Travel Guide
Planning a trip without an agent? Love it! Check out our self-tested travel itineraries and guides. You’ll also have access to information about renting and riding motorbikes across Asia.
Essential Hacks: 5 Ways To Travel Safely
Date Posted: 14th of December, 2023
Here’s our list of essential hacks to travel safely, that we learnt while travelling abroad for 7 years.
Travelling is a wonderful adventure, but can sometimes be a daunting experience- especially if you don’t speak the local language. Even if you’ve got your travel plan prepared, there are still a few things to consider to ensure you travel safely.
There are a million tips out there about keeping yourself safe while travelling, so we won’t reiterate the typical “don’t walk down dark alleys”, “don’t wear expensive jewellery” or “always padlock your bag”. We want to give you some insider tips on how to travel overseas like a local.
We have collated our best safety advice from our 7 years travelling the world. Whether you are a seasoned traveller or embarking on your first journey, these 5 essential hacks will help you to travel safely.
Take More Than One Credit Card
One essential way to travel safely in 2024 is to take more than one credit card. You should be prepared to lose your credit card when travelling. We’ve been guilty of leaving one in an ATM, one unexpectedly expiring and having another with a bank block. In all these situations, we were completely okay. Why? Because we had multiple cards from different banks.
You should keep one credit card in your hotel’s safe, one in your suitcase and just one in your wallet. Cardless withdrawals and purchases are uncommon outside Western countries, and many still operate on cash-only. Do not keep all your cash on you. Leave some in your bag and some in the safe.
Choosing The Right Card:
Choosing the right credit card for your travel needs will be dependent on your home country. We only choose banks (like Wise) that have great online apps, multiple currencies, low fees, and the ability to freeze or cancel the card in less than a minute. Keep all important credit cards frozen and back in the hotel, and only carry a card with a small balance.
Shop around for a debit or credit card that gives free international cash withdrawals and market-matched exchange rates. Bonus points if you can score some travel insurance, too!
Making Cash Withdrawals:
Overseas machines want to get a cut from your transaction. They offer to exchange the rate for you under the pretence that “but your bank will charge you fees!!!”. Trust me, they will most certainly be worse rates than what your credit card offers. Always select “no conversion” to avoid this common scam.
Unless unavoidable, use ATMs that are attached to banks. Ensure the keypad has not been tampered with and there isn’t a credit card skimmer attached (YouTube it, it’s scary). If you are paying at a restaurant with a credit card, don’t allow the server to take your card away and go to the counter instead.
There are a million tips out there about keeping yourself safe while travelling, so we won’t reiterate the typical “don’t walk down dark alleys”, “don’t wear expensive jewellery” or “always padlock your bag”. We want to give you insider tips on travelling overseas like a local.
We have collated our best safety advice from our seven years travelling the world. Whether you are a seasoned traveller or embarking on your first journey, these 5 essential hacks will help you to travel safely.
Leave Your Passport Locked Up
Look, we know. Most people will tell you to keep it on you at all times. But, other than a few countries that mandate you carry it, it’s not the best way to travel safely anymore.
Before you embark on your journey, take two photocopies and a passport scan. Keep the digital copy on your phone (preferably in a locked folder). Keep one photocopy in your day bag and the second tucked away into the abyss of your luggage. To apply for an emergency passport, you need a copy.
When out on an adventure, keep your passport in your room safe. If you don’t have one, use reception’s safety deposit boxes. We always take our driver’s licences + IDP out with us because if these get stolen or lost, it’s not a huge deal.
Pro tip: Keep your passport in the same place every time you travel between points A and B. You shouldn’t need to dig through dirty laundry and souvenirs to find it when you need it. Ours are always kept in the same pocket in a backpack. That way, we can anxiously check its whereabouts 76 times a minute.
Download Apps and Maps
Travelling safely has been so much easier since the invention of travel apps. We have apps for everything, from good vegetarian restaurants to currency converters. Using local apps will save you money and is essential to travelling safely.
Before going to a new country, we spend more time exploring the local apps than planning activities. In particular, we want to know the safest way to avoid the taxi mafia, the best food delivery services, the popular communication apps and local payment apps.
One of the first things we look into is SIM cards and keeping connected so we can use all the pretty, pretty apps. Airalo is also a great app for e-sims so that you can stay connected for the ride from the airport. If you aren’t e-simmers (yet), then you can get a regular sim at the airport.
Google Maps
To avoid getting lost in a shady area, use Google Maps’ offline mode. You’ll be able to see directions and useful information like the distance to your destination, what streets to take, and how long it’ll take to get there without data.
You can also download a map of your points of interest ahead of time, and then you get to use it anywhere – even on the metro.
All you need to do is expand your search to see the whole area and type in “ok maps”. Once you hit enter, it will give you the choice to download the map to your phone. This is our favourite safety travel hack that we use regularly.
BOOK IT
We use these travel sites to book our life on the road.
Hotels: We find all of our best deals at booking.com and Agoda.
Hostels: To find the most budget-friendly hostels, we use Hostelworld.
Flights: Our go-to for years now has been Skyscanner.
Activities: Klook offers the best deals for fun activities in Asia.
E-sim: Airalo is a reliable source for getting connected as soon as we land.
Tours: For tours, we rely on Get Your Guide.
Insurance: We use Safetywing to cover pre-booked trips and Genki to cover medical-only backpacker trips.
Banking: We have relied on Wise for all our travel banking needs for years now.
Always Travel with Insurance
When travelling to another country, insurance is essential to travelling safely. As backpackers on strict budgets, we find it hard to feel motivated to spend the extra cash on “what-ifs”. However, travel insurance isn’t super expensive anymore, and it has saved us thousands in medical bills.
We recommend purchasing a plan that covers medical expenses. As slow nomads lost in Asia, we are perfectly fine with medical-only insurance. We have used and made [successful] claims with Genki, so can recommend them for this purpose. Genki also covers unlicensed motorcycle accidents. This is especially important for countries that make it impossible for tourists to ride legally (Vietnam). Prices start from €39.30 p/m.
When we have pre-booked travel, are not flexible with travel plans or are going somewhere risky, we use travel insurance that also includes theft, lost baggage, flight delay and personal liability. For these circumstances, we swap coverage over to Safetywing. Prices start from $45.08 USD/4 weeks.
Both companies are perfect for backpackers and don’t need you to start the policy before leaving. These are our recommendations for travel insurance based on our personal experience. With that being said, read the PDS and chat to customer service before buying.
Use a VPN
Virtual Private Networks are a new(ish) safety travel hack that you cannot forgo when travelling. Whether you are sipping away on a coffee at your local cafe or a beach bar in the Bahamas, your digital data is at risk over the public wifi network.
VPNs prevent cyber criminals from intercepting your personal information (like passwords and saved credit cards) online. They also allow you to access videos or websites available from other countries. This has proven to be super helpful when a country has strict censorship laws.
The best VPN to travel safely in 2024 is ExpressVPN. We use this wherever we are on public wifi at a hotel or cafe to provide secure online browsing. The other (free) option is to use mobile data to key in passwords or access sensitive information. Additionally, only accessing HTTP and HTTPS URLs will provide superior protection against cyber attacks.
Final Notes
These five simple hacks are necessary to travel safely in the modern era. Travelling can be a stressful and terrifying experience, but it doesn’t always have to be.
Although we are spontaneous travellers, we have applied these five tips to every trip and fortunately haven’t faced any major problems abroad. By following these simple tips for safe travels, you will be prepared for any challenging situation so that you can kick back and relax.
TRAVEL GUIDE
Planning a trip without an agent? Love it! Check out our self-tested travel itineraries and guides. You’ll also have access to information about renting and riding motorbikes across Asia.
BOOK IT
We use these travel sites to book our life on the road.
Hotels: We find all of our best deals at booking.com and Agoda.
Hostels: To find the most budget friendly hostels, we use Hostelworld.
Flights: Our go-to for years now has been Skyscanner.
Activities: Klook offers the best deals for fun activities in Asia.
E-sim: Airalo is a reliable source for getting connected as soon as we land.
Tours: For tours, we rely on Get Your Guide.
Insurance: We use Safetywing to cover pre-booked trips and Genki to cover medical-only backpacker trips.
Banking: We have relied on Wise for all our travel banking needs for years now.
Disclosure: Some of the links in our content are affiliate links. That means that if you book something through one of these links, we earn a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything! Note that we only ever recommend products that we fully endorse and have used ourselves.
