Best Travel Tips Ever That Nobody Shares, Except Us

How many times have you learned the hard way in your travels? Here, Luxury Travel's Guest Authors share their most effective, hard-earned travel tips. Now you don't have to make the same mistakes. Read on!

Gerrie Summers, Brooklyn Scribe
• In this digital age, we no longer have paper photos, so passport and visa pics are a challenge. Many chain drugstores will take your passport-suitable photo for a fraction of what a photo agency charges.

• Even cheaper: you can take your own mug shot at home against a white background, put it on a flash drive, and have the drugstore print it out with regulation size and paper.

• As the Multicultural Beauty Expert here at About.com, I see trends come and go. Tailor-made for savvy travelers who travel light: many toiletries now come in towelettes and single-use packets. La Fresh's biodegradable Travel Lite towelettes deliver mascara remover, antiperspirant, insect repellent, nail-polish remover, etc. Imagine how many bottles and jars you won't have to pack.

• I also peel off and hoard those little samples pasted into fashion magazines: moisturizer, hair conditioner, body lotion. All travel-perfect.

• When I tote an actual product, I choose a compact, multi-use beauty balm. The most versatile is a swivel stick of super-moisturizing shea butter or cocoa butter.

• Several companies make them, but Palmer's cocoa-butter stick is the most economical. It's a solid, so doesn't count as one of your liquids, and you can carry it onto your flight. You can dab it on to silken and quench lips, face, hands, elbows, feet, anywhere. And it works on your hair to tame flyaways and frizzies.

• Whenever someone gives me a Starbucks gift card, I save it for the airport. It's fun to stock up on a baguette sandwich and a brownie to bring onto the plane, because nowadays, airlines starve you.

Michael Hiller: Have Clubs, Will Travel
• First thing you do in a hotel room: remove the bedspread, stuff it in a closet and leave a note for the housekeeper asking her not to put it back on the bed. You know where that thing has been. You don’t want any part of that.

• I always travel with a lightweight ten-foot extension cord with three outlets built in. It keeps my phone and computer within easy reach and charging regardless of where the architect placed the outlets in the hotel room.

• If you’re sure you don’t want to buy anything from the minibar, you can ask the hotel to empty the refrigerator for the duration of your stay. Bingo: you now have a refrigerator you can stock with your own booty.

• Tip your housekeeper every day rather than at the end of your stay; you may not have the same housekeeper each day.

• Some travelers think the in-room safe can be opened by any hotel handyman. That's not so. When I forgot my passcode to a safe at a Four Seasons hotel, opening the safe required two employees, a call to the manufacturer for a one-time unlock code, and entering all our names in a log at the hotel.

• Upload a photocopy or scan of your passport and credit cards (front and back) to a cloud server such as dropbox.com. If your cards or passport are stolen, you'll have a backup copy of what you need to report the loss.

• Now for the golf segment of our program...If you don’t want to travel with a golf glove and a box of golf balls, swing by a Wal-Mart, Costco, or sports store on your way to the hotel. That’ll be a much less expensive purchase than picking up a few sleeves at the resort.

• Golfers, save luggage space by stuffing your dirty laundry in your golf travel bag for the flight home. And here's one way wine and golf go together: if you buy wine to take home, drop the bottles between the club dividers. This will protect the bottles and free up your suitcase for souvenirs.

Maureen Jenkins, European Connoisseur
• Traveling solo? One way to keep loneliness at bay and casually meet locals is to frequent the same haunts again and again -- a corner café, brasserie, taverna or trattoria. You'll create your own Cheers on the road, where at least somebody knows your name.

• For better or worse, nothing gives you a sense of place like its public transportation. Not only is it a far more affordable way to get around than taxis, once you’ve ridden a jam-packed rush hour train or bus with the locals, you’ll feel like kindred spirits.

• One of my favorite ways to get a sense of what “real people” are talking and thinking about in my destination: dropping into a•neighborhood beauty salon or barber shop. If you’ve got the nerve, go for a new color or cut and take home a tangible memento. (I've done this too, and it's a kick to say, "Thanks, I went auburn in Paris.")

• When staying at hotels abroad, grab one of the hotel's business cards and stash it in your coat pocket or wallet. They'll help you explain your address to a taxi driver. (And how fun to pull out that forgotten card months later, relive vacation memories, and bring a smile to your face.)

• If you like to use small, square washcloths, you'll find they're an American peculiarity. If you can't do without, tote one or two in a Zip-loc bag.

• Even if you’re not religious, consider adding a house of worship to your itinerary. And why not check out a worship style—or faith tradition— totally different from your own? Whatever your beliefs, you’ll come away with a new appreciation for your hosts’ differences — and for those things that connect rather than divide us.