Important Travel Tips
Hi there, ✋
I’m Miguel, living in Barcelona, nice to meet you! This time around I’m trying a new thing eheh.
Usually, I write about business and/or human behaviour related topics, that push me to open my mind and challenge my own thoughts and ideas. However, travelling is back in full speed and there is nothing better than to explore new places, meet new people and embrace new cultures. ✈️🏝️⛰️
Btw: if you are looking for business and/or human behaviour weird stuff, I have other small, quick to read, and curious posts on my profile that may interest you ➡️ Miguel Parente
Quick disclosures: in no way shape or form I’m trying to flex my travelling experience — I have instagram for that 😜 — in all seriousness, the goal of this post, it’s to help new travellers that may be thinking of exploring beyond their borders for the very first time. On that note, more experienced travellers probably will not make much of these suggestions — if that it’s your case, COOL!! Please, feel free to write down in the comments some of your stories and even validate my tips.
Now for all the rookies backpackers, most likely you are feeling a mix of enthusiasm with a bit of anxiety, and that’s good… It’s part of the experience package! So, feel free to embrace it and learn how to manage it — likely you will need it sooner than later, under more stressful and unexpected situations.
I promise that I will share the tips in a minute… but before that, I just want to give you some of my travelling background. Hopefully, it will help you better understand my reasoning and where my recommendations come from.
Little rewind… ⏳
Since I can remember, my parents always tried to schedule and visit new places:
Short weekends nearby trips, to explore some old castle or get lost in a big museum;
Or, long form type of vacations cross the ocean, to experience a tropical beach or taste spice food;
I’m grateful beyond measure (thx mom & dad!!) and I’m pretty conscious of the luck I had and how rare it can be. 🙏🏻
As they say “travelling starts with oneself own origin”, I actually feel that I just invented that one, but it helps the thread eheh.
I was born in Porto, and then went to live and study in Lisbon… so, most of my “short weekends nearby trips” were in Europe. The old continent has a lot to offer and you will never get tired to be surprised by new local gastronomy, astounding landscapes, vibrant cities and all the amazing people — 100% recommend it! 🍝🏛️🏖️
However, for me the real challenge and what I have been always eager to explore were the other faraway cultures. My first alone, big trip was in Mozambique (thx Grupo Missão Mundo), and after that the addiction was settled in and more adventures came: Indonesia (thx AIESEC), Philippines, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Senegal, Thailand, etc.
Why am I listing all those places? To be bluntly honest and straightforward with you! Altought, for sure some of the tips can be applied across all countries, there are some exceptions and limitations that I have no clue about. Therefore, take it with a grain of salt. 😅
For example: if your first trip its to the USA or Antarctica, please use other sources for research and preparation.
Now, with the Travel Tips
The main reason I’m laying down this list, it’s because I wish someone would have told me this, when I was just starting to travel. These are the small details that actually matter and will make your experience easier.
1 — Travelling is expensive, but(!) there are workarounds
There is no way around it, in order to be able to move from point A to point B, you need to pay for it, and sometimes a lot! Flights are cheaper than what other generations had to overcome, but they still represent a big chunk of the travelling expenses.
Of course, you can always get a flight with a lot of interim connections and spend >8H in Qatar or Dubai sleeping on the ariport floor (I’m still doing it, and recommend it!), but the furthest you want to move the higher cost you will end up paying.
Quick pro-tip: if by any reason you lose one of the connections, make sure that the airline knows that you are still going and you need the seats to come back. Otherwise, the system may assume that you didn’t go and will try to fill your supposedly empty seat.
So, the transport is expensive, and if you add the staying (i.e. hotels, hostels, etc) it may just become out of budget… not so fast.
There are ways to make your trip even more memorable and unique, with some benefits like lowering staying costs. I can’t recommend enough to join a volunteering group and adding a different layer of life story to your chapter. All around the world, there are numerous honourable causes to apply for, that will empower your travelling, and those organizations will welcome all the help needed with open arms.
Usually, since you are committing part of your time and effort to give a hand, these institutions will support you with a shelter or other perks. There are a lot of organizations and different projects, hence read carefully all the details and ask if you have any questions.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: be aware of scams and frauds, this is not cryptoland, but there are bad players trying to take advantage of you. Never, never, never… wire money beforehand and always try to find someone that can vouch for the organization (i.e. share past experience).
If you are only thinking to join a volunteer organization for the simple reason of helping your budget. Look at yourself in the mirror, and think again.
2 — Burocracy & Health are important
Here it really depends on where you want to go and for how long you want to stay. So, be patient and make sure to go over it as soon as possible… and yes, the airlines will stop you if they find you are missing some papers.
It can become an onerous process to get a visa for more than 3 weeks in some destinations, because it may be borderline touristic scope. Again, if you are travelling under the supervision of a volunteer institution, they will help you with the burden.
Quick side story: my first big trip was to Mozambique for 3 months with the support of Grupo Missão Mundo. I had no idea how archaic the process was, and only after 4 visits to the embassy and have people from the organization on my side, then I was able to get my visa. After it, the plan was to land in Maputo and extend the visa to cover at least 1 month. Everything was going according to the plan, until I arrived in Nampula in the north of Mozambique and the officials told me that my visa was no longer valid. All in all, the domestic flight that I took made a stopover in Joanesburgo South Africa, thereby the visa I was able to extend in Maputo was outdated. How I was able to convince the officials that I was a volunteer and needed a visa for all the right reasons, it’s a story for another time. 🙈
Regarding health and exotic diseases, after COVID everyone is more aware of the negative consequences of not taking it serious, yet be sure to visit the accurate clinic and talk with a doctor with knowledge in the domain. Plus, have in hand your medical book and history of vaccine shots.
Otherwise, don’t be to scare about diseases or injuries that may happen. Unless you are going to a very remote spot, you are always going to find some qualified medical help closeby — even in Nacuxa Mozambique, we had a clinical center with the main required medical support.
3 — Airports
Maybe this one it’s more close to home, but more often than not I found myself rushing to be on time or not loose my flight.
In Porto we only have 1 Terminal, and it’s pretty close to the city center. Thus, you can either go by train, bus, or a short taxi trip. That actually it’s not the norm! More often than not, cities have multiple terminals and they can be in opposite locations (i.e. far, far way of each other).
Always, review which terminal are you landing on. Especially, if you are running through flight connections, and if this means to go from international to local flights.
Furthermore, airports are a big organized chaos and can feel like a maze at times. Don’t feel afraid to ask for directions to the staff, and try to stay close to your gate — you don’t want to fall asleep on the other side of the terminal.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: bad people know that it’s a hard task for new travellers to go over passport controls, find a taxi, etc. Never, never, never…let anyone take your passport or fill official documentation for you. The same logic for your bag, the planting drugs scheme, it’s not a myth!
Still to this day I have my bum bag with phone, passport and other important docs, that I never lose out of sight.“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” by Chris Bradford, The Ring of Earth
4 — Crossing countries’ borders by land
The most nervous reckoning situations that I found myself in, without a doubt were when crossing countries’ borders by walk. With that said, you could count all my adventures with one single hand. Thus, take this feedback with a grain of salt and be aware that the sample size it’s small.
To cross a country’s border by walk it’s not the same as going through the airport transit controls. Indeed, it can be a novel experience to be looked in the eyes by a disgruntled government official, who will try by all means to make you doubt yourself. Nevertheless, after a while you will take it for granted and just assume that’s their working purpose.
Now… on the other side, when crossing by walk you are not going to face the same boring government employee. This time around, they feel and you feel, that they have full control and that you are at their mercy.
I will highlight my most sensitive experiences, and give some insights on points that I wish I would known before.
🗺 ️Crossing from Peru to Ecuador: on this trip I was with one of my closest friends, and we took the >35H bus to go from Lima, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador — what travelling on a budget looks like. The ride was smoother than expected and the changing landscapes helped to pass the time. Then, we start getting closer to the boarder and we were quite alert, because even the guy that sold us the tickets made sure to point out the boarder’s dangerous. The bus makes a first pit stop still in Peru for baggage control, and everything seemed to be going fine.
However, the bus makes another stop and we see a lot of people leaving, so we got confused if we were already at the border line. In hindsight, it seems silly the decisions that we took after it, and what end up happening. Yet, in the mix of the situation everything looks organic and like it’s falling into place.
In summary, a guy persuaded us to get into his car and put our bags in the truck, in order to give us a lift to the other side of the border.
Of course, he was not a really taxi driver or either his two other friends that joined the ride.
In the end, they left us in the middle of an abandoned neighbour and asked for a service fee (~100€ for both). Now, we were in Ecuador and the issue was that we did not validate our visas in the border control. First, we went to a police station full of drunk people, and just ran to find a taxi that would leave us at the official border control. There, we got our visa stamps and asked other backpackers if they would allow us to skip the bus cue to continue our trip.
All went for the best, and for sure we were pretty lucky. Mainly because that in the mix of all bad assessments that we were making, we were able to stay cool and interact with the guys in the car to be certain that everyone was relaxed and we would match everyone’s expectations.
🗺 ️Crossing from Senegal to Gambia: on this one, I was with my girlfriend and now wife (🤵🤍👰) and to be honest we were just on a bad luck strike: spent more than 3H waiting for a van to departure under hot african sun, end up changing for a sept-place after hard negotiations. And the worst was yet to come, when we saw firsthand a brutal accident between a motorcycle and an old lady that was selling fruit on the main street — at least, the ambulances arrived soon enough.
This was after my South American experience, so I wanted to avoid by all means to reach the border at dawn, but it was not meant to be. In order, to prepare we did some backup research to understand the fees that they would might charge and other aspects to take into consideration.
First, an important military official brought us to a dark office to negotiate the fees, that end up being double what we were expecting (my negotiation skills were just thrown out of the window). Then, a couple of military agents called us to do a baggage control with a very taunting tone. It’s not funny to have someone going through your personal stuff, but you just need to be patient and read the situation.
… and we were just half of the way eheheh.
📝 Main takeaways of both experiences:
It’s never too much to research and prepare beforehand, there is a lot of good people that documented their experiences;
Bring more money than what you are expecting to pay;
Be serious, and make sure you are addressing the government officials;
Play it cool: engage the conversation and allow them to have a friendly approach, but be sure to guard your distance;
Avoid at all costs, crossing the border at night;
Have food and water handy, because the process can take a long time;
If you are alone, be sure that you have people aware that you are going to cross the boarder and are waiting for your “OK” signal;
Avoid to be alone, most likely there are other backpackers whit whom you can join the process with. Nonetheless, there are a lot of crazy people, and counterfeiting drugs it’s the easiest path to be in a foreigner jail for a long time — hence, be sure you are in good company;
⚠️ IMPORTANT: never, never… never! Loose sigh of your bags. And don’t start a confrontation, just obey official orders and move along.
5 — Food and other shenanigans
The rule of thumb, it’s to only eat cooked food. I’m the first guy to try the local dishes cooked and sold on the side of a dirty road, but I will always leave the salad and tomatoes on the plate.
If you feel weird after eating some spicy local speciality, it’s just your body adapting / rejecting the new food — make sure to have a bathroom nearby just in case.
Always have water with you and buy a new bottle before finishing the one you have. Even when buying in shop confirm that the bottle, it’s properly closed, and don’t accept it otherwise. Don’t drink water from others, and don’t use restaurant glasses that don’t look clean. It’s true that you are going to see the locals doing it, but there are other ways to embrace the culture.
🔥 Some rapid fire:
Extra battery charger;
Plastic bag for dirty clothes, and you will always find some local dry cleaning or laundering;
Have a piece of paper with your address and most relevant info in all your baggages;
Normally, it’s better to buy a SIM phone card from the country you are visiting;
Don’t exchange money at the airport, the most favourable tariffs are in the downtown;
Meet people, because you are going to listen to the best stories of your life;
Always smile, there is no better ice breaker;
Don’t buy souvenirs at the beginning of the trip, otherwise you are going to carry them for a while;
Fast food, it’s not the cheapest food, the local everyday restaurants are;
Ask people for directions;
(repeat) it’s ok to ask people for directions;
Student cards can work as discount in a lot of historical monuments or other cultural visits;
Happily ever after?
Uffff… this one was a long one, thank you for reading this far. Hopefully, you will find it useful when preparing for your next big adventure.
Before you going, please let me just give you the most important input of all! It’s true that a lot of my insights are related to prepare for the worst, and by nature, it can perceive as a pessimist view.
I look at them as the small details to take into consideration, to avoid any unexpected risk and enjoy a once in a lifetime experience.
You will see that the world is full of good people!! There is much more good than bad!!
People will try to help you out of nowhere, and they will open their arms to you. They will be keen to learn your history and grateful to you for sharing yours. 🥰
"I love to travel, but hate to arrive." by Albert Einstein
Please, let me know what you think and if you have more interesting inputs to share.
Thanks! ❤
Carve-out (acquired.fm style): the new Marvel serie Ms. Marvel on Disney+ it’s just outstanding! The story flow, the introduction of new characters, and the tight art used to embrace a new culture within the Marvel universe, it’s exceptionally good!!
Big shot out to Bisha K. Ali for giving us the best version of Kamala!! 🦸🏿
IMPORTANT: most of the images I use are from Muzli, and are used without any monetization purpose.