As I am located in the south of France, summer does not seem so far away this April. The sun is shining, temperature is rising and more and more tourists are taking the trip to catch a glimpse of it. And who can blame them, winter has been long and cold in the northern hemisphere and we are all longing for those much needed Vitamin D infusing rays of sunshine.
I would call myself a self proclaimed frequent flyer. I find myself in the airport more or less weekly for work trips, to visit friends and family, and of course, to see Henriette and Kejzi wherever they might be in the world. I am lucky enough to be close to a well connected airport and usually my trips are short, efficient and direct. However, being the process of traveling is still, from time to another, stressful. I have had flights that get cancelled and delayed, I’ve lost my luggage and I have experienced overfilled flights. Due to my personal experiences with travel I find myself always trying to optimise my own experience in order to make the journey as comfortable as possible and here are some of my findings.
Getting to the airport
Depending on if I have a luggage to check-in or not, and if the flight is a short one, I like to not stress too much at the airport. I’ve done my fair share of running to the gate and I figured out that this is not my favourite exercising method. That being said, I am also not a fan of spending hour and hours in the airport. Therefore, when I travel I always aim to be at the airport ca. 1h 30 before the boarding. This way I am able to check-in my luggage directly, go through security and find myself some water to carry onto my flight. I mainly arrive to the airport by car, but where public transport connections are even better than a tedious drive, e.g. in Oslo, I would also opt for an Airport Express train.
Baggage drop and security control
If you are traveling with check-in luggage, please do yourself the following favours:
- Weigh your bag at home, so you know you avoid extra KG fees. I use THIS luggage weight and I have saved a ton of money by doing so
- Make sure your luggage is recognisable. If you are traveling with a black suitcase, or one of the hyper popular Rimowa luggages, I can guarantee you that there are several others circulating the luggage retrieval belt once you go to pick it up. Having a little distinction on your bag will make getting out of the airport all that much smoother. This can be a ribbon or a luggage tag (more about this later), or even a sticker. Whether you are artistic and want something unique or if you like a more clean look, the options are there.
- Mark your luggage with name and contact information. Should the worst happen and your luggage disappears, the airport staff is able to find you, get in touch with you and more easily return your bag. However, luggage tags still contain personal information and I would always recommend to not have one that is displaying this to the general public as there has been cases of thief’s checking out addresses of people leaving for holidays and robbing their houses. The easiest solution to this you wonder? Just turn the tag around and should someone need to find you, they can simply take out the little paper and contact you.
- Track your luggage. This I love, it gives me so much peace to know that my suitcase is in the same country as I am and I always put an AirTag in my bag. You can find AirTags HERE. Best investment ever.
- Make sure that what you pack in your suitcase, is allowed to be in your suitcase. That means, no portable chargers, no non-authorised electrical devises and, obviously, no illegal stuff. Sounds obvious, but if you only knew how many portable chargers airports collect annually, you would be shocked.
And then there is time for security control. An important but tedious process. Make it easy for yourself and just follow the below:
- Have your liquids in a TSA approved plastic bag and keep it in the top of your bag. Nothing over 100ml in most airports and this also goes for creams, lipglosses, as recently experienced in an unfortunate trip, skin cleanser balms.
- Have your computer/iPad ready to be removed and placed in a separate basket.
- Dont wear a ton of heavy jewelry as you will have to remove it.
- If you are wearing boots or healed shoes, just take them off right away.
At the airport
Once you have easily passed security it’s time to move along and find your way in the airport. I always check where my gate is and approximately how much time it takes to get there, before strolling off into a lounge, look for some water or a restroom. I do actually recommend lounges if you want to have an even more relaxed experience, but this depends on how much time you have and which lounges are accessible to you. Some are quite nice, some are very meh.
Once you have found yourself at ease and in control, it’s always good to check the live updates in case your flight is delayed or the gate changes. Saves you from having to run last minute. Also a suggestion based on personal experience.
Then, you go to your gate before boarding, you have your water with you and you are good to go.
Boarding and during your flight
One thing that always amazes me is how people are constantly rushing to get into the plane first. We are all going to the same place and queuing up 15 min before your boarding just does not make sense to me. Unless you have a carry on you really want to have in the overhead compartment that is. There are boarding groups and trust me, the machines know how to read your boarding pass and you won’t be able to stroll through with your boarding group/zone 5 pass during group/zone 3. Once you get into the flight, just get your bag up there and sit down, we all want to get going on time. Then Enjoy the ride, get a little shuteye, listen to your favorite podcast or just simply get excited about your destination. On longer flights it’s never wrong to pack with you some facial care products such as a nice facemark. Also, remember that you can contract a lot of UV during your flight so always wear SPF (yes, I am always going to mention it my beloved SPF).
Arriving at your location
There is not too much left to say, if you had a great and efficient travel day you have that much more energy to just enjoy your destination to the fullest. Happy holidays, and remember that SPF on the beach, boat, mountain and everywhere else too. If you want to know my personal go-to SPF, just click HERE
Happy Travels!
