1: Try travelling alone

I believe that everyone should try solo travel at least once. It builds your confidence, shows you what you’re capable of, improves your social skills, gives you time and space to think, and helps you learn more about what you like and need in life.

2. Eat the local food

Food is one of my absolute favorite ways to get to know a place better. I love trying new things, and I’ve found a thousand amazing dishes that I never would have discovered if I’d stick to the normal stuff from the supermarket. Trying new food isn’t scary, and you’ll build your confidence up as you fall in love with more and more things. Try everything, even if you have no idea what it is. I promise you won’t regret it.
Some of the most interesting foods I tried were balut (a developing duck embryo) in the Philippines, living mopane worms in Zimbabwe, snake blood in Vietnam or tuna eyeballs in Japan (that one was a bit creepy!)

3. Plan as little as possible

One of the first lessons I learned on the road was that your plans will nearly always change. I still make the mistake sometimes by booking multiple flight tickets and trying to plan my trip from home, but it’s honestly better to just go with the flow.

Sure, you should have a rough plan for your trip, but don’t book everything in advance or you’ll likely feel too restricted and end up regretting it. Book a one-way ticket and your first few nights of accommodation — you’ll figure the rest out along the way. It’s not as intimidating as it sounds. If you’re in a tourist destination there’ll always be someone who’s willing to take your money by giving you a place to stay.

4. Travel insurance is everything

Seriously. If you do only one thing before you leave, make it getting travel insurance. I’ve heard far too many horror stories of travellers injuring themselves in remote places and ending up in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt. Don’t think that it won’t happen to you, because you know those travellers they thought that, too.

5. Keep everything important in your daypack

I have had lost luggage before and had my big backpack ripped open in Barcelona one time on a bus trip. I’ve also been on dodgy buses in Africa where we’ve arrived at our destination and people have had valuables stolen from their backpack by someone hiding out in the luggage hold while we were transit.

If there’s anything I’d be upset to lose, I keep it in my daypack, which is always by my side on travel days. For me, that’s my passport, laptop, camera, external hard drive, a debit card, and some spare cash. As long as I have all of those, I can survive indefinitely. I use the Anti-Theft Secured Affinity USB Daypack.

The good thing about the Affinity USB Daypack is I can put it inside of my Osprey Fairpoint 40 Liter Backpack, which is the the best travel backpack in the World, according to travelandleisure.com.

7. Take more photos of yourself

I talked to one guy in Tbilisi, Georgia 2 years go from Uzbekistan and he told me: “Don’t be so shy. Go and ask for a picture” with some Georgian people in traditional clothing. There have been so many times when I’ve been too shy to ask someone to take my photo in a place and I’ve almost always regretted it. Photos of the beautiful places you visit are great and all, but when you get home, they’re not all that different to the ones everyone else has taken there, too. Photos with you in them are special and they’ll come to mean a lot more. I recommend the Sony A6000 with 24.3 Megapixels. To compare my IPhone X has a 12-megapixel camera. The Sony A6000 is a compact camera and doesn’t take too much space. It takes BANGER photos!

Or maybe I’m just a narcissistic millennial. Who knows?!

8. Learn a few words of the language in every country you visit

You’ll gain more respect from the locals if you can at least say hello, please, sorry, and thank you. It can be a cool ice breaker, which can lead to new adventures. On the note, remember: if you don’t speak the language, it’s your problem, not theirs. And please don’t start speaking louder to make yourself understood. Try miming instead, or using a translation app on your phone. Google Translate is a life saver!

9. Bring several debit and credit cards with you

I always bring at least 3. Sometimes your bank will block your card, sometimes your card won’t work in an ATM, and sometimes you could even lose it or have it stolen. Bring at least three debit/credit cards with you that are all linked to different accounts (with money in them!) Keep one in your backpack, one in your daypack, and one on your person. I need to practise this even more myself, because it’s so stupid and risky to keep them all in the same place, especially if you’re traveling in Africa or South America. Don’t do that!

10. And a stash of emergency cash

I carry a spare 300 USD that’s split up in various places in my backpack, daypack, and occasionally, my shoe when there’s a chance I might get robbed. Like when I went walking around to the slums in Cape Town, South Africa myself. It means that in a worst case scenario, I can pay for some food, a dorm bed, and a call to my family to get an emergency wire transfer until I can get back on my feet again. I go with U.S. dollars because it’s the most widely accepted currency around the world and easy to change.

Read also: How To Avoid The 7 Most Common Travel Scams (Africa)

11. Expect everything to go wrong

I’m the living proof of that! I expect the worst, but hope for the best. Expecting everything to go perfectly on your trip is only setting yourself up to fail. Nobody goes traveling and comes back without any stories of mishaps! No matter how prepared you are, at some point you’re going to get lost, get scammed, miss your bus, get food poisoning, injure yourself… the list is endless! I was really mad, when a guide stole my Rayban Sunglasses in Zanzibar, Tanzania, because I kind of expected to have the best time there, relaxing on the beach. Expect bad stuff to happen, and don’t beat yourself up when it does. In a month’s time, you’ll find it funny rather than frustrating.

12. And don’t lose your temper when it does

It achieves absolutely nothing and makes you look like an assh*le. I was taught that the hard way, when I got pissed off at the border from Uganda to Rwanda (I was exhausted and treated unfairly – but that’s another story), in fact they rejected me to enter Rwanda and I had to take a horrible bus 15 hours back to Uganda’s capital Kampala to grab another flight back to Tanzania, where I was at that time.
Instead, calm down, put a smile on your face, think of how this will make a great story one day, and rationally figure out an alternative plan. This too shall pass. Caaalm down, Gustav!

13. Visit the touristy stuff in a city

The main tourist attractions are popular for a reason. While getting off the beaten track can be fun, the things you’ll see are rarely as impressive as the popular sights. Don’t be a travel snob — hit up the famous stops as well as the lesser-visited stuff. Going to random places normally just shows you that they aren’t well known for a reason. That being said freestyling is fun, and I enjoy doing that too exploring other cultures, but sometimes there are reasons why tourists haven’t ventured to some tiny village before: Maybe there was nothing to do. I personally wouldn’t go to Paris for the first time without seeing The Eiffel Tower. Maybe that’s just me? I bet not.

Check out My 3 Favorite Travel Watches to keep track of time at the touristy spots!

14. Have a routine when checking out of a place

Advise from the person who lost a looot of stuff while traveling.

Checking out is when you’re most likely to lose something. CONFIRMED!  Whenever I check out of a place, I now check the bathroom, I check under the beds, I check the desks, and then I make sure I have my passport, laptop, camera, money, phone, and external hard drive + Powerbank. (Forgot 5 of these at least!)

My favourite Power bank is by far ‘The Anker PowerCore’ with 20100mAh and I always go with this one. I’ll be fine if I leave anything else behind. Having a routine that you go through every single time will help you keep track of everything. I learned my lesson when I lost my newly (expensive) bought microphone for my IPhone in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore back in 2016, or when I forgot my passport in Surfers Paradise in Australia and some random Australian dude came running with it 5 minutes before I was moving on with the bus, asking “ay mate, is that yours?”. Talk about being lucky!

At that time I had only 1 passport, now I fortunately have 2!

15. If you’re not sure if you should bring it, don’t

The lighter your backpack, the better. If in doubt, leave it behind. Trust me, you can buy pretty much anything you could possibly need in most places around the world. You’ll soon learn that all you need when you travel is a change of clothes, some money, and a passport. Everything else is adding to your comfort. Furthermore you’re able to fly very cheap to many destinations with small luggage!

I travel LIGHT, but I bring most of these things when traveling: The 20 Most Essential Travel Items

16. Travel in shoulder season to save money and avoid the crowds

Shoulder season is my favourite time to travel. The weather is usually mildest, everything is more affordable than in high season, and there are fewer people visiting, too.

17. Use a VPN

You’ll be connecting to a whole range of unsecured Wi-Fi networks on your trip, so you need to a use a VPN to protect yourself from hackers, malware, and all that good stuff. It’ll also allow you to change your location so you can watch your favourite TV shows online! I use ExpressVPN, which is 99 bucks a year. When my social media platforms literally shut down in Malawi, I realized it was a good idea to set up a VPN.

18. Leaving your comfort zone is the best thing you can do for yourself

I cite leaving my comfort zone as the number one way in which travel has helped me. It was leaving my comfort zone that gave me confidence in my abilities as a traveller. It helped me to overcome anxious situations and it introduced me to new experiences — most of which I unexpectedly loved!

19. Don’t change your currency at the airport

That’s where you’ll get the worst exchange rates.

20. If there’s no internet, embrace it

Play a card game with someone in the hostel common room, read a book, lay on the beach, go for a walk or go swimming, talk to a stranger, think about life. Some of my favourite travel memories are from times when I didn’t have an internet connection to suck me out of the moment.

If you’re still not feeling 200% prepared, then check out My 20 Most Essential Travel Items Here!

I hope you’ll think of my 20 travel tips for the next time you go exploring!

– Gustav

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