Travel tips
Luggage
Key points:
- Do you really need all you’ve packed?
- Bring a backpack as a carry-on for your flight
We all make the same mistake, don’t we? We leave for 3 days but bring underwear for at least a week, 2 shirts and 1 sweater for each day… It might seem hard but I’ve learned that I always came back with half of my clothes unused after a trip. In case of need you can always wash something at your destination, whilst on city trips I always end up buying a nice dress , sweater or t shirt which again, makes you don’t need all of these clothes in your luggage/carry on. Same for shoes, will you need those 3 pairs or will you walk your entire city trip on your sneakers that you also wear 5 out of 7 days at home?
Travel medication and your toiletry bag are similar. Do we need to have 20 tablets against headache and a full strip of stomach medication? Pharmacies are available everywhere and in many countries some stuff can be bought easily without subscription. I’ve stopped putting all that medication in my luggage, just 1 or 2 of each is enough for when you have an urgency, the remainder you can buy there if needed…
Invest in some small travel-size products (or keep the toothbrush you get on the airplane for example) for your next travels and know that if you travel to a hotel, there will always be showergel etc. Do you really need that shower gel that you shower every day with on holidays too?
The backpack is my tip for an easy solution to airport travel. Mine can be set up easily on my trolley and has enough place for my in-flight necessities (headphone, tablet, kindle, water bottle) and I can often also fit my ‘purse’ in there if needed. When abroad, you can decide on a daily basis whether you take it with you for travel or go out without it. I find it ‘more suitable’ than a large bag / tote-bag I see many people board airplanes with.
Accommodation
Keypoints:
- Book as early as possible, with a free cancellation option
- Only book trough verified websites, properties with reviews only
- Check for 'best price match
1) Whenever possible, book as early as possible. Prices can double or triple in a few weeks’ time, depending on demand and availability. I've booked numerous hotels and hostels which ended up doubling in price between my booking date and my actual dates of stay, if I would have made a booking later.
Example: The hotel I booked for July 2025 in Frankfurt for 140 EUR (2 nights stay, booked in Nov 2024), is sold today for 230 EUR
2) Always book an option with free cancellation period. I’ve done 13 years of customer service and I can tell you, something is always bound to happen. The number of guests with broken legs, loss of jobs, sickness, change of destination, flight changes etc. was impressive. The ‘free cancellation’ option is often only around 5-10% more expensive but it might save you lots of money if something unexpected happens.
If you book ahead and still find a better deal later on, you can just book that one and cancel your original plans without any issue.
3) Best price guarantee applies on most larger booking platforms. Check your hotel from time to time… If it became less expensive you can make a claim for a refund of the difference after stay or adjust your booking yourself.
4) Please only book trough verified, well known platforms. And I swear by this rule, only book if there is a good number of reviews available.
I’ve done customer care for both guests and hotel partners for one of the largest online providers for several years. No matter how good a platform tries to be, one can’t verify everything at once and fraudsters will find new ways to fraud guests and businesses. If it looks to good to be true and it has no reviews, please don’t risk it and book elsewhere…
Flights
Flight prices can make or break your trip, so here are some tips and tricks I've been following over the past couple of years:
1) Try to be 'flexible' with your dates of stay / departure times
Leaving at 10 AM can be appealing to you, but leaving 1 flight earlier in the morning or taking a late afternoon flight might save you quite a bit of money. The overall public doesn't really like to get up early, so earlier (or very late flights) tend to fill up harder, hence better deals can be found.
I personally always feel excited the night before a travel day, so a good and long night of sleep isn't for me. I am actually quite happy I can leave early. On top of that, the airport waiting times at security are almost non-existent in most airports and overall the airport is quieter, so more time to sit, relax etc.
Similar to this, try to check for surrounding dates too. Leaving 1 or 2 days before or later can give you very different prices in flight tickets. I've once paid 200 EUR less on a return flight by staying one night extra, which costed me an extra 60 EUR in hotel only...
2) Look at flight comparison websites
It's impossible to find a quicker overview yourself of all possible flights to a destination and they might give you an option which you did not expect was possible.
Personally I use 3 :
google.com/flights + momondo.com + skyscanner.com
I will dedicate a special page to how to browse for flights / the advantages of these 3 pages soon!
3) Check nearby airports
This one obviously depends on where you live in the world, but try and see if any alternative airports might have good deals for you. The airport that is closest to you might be more expensive by quite a bit to your second closest airport...
Example: Flying to Canada from Brussels is often up to 250 EUR more expensive per return flight than going from Paris...
A train ticket or drive + car parking will hardly ever cost that much, especially if you're multiple persons traveling.
Example: I often fly from Brussels, but I can also fly from Brussels South (Charleroi), Lille Lesquin (France), Paris (2.5 hours drive) or from regional airports like Ostend of Antwerp.
4) 2 one-way tickets might be an option
It might not be something you consider checking and to be honest I didn't either until recently. Especially for last-minute flights it might sometimes be cheaper to book 2 separate flights from 2 different airlines, or even from 2 different airports.
For example: My trip to Rome departed from Lille (France), while my return was to Brussels (Belgium).