Travel Tips While Studying Abroad

If you ask any traveler on how to have the best experience abroad they will list off a million tips for you, but even if you followed every single one of them you would still be bound to make a rookie mistake. It’s a never ending cycle, but that’s the beauty of traveling: you live and you make mistakes and you learn and you do better next time. 

However, we do think there are some tips that can help you bypass rookie mistakes whose lessons aren’t really worth being learned, meaning they don’t teach you much beyond “don’t do that again.”

Tips:

#1: If you’re a the airport and need a taxi, always use the taxi stand, NOT people who approach you -- they’re probably an unlicensed taxi.

#2: Don’t leave your luggage with any “new friends”-- people get robbed this way! It is best not to interact with strangers who approach you in the airport or on the street. Don’t trust your study abroad peers right away either. Though you are on the same journey, you may not acquire the same means to get to the end, so to speak. In other words, they may be cleptomaniacs who steal to get a thrill where as you like to skydive to experience an adrenaline rush. 

#3: Time & date differences when making plane, train and hotel reservations: in other countries, dates are often listed DAY-MONTH-YEAR. An example: 1-5-20 could actually be May 1, 2020. Time may be in military time. An example: 7:00PM could be shown as 19:00. If you book a flight for 7:00 it may mean AM, so watch out!

#4: Airport and train station codes: some cities have more than one airport or train station. Each airport or train station will have its own code. Double check the code to make sure it’s the one you want -- booking the wrong one will totally throw off your travel plans. Example: London has 6 airports throughout the city, but each has its own code, so it’s imperative for this specific city to make sure you know the airport, its code and where in the city it is (to help make further travel plans via bus or train). 

#5: Try not to book non-refundable weekend trips until you arrive. You may meet new people you want to travel with or learn about new places you want to visit. You also will not receive the syllabus for any class until your first day of school. Some classes, especially the culturally-focused ones, have mandatory weekend field trips (which are wicked fun by the way).

#6: The best time for family and friends to visit you is during scheduled breaks or after the program ends. You may not be able to skip class to spend time with them-- it might affect your grades. Plus it’s easier to have a good time when you don’t have the stress of homework, exams and squeezing in as many adventures with your study abroad friends as possible before your departure home!

Again, these are just a few simple tips to avoid making mistakes that won’t teach you much more than to not make them again. Remember to embrace uncertainty and turn mistakes and challenges into lessons learned when you are abroad. This is a foolproof way of having the best study abroad experience possible!