Your Boarding Pass Prep Kit

Hacks, tips and must-have gear for your next vacation.

- Vaibhav Sharma

Visas done, tickets in hand, and dreaming of that European getaway? Hang on though—there’s a lot you can still do to make your upcoming trip a lot easier. It’s nice to romanticise the idea of being a spontaneous traveller who comes back to regale his friends with tales of hitching rides with wine salesmen and of roughing it out in the seedy quarters of a port city, but all that excitement lasts only as long as it takes you to realise your dream vacay could have been much better had you looked beyond the basics. So here’s a list of hacks to help you get a lot more out of your next getaway.

FOR THE SOLO TRAVELLER

You’ve got every reason to head out on your own, without a significant other or your old mates. We could really get philosophical about how going solo is the best way to really discover yourself, but we’ll confine ourselves to some useful stuff for the traveller who’s already looking forward to meeting new people. A social network for travellers: “Am I gonna be safe? Will I get bored? How will I spend a month without any company?” You aren’t the first one to have these doubts. Hit up Travello (travelloapp.com), and seek out other solo travellers near you, arrange meetups, plan journeys, and join special interest groups.

Lock up your door: Perfect is for all those who find themselves at guesthouses without locks on the bedroom or sketchy co-sharing housemates, the Lifeventure Door Lock (lifeventure.com) will make you feel secure. It slots into inward-opening doors making sure no one can enter.