The Travellers Toolkit

Have you got these in your kit? Your weekend travel read with Knowmad.

When I think about the pillars of travel, as in why we travel and what we do on our travels, five foundational considerations come to mind; accommodation, money, transport, experience and food.

In this article, I’d like to point out some tools that have helped me navigate through and enhance my global travel experiences.

Benares, India

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Accommodation

Despite the globalisation of accommodation, only a handful of tools provide bonafide options for secure, reliable and accessible places to call home while abroad.

Booking, now a household name, is certainly the number one choice of hotel accommodation for me. When I think about other vendors in this sphere like, Airbnb, Vrbo and Stayz, Booking sets itself apart with features that place the interests of their guests as paramount. Some of these include, abundant free cancellation options, a wide variety of accommodation styles and the choice of when to pay for your reservation. Along with helpful customer support, Booking is an essential yet powerful travel tool.

Facebook groups are another handy resource while on the move. Over the years, I’ve found several hidden gems by simply browsing and interacting with homeowners in location-based groups. Often members who are tight on time, don’t want to pay exorbitant platform fees and/or simply prefer meet-and-greets will advertise their homes, apartments or rooms in a Facebook group related to the area.

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Food

When we talk about food-related tools for travel, it’s all about food delivery services and eating out.

Being available in most visited metropolitan cities and towns around the world, as well as being reliable and predictable, make Uber Eats and Menulog two truly immovable forces. But if you’re looking for something a little more local, other providers often advertise generous perks through their apps, like exclusive discounts, a wider delivery radius and restaurants that you wouldn’t typically find on other apps.

Here are some of the localised food apps I have used and the country I used them in.

Rappi - Ecuador

Food Panda - Thailand

Wolt - Croatia

Thuisbezorgd - Netherlands

Perhaps you’re done with delivery and have decided to eat out tonight. A nifty little tool I use when dining out is The Fork or First Table. These apps advertise exclusive discounts (up to 50%!) to members if you book ahead and are occupying the first or last table of the evening. Both are available in most major cities around the world.

Brussels, Belgium

Money

Managing money is critical when travelling. This is less about budgeting your cash flow, and rather where to store and how to use your money when abroad. Unlike at home, where we have an assigned space for our capital; with familiar security and consistency, being in a foreign environment requires us to be actively involved in ensuring a safe and reliable exchange.

Using your home bank abroad is usually possible but fraught with risk. Here are some of the inconveniences I have experienced when using a domestic bank for international transactions :

• Excessive transaction fees

• Foreign ATM’s not being able to recognise my card

• High currency rate conversions

• Excessive ATM withdrawal fees

• My card being frozen due to a foreign transaction

• Foreign vendors not being able to recognise your card

The last point holds very true in the Netherlands, where the nation’s largest grocery chain - Albert Heign - does not accept Visa or Mastercard!

In response to these obstacles, I use Wise (Transferwise). With Wise, you can hold an account in your personal or business name, enabling you to easily separate and track your expenditure. Fees, domestic and international, are transparent. Most importantly, even if your mate, mum or manager doesn’t have a Wise account, they can still transact with you like a domestic bank - with money in-and-out typically realised within 24 hours.

After using similar non-bank institutions like Airwallex, I’ve found setup processes tedious and time-consuming, with delays in verification and fairly ordinary customer service.

For these reasons, Wise is an essential tool on the road and one that I am sure will remove the stress of transacting while travelling.

Transport

It’s all about Maps. It was only yesterday that I was thinking about whether there’s ever been a better free service than Google Maps. Only a couple of decades ago, you would have to use a physical street directory to know where you’re going and how to get there and you would have to pay for it, no less!

Not only does Maps curate several routes and logistical choices to get you from A to B, but is there a better all-encompassing system to find shops, bars, restaurants and cafes, all at your fingertips?

For me, this is the first tool in my travel toolkit.

While I enjoy the novelty and thrill of public transport when abroad, many of us prefer the comfort and security of ride-share. Akin to food, each country will also have its preferred ride-share service.

Here are some that I have used:

Free Now - England

Ola - India

Lyft - USA

Didi - Australia

Cabify - Mexico

Uber, being the cornerstone ride-share service globally, is also accessible in all of these countries.

Dubai, UAE

Experience

My parents, brother and I were on vacation in Southland, New Zealand over a Southern Hemisphere Spring. On this particular visit, I was also due to count 21 candles on the cake of my choice. My reward for another lap around the Sun was to jump off a 143m ledge in between two mountain peaks.

Fast forward 15 years and this sounds like a nightmare.

Whether you’re an adventure seeker, foodie or history buff, the experiences we seek during our travels are nuanced to our individual practices, values and aspirations. With that in mind, here are two that support my desired experiences.

Check out All Trails for walks, hikes and runs around the world. You can search by location, distance, environment, difficulty and many more categories to plan your experience. This is not a health and fitness app, so if you’re looking to measure your physical performance, try Nike-Run Club or Strava. I prefer the former.

I’m big on cultural immersion, and so to make that experience as seamless as possible, Duolingo is my tool of choice. The language lessons are thought-provoking; testing your ability to interact in situations you will commonly find yourself in, like asking for a table at a restaurant, buying a loaf of bread from the bakery, or asking for directions to the bus terminal. I find that mastering these foundational conversations yields a more authentic travel experience.

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When you’re in foreign territory, what tools can you not do without in your toolkit?