of the places we’re going to as each has its own take on the cities and what there is to see and do. As you can see from the above photo, there’s a lot to be said for hanging onto old editions of guidebooks as these can provide further information as certain stuff may be mentioned in one edition of said book, but not another, even though the sight or establishment is still operating….
These guides from the big names are being complemented by a set of city guides in Kindle format from the Atsons and Unanchored series of eBooks or those produced independently by the authors themselves..
Some have been paid for whilst others have been free downloads, but all are being read to get more information and yes, there have been some good tips that are being noted and stored for use on the ground when we hit the cities we’re going to as a means of ensuring that our euros go that little bit further by not resorting to big name eateries for drinks or snacks.
At the moment, all of the main guidebooks are providing good information in a very readable format, something that is a great improvement on our findings when researching the various trips to Portugal.
Rough Guides were our favourites on these trips in either full country or Snapshot/Pocket Rough Guide formats. These paper tomes were used in conjunction with info gleaned from Julie Dawn Fox’s books on Portugal and Porto along with tips from Julie’s website – https://juliedawnfox.com
You may wonder why I favour paper books over techno books…
1) Because paper books are easier to read on the hoof.
2) The indexing is usually much better in paper books.
3) They don’t require charging up at regular intervals.
4) They’re more discrete to look at when out and about.
5) Sections could be copied or cannibalised from the main book, especially if you’re going to one town, city or area for a few days or a couple of weeks.
No matter what the information in the books, the format or who the publisher is, there’s one aspect that’s never left out or forgotten about – using our eyes and ears to discover places, events or eateries.
We’ve spotted posters on noticeboards about museums, stumbled across eating places, taken river trips or found interesting shops by just following instincts and heading off in what turned out to be the right direction…
Although I’ve just bought that new Pocket Rough Guide for the iPad, it’s only going to be used as a guide on a forthcoming trip.
Although the booking has been done, what we do when we get there is largely going to be made up as we go along. There’s a couple of daft ideas floating around, but whether they come to fruition is another matter…
Not in a guidebook, but the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum was found after seeing a poster on the wall at a campsite washing up area…
Signs of the times?
I’m losing count of the number of stories that are being discussed via media outlets old and new relating to travel matters of all different kinds.
Some are about the biggest international travel story of the moment whilst others talk about things to come here in the U.K. and the E.U. and then there’s those that relate to the travel industry and the way that it’s coping with the after effects of world events.
There’s also the way in which decisions by residents or governments have impacted on the financial affairs of travellers, cultural sites and airlines to consider too.
I don’t normally take notice of television advertising, largely because I only watch a handful of programmes on commercial channels, but I have spotted an increase in the number of ads for Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2, Virgin, Trivago, Air B n B, plus state ads for California, Texas and for countries such as Israel over the last couple of weeks.
It would appear that there’s a lot of people after the pounds in our pockets, but recent conversations and posts seen on travel forums regarding potential travellers wanting value for money as they head to destinations old and new.
We currently have three trips in 2017 that are in different stages of planning.
The first is a daft one that harks back to my days as a band manager hawking demo tapes around record companies, the second is a Spanish road trip and the third is a return visit to an area that both of us have visited on a regular basis.
It’s going to be interesting to see how busy the various places we’re visiting are going to be and what the respective costs per person per day are.
Budgets are being put together, but they will be flexible enough to ensure that we’re not missing out on potential experiences. We don’t go for posh eating, overpriced coffees or expensive bowls of cereal in hipster cafes and we’re not adverse to using buses or long-distance coaches to get around rather than trains or hire cars.
Will the foray into the E.U. end up being more cost effective that staying in the U.K. even though the pound has taken a battering thanks to the changes in exchange rates?
I suspect that it will, even though we’ve gone for pre-booked aircraft seats, fast-track security and priority boarding to make things easier at the airport.
Flying hand luggage only helps, as does frequenting local shops that aren’t just for local people and cafes/other eateries that aren’t on the main streets or popular tourist areas….
Watch this space for the end results!
Strange days…
Choose life…
Choose destinations that don’t hold you or others as you enter the country…
Choose a place that you can get to and still spend less than you would over the same timescale when holidaying in your own country…
Choose trains or buses or other public transport rather than hiring a car that needs to be parked up for half a day or more whilst you wander around an already gridlocked city…
Choose food and drink that isn’t what you’d have at home…
Choose a film or TV series with subtitles rather than one that’s just in English or has been dubbed into English…
Choose a bag you can carry rather than one you need to wheel…
Choose clothing that you can wash & wear…
Choose lo-tech or no tech to keep the bag weight down…
Choose no star places to costs down by eating in family run cafes…
Choose wisely, go placidly and remember – it’s o.k. to wear sunscreen…
Inspired by Trainspotting, Desidirata and Baz Lurhman…
Going bananas?
Just back from the shops and boy was I glared at!
Father asked daughter to get some bananas.
Which she duly did – from the shelves stacked with hands of bananas that were straight from the box…
“No, get a bag for them” said Dad.
So a pack of pre-packed bananas in a bag was chosen by said daughter.
At which point said father got her to put them back and then went to fetch a poly bag from a dispenser and then put a hand of bananas into that bag.
Which is when I picked some bananas up from the shelf, put them in the basket and pointed out to Dad that bananas come ready wrapped…
Cue that death stare!
So much for reducing the amount of poly bags used and disposed of by shoppers every day…
Bye-bye big bag…
Where we’re going, we don’t need big bags…
I’d had my Lowe Alpine Travel Kinni 60 for years, but as the Travel Kinni hadn’t been used since 2008, it’s finding a new home.
Which shouldn’t be hard as the bag has found its way to Geneva on its own before – it went on an earlier plane than I did, a no-no even in pre-911 years!
Yes, the bag and the Monarch luggage label from the bag’s last trip has been handed in at our local charity shop, as has a small Lowe Alpine pack and an elderly Karrimor hand luggage bag.
Apart from wanting space in the back room, there’s also the matter of having standardised my travel luggage to just three bags – the studenty man bag bought at Imperial College, London in 2015, the large size Healthy Back Bag that came courtesy of a BOGOF deal Caroline took advantage of five years ago and the almost four year old Osprey Farpoint 40 that has been used on our European (and a few longer UK ones) trips since 2013.
At 10, 15 and 40 litres respectively, the bags mentioned in the last paragraph should be fine for all of the trips we have in mind over the next few years.
The one from Imperial College has been commented on by staff when overnighting in Hampton by Hilton and Holiday Inn hotels in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sheffield whilst the Healthy Back Bag proved useful for weekend-length trips to London, Northumberland and North Norfolk.
The Ospreys have been commented at airport check-in desks, whilst wandering up to our hotel in Tavira (the lady making the comments was a seasoned traveller from Hawaii who was wheeling a big wheelie case) and stared at in disbelief by a bunch of fellow Brits as we checked out of that Tavira hotel with our bags two days later.
Although the benefits of travelling hand luggage are well-known, it’s been interesting to see what people have been looking at in the way of travel bags in shops here in the UK.
Most have been going for big bags rather than smaller, more practical items. I’ve kept quiet as people have been plumping for those big bags, even though I’ve heard some of the prospective destinations that the purchasers were heading to.
When I was in retail, it proved difficult to convince people that they didn’t need a 70-80 travel pack for two weeks in Thailand (consensus is 35-40 litre max) as there are things called shops over there that mean that they didn’t need to take EVERYTHING with them!
We weren’t the only Brits using hand luggage on our last visit to Portugal, even though the hotel we were in iss regarded as one of the Algarve’s best.
All we did to stick to the unwritten dress code was to have smarter wash & wear clothes and to eat in family owned cafes and restaurants rather than the hotel dining room or gaffs with high prices on the menus displayed outside the establishments.
wisepacking 
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