As a successful entrepreneur you spend a lot of your time “on the road” (or in the skies, as it were). You’ve undoubtedly been working hard to raise a family that loves to travel to. You might even be at a point in your life where you feel weird having a whole weekend at home. By now you’ve figured out how to cram a whole week’s worth of stuff into a carryon bag.
- Travel SmarterMr. T in DC / Foter / CC BY-ND
What if there was a way to travel that didn’t involve trying to turn your luggage into a Tardis? Here are a few tips.
Invest in a Really Great Tablet
You might be an iPad woman or perhaps you’re more of a Windows lady. Whatever your taste in processors, invest in the best tablet you can find. Tablet computers can be used as regular computers (attachable keyboards help with this but they take up space). They can also be used as eReaders (Amazon’s free Kindle app helps make this possible). They can be used as media players and, if they have microphones, you can use Skype to turn your tablet into a backup phone.
Solar Chargers
A standard solar charger will hold enough power to recharge most mobile devices, phones and tablets alike. It is important to carry one of these with you. This way you don’t have to worry about finding a free and compatible outlet (or freak out if you’re traveling internationally and forget your adaptors) if your devices start to run low on battery life. These are especially helpful when you’re stuck in an airport or a long flight.
Water Powered Alarm Clock
Fill the clock with tap water and use it to help you wake up on time. Then you can either dump the water down the drain or drink it. This keeps you from having to rely upon hotel wake up calls or shoddy alarm clocks. Yes, your phone has an alarm on it but if you’re someone who often forgets to charge her phone, using that alarm can be a little problematic.
Filtered water bottle
The filtered water bottle will allow you to drink tap water and water fountain water from just about anywhere. It also keeps you from having to buy expensive airport water and overpriced water from tourist destinations. The filter keeps the water healthy. Just remember to empty it out before you carry it through the security checkpoint at the airport!
Money
Credit cards are the easiest way to pay for things while you’re traveling. The credit card company will do the conversions for you (double check with your creditor though, not every company offers this service). If they get stolen, though, you’re in trouble. Always carry some money in traveler’s checks with you and keep them separate from your credit cards.
Speaking of money, make sure that you are booking your airfare and hotel rooms with an airlines rewards credit card. This way, you can earn points on all of the money you spend for your tickets and rooms and then roll them over to save money on future travels.
PRO TIP: If you can, try to get a rewards card that will allow you to accrue points for other types of spending (some do, some don’t–make sure you read the fine print!) as well. The more points you can accumulate, the more flying you can do for free.
These are just some of the things that you can do to make traveling, whether it is for business or for a family trip, easier on everybody. What are some of the things you’ve done to make traveling less stressful and more efficient?