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.

Don’t grab the seat in front of you – Airplane tip

by Gadling Staff on

During your next flight, be considerate of the passenger in front of you. When settling down into — or, getting out of — your seat, don’t grab the seat in front of you for leverage.

Nothing is more startling (or, annoying) than to suddenly feel your seat rock backwards because the passenger seated in the row behind you couldn’t just use the armrest.

Leave notes to yourself without the hassle of paper – Hotel tip

by Gadling Staff on

If you often leave items in hotel rooms, remind yourself by writing it down — but write it on a mirror with a dry erase marker instead of on a piece of paper you could easily overlook.

Dry erase markers can be wiped off mirrors easily with toilet paper, napkins, or even a towel, and there won’t be scraps of paper everywhere.

You could leave notes to yourself and you can be sure that you’ll see those notes later.

Just be careful of bathroom mirrors, because you might accidentally wipe those notes away after showering, if the mirror steams up.