Principles: Travel

• Prefer Uber to Shuttles or Public Transit
  • Shuttles can add an hour or more to a trip. Shuttles stop at every customer's pickup/dropoff location. Centralized pickup locations such as airports mean waiting for all customers to arrive before the shuttle can depart.
  • Public transit is often one or more of infrequent, late, slow, full, or standing room only. Additional time is spent establishing what ticket to buy and where to buy it. For transport that accepts cash payment on-board, you'll need to make correct change or otherwise overpay.
• Visit Tourist Attractions Early in the Morning
  • There is a substantial difference between wait times and crowding (empty Colosseum at 8:30am, in summer).
  • Consider taking a nap in the afternoon and getting a late dinner. Again, this leads to shorter wait times and less crowding. If it's summer, you'll also be out of the heat in the hottest part of the day.
• Take Cold Medication with You
  • Particularly in the US, a suprising number of "pharmacys" don't have a pharmacist. This is particularly problematic for acquiring pseudoephedrine-based nasal decongestants (e.g. Sudafed): psuedoephedrine is used in the production of meth, so many states require showing ID to a pharmacist. The Sudafed sold on the store shelf (not the card you take to the counter) is likely phenylephrine-based, which has dubious evidence of efficacy.
  • The presence of a pharmacist does not guarantee psuedoephedrine will be available. I've had a pharmacist claim to be "out of stock", which may or may not be code for "I suspect you're producing meth and so I'm not going to sell this to you".
  • Pharmacys can have inferior versions of products you have back home. While looking for zinc while travelling, I once found a pharmacy whose only lozenges had nothing on the label indicating the quantity of zinc in each dose.
  • Tracking down a pharmacy in a foreign city is the last thing you want to be doing when you're sick. Also, some supplements like zinc appear most effective at reducing the duration of a cold when taken shortly after onset: if you can't get to a pharmacy for a while, the window of efficacy begins to close.
• Get Google Fi
  • International roaming is incredibly seamless, there are no price shocks, and it's a fantastic service at a good price.
• Accept that Tourist Food is Somewhat More Expensive, and Comes With a Lot Worse Service.
  • Like everything about tourism, food is more expensive. However, typically only a little more so.
  • Where tourist food really disappoints is service. Expect to wait in lines and/or have slow table service. Assume that bathrooms, particularly if public, are likely to be dirty and poorly serviced.
  • Consider eating before you depart for the day, packing food, or eating a little further out from central tourist locations. Walking half a kilometer is often enough to open up far better dining options. Remember: area = Πr^2, so food options tend to grow as the square of distance travelled.
• Forego Weekend Brunch Dining
  This is true for essentially every major city. You'll make a tradeoff between waiting in line for good food, or getting seated straight away for bad food. Occasionally you'll wait in line for bad food. Save brunches for weekdays. On weekends, eat out before 9:30am or after 1:30pm, or order food in.
• Prefer Trains to Planes for Short Distances
  • You can arrive at a train station minutes before the listed departure time, and not miss your train. Compare this to air travel, where arriving 90 minutes or more before a flight's scheduled departure is advisable.
  • Trains have none of the hassle of airport security.
  • Trains are more spacious than aircraft. This includes designated dining carts, accessible to all classes of passengers. Business class upgrades on trains provide even more space, and can typically be had for 10s of dollars instead of the 100s or 1000s of dollars to upgrade air travel.
  • Train stations are typically nearer the city center than airports, reducing time and cost spent in transit on both ends.
  • Planes are clearly faster over long distances. Before ruling out trains, consider vacationing to a closer destination.
• Prefer Ubering to Activities over Shuttle + Activity Bundle Deals
  • As with airport shuttles, activity shuttles often add an hour or more to a trip picking up and dropping off passengers at multiple hotels.
  • The one exception to this priniciple is if the journey itself is of particular interest, and you expect the shuttle provider to provide commentary along the way.
• Resist Dining Novelty
  • Repeat visits to somewhere close, tasty, and cost effective saves time for other activities. Every major city in the world has good food: don't spend hours in search of the perfect meal once you've found somewhere good enough. There's no long-term benefit to finding the best restaurant in a city you do not live.
  • You don't need to eat out every meal. Convenience/grocery stores sell a wide variety of prepared or nearly-prepared foods that often require less time than eating out and at cheaper prices.
• Travel with Carry On Only
  • You don't need to arrive at the airport as early if you don't need to check bags.
  • You eliminate checked luggage fees.
  • The airline cannot lose your luggage.
  • You don't need to wait for luggage at the baggage claim.
  • Don't pack items you have a low probability of needing. This is particularly true for items that are some combination of low cost, easy to source while travelling, and minimally inconvenient to go without.
  • Unless you're in a particularly hot climate, you don't need to wear new clothes every day. When clothes do need cleaning, this can be done in 5–10 minutes in a hotel room sink. Hang to dry.
  • If travelling in a group, you'll improve your transport options. For example, additional luggage may tip you over the line from an Uber to an Uber XL, which can have longer wait times and are more expensive.
  • The canonical resource on travelling with just carry on is https://www.onebag.com/.

The title of this blog post was inspired by Ray Dalio's book Principles: Life and Work. These are my principles: YMMV. Most of my travel to date has been in the developed world: undoubtedly some of these principles reflect that. One criticism of the above principles is that some incur additional monetary costs, e.g. Uber versus public transit, making them less appealing to cost-sensitive travellers. Carefully consider whether the time savings of these nominally more expensive options may permit getting the same amount done in less time, permitting shorter stays. For example, the additional cost of Ubers versus public transport may well be less than the cost of an additional night in a hotel.