Because I am extra, I decided to try out the eye shadow look that I want to do when I am in Los Angeles later this week. This is like my third time playing with eye shadow for real for real so I am pretty proud of myself for achieving this look. But as a person that understands that practice makes perfect, I will continue to learn and get better. Similarly, you get better at traveling by, yeah you guessed it, traveling. In hopes of lessening the heartache of learning the lessons the hard way, I have come up with 5 tips that really help decrease unnecessary stress when traveling.

1. Do your research. Know what you need to travel to that place whether it be drivers’ license or passport. Know how much the trip is going to cost in terms of travel, shopping, food, and housing. Look up what events are happening during the time you are planning to visit. All these questions can be easily answered by google.
2. Budget appropriately. If you are traveling to a different country, know the exchange rate in dollars (for example 15 South Africa rand equals 1 dollar). Knowing this exchange rate of the top of your head is really useful so that you can do “quick maths” whenever you are shopping. When I traveled to South Africa in 2014, I took a quick detour to Kenya where the exchange rate is 100 Kenya shillings to 1 dollar and I forgot the rand to dollar exchange rate. I came very close to buying a temporary phone for $100 dollars thinking I was spending $10 because I was doing the Kenyan exchange rate instead of the South African one. That would have knocked my budget pretty badly so yeah know your budget and the exchange rate, if applicable.
3. Figure out the timing. Are you going during a peak season or off season? Peak season may be a good thing because you are very likely to meet a lot of travelers and there is likely more to do. However, peak season also means things are more expensive due to higher demand. Off season may be better due to cheaper travel expenses but will the season allow for the same activities you want to experience (such as beaches, carnivals, etc).
4. Pack light. This is my biggest mistake in traveling. I always over pack no matter where I am going. For a 3-day trip, I pack clothes that would last a week because a girls got to have options right? But yeah I always end up regretting it because I become clumsy as hell when I am trying to hold on to three bags at the same time. Actually, I am just clumsy in general but hey that is a story for another time.
5. Have an itinerary for the trip. No I am not just talking about your flight itinerary. I mean sit down and plan out what places you want to visit. Try to plan it out by day because somethings like museums might not be open on Sundays. If you get there with no plan, most likely you will waste a lot of time trying to figure out what to do. So why not plan ahead and use your vacation time to just enjoy the vacation.

Above all, have fun no matter what happens! Happy traveling! 🙂 ❤