Last week Anne Taintor and I teamed up for a holiday travel giveaway. To be entered into the contest readers were asked to share their favorite travel tips. I’ve decided to post a few of my favorites…
1. Make hotel stays more pleasant: One of my favorite tips for the holiday is tearing out one of those perfume adds that are in all the fashion mags, and place them gently on top of your lamp next to your bed in your hotel room to help take away those miserable stale room smells – Sara Culver-Truby
2. Pack foil: I have so many travel tips it’s hard to pick just one but I guess my favorite one is to always have foil with you. If you do, you can heat up ANYTHING with an iron! Sometimes our hotels don’t have microwaves and if I have foil, I can wrap up any left over and use an iron to heat it up. I think this would have to be my favorite travel tip! – Leesa Grauel
3. Get a good night’s sleep: I’ve downloaded a “sound machine” app. on my phone. It’s great for drowning out noise in hotels. – Karen Long
4. Go left: That was our advice for visiting Disney, and it almost always works. People tend to go to the right, so go to the left for shorter lines – Michele
5. Move quickly through security: If waiting in a long line, talk politics. Somehow it always moves things along a litle faster. Helps to talk blue politics in red states, red politics in blue states. If you’re loud enough, the people at the counter even seem to move more quickly. – Lisa Hardwick-Cillessen
6. Make trips more memorable: choose a new lotion or perfume scent, that way whenever I encounter that scent in the future it will always bring back a wonderful memory of that trip. – Bailey D. Caskey
7. Get rid of baggage: excess weight–clean out your purse! Invest in a nice lightweight nylon handbag. You can carry it inside a much larger carry-on totebag that will also accommodate your book, snacks, camera, change of clothes, etc. When you get to your destination, you have a smaller, light handbag for sightseeing, restaurants, etc.
8. Out with the old, in with the new: For longer trips, I always bring some end-of-life undergarments, sneakers, PJs, etc. I toss them and then have room for those items I purchased. My other must haves are a Swiss Army Knife and a Spork (combo spoon & fork). They are essentials for when you want to make a meal from a food market. – Cynthia Felts
9. Pack Jewelry: I learned to use straws to put your necklaces in, so they don’t tangle all up. – Maureen Androshick
10. Stay Healthy: Never leave home without a small antibacterial spray. Hit up the remote, the light switches, door knobs and taps. Hotels are festering places and if you do any amount of regular travel, this is the only way not to pick up every single greebly bug floating around. – Jean
11. Plan Ahead: Mapquest the liquor store in the neighborhood where you are staying to avoid those costly hotel bar drink choices. – Sandy
Photo courtesy of Jen Pollack Bianco
Heather Poole 
The tin foil idea is genius!
Fabulous tips. I never would have thought of ironing my leftovers to warm them up!
The foil reminded me of a prison movie,but who am I to change.
how did you get your Swiss Army knife through?
Charles Kuralt said to bring a big safety pin to really shut those curtains in hotel rooms. Fabulous tip that worked wonders on countless layovers during my 13 years as an international Flight Attendant. Hotel curtains often leave a stream of light coming in. I often had to sleep odd hours and take day naps to accommodate my flight schedule. Enjoyed his show as a kid and appreciated his tip as an adult!
fabulous tips for travellers. I give +1 like for the 10 points which mentions about the importance of being healthy while on a tour. If your health is not upto the mark, your complete tour party will be spoiled.