Clickbait headline, meaningful tips! Here are my latest recommendations for making your vacation experience just that much better!
EVERYONE wears sneakers/trainers. For a long time, wearing sneaker was considered a fail-safe signal that the person was a tourist. No more. Sneakers are the footwear zietgeist. But please note, this does not extend to full athleisure or shorts. People wear dresses, pants, jeans (lots of jeans) but they do not wear gym clothes. Or shorts, unless actively running. If there was a woman in leggings, 100% American in my case series of four. So, even though you are a tourist, wear real clothes. Look good, feel good.
There are so many helpful apps. Local tourism boards tend to have great apps. I generally use them for ideas of short-to-medium walking tours. Specific tourist destinations such as museums and palaces tend to have apps. The Schönbrunn was a particularly excellent one I used this trip. Transportation apps are huge- you can buy rail/metro tickets and look up timetables more easily than Google directions. An added bonus in Prague was that by having a 72 hours pass, I could link it up to two free 30 minutes bike rides through the local rideshare. Two specific mentions: Rick Steves’ Audio Tour app is good but through his website, I was able to access more titles that weren’t listed in the app. Finally, and I mentioned this in the Vienna post, YSL has about 30 really good city guides. Why Yves St. Laurent is in the city guide game beats me (because not all the cities I feel they would cover are there & there are one or two seemingly odd choices), but it is so good for walks, tours, and local suggestions.
Most of my transactions were through tap pay with my phone. Remember, if the merchant doesn’t take AMEX and that’s the card on file, you’ll need a back-up Mastercard or Visa. OR, you could pre-load Apple cash onto your card. My bank wouldn’t let me load Apple cash on my phone once I was overseas. Maybe I could have figured it out eventually, but I just recommend loading a few hundred dollars before you leave.
In terms of tipping, most servers will hesitate for the briefest of moments between telling you the total and punching in the amount to charge the card. This is the time where it is very appreciated if you round up and tell them to enter a different, slightly higher amount. I probably rounded up 4-6% in general for the restaurants I went to, which seemed reasonable and appropriate based on my rigorous internet research (Reddit/Prague). If I were in a fancier restaurant with a higher level of service, I’d probably go closer to 10%.
My last money tip is that it is nice to have cash, which I find a little less convenient in non-Euro using countries. I used cash for hotel housekeeping tips at all locations. There were a few times in Prague where it would have been nice to have petty cash, but it wasn’t the biggest deal. But still, it would be have been nice.
Travel with carry-on luggage only. It is so nice to have a small suitcase to wheel through the streets. On this trip, I had a workout outfit, jeans, tee-shirts, a suit, a dress and a few other things so it is possible to do carry-on even if there are several types of occasions you will have on your trip. I think the only thing that would be really challenging is a ski vacation with carry-on only, but I have not tried this.
Sad news, my MUJI roll-aboard suitcase kicked the bucket this trip. I’ve had it since I left Japan and it has been a great suitcase. A few years ago, it got a corner dent that started its death spiral. This is in part related to my complete over-stuffing of the suitcase. On this trip, the upper handle ripped followed by a huge crack in the casing on the second-to-last day. I made it home, but now it is done-zo. I will say, despite my cold-hearted overstuffing and high degree of use, the zippers were in great shape, as were the wheels. This is not a sponsored endorsement, but it is a strong recommendation if you are looking for a great roll-aboard.
Am I the only person on the planet who doesn’t think sneakers are the most comfortable footwear? I would much rather wear my leather mary janes if I’m going to be walking 30,000 steps over the course of a day. *shrug* Everyone’s different I guess!
I think footwear comfort has a lot to do with arch support, arch height, and firm/soft preference. At work, so many people wear sneakers with scrubs, but I vastly prefer my leather clogs. It helps my back!
I have yet to travel for more than a couple of days with only a carry on. I feel like I need to much stuff in my personal care routine, but if I really thought about it I’ll bet I could leave half of it at home. Same with the clothes, I don’t end up wearing most of it. I read blog posts when everyone says carry on only, and I think…HOW. I need to work on that next time I go on a trip.
You can do it! I believe in you. But yes, toiletries are pretty minimal. I rely on hotel soap and shampoo. I’ll bring a hair serum/defrizzer, but I fully admit I’m not on my hair game most vacations.