I’m going on my first overseas trip with my girlfriend since we started dating. I worked hard all last year to earn and save money for this trip. It will be our first international trip ever, and I want to make it perfect, memorable, and the best trip of our lives.
I’ve read countless articles online to ensure everything is perfect. It felt overwhelming to the point that my head started to hurt. Fortunately, I found an article that provided a detailed guideline, and it seemed like the perfect guide. My girlfriend and I have been following it, and it has been very helpful so far.
However, I decided to come to this community to seek additional guidance, advice, and tips from you all, just in case the article missed something important. My girlfriend and I would greatly appreciate any travel tips, advice, and guidance you have, as this is our first trip abroad together.
Ehm, from where to where are you traveling exactly? Overseas can mean a lot of destinations depending on where you travel from.
We’re from Singapore and are going to Japan.
if this is your first time doing a big trip together, honestly, forget about it being prefect. it won’t be, and that’s ok. trips don’t need to be perfect to be meaningful, in fact, i’ve found the opposite to be true. the more wild and unexpected the adventure is, the more memorable and important it becomes to me.
so I’d say it’s best to keep an idea of things you’d like to see or do, but also be flexible and willing to adapt. traveling with someone that forces everyone to stick to a rigid itinerary is never fun and is a good way to ruin the trip. all it takes is one lost bag or one missed train to throw all your careful planning out the window. better to roll with the punches than self destruct when that happens.
Alright, we will try to be wild and adventurous.
Above EVERYTHING ELSE!!!
DON’T EXPECT IT TO GO PERFECTLY!!
No matter what you plan and budget, something will probably go wonky. Hopefully, it’s nothing major, but no matter what, IT WON’T RUIN YOUR TRIP. HOW THE TWO OF YOU DEAL WITH IT, DETERMINES IF YOU’LL HAVE A GREAT TIME.
sorry for the yelling. I just thought it was a very important perspective to share.
IT WON’T RUN YOUR TRIP. HOW THE TWO OF YOU DEAL WITH IT, DETERMINES IF YOU’LL HAVE A GREAT TIME.
This one hit hard.
Every great vacation story starts with how something went horribly wrong.
If your vacation goes as perfectly as you imagined it, you’re probably missing out!
Where are you from? Where are you going? Can’t really give you advice without knowing those things.
As a general rule: don’t expect perfection. Some things will suck, and if you go in expecting everything to be perfect you’ll be disappointed. Also, wherever you go is still a normal place, filled with normal people, living normal lives. Don’t be a nuisance to the locals, and don’t expect/demand anyone not working in hospitality to go out of their way on your behalf (and even people working in hospitality, the “the customer is always right” mentality isn’t a thing everywhere).
We’re from Singapore and are going to Japan.
Trust Google maps. Don’t try to take another train to save time. You’ll end up getting there later.
People there dress up - don’t go super casual unless you’re ok feeling underdressed.
Wikipedia has a sister site which is full of travel information: http://wikivoyage.org/
Cities and towns big and small are on there. Usually with helpful info about how to get around a the destination and how to access its attractions, as well as any local customs. It was a godsend for us on my recent trip to France with my dad
Thanks for sharing it! I didnt know it existed, but it seems to be such a cool resource :)
“I want to make it perfect, memorable, and the best trip of our lives”
Lower your expectations and just focus on having a good time and getting closer to each other. If that means spending more time in bed relaxing, that’s ok.
Bring earplugs. Multiple pairs.
There’s always more noise than there should be.
Noise cancelling headphones are a must for flying.
Make sure you will have internet access. You may need to buy a SIM card at the airport, or buy a plan/package from your provider that supports the country you will be visiting. It may be costly but it will be worth it.
For real. I recently traveled to Europe with my dad and I was going to buy a traveler’s SIM card in the airport when we landed, and he was like “nah those are a scam, we’ll get one from a phone carrier once we are in the city. The ones at the airport price gouge you”. Fast forward to us getting the wrong kind of sim card, blowing like 80 euros on something that doesn’t have mobile data, needing to go to an Orange place in every city we visited to find out why the SIM we bought stopped working after we used it for data for ten minutes (we had burned 50 euros of credits that quickly because it wasn’t meant to be used for data), and going most of the trip desperately attaching ourselves to anywhere with free wifi just to check in with our family back home.
Eventually we gave up and bought the sort of traveler’s SIM they would have sold us in the airport from one of the street kiosks in Paris. The first 2/3 of our trip was other cities around France, which don’t have that sort of kiosk and don’t have as big of an international tourism industry. It worked perfectly.
Just get the ones from the airport. They are specifically for travelers as opposed to just being the local carrier’s prepaid option.
We’ll talk to our provider, and I hope that they will support the country to which we are going.
My #1 tip is wear a mask on the plane if you’re flying. You don’t want to get sick, it’s an instant end to the holiday.
The other tip would be to pack relatively light, you won’t need a lot of things you might want to bring, just keep it simple.
I can’t believe that we forgot to buy masks. Thank you very much for the reminder.
We always just pick some key places, get transport (usually a hire van) and just go explore. Best thing is to go into small local places and ask them about cool stuff around. People are always friendly and love hearing about where you’re from and what you’re into, and the local suggestions are always stellar. Lots of times we’ve had people tell us a popular place is pretty shit and another lesser known place is way better. Most of the trip is unplanned apart from the key locations and expected travel route. But we’ll skip stuff if we find something cooler or get advised to check out another place a day out of the way. We’ve diverted from plans lots of times, and because that’s loosely the plan, it’s super fun and rewarding.
It’s also important to go do your own things and get out of each other’s faces. Im into a lot of stuff she isn’t and vice versa. So some days we go check out our own stuff and do our own things, then at the end of the day we share our adventures and anything cool we found we think we should check out later. I also tend to make friends easy, so it’s not unusual for her to meet me and some fellow travellers at a bar and we exchange how our trips are going, what’s cool, what’s not, and suggestions on where to go next. Locals and other travellers are always friendly like that and it’s obviously super interesting learning more and sharing about yourself and home country, where they should go if they ever visited it.
Lastly, don’t stay in one place too long unless there’s a reason like you’re snowboarding for a few days, or something like that. Things can get real boring when you’ve seen enough but are still stuck there for a couple more days. That’s why we usually opt for a 5 person van over hotels, little hotel room on wheels and costs about the same. It’s also frustrating getting to a new place and it’s awesome, but you’re meant to fly out soon and you wish you didn’t waste that extra day or two at the place you weren’t having much fun.
It’s important to remember, everything is just another town or city like where you came from. It’s the culture and experiences you’re chasing there which you can’t get back at home. “Can I do this at home? Yeah.” move on.
Love your tips. Thank you very much.
Relax and don’t worry about itineraries. You will get to a place and love it, and get somewhere else and hate it. Be flexible.
Gotcha.
From experience: chill out. Do your homework in the background to ensure you understand train stations, airports, city centers. I’m that guy, I try to memorize maps for weeks before a trip. (I enjoy this).
Then when you are there just go with the vibe. Try to make things seem casual and carefree.
If the attraction is too crowded: oh well. Let’s just get coffee and stroll the city center.
If the rental car gets a flat: oh well. Let’s just have a picnic while we handle this little tire thing. (Safety off the road of course)
A little slow at a train station waiting for a connection? Let’s review our photos and pick some favorites.
You can see my thread is: have a plan of how things should go, but then be ready to have a “zero-speed” alternative in your head that boils down to: “I’m spending time with my gf in a new place, and that’s enough”
I’ve done a lot of this.
One thing to remember is that the things you look back on fondly will be the most frustrating and painful in the moment. Try to keep that in mind when things go sideways. Nobody remembers the times when everything went perfectly.
That said, my fiancee and I have developed a set of travel ideals to keep us both from feeling like hobos.
Two nights, minimum. We try not to spend single nights anywhere. It isn’t worth it. We don’t end up with enough time to see anything. The big exception can be first and last-day hotels.
Four nights after three shorter stops. We need the extra day to crash and/or do laundry, etc.
Try to spend (at least) a full week somewhere. We both really enjoy the simple process of learning to live somewhere. Learning the transportation system, buying groceries, etc.
No Airbnb for less than a week. The hassle and uncertainty of getting situated isn’t worth the trouble.
Depending on distance and timing, it can be worth it to double-book the last night at an airport hotel. The last mad rush to get checked out of an apartment, and get to the airport on time isn’t ever fun, especially somewhere like CDG in Paris. It can be really nice to just remove that stress from the equation.
I hope you have a fantastic trip!
Don’t fly Boeing!
