Pro-Tips: How to be prepared for anything

• Change happens. Stay calm.  Our travel planning trips focus on flexibility because we have seen that  the unexpected usually happens on trips. Flight delays. Reservations not having “gone through” for whatever reason. Weather closures. When something happens that impacts your plan, the most important rule is to stay calm and think through your options, or look for help if needed.  Staying calm will improve your decision-making and is also much more productive when working with customer-service agents or tour operators. 
• FLIGHT DELAYS.  Flights get delayed – it happens, and depending on where you are, there may be nothing you can do about it.  However, if the flight that is delayed is to a layer-over destination, keep in mind that there may be other ways to get to your destination.  As we were getting ready to fly to Tbilisi, our connecting flight to Warsaw on LOT Polish Airlines kept being delayed later and later. We realized we were going to be stuck in Warsaw (which we already visited in 2016) thus getting to Tbilisi at least a day or more(!) late. Since she had booked the flight on United points, Tauni tried to re-book through United but they informed us that we needed to work with LOT.  Tauni called LOT from the car on the way to the airport. After being on hold for more than an hour, the polite LOT rep naturally wanted to rebook us via Warsaw, but Tauni kept reminding them that that we were not going to Warsaw, and we needed to get to Tbilisi.
  • Because we had Kayak/Google Flights open we knew what flights on other airlines were scheduled. We also looked up which airlines were partner airlines with United/LOT, so we narrowed down specific flights to ask for. Once the LOT rep focused on Tbilisi versus Warsaw, he rebooked us on Turkish Airlines connecting through Istanbul and getting into Tbilisi at about the time of our original flight. Score! Until that flight was delayed…but that’s a different story. 
  • The same thing happened to us 2 years earlier when our destination was Helsinki and the connecting flight was delayed. I was able to call in, and re-route us so that we arrived at Helsinki at about the same time as our original flight.
• DAYPACK MUST-HAVES [be prepared for anything]:  Especially if you do not have a car and don’t have flexibility with when and where to stop, we have found that it is best to always be prepared, and a daypack with a few necessaries is critical. We recommend:  
  • Water and a snack/sandwich –  In Georgia and Azerbaijan, 2 of our tours simply did not stop for lunch, and one didn’t stop for “lunch” until 6PM! We got smart after that 🙂
  • Tissue packs & sanitizer – a must, as the “toilets” (sometimes ‘squatty potties’) don’t always have toilet paper or soap. 
  • External batteries for your phone.  Tours could last up to 12 hours, and we were using our phones for photos, videos, maps, etc almost nonstop so our batteries ran our quickly. Even if you aren’t on a tour, you don’t want to be out on the town and lose the ability to use your phone for navigation, hailing an Uber, translating currencies, etc.
• ATMs and Cash – We always find it useful to get a small amount of cash before leaving the airport. Depending on the country, the amount of places that accept credit cards will vary so some cash is always useful.  A couple of key tips:
  • Download a currency converter app [I used Xe Currency app]
  • Take out small sums from the local ATMs [figure out how much you want to take out in local currency before you step up to the machine]. Also note that the fees and exchange rate in ATMs in airports are often worse than in the downtown area of wherever you’re going. I always get a small amount in the airport and do larger withdrawls later in town.
  • Call your bank before you leave and let them know you’ll be traveling in which countries. Depending on your bank’s policy, your ATM withdrawals may be declined until you respond to a fraud alert. Both Michele and Tauni have had ATM withdrawals declined on different trips [thankfully not at the same time!]
  • Bring a small amount of easily exchangeable currency [either US dollars or Euros], regardless of where you’re from. That way if the ATM doesn’t work for some reason you can exchange a small amount $20 or $40 at the airport and have some local currency. I don’t advocate for changing more than that as the exchange fees are generally fairly high, and the AMTs are a better deal.
• Mobile phones – We’re based in the US, so Tauni pays $10/day for cellphone use abroad with Verizon and I have Google Fi, so mine works abroad and I just pay for the data I use. We also rely heavily on wifi wherever it’s available as coverage isn’t always strong.  
• Essential APPS-  We have found our phones and certain apps to be invaluable travel tools.  Download them ahead of time so you’ll have them when you land at your destination.  Besides the usual Maps and Camera apps, we also found these apps to be invaluable:
  • Uber – works in some countries 
  • Bolt (like Uber but may work in some areas where Uber doesn’t]. Some countries have their own version of Uber, like Cabify
  • Tripadvisor – great for last minute tours, hotels, restaurant options
  • Booking.com
  • Kayak – Tauni’s preferred app for flight booking – critical for when you need to find alternate flights due to delays, or in case plans change.  
  • Marriott.com or other hotel apps. [We both have points with Marriott, so tend to book there when possible.]
  • WhatsApp – this is the defacto mode of texting and communication in Europe [anywhere outside of the US] – and has been critical to communicate with with tour operators or drivers. Make sure you have downloaded the latest version before you go.
  • Currency (a free conversion app). Xe is another conversion app that allows you to do multiple currencies at a time, which is useful if you’re going to multiple countries.
  • InShot (a simple video/slideshow app)
  • Google Translate – invaluable to help with keywords in whichever language. Also incredibly useful for translating menus or other writing into your native language.  
  • Priority Pass (free lounges come with my travel credit card, more on maximizing credit card points/perks in a later post)
  • Banking and credit card apps for you (to check account activity, respond to fraud alerts, etc).   
  • Google Maps.  You can download an off-line map of the area in Google maps, which allows the map and GPS function to work even if you’re not in a cell coverage area. I download maps prior to traveling to anywhere.  
  • If you find that you do need to download something or even check email/sensitive accounts on wifi, I strongly urge you to use a VPN to keep your connection secure. There are free ones you can download to your phone (and laptop if you need), but we pay about US $70/year (under $6 per month) because it is no fun to be hacked.