Our Top Travel Hacks

Plus some Do’s and Don’ts for Egypt

We’re still flying high from our Egypt adventure, sorting through memories and photos and notes.

Scattered throughout my travel notebooks are Travel Hacks: things that make the trip easier in some way. I’d love to hear yours! Here are some of ours, in random order.

Packing: We start with the Rick Steves’ Packing List. The link is to his online version, which is a more detailed description of the list included it in any of his wonderful guide books. If you’re headed to Europe, be sure to also get one or more of his guide books for the area you’ll be visiting. Then keep the packing list for future trips.

We love the packing cubes. Have you ever used them?

Again, our favorites are those sold by Rick Steves. They expand more easily than some of the others. Why use them, you may ask? Just have some TSA security guy rummage through your luggage and you’ll know. Plus they make organization so easy. I use the gray one to organize charging apparatus, including cables and plug adapters. Egypt uses the EU plugs, BTW. The Viking ship had plenty of outlets everywhere, plus charging outlets to plug your cords into directly.

Luggage. We always take a carry-on suitcase with medicine, toiletry bags, and a day or so of clothing for each of us in case our checked luggage doesn’t show up. It happens more often than you think! We then each check a full size suitcase. It’s more room that we need but then there’s room for souvenirs to bring home! In the old Rick Steves days we used to each just take a carryon. That’s still a valid option!

Scarves. Myra’s key packing hack are scarves. (Opening photo). She took five scarves to Egypt, and bought two more nice ones while we were there. Mixing and matching the scarves with the 5 long sleeve sun shirts she packed gave her a new look every day. One nice thing about the Viking river ships is you don’t need to worry about dressing up for dinner. But it’s still nice to freshen up after a day in the desert.

Chargers. Still on the subject of packing, I take a small backpack in addition to our one carryon. In it I put emergency charging cords. The rest of the chargers, wires and plugs go in the carryon.

We got these Brilliant Chargers as Christmas presents. Wow do they ever work slick!

Binoculars: Do NOT take them to Egypt! Especially if you are on a Viking ship. Viking provides you with a nice pair in your room. We had a pair in our room on the Danube Cruise as well. But binoculars are actually forbidden in certain areas of Egypt! Security. So if you do take them they must be in checked luggage. Not permitted in your carry-on or back pack.

Shoes: This is my TOP travel hack:

These black slip-on Rockports are very light and look really nice. Even if you have the TSA pass, Clear pass, or some other hack around the security line, sooner or later you will have to take off your shoes at an airport. Especially in Egypt. These just kick right off and slip right back on. Plus they look great at dinner! I took them on the Viking Danube Cruise and again to Egypt. Love them!

But you will need to pack a good solid pair of walking/hiking shoes as well. I relied on the new Hoka shoes (bottom black one above). They have a really good sole, very comfortable walking and are the top rated shoes. But the one thing I didn’t like about them was that the black color showed off the desert dust. They were hard to keep clean. Not sure I will take them next time.

The Hoka’s seem to run a bit big so be sure to take heavy hiking socks. In retrospect a better choice would have been either my tried and true Merrill’s, middle, which other travelers were wearing, or my Keene sandals, top. Grippy Vibram soles are essential for walking on the worn stone walkways that have seen 5,000 years of foot traffic.

You might get away with a pair of sandals if they have good toe protection. I didn’t take my favorite Keene’s but next time will try them. They would take up less space in the luggage than the heavy duty hikers too. Whatever you choose, be sure to break them in before you go!

Passport copy. We tuck away a copy of our passports in a suitcase. Never needed it yet, but it is cheap insurance in case of the unthinkable.

Travel Agent. A good travel agent is essential. When we got sick in the Amazon a few years ago Sonya Yassi found us a doctor in Ecuador. The doctor was waiting for us once we made it out of the jungle and to the airport in Quito. She didn’t do good English but we used Google Translate. She gave us some Rx which I filled right there, and later signed off on the paperwork to get us refunds on the rest of the trip.

Travel Insurance. We had to drop out of the Machu Pichu tour and go home but we got reimbursed. I don’t buy travel insurance for every trip, but we do if it’s a big expenditure to an exotic location.

Guide Books. I love guide books. I picked up three on Egypt at the local library, and actually took one with me that had a nice summary of the Kingdoms and Dynasties. Egypt’s history is longer than most, but almost any destination will benefit by a quick reference history guide. Even if the ones at the library are a bit out of date, you can at least see what they have to say, then perhaps buy one for the trip.

If your destination is Europe, then the Rick Steves’ Guide book is a necessity. I rip them up and put the relevant sections for the day in my pack, rather than drag the whole book around for the trip.

But other than one guide book, don’t take any books. You will find amazing books at almost every stop that you can’t find anywhere else. I brought back a few more than the BW thought appropriate, as you can see.

You can also pick up lots of great photos, prints, bookmarks and little summaries showing listing the birds, kings, and gods. They are sold everywhere, usually for a dollar or two, almost always less than $5. I found two nice sets of watercolor prints (Pyramid and Nile Portfolios) shown above at the GEM. Together they cost $14 US.

Compression Socks. I try to wear a good pair of compression socks while on transoceanic flights. Our Egypt trip home ended up lasting almost 24 hours. I worry about blood clots in the calves developing into a DVT or worse PE. My paranoia comes from my legal work on behalf of women who developed serious blood clots from birth control pills. The drug companies always try to find something else that caused the clot. One of them can be long distance flying. Even on a road trip, be sure to get up and walk around every two or three hours. If you want to read the science on compression socks, here’s a good study: Clots, Pumps, and Stockings – Do We Need to Update the Lower Extremity Dress Code?. The latest science seems to suggest that they may not help, but can’t hurt. They make me feel safer so I wear them.

Hydration. Drinking lots of water is critical wherever you travel. We took along empty water bottles. It was a mistake. The tap water in Egypt is undrinkable. Don’t even use it to brush your teeth. Even though it’s been treated 5x it still has some very durable bugs in it that can ruin your trip. But there was bottled water available everywhere. I don’t like to use water from plastic bottles because of the environment, but here there’s no other option. Viking was very good providing us with plenty of water, free, all the time, both in our room, on the buses, and every time we left the boat. Throw a couple of bottles in your daypack every morning. You are in the DESERT!

The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world. Hot desert? Yes Antarctica and the Arctic are also considered deserts, and both are larger than the Sahara. But the Sahara covers 8% of the earth’s land mass, and is about the same size as China.

Notebooks. I buy really cheap Manila notebooks from Amazon by the dozens. But they are too big to fit into my pocket, so they end up in my backpack. One of our new Brilliant Friends Dale Lyles, a retired Media Specialist (you can follow him on FB or at DaleLyles.com) uses and recommends these:

They fit in your back pocket. I’m going to try them out. Sometimes I left my backpack on the bus and had to write notes on my phone app “Notes.” That works good, especially to dictate up a quick note, but there’s no substitute for paper and pen. Thanks Dale!

What are your favorite travel hacks? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for traveling along~!

Credit: Brilliant Wife for letting me photograph her scarf collection. Used with written permission!