Traveling can be very stressful, especially when you do it frequently for business purposes. However, if you are tech-savvy, there are plenty of “hacks” that can make your traveling experience much less exhausting. Read ahead for a list of small tech-minded adjustments you can make so that traveling is significantly less stressful:
1. Subscribe to Notifications on Your Smartphone
If you have a smartphone, you don’t have to be like other people and haphazardly comb through crowds to see flight change notifications at airports. Go to the website of your aircraft carrier, and subscribe to real-time notifications of flight cancellations, flight time changes, and so on. You can get these alerts on your smartwatch too. So, when other people are busy scrambling, you can sit back and get important notices delivered straight to your person.
2. Buy a VPN Package
You can reduce travel stress if you have your favorite show, movie, and music tracks available in flight. People who have been on planes know how limited in-flight entertainment options are. However, it’s difficult to stream Netflix or Spotify across international borders thanks to copyright restrictions. The easiest hack to bypass these country restrictions is to subscribe to a VPN or Smart DNS service. For example, when you are in China, you will still be able to access Facebook without censorship. Or when you are in Mexico, you will be able to stream BBC iPlayer.
3. Request Fraud Alerts from Your Bank
Fraud is a major concern when you travel overseas and use your credit card for foreign transactions. There is no surefire way to prevent fraud when you are traveling. However, you can make it easy to spot and possibly apprehend the fraudsters. Contact your bank and inform them of your travel plans and the credit cards you will be using overseas. Your bank will then put these cards on high alert for fraud. So, if you are in Mozambique and your credit card suddenly logs a $20,000 transaction, your bank will be on standby to verify that it’s you who made it.
4. Store Directions to Your Hotel on Your Phone
Do you want to explain the directions to your hotel in Thai to a cabbie in Bangkok? The easiest workaround to common navigational translation problems is to store a map on your smartphone. Use Google Maps and save the map that shows the location of your hotel. When you are in a taxi, show this to the cabbie to avoid the hassle of pronouncing the address.
5. Get Important Travel Alerts
The U.S. State Department, or the foreign ministry in your country, routinely issues travel alerts to warn tourists about dangerous situations in various countries. Subscribe to these alerts to know what’s happening at your destination in advance. This is the quickest way to be alerted to possible dangers to foreigners at your destination.
6. Use a Local SIM Card
Data roaming from foreign locations will make your cell phone bill skyrocket. It’s far more affordable to buy a SIM card locally and use that card to make local calls. If your phone doesn’t have a removable SIM, you can buy a cell phone for less than $50 at most locations.
7. Get a Traveler’s Credit Card
Using a regular credit card overseas will severely inflate your bill because of foreign transaction fees. Also, withdrawing cash from ATMs could double your bill. So, get a traveler’s credit card with lower transaction fees for purchases made at overseas destinations. You may be able to avoid hefty ATM charges with these cards too.
Use one or two of the above tips to go on your next trip in peace.
Content marketer during the day. Heavy sleeper at night. Dreams of non-existent brass rings. Writer by trade. Pro wrestling fan by choice (It's still real to me, damnit!). Family man all the time.
