This post is a bit of a grab bag of helpful tips I’ve come across recently. Not much of a central theme- other than I found them all helpful. A couple are old ones that I love so much, I had to include them here 🙂
Always choose local currency when using your credit card
All those years in the credit card industry have yielded some good tips. (for example: don’t use your rewards points to buy “stuff”- it’s the worst deal out there!) But this one isn’t as intuitive. Even if you are using a travel rewards card with no foreign currency fees, you can still get zinged with Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC).
When you are making a purchase abroad, the merchant may helpfully offer to charge your card in US dollars. Sounds like such a nice thing, right? Wrong! Basically, you are at the mercy of the exchange rate used by the merchant’s payment processor. And trust me, it’s not a good exchange rate.
So always choose Euros, Pesos, Liras, whatever- but never US dollars.
Remembering the stuff in the hotel safe
This tip is really good- and it’s an old one from my days in consulting. In the morning of departure from a hotel, you may be in a rush (I usually am.) It is SO easy to forget that you have your laptop/wallet/jewelry/whatever in the hotel safe. How to remember to empty the safe??
Easy. The night before your departure, simply place one of your shoes for the next day in the safe, along with your valuables. I doubt you will walk out with just one shoe on. And in the process of retrieving your shoe, you’ll clean out all the other stuff in there. Brilliant!
A quick assessment of current health topics
Finding some good tips on health and wellness can be a tricky endeavor. Who to listen to? What should you adopt and reject? I came across this recent video with a fast rundown on a number of health topics. Short and sweet. And these guys know their stuff (as far as I can tell.)
Absolutely thrilled to know that I can skip ice baths! What a relief 🙂
Always travel with some bare bones stationery
This one may not appeal to everyone- but here goes. It can be super convenient to have a couple of notecards and some stamps in my suitcase for when the need arises. For example, I was recently in Dallas- needed to send a couple of thank you notes. I had a few minutes on the plane and wrote out the notes on the way home. Another task done!
And on another recent trip, I found a funny postcard for Dear Husband. I didn’t have to track down a post office- I had 3-4 stamps in my diary and could quickly post the card to him the next morning.
Do you have a good tip to share? Let us know in the comments…
