Tip 1: Remember your passport!
One of my biggest recommendations when getting ready to travel is to always keep track of your passport. Your passport is one of, if not the only super essential items you have with you that would actually be a big issue if lost. I know friends who lost theirs while abroad and it was a nightmare to get it sorted out for their return home. Learning from their mistakes, while abroad I made a conscious effort at all times to know exactly where my passport was– leaving it in the same place on my nightstand on a daily basis. Additionally, when traveling and needing to keep my passport in a safe location, I always had it zipped into my cross-body bag that never left my side. Making sure that it was in a place that I always kept track of also made it so that pickpockets would have a more difficult time trying to steal something.
On that note, I have friends who used air tags in their passport cases to keep track of them, which is a great idea! I used this tactic and had a passport-specific air tag that I moved to each bag my passport was in. It’s a really good idea to have a location-tracking option for your passport in case the unthinkable happens. Being safe and organized is a part of being responsible when traveling, which is a lesson I sometimes had to learn the hard way. There are almost always different avenues to get you through a tricky situation, but one of my biggest tips when traveling abroad is to keep your passport and other essentials near you at all times!
Tip 2: Hostels aren’t as bad as they sound
Before beginning my travel, I found the idea of staying in a hostel to be extremely daunting and unsafe. Although I would suggest that you make sure to pay attention to your safety and take some precautions, hostels are really great/cheap options! Firstly, whenever looking at hostels around an area, I always looked up reviews on Hostel World and other websites to ensure that the majority of visitors had a good experience. When booking a hostel for a stay, I would ensure that they all had at least 4 out of 5 stars in general and most people found them to be in a safe location. Additionally, I would always book our stays to be in an all-female dorm, as I previously didn’t think about the possibility of people other than young adults staying there. I had heard stories from other young female travelers with issues of unknowingly having to stay in a mixed dorm and being forced to bet in uncomfortable situations with older men. So, I would suggest to females looking to stay in hostels together, that opting for the all-female dorms is a great option. Safety-wise, when staying at a hostel, I brought a small lock since I found myself locking up my belongings in lockers within my dorms to ensure everything was kept safely. Another great pro of staying in a hostel is that their demographic is mostly young adults looking for a fun/cheap place to stay, so most places have bars and activities within their property for people to hang out. I really enjoyed my time meeting other travelers and having a great time in a safe location at night. I didn’t mind sharing a space with the other girls but did bring my AirPods to use when falling asleep due to disturbances that come with sharing a room. Overall, I would say that some of my best experiences when traveling were at hostels with my friends. Despite having to share a space and bathroom with others, it was a great experience and provided some really unique stories after the fact!
Tip 3: Remember that you need rest
Something I really struggled with when I was studying abroad while attempting to travel every weekend was the feeling that I wasn’t doing as much as I could have. The reality of this thought process is that there is no “should or could” when it comes to our own experiences. I had to learn over time that I do not have an infinite amount of energy (and funds) to be able to travel to new places every single weekend during my few months abroad. While I do still recommend traveling and attempting to see new things, it is important to take into consideration your mental health and energy. Near the end of my time in Florence, I found myself taking every other weekend off to just relax and spend some time in my home country with some friends as a way to decompress. I did try to travel to other countries, but if it came down to needing some rest instead of seeing a single thing in that city, I gave myself the time and allowance to give myself a break for a bit.
I found it helpful to travel with people who are similar to me when it comes to my energy levels as well as likes/dislikes when visiting places. It is to nobody’s shock that if you are traveling with people who want to see very different things and don’t have a similar social battery there may be unneeded tension on the trip. I was very upfront with all my travel buddies about how I may need some time during busy travel days to be by myself. Together we all worked to create a list of must-sees according to all of us, in order to make sure we all get as much out of the trip as possible. I found it very helpful to speak with my friends beforehand and somewhat organize how we were going to make a trip that fit all of our points of view. Although traveling can be a very tricky thing to do, it is worth it to experience a beautiful time with some of your closest friends. I found some of my best friends when traveling and that did not come without our struggles at moments. I would not trade those experiences for the world and the important part is to be honest with yourself and others when it comes to what you may need to have a successful trip.
Tip 4: Forget the plan and go with the flow
I have struggled with the idea of “going with the flow” for my entire life. I am a very logical and strategic person when it comes to every sanction of my life. One of the most important pieces of traveling that I had to adapt to was the idea of forgetting the plan and being spontaneous. For the first few trips to other places while abroad, I was very focused on planning every second at the cheapest possible price and making sure every second counted. Side note, I would recommend using apps like Omio and Trainline when it comes to planning cheap train tickets. Over time, I learned that I succeeded more in traveling with others and for my own personal sanity by ditching the plan from time to time. What I mean by this is that I would still have the hostels and transportation figured out in a ballpark sense but left the rest of the trip up to how we were feeling. Although I did make lists with friends to make sure that we were attempting to hit things we both wanted to see and places to eat. I found myself going with the flow a lot more than I previously thought possible for me.
When it comes to the idea of forgetting the plan, it’s a bit more difficult to express what I mean unless I give a good representation. Let me paint the picture: my roommate and I traveled to France for the weekend and had a great time, but in order to get back we quickly realized that we had to successfully meet four different connections by train to make it back to Florence. We were pretty confident in our accessibility until we realized it was, dun dun dun, Easter! We realized pretty fast that the train station staff that day was limited and that most of the trains were behind for the entirety of the day. Long story short, we continually missed all our connecting trains and with my lack of ability to forget the plan, I was frantically booking new train plans to get us back on track. In the end, I wasted entirely too much money and we spent the entire day chasing trains. I eventually stopped trying to plan ahead and decided that we needed to figure it out as we went, which as a result made us arrive in Milan after all trains/taxis were done running for the day. We ended up having a fantastic time in our only hotel stay for our trips and used their amazing hot water, TV, and wifi for the entire night. I additionally had the luxury of sleeping in the next morning and went back to Florence with ease around 1 pm. The point of my telling that story was to show how I struggled a lot with shifting my plans but learned it was okay to do so. It was this experience that shaped the entirety of my traveling in the future. I have decided to move forward with more flow when traveling and chill out when it comes to planning trips.
Studying abroad was one of the most rewarding and wonderful experiences I’ve ever had. I learned how to be organized, but also relax and go with the flow. I met so many amazing people and am still so close with many of them now. Most of all I became more confident in myself and found a true love of traveling along the way. I was always the person who said she wanted to travel, but never felt confident enough to actually plan the trip. I now have grown in so many ways and have truly been bit by the travel bug. I am already planning many future trips and would absolutely love to see more of the world. So whether you’re anxious or stressed or even just scared, I would still recommend that you do that scary thing and watch it become one of your most rewarding experiences. I wouldn’t change a thing about my time abroad.