If you know me, you know I love to travel. It may be on the border of an obsession, but it’s okay, I’ll own that. I’ve been lucky enough to have traveled quite a few places around the world for both work and pleasure. I’m going to tell you a secret, going to the airport makes me giddy. It means adventure is near [plus the people watching is brilliant!]. Now before you think this is a love note to traveling, let me tell you a little tale from this weekend’s adventure. My cousin Kim [The Big Day Wedding Photography] asked me to shoot a wedding with her on this tiny island in the Bahamas. Obviously, it took 2 seconds for me to say yes and get to planning. We were supposed to meet at the airport on the first island we’d be on Friday, which was 24 hours BEFORE the wedding. Oh how plans changed. It’s a very long, emotional story, but I’ll let you in on the ending…I was an hour late to the wedding. I was stranded overnight in Florida and had to do all of the traveling portion alone. In my extensive repertoire of traveling, I’ve never traveled internationally alone. Nothing like a crazy experience to inspire a blog post. I thought I would give some tips I learned when traveling alone.

1. Be friendly. No matter how absolutely frustrating the situation is, and let me say, being delayed hours, missing your connecting flight and having no option to get to a hired job is extremely, hair pullingly frustrating, being kind to people made it a tiny bit more bearable. People are more inclined to assist you if your attitude is in check.
2. Speak up. Although I advise a kind attitude, that’s not to say you shouldn’t speak up for yourself. I should have gone to the flight attendant as soon as it was announced they had to “order parts for our electrical issue and it would be a while,” and asked to be deplaned so I could catch another flight. Lesson learned.
3. Bring cash. Now-a-days it’s so easy to use your credit card everywhere. Especially when most cards don’t have foreign transaction fees. When I travel for business, I mostly use my Amex business card. I did bring a little cash this time just to be safe and thank goodness I did. I ended up having to pay for the taxis and ferry ride to the island and was reimbursed later. I’m thankful I remembered to take that cash.
4. Have a book/e-reader with you. I am an avid reader. I love the smell of books, the excitement of getting to the end and I am like a kid in a candy store when I go to the library. Yep, I’m definitely a nerd. As much as I’m a huge proponent of the physical book, I was gifted a kindle a couple years back for traveling and it is great. It’s lightweight, compact to fit in my carry-ons, and I can load it up for a trip. Even though my layovers weren’t supposed to be long, I was sure to put a few books on my kindle “just in case.” As it turned out “just in case” actually happened and I was thankful I had something to pass the time.
5. Make sure your phone works abroad. I typically don’t pay for the international plan when I travel. I use the free app Viber that allows you to text and make calls [be it choppy calls] when you’re on wifi. Whether you choose to use an app or buy a plan, it’s a good thing to make sure you’re able to contact someone if you need help or family members to assure you’re doing okay.

Alright, well there are some of my biggest things I’ve learned when traveling all by myself. If you like traveling alone, what are some tips you can give me?