Travel hacks and essentials

Made by me in the Assembly and Canva apps (both metioned here)

When you are reading this, I am either on my way to the airport or 30 000 feet in the sky on my way to Granada, Spain. Now, you are probably thinking ‘why are you on your way to Spain? Summer break haven’t started yet’. Well, I am going on field trip with my Spanish class, so technically it is still school… in Spanish. Wish me luck! Lack of language skill and excitement over traveling with friends put aside, getting to Spain entails travel by plane. Therefore, I thought I would share with you my travel essentials and hacks that I have accumulated over the years. I hope you find this helpful, and most of all enjoy!

First off, I would like to start with a hack that I discovered last year.

1| SeatGuru.com

Seatguru.com is a website where you can find all sorts of information about different aircrafts. The best thing is that you can search for you next flight and find out about everything from the seating arrangements to what in-flight amenities the aircraft provide. Below I have included a collage of how to use the website and what information the website has to offer.

How to use SeatGURU.COM

2| Use cling film to prevent liquids from leaking

This is for everyone who worries every time they pack liquids, which is everyone. All you need is cling film or even a thin plastic bag will do. You first unscrew the bottle you want to secure, and cut a square out of either the cling film or the plastic bag. All you have to do is put the piece of plastic on the opening of the bottle and screw the cap on as if the piece is not there.

3| Set the time to you final destination (on the plane)

Now this is obvious and something you have to do anyway. However, you most likely do this after you have touched down on you final destination. The trick is for those who struggle to adapt to time zones. By setting your watch to the correct time, you can already start preventing or reducing your (most likely in-coming) jetlag. For example, I am traveling to the U.S, and there is a 6 hours’ time difference from Norway. By setting my watch to U.S time, I can already start to sleep or stay awake depending on what time it is. That way you get a little head start!

Now over to the in-flight essentials.

1| Portable charger

Now this one is mainly because I found out, through seatguru.com, that the airplane I am travelling with does not have power outlets. On a 4 hours’ flight I am bound to use up the battery of my phone. With a portable charger that my dad reluctantly borrowed me, this will not be a problem. On top of that, the charger has three different outlets so it can charge both iPhone and Android. I have yet to find out if you can charge two devices at the same time.

2| Blotting sheets

Makeup-vise I like to wear the bare minimum when traveling. Mostly because I don’t have to worry about touching up or just that I don’t want to worry on the plane ride.  If anything, I wear a bit of powder. Now, for us oily-skinned girls, `just a bit of powder` is not enough. After a while, you feel like people could almost reflect themselves on your forehead or that you have enough oil to fill a frying pan (gross visual, but for some that’s a real problem!). This is where blotting sheets come in. Blotting sheets are little paper-thin sheets that absorbs oils and residue on your skin by just patting it on the problem area. I have yet to find blotting sheets in Norway, but fortunately I found the on my summer holiday in Singapore last year. I bought 4 packets just to be safe!

3| Moisturizer, hand sanitizer and lip balm

With the dry airplane air, come a whole bunch of other dry things – hands and especially lips. To prevent that I bring with me a trusted favorite of mine, the Biotherm hand and nail repair. Keeping a moisturizer in your bag can come in quite handy (pun intended).

Moving on to hand sanitizers. For this is something that I have to have with me at all times – not because I’m a germaphobe, because I’m not! However, I do like to be able to disinfect my hands if I’m unfortunate enough to touch something unhygienic.

Lips are another thing that is affected by the traveling conditions. And I have a nasty habitb of licking my lips when they are dry, which makes it that much worse. To solve this problem I have the Smith’s Rosebud salve (in a tube form). This lip balm sinks into the lips right away, and also has a sheer pink tint to it (although it doesn’t show on my pigmented lips).

4| Travalo perfume atomizer

I’m a lover of all things travel-size and this mini perfume atomizer us no exception. In fact I think it is the most adorable travel-sized item that I own! I have been on the lookout for this very thing for a while now, and have failed because it was either too expensive or just not accessible in Norway. You can imagine the excitement when I found them at Mustafa Center in Singapore last year. We bought one for me and my little brother and all was well. Now back to why this is an essential when traveling. I don’t fancy carrying around a big clunky perfume bottle in fear of it breaking or just taking up much space. On the other hand, the perfume atomizer is the size of a lipstick tube, which makes it perfect for me!

Well, that was my top travel hacks and essentials! I don’t really know how to end my blog post yet, so I’m just going to say: I hope you enjoyed it and got something out of it. In addition, I really recommend checking out seatguru.com for your next flight as you get a lot of extra information. Again, I hope you found this helpful and please leave a comment if there is anything that you think I should have included or just to say hi. Any type of feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.

Now, I’m off to Granada on 6-day fieldtrip!

Sincerely,

Beulah

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