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Travel Tips

Preparing Your Teen for Their First Trip Without You

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As nice as it is to travel with the family there will come a time when your teenager will want to start travelling on their own. It doesn’t matter if it’s a school field trip, a mission, or just with their friends, it is definitely something that they should experience. In order to get both, you and them ready and comfortable for travelling on their own, you should prepare. If they are travelling with an organisation they will have all the information ready and them prepared, but if they are going on their own here is how you can prepare them. Here are some key points that you must go over with your teen at least for your own peace of mind.

What Do They Need To Pack

One of the first things you need to teach your teen to do is how to pack for where they are going. They need to understand the local climate and think about all the activities they are going to be doing in order to pack proper clothes. Another thing that your teen needs are their electronics. So, if they are travelling out of the state, it is likely that they will need to have adapters for foreign outlets. They should also make sure that they pack medication they need, wet wipes, bug repellents and so on. Something you should look into is if there will be laundry facilities or just a washer in their accommodation so they know how many clothes to pack as well as seeing if they need coins in local currency for the laundromat.

Teach The How To Stay Safe

Travel will increase how mature your teen is, so to prepare them you will need to have some unpleasant and adult conversations with them in order to keep them safe. The best thing that you can do is be honest with them. Ask them questions about how they would react if certain things happened and tell them your opinion on how you would react in that given moment. It is really important what you show your teen that you trust them and believe that they will make the right decision.

Ensure That They Stay Healthy

It is never fun having to think about all the possible medical issues your teen can encounter whilst on their trip. But having them prepared will let you have peace of mind. If they are staying for a longer period of time, make sure that they have access to some form of medical care when they are there. Another thing that you should do is have a small listing of their basic health information that they will keep on them. Make sure that you are including emergency contact, their health insurance number as well as any conditions and allergies that they have. Something that not a lot of people know is that travelling to a foreign country sometimes requires vaccinations, so make sure that you do it in advance as for some you need to get multiple doses. When it comes to keeping your mind at peace, you can get a drug test kit and get your teen tested before they leave so you are sure that they haven’t done any drugs.

Talk About Money

Of course, your teen will be spending money while they are travelling. But the question is how much money will you let them bring. As they are teenagers and they can quickly make stupid decisions, think about providing them with emergency funds on a debit or prepaid card in care there is an incident. Make sure that you teach them how to budget the money you gave them or their own money if they are working a part-time job and saved up. A great way to make them more aware of spending the money is to have them pitch in with their own money. On the other hand, if your teen has their own money, they should know how to budget it.  Make sure that you go over the local currency rates and they learn how to convert their money, so they don’t end up wasting it.

Prepare Them For The Possible “culture shock”

If they haven’t travelled a lot, having a culture shock is something everyone will encounter at some point in life when travelling. One of the best ways you can prepare them for it is to make sure that they do their research on where they are going. That will ensure that they don’t have any uncomfortable encounters. They need to understand their etiquette and social rules before they leave or they can get into some unfortunate situations. 

Create Rules For Staying In Touch

As we live in such a digital era, staying in touch isn’t something that is complicated or expensive. If they have a phone, you will be able to reach them at almost any given moment even if they are on the other side of the world. But as they are still kids in a way, it is important that you put down some ground rules of when they will be calling you to check-in. Another thing that you should do is put your number on a piece of paper that they can carry anywhere in case their phone goes missing. Also, teach them that there is something called roaming and that they shouldn’t be using their data, calling or sending SMSs. Basically, tell them that they shouldn’t be using their phone if it’s not connected to Wi-Fi as the roaming costs a lot of money. And why waste money when there is free Wi-Fi.

Even though there will be so many different challenges involved, every teen needs to have their own first solo-travel experience to become a grown-up. Keep in mind that your teens first trip alone is a big milestone. The better you prepare them for it the better experience they will have. It is essential that you stay calm and give them the freedom that they need.

Editor's Picks, Travel Tips

Money, Food and The Weather are To Blame for The Majority of Holiday Tensions

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Money, food and the weather are some of the biggest reasons behind family fallouts while away, new research has revealed.

The study, conducted by cruise agent Bolsover Cruise Club, surveyed 1000 UK adults and examined the most common reasons behind holiday spats, as well as the optimum length of time we could spend away with our loved ones before bickering was likely to set in.

The results showed that despite their many positives, holidaying with our friends and family can be a rather stressful affair, especially when it comes to the day-to-day.

 In fact, the study found that more than two thirds of Brits admit to falling out with friends or family when on holiday, and that we’re likely to have heated words with our loved ones around four times a week on average while on our jollies.

Top 5 reasons for Fall Outs on Holiday:  

  1. What to do and see
  2. Where/What to eat
  3. The weather/heat
  4. Money/splitting bills
  5. People not controlling their children

Outside of the top five, other reasons given behind common disagreements between friends and family were things such as travel and directions (22.8%), who gets which room/bed (20.2%) and being generally over tired (18.9%).

Men were found to be the more frugal of the sexes, as more than a third shared that they were likely to cause tensions with their friends and family over money/splitting bills, compared to just 14.6% of women.

That said, nearly half of the women (41%) surveyed admitted that they regularly get hot headed towards their travel companions over food choices while on holiday.

Bolsover Cruise Club also quizzed participants on how long they believed they’d be able to holiday with various family members and friends and used this to find the optimum amount of time Brits should consider booking time away with their loved ones.

Results uncovered that our partner was likely to be the best choice for a longer break, closely followed by brother(s) and friends.

Unfortunately for grandma and grandad, dad, sister(s) and nieces, nephews and godchildren, they were all ranked pretty low on the scale in terms of tolerable days. 

Maximum Holiday Time Before a Fallout*

Partner: 10 days 6 minutes 
Mum: 6 Days, 16 hours and 48 minutes
Dad: 2 Days, 13 hours and 33 minutes
Brother: 7 Days, 7 hours and 12 minutes
Sister: 2 days, 21 hours and 36 minutes
Grandparents: 2 days, 12 hours
Children (yours): 8 days, 12 hours
Children (your nieces, nephews, godchildren etc): 1 days, 12 hours
Aunties and Uncles: 3 days, 12 hours
Cousins: 5 days, 7 hours and 18 minutes
Friends: 7 days

Michael Wilson, Managing Director at Bolsover Cruise Club, commented on the findings:  “While there are naturally family feuds and bickering amongst friends, it is great to hear that the majority of Brits are still happy to head away on their annual holidays with their loved ones.

“One key thing to keep in mind is that it’s perfectly okay not to all want to do the same thing while away, whether that’s food, activities or general lounging around the pool, which is why we believe a cruise can provide a great option when wanting to please more than one or two holidaymakers.”

Travel Planning, Travel Tips

Taking Out A Personal Loan To Travel – Yay or Nay

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One of the best ways to expand your horizons and gain new experiences and try foreign food and then bore everyone home AND your momma on how tasty it is even though it’s pointless because they can’t really try it is to set sails and go on a journey to a new destination!

Australia, for example! A country of exotic (if at times incredibly aggressive and poisonous) animals, picturesque coral reefs, and the Sydney opera house!

… Omg, there’s this cake, it’s called Lamington, and it’s the finest buttery thing, and there’s like chocolate and it looks good… they call them Lammoes over there …. Hahaha! No, but seriously, it has this curious buttery thing to it…

Yeah, yeah, alright! No one cares that you stuffed your face senseless in a foreign country!

How about learning the local language or visiting some monuments or something. Basically, unless you’re a professional cook and are talking to other cooks, no one cares.

Anyway, lest we continue to rant about the horrors of food-related travel stories, let’s swing back to the topic of this article which is personal travel loans.

Let’s face it, traveling costs money, and let’s just say that the urge to hit the road often catches one when they’re not in their best financial state. Other than making a loan with a friend, the only viable solution to make it happen would be to take out a personal bank loan.

Now, in this article, we’re going to talk about whether or not that makes sense and how to approach this issue in a sensible way.

Alright then, here’s the deal, globetrotting’ folk!

Is Taking a Loan for Travelling Worth It?

Ehh, sort of. It can be worth it, but you have to weigh out your possibilities carefully.

For example, if you have a stable salary and plenty of room for holidays as a part of your job position, you can pull off a loan-based holiday and then don’t even feel the subsequent payments.

On the other hand, taking out a loan with a tough interest rate with an unstable job can end up draining your finances incredibly quickly and even cause you to go bankrupt in the worst case scenario!

The thing is, of course, that investing is traveling is really not investing at all. In fact, it’s the opposite of investing – if you look at it from the business side of the argument, it’s equitable to throwing your money out of the window.

On the other hand, it’d be fair to say that traveling is a sort of soul food, so it arguably has no cost.

On the Matter of Personal Loans

There are two major types of personal loans: secured personal loans, and unsecured personal loans.

The difference is pretty straightforward, really. In order to obtain a secured personal loan, you’ll need to have some sort of asset to put up as a token of security for the loan. This can be real estate or some other form of property that can be exchanged for value if you fail to pay up your monthly rate.

An unsecured personal loan, on the other hand, does not require any sort of mortgage or property to be put up as security, but what it does mean is that you’ll be expected to agree to a higher interest rate on the regular monthly payments.

So, what option you’d like to go for really depends on your personal financial situation. If you don’t have a piece of property you’d be ready to put up for mortgage, for example, but otherwise have a stable salary, an unsecured loan may be a way to go for you.

How to Make the Most of Your Travel Loan?

If you’ve already made a decision to go for a travel loan, you might as well make the most of it. To do that, you’ll need to do some preparatory work first, of course, as saving money mostly amounts to figuring out what you don’t need to spend it on.

  • Set a Finite Budget – Understanding that you can’t really spend money to your heart’s content while abroad is bound to make you use your brain instead of focusing on out-of-control shopping sprees. To do this, set a budget in advance and stick to it while on your travels.
  • Make Good Use of Special Deals and Rewards – Many banks offer special deals to people who want to take a travel loan, so pay attention to your bank’s policy when this matter is in question. If you play your cards right, you can dramatically reduce the amount of credit you spend while on your holiday.

All things considered, the fact that you want to relax on your travels doesn’t mean you should disregard your finances completely. If a loan is a way to go for you, take heed from tough interest rates and make sure to agree to a viable deal that will work for you in the long run!