Travel Tip #1: Google Flights

This one is for the lazy travel hunters. You will see endless advice about different flight booking platforms and ways to get the best deal, but I find it frustrating and tedious to go too deep into all of it for the sake of $50. I tend to always start with Google Flights - it’s quick, easy to use and has some good features. One of my favourite features is that you can just put in your base location, hit explore right from the homepage and see what deals are out there (you can narrow further e.g. by date). You can easily do multi-trip searches, they link out directly to where you book and you can set up tracking for any searches in case they go up or down. Now I do hear a bit about booking sites using your search history against you in terms of pricing, so consider “incognito mode” or similar in whatever web browser you use if that’s a concern. 

Travel Tip #2: Getting an AMEX credit card

Let me give a huge preface to this one - I HATE credit cards normally and I do NOT recommend ever getting one unless you are 100% confident in your ability to always repay them on time! I grew up in a working class single-parent family and my mother was always very crafty with money. One of her mottos was if you don’t have the cash, you can’t afford it! Banks rely on people not repaying their credit card debt to make money - they’re not a charity.

BUT, if you’re fortunate like me and have found yourself in solid paying work, it could be worth looking into a credit card for the points. In Australia at least, I always found American Express offered the best deals. You would have to spend a bit upfront then get rewarded with a big hunk of points you can use for flights, hotels etc or even just cash back to fund your next trip. I have their Explorer card which also offers travel insurance, lounge passes and more. Remember, always do your homework before jumping into anything like this! 

Travel Tip #3: The big/small itinerary plan

As someone who doesn’t always have the longest chunks of time available for a holiday, I’ve had to iterate on itinerary planning to get a good balance where I feel that I’ve seen and done enough, but also didn’t overdo it and stress myself out. Nothing worse than coming back from a vacation and feeling like you need another one!

One way I’ve countered this, is doing a big/small overall itinerary plan rather than going at say 80% capacity for the whole trip. So, what does this mean? This can mean doing a lot in a big city for say 5 days, then relaxing in the countryside for a couple to rest those feet and then rinse-repeating depending on the length of your trip. This tends to work really well for multi-country or city trips where you’re using public transport or self-driving. 

You could also apply this rule if staying in 1 place. Spending 10 days just in Paris? Plan 3 big days, then 2 days with a slower itinerary or no plan at all, a few days back on, then end with a day or two where you can wake up late, go to a nearby local hotspot, watch some tv or read a book in the afternoon before flying out.