Can you believe it?
Winter has almost arrived in most of Europe, and soon another year will have passed. With the holidays just around the corner we decided, why not share some of our best holiday travel tips with all of you. Tips that those of you travelling during the holiday season may find useful, whether you’ll be going on a vacation overseas or you’ll be visiting your friends and family not that far away.
If you’ll be travelling during this holiday season, save this list!
Let's dive right in, shall we?
Where will you be travelling?
How? Where will you be staying? And what are you planning to do there? Do you need to book anything in advance because of the holiday season? Something you may forget about? Write it down and think it all through.
When you have a plan, a checklist, then everything can be done.
Be prepared, that something may not go as planned.
Don’t stress over it. And have a plan B.
Accept that it’s ok, that something isn’t ok.
Flights. Ground transportation at the destination. Accommodation. Activities.
Look at the list of the things you are planning to do and double-check if you don’t need to make any more reservations, if only because of the holiday season. Something you never pay for at home, may not be available for free where you are heading to this year. For example, in London you can't just go everywhere to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks.
In some of the best places you have buy a ticket and they tend to sell out.
Whenever you have a choice, fly from and to less busy airports.
To protect yourself from unnecessary stress related to super crowded places all the top airports become during the holidays. And to lessen the chance that your luggage gets lost or you have to experience a flight delay caused by air traffic congestion.
Or avoid flying altogether and go on a road trip instead.
Leave an hour earlier than usually, when travelling during the holiday season, and you’ll be fine. Or earlier, if you have a reason to believe that otherwise you will not have enough time.
If there is something you really would like to avoid during the holidays, then it’s running through the airport only to make it to your flight, when failing to do so would mean spending Christmas or New Year’s Eve at the airport. Better leave your home earlier and spend that extra time at the airport, if necessary, but don’t risk missing your flight.
To avoid possible flight delays or missed connections.
If a flight delay happens, however, again, don’t stress over it. Be patient. Wait for your flight to leave. And remember, if you’re flying to or from the EU, Iceland, Norway, or Switzerland, or you are flying with a European airline and your flight gets delayed for more than 3 hours, you may be entitled to flight delay compensation of up to €600 per passenger.
No need to rush, though. Enjoy time with your loved ones first.
And then, after holidays, file a claim for flight delay compensation.
The less stuff you have with you, the better.
Tless there is something to worry about. Getting around gets easier and public transportation isn’t a nightmare anymore, even when travelling to and from the airport. Travel with hand luggage only and you’ll be able to leave the airport a good 20 minutes faster than most.
And no more lost luggage.
Extra cash can sometimes seem magic.
When ATM isn’t working. Your card isn’t accepted. And then you remember that you have these extra 100 euro in your wallet. What a relief it can be in these kind of situations. Technologies are great. But they also sometimes fail. And then it’s good to have a plan B.
Apart from this and not only when travelling during the holiday season - always carry a second bank card, preferably issued by another bank. If you don't have a second card, check out this list of great travel debit cards.
And, last but not least - enjoy the holidays time with your loved ones!
Happy Holidays!
Remember - whenever your flight is delayed, cancelled or you've been denied boarding - you might be entitled to flight compensation. Contact us to get it sorted out right away!