SINCE moving to Portugal from the UK four years ago, I have never packed a suitcase or stepped on a plane so frequently.
I’ve had to pop back to Britain- and journey elsewhere – multiple times since I moved to Lisbon from London in the summer of 2020.
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After making numerous costly travel mistakes over the years, I have slowly started to work out how to make my life easier when jetting back and forth.
From getting the best seat on the plane to the one item I always pack in my suitcase, here is my hard-won advice…
Book smart
The most important day of the week for me when it comes to travel-related matters is Tuesday.
Search online, and you’ll find a lot of speculation, but I really have discovered it to be the day of the week when the flight prices are showing their lowest fares.
It is also consistently the cheapest date to travel on – and so I’ll always try and factor that in when planning my trips.
And, while I may hate the early alarm, I’ll also try my best to get one of the first flights of the day to limit the risk that it will be disrupted.
Pack light
I realised soon after moving that, while going on a special summer holiday may call for wardrobe options and seasonal extras, most more ordinary trips rarely require more than the basics.
To save some of the hassle, I’ve got a washbag of travel toiletries that is never emptied, which cuts my packing time.
One of my best purchases, however, is an expandable carry-on rucksack from Amazon which fits enough for a few days away – and also the requirements of major airlines.
It has saved me hundreds of pounds in cabin baggage on Ryanair and EasyJet, and prevents me from taking too many things away that I then lug around unnecessarily.
Check-in last
It’s often a case of early-bird catches the worm when it comes to booking your travel early.
However, I’ve found that, time and again, being first off the mark to check-in lands me with the worst seat – and encouragement to pay for a better one.
Instead, I hold my nerve, and leave it as late as I can – but not too late, of course, so I miss the online check-in deadline.
Which usually secures me one of the seats left – that’s often my preferred combination of ‘by the window ‘ and ‘towards the front.’
Swerve fees
I don’t very fondly remember the days when I’d have to go to exchange my cash for local currency in advance of a holiday.
Instead, both Monzo and Revolut allow me to pay and withdraw money without any extra international fees when abroad.
You can really easily see in both their apps what a transaction costs in both the local currency and British pounds – and it has made transferring money to friends from different countries a breeze.
Something else that’s important to note is most people forget that using a ride sharing app – like Uber or Bolt – when abroad will charge them in the local currency but use their usual card.
I found to my cost a couple of years, in that I’d been racking up extra fees for every journey I made before switching my payment method.
Home comforts
Naturally, you can’t pack up your entire life for a trip away – and neither should you.
However, there are certain items I never skip, to ensure I feel as comfortable as possible when staying elsewhere.
This includes a pair of cosy slippers, because I’ve found that many countries on the continent in Europe favour wooden or tiled floors rather than carpet.
Ditto: an eye mask. You never know when you might being staying in a hotel, AirBnb or elsewhere where the curtains or blinds aren’t doing much.
I’ll also take a travel iron with me as there’s no guarantee there will be one to use on your crumpled-up clothes, and a pair of trainers for if I fancy squeezing in some exercise.
Call me paranoid, but not all properties in other places have to legally have smoke or carbon monoxide detectors – like they have to in the UK – and so I’ll sometimes take my own as a precaution to be better safe than sorry.
Flight refunds
The quantity of journeys I’ve made by air means that some have bound to have gone a bit wrong.
Whether they’ve been delayed or cancelled, I never forget to check what I can claim back for the inconvenience – even if it’s a bit of a faff.
For one flight that was cancelled to Madeira because it was too windy to land on the island, I was able to receive a full refund on the original flight plus compensation.
On another that was cancelled at Gatwick due to air traffic control issues, I was able to claim back for expenses occurred by having to stay overnight in London.
Phone service
If you’re travelling to a country for a while, you might find that your UK phone provider has a maximum roaming limit.
For example, for Three Mobile this is 28 days, which will be a problem for those planning longer stints away.
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I’ve switched my UK plan to a pay-as-you e-sim, and then use a physical sim card in the same phone from a Portuguese network with a plan featuring minutes, texts and data.
This has also been handy due to the number of phone calls I’ve needed to make to other local phone numbers – which would have added up in extra charges with my UK network.
