Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
- A year ago, I left New York to travel around the world as Business Insider’s international correspondent. Over that time, I visited over 20 countries and had countless adventures.
- Traveling for so long has led to lots of mistakes, adventures, and realizations about how to make every trip better.
- Some of my most important tips include only going to tourist attractions that actually interest you, skipping overhyped destinations in favor of lesser known ones, and using Skyscanner’s "Everywhere" feature to get cheap flights.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
From the booking of hotels and flights to figuring out how you want to spend your time and making friends with locals, the more you travel, the more comfortable with it you become.
I’ve been something of a travel junkie for most of my adult life, even before leaving last March to travel as Business Insider’s international correspondent. I’ve taken countless backpacking trips and have visited over 30 countries in my life — yet I still feel like a novice.
Every trip I take, I feel like I learn something new, but no matter how experienced or inexperienced you are with travel, it is always a rewarding experience.
After a year abroad, here are the best tips I can give you.
1. When traveling with a friend or partner, pay attention to each other’s basic needs: sleep, hunger, stress, and using the bathroom.
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
Usually, when I tell people that my partner and I have been traveling the world together for the past year, I get asked a variation of "How do you not kill each other?"
Traveling as a couple can be difficult, tiring, rewarding, and amazing, depending on the day.
Read more: Traveling the world for a year with my girlfriend taught me a major lesson about relationships
I have found that the best way to reduce the number of arguments while traveling is for both partners to pay attention to each other’s basic needs like hunger, tiredness, stress, and needing to use the bathroom. When one person needs to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom, it becomes the priority, no matter how inconvenient the break is for your sightseeing goals.
This also applies to traveling with friends.
2. Pack for trips with Marie Kondo’s advice in mind: Bring only that which "sparks joy," organize by category, and fold clothes so that they stand upright.
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Packing for trips can be a daunting task. It used to be for me, particularly when I started my trip around the world. I had resolved to pack light — with only a carry-on suitcase and a backpack — but I had plans to travel through a wide variety of climates and scenarios.
The best way I found to make sure I had everything I needed while not overloading my suitcase was to follow the KonMari Method. I gathered together everything I was thinking of packing, organized it by category, and went item by item asking myself "Does it spark joy?" It may sound a little goofy, but I was really asking myself a second question: Does it serve a purpose or function that I need?
This is a vital question, particularly when traveling. Malaria pills may not exactly "spark joy," but they keep me healthy when traveling to sub-Saharan Africa.
That second question is useful when it comes to clothes. If a pair of pants that I am bringing "sparks joy" but doesn’t serve any particular purpose, it’s a reminder to think twice about packing it.
3. Avoid tourist attractions that have gone viral or are "Instagram-famous."
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
Before you trek out to the Bali Swing, the Majorelle Gardens, China’s mountain "Plank Walk" or any other locale you see all over Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, consider this: Things that look incredible on social media are often not as fun in real life.
I encountered this reality repeatedly over the course of my year of traveling. Often times, the issue was that something that had previously been a fun diversion had become so popular that it took hours to see or had become so overrun that the charm had been ruined.
A perfect example is the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal, one of the world’s oldest bookstores and frequently ranked as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. As the tiny bookstore has become overrun with selfie-taking tourists and Harry Potter fanatics (it is said that the store’s aesthetic inspired J.K. Rowling), it has become a chore to visit.
When I was there, it was so packed you couldn’t look at a book without getting bumped, everyone was taking selfies, getting photos of a partner on the bookstore’s majestic spiral staircase, or pushing to a room in the back decked out in Harry Potter books and memorabilia.
I have yet to go to an internet-famous tourist site that was worth the hassle. Beware.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- 12 culture clashes I had as an American traveling in Africa
- I traveled the world for a year and a tiny city in Bali was the one place I can see myself returning to dozens of times
- I’ve been using the Marie Kondo method to pack for trips around the world and it’s completely changed how I pack
Source: Business Insider – hjacobs@businessinsider.com (Harrison Jacobs)