While Traveling

Safety, Locals and Other Travelers

Personal Safety
We have already mentioned a few points earlier about carrying money, valuables and your passport. These are important, but will never trump your own personal safety – ultimately, they can be replaced, while you cannot.

Generally personal safety, whether it is your first time traveling alone or with a group, is going to be the same anywhere in the world – don’t accept candy from strangers, be wary of dark alleys, and if something is too good to be true, it probably is.

It is important to always check the local laws and rules – reading travel guides etc will alert you to anything that you may not have even realised would be unwelcome. As well as this, it is important to check with your local government or authority if there is any recommendations for where you’ll be traveling.

Interacting with Locals
Here at TourRadar, we are great believers that people in the world are in general good people. There may be a few people that have become misguided and make bad decisions, but overall the world is a good place, full of friendly people.

The places you will be visiting, the people you will be seeing – while you are on holidays, they may not be. It is important to remember this and be respectful of the fact you are visiting their country, and this is their home. For this reason, we always recommend a friendly smile, a few words in the native language (even if poorly pronounced!), and a calm approach. Over the years this approach has proven effective time and time again, especially when there may be cultural or language barriers in place.

Other travelers
While traveling, often we will cross paths with other travelers from other parts of the world. These experiences will only enrich your time abroad, being able to share details and stories of travels and adventures,

By putting in a small amount of effort and putting yourself out there a little bit, you will find it is quite easy to make friends with other travelers. The phrase “Hi, where abouts are you from?” will work wonders, and you will amaze yourself with how entertaining a simple puzzle or pack of cards is!

Documenting your Travels

Setting up your travel blog / journal
Documenting your travels is a great way to keep track of your trip and all the incredible, fun and exciting things that happened along the way. While WordPress is is the most commonly used platform in the world, it can take some getting used to; and if you are just keeping track of your travels for yourself and your loved ones, there are easier options out there. We have come up with this list based on ease of use, accessibility and likelihood that travelers will use it to keep track.

Facebook – Something as simple as keeping your facebook posts and photos up to date will help you keep track of your travels. If you dont want to be spamming your friends feeds, you can set your posts so that only you can see them, so that you can keep track, while not feeling like you are imposing on your friends.

Tumblr – User friendly, simple to set up, and has it’s own community. Tumblr allows you to follow other blogs also, so you can get their feed and updates into yours and allows you to repost, follow and comment on other peoples blog posts.

Blogspot/Blogger – Extremely simple to set up, and is more of a traditional “blog”. Set up and run by Google, you will need a Google account to set up a Blogspot blog, but once you have a Google account you can be up and running with a basic blog in a matter of minutes.

Photography tips

While traveling, it will be exciting and you will just want to soak everything up! A great way to remember what has happened while away is to take photos, and lots of them. With the cost of memory cards / portable hard drives these days, there isn’t really a reason not to take many photos.

There are some simple photography rules that will make your photos that much better; keep the horizon straight, try to keep about 1/3 or 2/3 of the frame sky (try not for half and half), and also make sure people are in focus!

While sights might be good, you will also want to remember the people that you had those experiences with, so it is recommended to take photos with your friends and other travelers in them! Asking a passer by to take a photo can be a good way to get a photo with you in it, as well as a way to interact with the locals.