Travel essentials – Food Lover’s Escape

I’ve got quite good at the quick pack to go away. So has The Hungry One. And beyond that, I bow to the expert; a friend who’s been out in the world for just shy of a year now.

We all met up together recently in Istanbul and sat and shared lists of our travel essentials. This is the first of three posts, essentials for a Food Lover’s escape, The Hungry One aka, Mr Technical’s weekend away, and from the friend aka The Adventurer.

This Food Lover’s Escape Essentials

Most of the time when we travel we’re out the door on Friday night and back Sunday night. We travel on trains or low cost airlines, which usually means we only take one bag. I’ve had good training with this- three years ago The Hungry One and I travelled across the US and Mexico  for five weeks with just carry on luggage.

Here are some of the things which make life a lot easier for me.

1) Tripit online

Any time we go anywhere, all the details are filed in Tripit. Skip this if you know it, but if you don’t, it might change your life. No more rifling through pieces of paper, sketching together itineraries on scraps. By forwarding your flight and hotel details to ‘plans@tripit.com’ Tripit will help shuffle them into a neat and organised itinerary, which you can sync with your phone and calendar.  There’s then an app which can live on your phone. It will automatically together directions from one place to another. It’s got room to put notes of research (for us, a short list of restaurants, street stalls and coffee spots) and it keeps track of your reservation numbers. It makes sense out of chaos.

2) Tripit printed

For anyone working in technology, redundancy is an important term- The Hungry One has taught me this. So before we leave the flat I always make sure I’ve got the Tripit printed out as well. You never know when a pesky immigration official is going to demand to see written evidence of where you’re staying, or of your return flights,  or when your phone battery on your phone is going to whimper and fail you. A printed version as a back up is a must keep. So much so, it’s included in the post it on the back of the door, which I make us stand like Scouts and check before we leave the house.

And yes, that does, quite passive aggressively enumerate ‘passport; Tori and Andy’ at the top. The note on the back of the door came early on in our endeavours after we turned up to the airport to fly to Iceland, only to discover that the Australian passport we’d brought was mine (leaving two passports for me, none for him). The fact that The Hungry One made it from Heathrow- home, found his passport and back to gate 23 Heathrow in an hour and 17 minutes still amazes me.

3) iPhone stocked with apps

The iPhone seems almost too ubiquotous to include, but here’s what mine is stocked with for travel; Kindle for reading , talking books from www.audible.com and podcasts (excellent for early morning flights when your eyelids are heavy) and Tom Tom. Delegating navigation to a being outside of a marriage does wonders in the happiness stakes. Beyond that, Tom Tom has settings for walking- which can help you quickly navigate your way to even the hardest to find kebab stalls and patisseries.

4) iPhone battery extender

This was purchased on a whim by The Hungry One, from the in flight magazine on a RyanAir flight and has become the most useful thing. Batteries on iPhones can be fickle. Knowing that you’ve got another 25% stored on a back up small playing card in your bag is an excellent piece of insurance (particularly if you’re driving around, lost in the dark, in a foreign country).

Go here for a collection of five of the battery extenders.

5) Chowhound

Less of something I take with me and more of a resource before I go. Beyond local blogs, Chowhound is a fantastic source of information on good places to eat in cities that you visit.

http://www.chowhound.com

6) Earplugs and sleeping pills

If you’re spending most of your time and money on eating, then you won’t always be staying in quiet areas and plush rooms. I’m a light sleeper, so I never go away without ear plugs- and when things get really dire- I turn to my old friend Temazepam (emergencies and in moderation, of course).

7) A good capsule wardrobe

I’m talking about four or five staple pieces which go together and can be dressed up or down.  I’m not saying by any stretch that what I have is fabulous. But what it does mean is that I don’t have to think or fret too much before we go away about what to pack. For me it’s a pair of jeans (or black linen pants in summer),a couple of black or grey tops, a black cardigan and  a coat if it’s cold or threatening rain (trench in summer, black coat in winter). It”s also why I look virtually the same in every single set of travel photos.

Capsule wardrobe in Cape Town