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Travel Tips.
Don't fly by the seat of your pants on your next airline trip - take some advice from our list of helpful Travel Tips.
Booking Your Flight
Before You Leave
Packing
On Board
On Location
Tipping in a Foreign Country
What Foods/Plants You Can Bring Back into Canada
Booking Your Flight.
• To beat jet lag, book an
overnight flight or one that arrives in the evening
when travelling east so you can either catch your sleep
on the flight or as soon as you arrive at your destination.
Flying west usually causes less jet lag than flying
east. This is because eastbound travel crunches the
day to less than 24 hours, so at bedtime you are not
tired and then it's hard to get up in the morning.
• When making flight reservation, remember to
request for special meals if you have any food restrictions.
Before
You Leave.
• Copy That - it's recommended to make 2 copies of important documents – passport, visas, credit cards, itinerary & plan tickets – take one on the road (to keep somewhere safe) and leave one at home.
• Get a good night's sleep
before a trip.
• Eat light rather than heavy meals the day of
a trip.
• Go to bed earlier than normal if heading eastbound,
and later if traveling west.
• Hydrotherapy. Drink plenty of water and avoid
caffeine beginning two days before your flight. This
will help you acclimate to the air pressure on board
and help reduce jetlag after you arrive.
• Create a master list of passport numbers with
issue and expiration dates, along with birthdates. This
way, you won’t be looking through your valuable
documents when filling out forms.
• Be sure your immunizations are current.
• Delay your trip if you are not well.
• Reserve a seat by the wing if you are prone
to air sickness.
• Wear loose, comfortable clothing and comfortable
shoes that have been worn previously.
Packing.
• Refer to your packing list to ensure that you haven’t forgotten
a thing!
• Be sure to bring enough things in your carry-on
to manage for a couple of days, just in case. Keep critical
items, like travel documents, medication, prescriptions,
contact lenses, glasses, money and valuables close to
you by putting them in your carry-on luggage. Don’t
pack them in checked luggage; otherwise they might end
up vacationing in another country without you. Other
items which you may want to consider taking in your
carry-on are: Bottled water, Spritzer, Local currency
of your arrival destination, Carbohydrate snacks, Socks
and slippers, Sweater, Inflatable neck pillow, Ear plugs/Eye-mask,
Toothbrush/Toothpaste
On
Board.
Jet-lag affects us in many ways and
is caused by a complex combination of circumstances
and varies with each individual, but results mainly
from the internal body clock being out of phase with
the daily schedule at the travel destination.
Some precautions to take include:
• If you are prone to motion
sickness, take an anti sickness pill before the flight.
The pill won't help much, if you have it after you have
started feeling sick!
• To help re-set your biological cycles, set your
watch to the local time at your arrival destination
when you first board your flight.
• Sleep on board if your flight lands in the morning
and avoid sleeping on board if your flight lands in
the evening.
• Aircraft cabin relative humidity is usually
less than 20%, which is fairly dry. Although these low
levels may be a source of mild discomfort (dry skin
and eyes), there is little risk to your health.
• Minimize discomfort from dryness by limiting
consumption of alcohol, tea, coffee and caffeinated
drinks when in-flight, as they cause dehydration. Tank
up instead on aqua-pura and drink plenty of
water.
• Wear glasses instead of contact lenses.
• Apply a skin moisturizer.
• Bring eye drops because "cabin eye" can be dry.
• Eat lightly, stick to a bland diet, bring along
carbohydrate snacks.
• Do not place anything under the seat in front
of you so you can stretch and exercise your legs.
• To prevent the swelling of feet caused by low
air pressure on board and lack of circulation from sitting
for long periods without moving, try to keep your blood
circulating properly by walking in the aisle on an average
of once every 60 - 90 minutes and wear slippers or a
larger size travel shoes.
• Never board a plane hungry and always have a
snack or two at the ready.
• Carry on a book or two – or go high-tech
and bring your own portable music.
• Wear layers of loose fitting comfortable clothing
– such as a shirt, a pullover, and a jacket. This
gives you needed flexibility, since you never know what
the temperature in the terminal or plane will be.
• If you want to stretch out, ask for the window
seat next to an emergency exit. The way planes are designed,
you should get plenty of legroom.
• To alleviate ear pressure on a flight (especially
during takeoff and landing) chew gum or suck on bite-size
candy. Yawning or swallowing may produce the same results.
• Bring disposable earplugs on board; they’ll
help muffle on-board sounds.
• Relax and enjoy your flight.
On
Location.
• Ensure that your watch is
adjusted according to your destination's time clock
and attempt to adhere to your arrival schedule - the
sooner, the better.
• When you land, try taking a hot, candlelit bath.
• When you first arrive, schedule important activities
at a time when you are likely to have maximum energy,
(i.e., in the evenings, after jetting east, or in the
mornings, after jetting west).
• To help speed up acclimatization, spend some
time outdoors every day during daylight hours. Even
being in a room with windows helps to enlighten our
body clocks.
• Along with the adoption of the local bedtime
to help you quickly adjust to the new time zone, try
doing what the locals: their food preference, meal times
and recreational activities.
Tipping
in a Foreign Country.
Tips, propina, gratuity, pourboire,
gratifikation. For as many different words as there
are for gratuity there are as many different customs
throughout the world. When you're abroad, tipping can
be a perplexing experience: In some countries it's expected,
in others it's an insult--and the rules are constantly
changing, but tipping etiquette is becoming more mainstream.
Here’s a quick guideline by country:
France -
the tip is included in your bill in a restaurant, but
not at a bar. Service charges are generally applied
to bills; customary to add 5 percent extra.
Italy
- tipping is customary, about 10 percent, even when
a service charge is already included.
Spain -
offer a 10 to 15 percent tip even when service charges
have been added.
Your
return to Canada …back to reality and your kitchen.
What foods, plants etc you can bring
back.
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