3 travel tips to save you cash and spare you misery

Here are three practical suggestions that helped my wife and me keep costs and stress to a minimum during our recent trip to Barcelona, though you could apply these almost anywhere.

1. Check Craigslist for vacation rentals in the places you’re going to visit.  Using Craigslist, we rented a room with a private bathroom in a modern apartment building near Park Guell for 40 euros ($54) a night.  This included a continental breakfast, the use of two bicycles, and access to the Internet.  The amazing thing was that the owner was in Italy the whole time and arranged for a friend to give us the keys — we had the whole apartment to ourselves for three nights.  All this for less than we would’ve paid to stay in a co-ed, 8-person room with a shared bathroom at a hostel.

If you decide to go this route, use common sense and know what you’re comfortable with; options range from spending the night on a guy’s couch to renting complete villas.

2. Be vigilant: they warn you about pick-pockets for a reason.  Cities in Europe are notorious for pick-pocketing, but Barcelona is in a league of its own.  Almost everyone we spoke with told us tales of losing bags and wallets; our host for the rest of our stay had his wallet stolen three times in four years.

Five days into our trip, we watched two guys on bicycles swipe a bag sitting next to a woman on the boardwalk (moral: don’t leave your stuff several feet away from you).  We applauded sarcastically and shouted “Bravo!” as they rode past us, but we were angry and felt awful for the woman.  The only consolation (to us) was that she still hadn’t noticed the theft by the time we left the area and wasn’t paying much attention to her bag to begin with…so maybe the bag wasn’t that important?

We made it out unscathed.  Our strategy consisted of carrying nothing in our pockets and using mini padlocks to secure the zippers on my backpack, which I wore over both shoulders. The locks I have came with a Samsonite suitcase I bought some years ago and open with a 3-digit combination, so you don’t need keys.  They aren’t indestructible, but, like the Club or Kensington laptop locks, they’ll ward off nefarious opportunists.

(Another lock that would’ve been handy for our trip to the beach operates the same way but incorporates a cable for securing bags to stationary objects.  Amazon sells a variety of these locks.)

3. Ask your traveling companion(s) what he or she likes to do on vacation. This might seem silly, but it’s actually one of the most important things to do before you leave home. You hate the beach. She has a low threshold for gothic cathedrals and prefers hiking. He won’t leave a place without trying all the local food he can. Whatever. As David Allen says, have a conversation about your principles and understand whether you’re on the same page. If you and whoever you’re traveling with have different ideas about the purpose of your trip, accommodate them by building in trade-offs or time apart.

If nothing else…

If none of the above rang true, you can’t go wrong with the following bonus tip I came across today:

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”

Let me know your favorite travel tips in the comments!