What Do You Collect When You Travel?

Everyone brings back something from their travels, whether that is simply memories and photographs, or something more. During our early days of traveling, which was all within the United States, we used to collect coffee mugs from everyplace we visited. We even bought special coffee mug racks to display all of our mugs with colorful pictures depicting what is unique about each location. While they were fun to look at, it very quickly became too much to display as the number of coffee mugs grew year after year. Since those days, we have gone with a different approach for finding things that we want to bring home with us to remind us of the places that we’ve visited.

Painting of Quito, Ecuador
Oil Painting from Paris
Marionette from Prague
Gluhwein Mug, Alabaster Vase from Egypt, and Greek Urn from Athens
Hand-Stitched Tapestry from Panama City, Panama

Walk through any tourist shop and you will find many of the common things that people collect during their travels. Keychains, refrigerator magnets, shot glasses, coffee mugs, snow-globes, and pens are all among the items that you can usually find in almost any city around the world. Although we used to collect some of those items, now we try to find things that are more unique and often hand-made by local artisans. We love to get inexpensive paintings or small works of art from the different places that we’ve visited. When we buy a painting, we will purchase unframed so that it can be rolled up and protected during our flight back home. We keep them on display and can fondly remember where we found each of the individual items. Some items are very indicative of the city or country, others we simply found intriguing and we still make a connection to the country where we found it.

Painting of the Colosseum in Rome
Papyrus Artwork from Cairo
Currency from Around the World
Statue of an Alsace Woman from Strasbourg, France
Etching of the Duomo in Florence, Italy

In addition to bringing back pieces of art or other unique items, we also bring back money from the places that we visit as well as tourist maps. It is our intention to one day make a collage out of all of the unique tourists maps that proudly display the top tourist attractions within the city. We also intend to someday display that currency that we’ve collected throughout our travels. And even though we purchase them prior to visiting different locations, we also collect the travel books that we use to plan our trips. Perhaps we’re a little weird, but we have a lot of travel items that we’ve collected on display throughout our home. We also have digital frames that rotate through photographs from our travels as well. Is there anything that you collect during your journeys and do you display them for others to see?

Items on Display from France, Iceland, Bolivia, Spain, Ecuador, Mexico, India, and More
Painting of Bran Castle
Travel Books in Our Office
India, Egypt, Germany, and Austria Sharing a Shelf
Hand-Painted Plate from La Paz

 

Do You Ever Go Back to the Same Location?

One of the challenges for people who love traveling is deciding between going someplace new versus going back to someplace visited before. At first, it seems like a pretty straight forward decision, why not go someplace where you’ve never been? On the other hand, there are definite reasons for going back to a location. If we could travel as often as we wanted, we would do a mix of both as we always love seeing new places, but there are many places that we wish we would have had more time to see or would like to see it at a different time of year.

Eiffel Tower in Autumn
Pyramid of Khafre

Clearly, going someplace new is always exciting and interesting. There can, however, be some challenges when traveling someplace new such as visa requirements, learning some of the language, having to research travel and accommodations, etc. Excitement can also mean anxiety about the unknown and, depending upon where you are going, uncertainty about safety. What if you choose the wrong part of town to stay in, which of the multitude of things to see should you prioritize, whose information do you trust? With all of that said, that is what creates the adrenaline and anticipation that we truly enjoy.

Ronda, Spain
Iceland

There are few places that we’ve visited that we haven’t at least once said that we hoped to go back to. There are also some places that we have gone to more than once and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Even after only a single visit, returning to those places has a sense of familiarity that is calming. The time during the returning trip seems much more relaxed as there isn’t the sense that you have to rush to see every possible sight as you’ve seen many of them before. It almost like seeing an old friend that you’ve missed for a few years. Paris is one of those places that we have been to more than once and would return to several times again.

 

View of the Quilotoa Caldera and Lagoon in Ecuador
Sunset and the Acropolis

Unfortunately, we don’t have unlimited resources or time to travel to every place that we would like. Our next trip is in a couple of weeks to Carlsbad, California, a place that we haven’t been to before. If we had to choose only one option, we suppose that we would choose going to someplace new, but we are certainly glad that we don’t have to limit our choice. If you had to make a choice, which would you choose?

Temple on Sun Island with Moon Island in the Distance on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia
Tangiers

 

10 Things to Do Prior to Traveling Internationally that Some People Forget

Planning a trip is a fun process as you investigate where to stay, what to see, and make travel arrangements. However, if you are traveling internationally, there are several things that you should be sure to do in addition to the actual planning of the trip itself. Some of these things need to be done several weeks in advance, so be sure to consider them as part of your planning process. They are simple steps that could help you avoid your trip of a lifetime from turning into the disaster of a lifetime.

Amsterdam from the Roof of Our Hotel
  1. Check Visa and Passport Requirements – Be sure to see whether the country you are visiting requires a tourist visa in order to enter and how long the visa will be valid. There are usually requirements as to how many blank pages you need to have in your passport as well as how much longer than the dates of your travel that the passport will be valid for as well. Although some countries allow you to get your visa at the airport upon your arrival, we recommend that you get your visa in advance to avoid any delays. We have heard of people being stuck for days trying to bet their visa due to a variety of issues. Also, be aware that to get most visas, you will need to send your original passport, so you’ll need to coordinate getting the visa around any other travel you might be doing.

    Cairo, Egypt
  2. Register Your Trip with Your Embassy – There are a couple of reasons for registering your trip (in the US, you can register with Safe Traveler Enrollment Program, STEP). Usually you will receive alerts for the country that you are visiting, such as protests, violence, or other issues in specific cities or regions. Another reason is that if something bad should happen and your family at home has concerns, information about your trip is registered in order to allow officials to start an investigation.

    Chennai, India
  3. Confirm what Vaccinations and Immunizations are Required – Depending upon where you are traveling, there are often required and recommended vaccines and immunizations. Some of these can be expensive and need to be done weeks before travel, so be sure to contact your doctor once you have checked the list. Also, some countries require proof of the vaccinations and in those cases you will want to have the official form. Also, if taking any prescription medicine with you, be sure to carry them in there original containers with the prescription labels otherwise you might have your medicine confiscated. In some cases, you may need a letter from your doctor stating what you are taking and why you are taking it as proof that you are not smuggling in pharmaceuticals.

    Canopy of the Amazon Rainforest
  4. Contact Your Bank and Credit Card Issuers – We always recommend that you don’t carry a lot of cash with you when you travel and that you take money out of an ATM upon your arrival. You need to contact your banks and credit card companies prior to your trip so that they can note your account to avoid any transactions being rejected as fraudulent. Be sure to include any countries where you have layovers as well as you might want to grab a bite to eat or buy something during the time that you have as you wait for the next leg of the trip to begin. Also, be sure to find out if there are any daily withdrawal or spending limits on your accounts or foreign transaction fees. It is important to note that even though you report your trip with the bank, there is no guarantee that it won’t still be marked as fraudulent, so you should keep the number of the fraud department with you, which is separate from customer support and is usually available 24/7. Although we don’t recommend taking a lot of cash, we do recommend that you take a small amount, about enough for a taxi and food, and convert it into local currency if possible.

    Our First Glimpse of Greece
  5. Take Photos of Your Travel Documents and Email Them to Yourself – It is always a good idea to take photos of your travel documents and take them with you, but you should email them to yourself as well. If something happens and everything is stolen from you, having the ability to go to a computer and access your email will give you the ability to print out new copies to take to the local embassy. In addition to your travel documents, passport and visas, also make a list of all of the international numbers for your banks and credit cards. If your wallet is stolen and you need to contact your banks, having those numbers available will make it much easier to get replacements and keep fraudulent charges from occurring.

    Sunrise over Lake Thingvallavatn in Iceland
  6. Consider Travel Insurance – There are a variety of ways to get travel insurance and, in general, we usually recommend having it. Be sure to look at what types of things are covered as not all plans are the same. Some will cover the costs of cancelled transportation, some will pay for transportation in the event of a natural disaster, and others will provide medical insurance, including evacuation services. Clearly, the location and type of travel that you are doing will help you determine the extent of coverage that you need, but having at least minimal insurance is good for the peace of mind that it provides.

    View of the Quilotoa Caldera and Lagoon in Ecuador
  7. Check Travel Warnings and Advisories for the Region – Similar to registering your trip, you should check out travel warnings for the country that you are visiting. We would also recommend checking the advisories and warnings for neighboring countries as well. In certain cases, you might discover that not only are there warnings, but there can also be restrictions on travel to certain parts of the country. Knowing this information in advance will help you with your planning so that you don’t put a location on your itinerary that might put you and your companions at risk.

    Looking Down at Part of Death Road in Bolivia
  8. Check for the Local Public and Government Holidays – You may do some of this as part of your normal planning process if you are looking for a celebration or festival, but it is good to know if the places you want to visit might be closed. It might also affect transportation schedules and your ability to see government run sites. Additionally, depending on the country that you are visiting, some holidays are regional and not national, so be sure to pay close attention to that as well.

    Snake Charmer in Morocco
  9. Provide Your Trip Details and Hotel Information to Family and Friends – In case something were to happen to your cell phone, having a way for people to get messages to you is important. Also, if there are issues with your transportation, the people who care about you can check to see if there is a reason that they potentially haven’t heard from you. They may never use the information, but they will appreciate your sharing the information with them just in case.

    The Coast of Southern California
  10. Check What Currencies the Country Accepts and the Conversion Rates – Some countries will accept multiple types of money and that might avoid the need for converting money when you arrive. Some countries even prefer money from other countries other than their own due to issues with their government and inflation. The opposite can also be true, they may accept money from other countries, but might frown upon having to convert it to use locally. You need to understand the current conversion rates and there are apps and web sites that will provide you that information. As you walk into a store or restaurant, it is important to know what you are really spending when you make a purchase. We typically use an app on our phone and then round up for the conversion rate. For example, if the conversion 1 local dollar is 7.3 US dollars, we will calculate it as 8 US dollars when we see a price. That way we know that what we spend will possibly be less than we thought, but that is better than finding out it was more than you had budgeted.

    Saint Nicholas Church Tower in Brasov, Romania

None of these suggestions will guarantee that you have a wonderful time on your next trip, but they just might be your savior if things don’t go as expected. We follow all of these whenever we travel internationally and consider them to be just as important as planning the highlights of our trip.