After backpacking for a little over 2 months now I have come to realize I missed a number of things while packing! I also realized I over packed on numerous items as well.
In this blog post I'm going to go over some of the things I wished I had packed and some of the things I wish I left at home!
So lets get into it...
WHAT I SHOULD HAVE PACKED...
T-SHIRTS - This was such a silly mistake on my part!! I honestly have no idea how or why I over looked such an essential item! T-Shirts are a HUGE item I wish I brought more of. Currently, I am only working with 1 t-shirt & I cant even begin to tell you how much it sucks!
T-Shirts are great for so much here in Asia! Since your in the sun almost all day they are great for covering your shoulders & back from the sun. I cant stress enough how important they are to bring!
LIGHT WEIGHT PANTS - Since one of the main things Cameron and I enjoy doing in Asia is visiting temples I really wish I had brought more light weight pants or sweat pants. Sure, there super easy to find here in Thailand and very affordable but they also rip very easily! I brought a number of leggings and workout style pants but they don't really do the job here. In some temples you are not allowed to wear tight fitting pants making my yoga pants off limits. So, if your going to be doing some temple visiting, make sure you bring some light weight easy to wear pants!
LOOSE FITTING TANK TOPS - Like T-shirts, tank tops are also great here, there easy to wear and very breathable.. however, the tank tops I brought were again workout tanks with built in bras from LuLu Lemon. These ones are cute BUT they get uncomfortable fast! I really wish I had brought some more cheap loose fitting tank tops.
MORE SHORTS - I brought 4 pairs of shorts but I wish I had changed some of my pants out for extra shorts! Shorts are great here because it does get super hot & there easy to pack! So ditch your
leggings for shorts!
SUNSCREEN - This is pretty obvious... I really thought I would have had enough sunscreen but when you wear it here everyday all day you go through it super quickly! Plus buying sunscreen at home is way more affordable then buying it here. In Asia for sunscreen the cheapest you'll find a small & I mean TINY bottle is about $10. So pack extra!!
SHAMPOO & CONDITIONER - This is also a small thing I over looked while packing. I thought it would be easy to buy both of these items here & I was wrong! Shampoo is super easy to find but it does get a little expensive. However, conditioner is impossible to find! If you do find it, you'll pay an arm and a leg for it! So stock up! If your like us and your cheap, a great way to save some money is when your in a hotel that offers shampoo - TAKE IT ALL! We would re fill a water bottle with any shampoo that was given at the hotel, it comes in handy for doing your laundry too!!
WHAT I COULD HAVE DITCHED...
PANTS - Simply too hot here for pants on the regular, you really only need them for bus rides & visiting temples. One pair will be fine!
FIRST AID ITEMS - I brought so many first aid items that I thought I might end up needed but honestly haven't even touched. Anything you may need you can find here at any local convenience store. A few good items to bring are: Band-Aids, Pepto & Advil! Other than then, leave the rest!
MAKEUP - This I know most people wouldn't have even brought but I did. I thought maybe we might go somewhere and ill want to throw on a little mascara etc but I honestly haven't even touched any of the makeup I brought.
If your deciding to go backpacking for more than a few weeks just remember to pack smart! I thought I had it all figured out but as the days go on I realize how much useless stuff I brought and things I really wished I had. Less is definitely more!! Make your bag as light as possible - that is the key since you might end up walking with your bag for hours & the lighter & smaller the bag the easier it is to get on flights, buses etc!
Keep checking back because in my next post Ill go over my perfect backpack & whats in it for traveling South East Asia!
Thanks for reading!
Showing posts with label Tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tricks. Show all posts
Monday, April 25, 2016
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
PACKING TIPS & TRICKS
Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. My last post I covered what I was bringing on our trip to Thailand. Today I wanted to go over a few tips and tricks I use while packing.
These tips not only save space but they also make it a little easier to keep everything organized!
3. This tip is great for people who are going to be backpacking. I like to roll all of my clothes and then put them into packing cubs. Instead of using packing cubs I used plastic bags! Saves you money and also keeps your clothing dry if your bag gets wet. I like to organize my bags by tops, bottoms and bathing suits. This way when I reach into my bag and I need a pair of shorts I can easily see which bag I need to grab. The bags are also great for creating a somewhat dupe for a vacuum seal bag. Just roll and fold the bag as tight as possible! This saves you a ton of room!
4. Another small tip I usually use when traveling anywhere, even on a weekend vacation, is bringing a pillow case or extra bag for dirty laundry. I am a clean freak so I need everything to be organized and tidy and I find this helps me a ton! I love knowing all my dirty items are in one bag!
5. A little tip while packing is to make sure that you have an extra outfit or two in your carry on bag or if you're traveling with someone else, put an outfit in their bag or carry on in case your luggage gets lost!
I hope those 5 little tips and tricks helped while you pack for your next getaway! I will definitely be updating these tips and tricks as I continue to travel because I'm sure I will think of a few more!
Thanks for reading,
Alicia xoxo
These tips not only save space but they also make it a little easier to keep everything organized!
1. Rolling your clothes rather than folding. Not only is this great for saving space but its also great for wrinkles! Rolling your clothes will leave less wrinkles in your clothing so when you arrive to your destination there is no need to iron anything!
2. To go along the same lines as my first tip, I find rolling my clothes by outfit helps with keeping things organized and also saves space! I do this by lying the largest piece of clothing down first and then lying the other articles of clothing on top and simply folding and roll it all together into a little ball!
2. To go along the same lines as my first tip, I find rolling my clothes by outfit helps with keeping things organized and also saves space! I do this by lying the largest piece of clothing down first and then lying the other articles of clothing on top and simply folding and roll it all together into a little ball!
3. This tip is great for people who are going to be backpacking. I like to roll all of my clothes and then put them into packing cubs. Instead of using packing cubs I used plastic bags! Saves you money and also keeps your clothing dry if your bag gets wet. I like to organize my bags by tops, bottoms and bathing suits. This way when I reach into my bag and I need a pair of shorts I can easily see which bag I need to grab. The bags are also great for creating a somewhat dupe for a vacuum seal bag. Just roll and fold the bag as tight as possible! This saves you a ton of room!
4. Another small tip I usually use when traveling anywhere, even on a weekend vacation, is bringing a pillow case or extra bag for dirty laundry. I am a clean freak so I need everything to be organized and tidy and I find this helps me a ton! I love knowing all my dirty items are in one bag!
5. A little tip while packing is to make sure that you have an extra outfit or two in your carry on bag or if you're traveling with someone else, put an outfit in their bag or carry on in case your luggage gets lost!
I hope those 5 little tips and tricks helped while you pack for your next getaway! I will definitely be updating these tips and tricks as I continue to travel because I'm sure I will think of a few more!
Thanks for reading,
Alicia xoxo
Monday, February 1, 2016
FINDING CHEAP FLIGHTS
Hello Everyone, welcome back to my travel blog!
I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks on finding cheap flights. These tips and tricks are great for international flights and even domestic flights!
My fiance and I got our tickets from Toronto to Bangkok for $625!! That's a great price considering when we used to live in Jasper, AB our flights from Calgary or Edmonton to Toronto were roughly the same price! To fly within Canada is pretty expensive so if your not planning to travel internationally, hopefully these tricks can help you!
If you were curious as to which company we booked our tickets and which airline I will list that below:
We booked our flights with FlightNetwork and our Airline is EvaAir. We almost got our tickets from FlightHub and found it consistently had the best prices however, flight network had a sale and lowered their tickets $10 cheaper so we jumped on them and purchased!
Here are some of my tips and tricks!
TIP ONE:The best tip I could offer would be to consistently search different sites and see which sites are offering the best deals, I will list some of my favorite search engines - Flight Network, Flight Hub, CheapOAir, Travelocity, JetRadar, Kyak & Trip Advisor
My favorite site was probably Kyak - Kyak allows you to search all of the above sites in one search engine and shows you which company is offering the best deal! Its fantastic!
TIP TWO:When searching for flights make sure when you are searching your clearing your browsing history and cache, this is because the companies are tracking your browsing history and they will increase the prices of your flight if your consistently searching for the same flight. So once a day or even after a few hours of searching just delete your search history and open a new internet browser and continue searching!
TIP THREE: This one goes hand and hand with the first tip, I found this to be very helpful when I was searching for flights. I would download the apps onto my Ipad from each flight network company. This was I didn't have to clear by browsing history and it was easy to search flights everyday and see which company was offering better deals * Kyak was by far my favorite and the most useful app!
TIP FOUR:Sign up for notifications! I signed up with both FlightNetwork and Flight Hub to receive notifications when the flight I was looking for dropped in price. Sure they only email you when it goes down by a few cents but in our case the flight had dropped $10 and for us to save $20 each that's 2 nights stay in Thailand! So a penny saved is a penny earned!
TIP FIVE: Booking your flights on a Monday or Tuesday are the cheapest of the whole week! & not just cheaper by a $30 or so they are cheaper by hundreds of dollars! For example, our flight to Thailand on a Friday-Sunday was roughly $1300 and on Monday and Tuesday it was $600-700!
& those are a few tips and tricks that I found help me while searching for flights! Make sure to do your research when looking for flights! It took me about 2 months to find the flight I wanted and the price I was happy with! Remember, last minute flights are great but dont wait too last minute or else sometimes you'll end up paying more!
Hope some of these tricks help you out next time you fly!
Alicia xox
I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks on finding cheap flights. These tips and tricks are great for international flights and even domestic flights!
My fiance and I got our tickets from Toronto to Bangkok for $625!! That's a great price considering when we used to live in Jasper, AB our flights from Calgary or Edmonton to Toronto were roughly the same price! To fly within Canada is pretty expensive so if your not planning to travel internationally, hopefully these tricks can help you!
If you were curious as to which company we booked our tickets and which airline I will list that below:
We booked our flights with FlightNetwork and our Airline is EvaAir. We almost got our tickets from FlightHub and found it consistently had the best prices however, flight network had a sale and lowered their tickets $10 cheaper so we jumped on them and purchased!
Here are some of my tips and tricks!
TIP ONE:The best tip I could offer would be to consistently search different sites and see which sites are offering the best deals, I will list some of my favorite search engines - Flight Network, Flight Hub, CheapOAir, Travelocity, JetRadar, Kyak & Trip Advisor
My favorite site was probably Kyak - Kyak allows you to search all of the above sites in one search engine and shows you which company is offering the best deal! Its fantastic!
TIP TWO:When searching for flights make sure when you are searching your clearing your browsing history and cache, this is because the companies are tracking your browsing history and they will increase the prices of your flight if your consistently searching for the same flight. So once a day or even after a few hours of searching just delete your search history and open a new internet browser and continue searching!
TIP THREE: This one goes hand and hand with the first tip, I found this to be very helpful when I was searching for flights. I would download the apps onto my Ipad from each flight network company. This was I didn't have to clear by browsing history and it was easy to search flights everyday and see which company was offering better deals * Kyak was by far my favorite and the most useful app!
TIP FOUR:Sign up for notifications! I signed up with both FlightNetwork and Flight Hub to receive notifications when the flight I was looking for dropped in price. Sure they only email you when it goes down by a few cents but in our case the flight had dropped $10 and for us to save $20 each that's 2 nights stay in Thailand! So a penny saved is a penny earned!
TIP FIVE: Booking your flights on a Monday or Tuesday are the cheapest of the whole week! & not just cheaper by a $30 or so they are cheaper by hundreds of dollars! For example, our flight to Thailand on a Friday-Sunday was roughly $1300 and on Monday and Tuesday it was $600-700!
& those are a few tips and tricks that I found help me while searching for flights! Make sure to do your research when looking for flights! It took me about 2 months to find the flight I wanted and the price I was happy with! Remember, last minute flights are great but dont wait too last minute or else sometimes you'll end up paying more!
Hope some of these tricks help you out next time you fly!
Alicia xox
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