Stay with missionaries when traveling – International travel tip

by Gadling Staff on

If you’re affiliated with a church group, contact the missionaries in the country you want to visit. Staying with them will offer you the opportunity to see life as it’s lived daily by “real” locals; provide a rent-free (or very inexpensive) place to live; and if you offer to help the missionaries with some projects (something as simple as babysitting to give them a day off), you will endear yourself to them forever.

Bonus: you won’t have to learn a foreign language, as you’ll have the missionaries as built-in translators wherever you go.

[Photo: Flickr | sanbeiji]

Disposable cameras for kids – Traveling with kids tip

by Gadling Staff on

Buy at least one disposable camera for each child on the trip. These are very inexpensive and will keep your child entertained for a long time. Tell each child that they should take pictures of things on the trip that they find interesting. Mom and dad should have one too.

When you get back home and develop the film, each person should make a scrapbook and tell the family why they took each picture.

You may find that traveling through a child’s eyes can be even more rewarding than the trip itself.

Hotel stationery makes a great (and free) souvenir – Souvenir tip

by Gadling Staff on

Instead of buying traditional souvenirs like art, postcards or even a miniature of a famous monument, here’s a great non-traditional way to remember your trips: pick up a sheet and envelope of the hotel stationery.

Most hotels keep some sort of stationery in the rooms — whether they are tiny little scratch-pads or elegant letter-writing paper — and envelopes which have the hotel’s logo and address on them.

You can use these as backdrops in your photo albums or scrapbooks, or even write something memorable about your trip on them and save them in a photo album.

What to do with old travel t-shirts – Souvenir tip

by Gadling Staff on

Recently my mother presented me with three garbage bags full of t-shirts that she had cleaned out of the attic. T-shirts have always been my favorite travel souvenir. Many of them were sized for an eight year old and most were dreadfully stained, but I could hardly get rid of them. They were my mementos!

Instead of tossing them, I cut out all of the images and logos and made a travel quilt. The throw is a wonderful conversation piece, and now I have an excellent way to display all of my travel experiences.

[Photo: Flickr user Zezebono]

Exploring a city via pub crawl – Dining out tip

by Gadling Staff on

I have found there’s no better way to get to know a new city than to take a tour of its downtown entertainment or bar district, which is why I generally like to go on a “pub crawl” one night when I travel.

Start in a local pub or bar, have a drink or two, and move onto the next one. I find it more enjoyable to find the truly local establishments, and not the national franchises. It makes for a fun night and great stories.

Pro tip: consider wrapping a “progressive dinner” into your pub crawl for more diversity… and less chance of a hangover.