1) I can't believe it that no one hasn't mentioned bringing along a camera yet.
2) Or a guidebook. Lonely Planet / Rough Guides help a lot.
3) Low cost airlines are not usually recommended when you are going as a tourist. Based on my experiences.
4) Better to overbudget than to underbudget.
5) Do not hesitate to spend money. Seriously. You might never ever return to that place ever again in your life (by choice or otherwise). Within reason of course.
6) Try out the local cuisine! Even if it means spending more money than you had originally planned. Tell the staff that you want the local menu, not the tourist menu. Eating pot noodles/ bread three times a day is just sad. So is eating Chinese food in Italy (thanks to number 7). Refer to number 5.
7) Go on your own/ with friends. Tour guides cater for all and sundry and are inflexible. Tours are more suitable when you are older and are travelling with young children/ elderly folk.
8) Need to check how money you have left? Do it in the toilet. Doing so in the open invites all kinds of trouble.
8) DO NOT FFK ONCE PLANS HAVE BEEN FINALISED AND BOOKINGS MADE. Losing interest because 'it was too expensive' eventhough the final price was agreeable with the initial budget reflects badly on you and might end up screwing your friendships.
9) LEARN HOW TO TIP. Not every country has a service charge!!!
10) , is . in most of continental Europe. If something costs EUR10,00 it means TEN Euroes not one thousand!

well, its just that sometimes the most obvious things are often the most overlooked, just like visas are often forgotten. ;P And in my opinion, if you choose to be a miser, you don't deserve to travel. Imagine someone I know, travelling all the way to Scandinavia and wanting to stay in another friend's room all day and choosing to eat cheap bread as meals instead of making the most of the rare opportunity that she had . Good thing the other friend had the sense to drag her out. You might as well sit at home and stare longingly at photographs other people took of the places you want to travel.

even more tips from my experience:

1) Check for visa requirements! ensure that EVERYONE in your group (easily forgotten when you're travelling with friends from several countries) makes the necessary arrangements and provide for enough time for delivery of the visa! We had the unpleasant experience of planning for a trip when we realised that we needed visas, and with only two weeks to go before the planned date we had to start over.
2) Hostels are great for meeting new friends! Although some females prefer their privacy, so maybe you might want to rent a room instead for the 4/ 6 of you.
3) A student card comes in very handy while sightseeing. get an ISIC card; many places also accept your college/ university card
4) Booking online can lead to great savings. Not only can you compare hotels/ hostels, you are also able to get discounts on transportation. Note again that I do not recommend low cost air carriers if you are travelling as a tourist.
5) Pay more for more centrally located accommodation. Not only is it safer, but you save precious time commuting and reduce the risks of getting lost (really undesirable in dodgy areas). Money buys precious time when you travel.

This post has been edited by elb: Feb 8 2006, 10:51 PM

precisely what i meant earlier you need to think in terms of local currency

I don't think I can quite do that with my SLR setup. It, along with my tripod, sticks out like a sore thumb LOL. I haven't run into trouble so far yet carrying it around with my travels luckily *touch wood*

Speaking about that, I think I'll put up a little post about travel photography (with regards to SLRs) later

This post has been edited by elb: Feb 10 2006, 04:50 AM

the easiest would be to get a longer strap so that you can hang your camera diagonally across the shoulder and chest with the camera resting against the hips, imo.

Some Travel Photography Tips (aimed at SLR users, but compact users will find something here as well)

1. Do not travel in a tour group if you can help it. You will not have the time available to wander off in search of a good photograph.
2. Bring along a light tripod (usually around 1.4kg for carbon fibre), or a light monopod. Make sure that it still can take the weight of your setup! Note that you might be able to use it everywhere.
3. Minimize your kit if possible. Two zoom lenses should be sufficient, once covering wide angles and the other for telephotos.
4. Going digital will help you save a lot in terms of space i.e. no need to bring various films around, no need to worry about x-ray radiation etc.
5. Bring along ample memory! This is especially if you choose to shoot RAW. If you shoot JPEGs you do not need to worry as much because they take up less space compared with RAW and you can always find photography stores who are able to burn your pictures onto a CD for you, freeing up memory.

no offense, but I'm finding a couple of these 'tips' rather superstitious, I wouldn't really call it a travel tip?

I disagree with this- weather forecasts change from hour to hour. It is impossible to accurately predict the weather beyond a couple of hours accurately. It is only useful to get a rough idea of what to expect.

Weather forecasts merely display the most probable/dominant scenario. I have encountered cases whereby the next day's forecast (which I set to my city) could shift from rain to sunny to cloudy or whatever by the time the next day has arrived. I have been caught in rain in the evening when the forecast in the morning was supposed to be good weather throughout. Weather is simply too unpredicatable to predict accurately a few hours; although you could reasonably forecast it for no more than 72 hours (5 days is really really the limit).

actually you remind me of something very important with regards to mobile phones when travelling internationally: make sure that your mobile is supported at the region you travel to! Make sure its a triband phone at the very least; if its quadband, even better!

One very VERY crucial piece of advice: Before you even book you accommodation or airplane tickets, please for goodness sake, search online or ask other people if there is anything to do. You don't want to waste several hundred or thousand £s/ euros/ (currency of choice) to find out that there is NOTHING TO DO at the place you are visiting.

I'll give you an example: I adviced a friend to skip Frankfurt (because there is absolutely nothing to do there besides visiting museums and one or two buildings, as I can attest first hand), but no she went ahead. When I asked her what did she do when she came back, she said: 'Sleep, eat and shop'. Enough said.