This post doesn't have any pictures. It's just a laundry list of things to share with future travelers.
Must-Haves to carry in your purse or day-pack:
1.) Camera (mine is a Canon SD 1000 with an 8GB memory card; I love it!!!)
2.) Mini bottle of hand sanitizer (Purell, Germ-X, etc.)
3.) Guidebook and/or pages (see more about guidebooks and extra info below)
4.) Itinerary (see more about itinerary below)
5.) A small compass (they make ones that can be affixed to your watch or pinned to your jacket, too)
6.) Sunglasses
7.) City-specific cheat sheet (see more below)
8.) Scarf (maybe not every day, but it comes in handy for mosques, churches, chilly nights, etc.)
9.) Pen
10.) A small packet of tissues
11.) Extra camera battery
12.) Bottle of water (carry a couple in Egypt)
If this list seems like a lot, that's true. However, I easily carried every item on this list in my little purse at the same time. I used every single thing. I also carried a tube of roll-on sunscreen although I didn't find myself using that. I slathered up with a big bottle in the morning and was fine the rest of the day. I also wore a wide-brimmed hat, long pants, and long sleeves in the desert, so there wasn't much of me left to get sunburned.
Money Belt
A money belt is also essential. It goes under your clothes and keeps your passport, credit card (for emergencies), cash (also for emergencies), a debit card (for ATM withdrawals), and a copy of the photo page from your traveling companion's passport. I also brought an expired debit card of the same account just so I would have a backup in case the real one got eaten or demagnetized.
Money
I am fortunate enough to have a Visa debit card through my credit union. They do not charge an exchange fee for foreign currency transactions. That easily saved us 2-3%. Except at ATMs that we suspected may have been out of money, I never had a problem using it.
Packing list:
1.) A bandanna (this could serve as a quick-drying washcloth, or as a cooling rag to wear in the desert and Egyptian Museum)
2.) If you bring a swimsuit, remember to bring a plastic bag so you can carry it wet
3.) Sunscreen (see above)
4.) Hat (see above)
5.) In Egypt: a wedding ring (women are treated better if they're already married)
6.) For the Egyptian Museum: a fan (paper or electric)
7.) If visiting a pyramid, especially the Red Pyramid: a head lamp
8.) Socks and undies that you can throw away as you use them (makes room for souvenirs)
9.) Cleanup kit in a waterproof pouch or ziplock bag (you'd be surprised what effects air pressure and luggage handlers will have on an otherwise "sealed" bottle).
10.) Emergency poncho. It only takes up a few inches of space, and you'll have it if you need it.
11.) Butter knife. I'm ashamed to say, I took one from the Economy Hotel to use for the rest of our journey. If I ever go back, I promise to return it.
12.) More camera batteries. I took four in all. It was just enough for the 1,300 pictures I took. I did not need to bring a charger or an electrical converter/adapter.
13.) An extra copy or two of the itinerary (see below)
14.) Addresses for postcards
15.) Tape flags. These are a 3M invention that act as page markers. The night before, bookmark each page or section in the guidebook that you think you'll need the following day. Small post-it notes would also work.
16.) A battery-powered alarm clock with a fresh battery
17.) A bigger bottle of hand sanitizer to refill the little bottle
Guidebooks
My local library (Skokie Public Library) is an excellent resource for travel books and guidebooks. I checked out everything I could get my hands on before the trip. I compared them all and picked the best one (I thought) for each city.
I found that most guidebooks fall into one of two categories: good for planning or good for traveling. The Rick Steves' guides were pretty good for both. They had a good overview of the city and its history, (usually) gave excellent directions, had several good maps, and acted like a tour guide in your pocket at the major sites. They were also smaller to carry than most other guides. So, I chose Rick Steves' Athens and Rick Steves' Istanbul to take with me on the trip. I also printed off some extra info that wasn't covered in the guidebooks (see below). If you are more visual, DK's Eyewitness guides have excellent color cut-away pictures that show you the outside and inside of buildings. They don't tell you much about the history or practicalities though.
Rick Steves doesn't have a Cairo guide (he should!), so I was left with several unappealing options. The Rough Guide was huge, and it covered too many little sites that we didn't intend to see. And it didn't go into depth on the big sites we did intend to see. I made copies of some pages in the Cadogan guide for its tour guide information (e.g. to your left are the earliest examples of...). It also had a good section on history/chronology and a good glossary. It was especially good for Saqqara. The only bad thing was that it was very out-of-date for practical stuff (hours of operation, cost, etc.). If there had been an updated Cadogan guide available, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Instead, I bought the Lonely Planet Egypt guidebook. It is huge (over 500 pages), and it covers all of Egypt (which we didn't need). It glosses over some really important stuff, but it was great for timelines, culture, travelers' tips, etc. The Egyptian Museum chapter was decent. The Eyewitness guide was good for its map of Coptic Cairo, Khan al-Khalili, and downtown (Midan Tahrir), but its depiction of the Giza Plateau was off-the-mark.
I did a lot of research for good places to eat before we left. As it turns out, we didn't really need these recommendations (especially Egypt where we ate at the hotel). We had better luck just wandering around, looking in windows, reading the posted menu, and picking a spot at random. With few exceptions, we had great success.
Extra Info
I brought along a lot of info I didn't end up needing. Restaurant recommendations were one example. Language guides were another. I think it is important to try to learn at least a couple words in the local language. High on the list: a few essentials (yes, no, how much), a few numbers (especially one and two), and a few pleasantries (hello, please, thank you, excuse me, goodbye). I also hope you'll learn the alphabet. For reinforcement, and for the other stuff you don't want to have to memorize, put together a cheat sheet (see below). I did not end up needing the binder full of Greek, Arabic, and Turkish that I had brought with me. I also didn't need the Arabic phrase book/dictionary I brought. The cheat sheet was enough.
What I ended up needing most was transportation maps. The Rick Steves' Athens guidebook did not have a complete color guide for the metro. (I think I'll email him about that.) I was so thankful I had printed one from the Internet and brought it along. I also had a big Athens bus map (shrunk to one page), plus a stop-by-stop route guide for several specific buses, namely #035, #200, and #024 (for bus terminal B). I was also grateful to have an excerpt of Cadogan's Greece guidebook for the Roman Forum.
Rick Steves' guidebook for Istanbul was much better for transportation (perhaps because they make it so easy to be a tourist there). But his guidebook had no information on Üsküdar. It was helpful to have a couple pages from Lonely Planet Istanbul so I would know what I was looking at.
If you can, print a map of each airport before you leave. I ripped the Cairo airport map out of the EgyptAir magazine on our way there. I hope to scan it and post it on-line for other travelers to use.
I also printed a picture of the front of each hotel from their websites. That helped us find them.
Cheat Sheet
For each city, I made a half-page, laminated sheet. OK, so I was a bit of an overachiever. One side was a language reference. The other side was a map. I used the Frommer's map for Athens, the Lonely Planet downtown map for Cairo, and the Time Out map for Istanbul. I scanned them and shrunk them down to size. The language reference included the alphabet, numbers, key phrases (yes, no, hello, goodbye, please, thank you, excuse me, I understand, I don't understand, where is...?, how much...?, more, less, enough, too expensive, entrance, exit, open, closed, right, left, good, without), some nouns (stamp, ticket, airport, and toilet), and some restaurant talk (water, tea, orange juice, bread, cheese, chicken, lamb, rice, potato, and the check). Almost everyone spoke English, but I think they really appreciate you trying. Because it was small and laminated, it was an easy thing to whip out at a moment's notice.
Itinerary
Our itinerary was positively invaluable. I spent many months putting it together. It listed each day separately. It told us the sites to see, how to get there (mass transit connections, walking directions, and address), how much it should cost (in local currency), hours of operation, how long I thought we'd spend there, guidebook page numbers, and any other pertinent info about what to do. For transit days, it listed our carrier and flight number, confirmation code, scheduled departure/arrival times, probable terminal. Plus, it had the hotel, how to get there, and our confirmation/voucher numbers. At the top it had a rough budget, so we'd know about how much money to withdraw. It was so incredibly helpful. We brought several copies with us. I kept a separate sheet for each hotel voucher (which you surrender at each hotel), and a confirmation page for each flight. As we went, I wrote down little notations about each place so I could remember what we did and blog about it.
Before You Leave
1.) Get yourself a web-based email account (like gmail or yahoo), and email yourself a PDF copy of your itinerary, a scanned copy of the photo page in your passport, and all of your confirmations for hotels and flights. Fill your on-line address book with email addresses and mailing addresses for postcards. While you're at it, email your itinerary and passport to someone not going on the trip. If something happens, they'll know exactly which city you are in, where you are staying, what flight you were on, etc.
2.) Print weather reports for as far into the trip as you can. If you want, you can even check the sunrise/sunset times so you don't get caught in the dark. It can be very different from city-to-city. Watch out for daylight savings time changes.
3.) Let your debit card and credit card companies know you will be traveling abroad. If you don't they may put a stop on your card, and you become stranded with no money.
4.) Eat or freeze everything in your fridge. Empty the dishwasher and washing machine.
5.) Turn down the furnace. (I meant to do this, but I forgot at the last minute.)
6.) Lock the doors and windows. If you trust your neighbors, let them know you'll be away.
7.) Stop the mail.
8.) Water (but don't over-water) your plants
What's Next?
My company's vacation accrual policy is changing yet again next year, so I have about five weeks I need to take before December 31, 2010. So, where will I go next? Ireland? London? Thailand? China? I want to see them all! Who wants to come with me?
Must-Haves to carry in your purse or day-pack:
1.) Camera (mine is a Canon SD 1000 with an 8GB memory card; I love it!!!)
2.) Mini bottle of hand sanitizer (Purell, Germ-X, etc.)
3.) Guidebook and/or pages (see more about guidebooks and extra info below)
4.) Itinerary (see more about itinerary below)
5.) A small compass (they make ones that can be affixed to your watch or pinned to your jacket, too)
6.) Sunglasses
7.) City-specific cheat sheet (see more below)
8.) Scarf (maybe not every day, but it comes in handy for mosques, churches, chilly nights, etc.)
9.) Pen
10.) A small packet of tissues
11.) Extra camera battery
12.) Bottle of water (carry a couple in Egypt)
If this list seems like a lot, that's true. However, I easily carried every item on this list in my little purse at the same time. I used every single thing. I also carried a tube of roll-on sunscreen although I didn't find myself using that. I slathered up with a big bottle in the morning and was fine the rest of the day. I also wore a wide-brimmed hat, long pants, and long sleeves in the desert, so there wasn't much of me left to get sunburned.
Money Belt
A money belt is also essential. It goes under your clothes and keeps your passport, credit card (for emergencies), cash (also for emergencies), a debit card (for ATM withdrawals), and a copy of the photo page from your traveling companion's passport. I also brought an expired debit card of the same account just so I would have a backup in case the real one got eaten or demagnetized.
Money
I am fortunate enough to have a Visa debit card through my credit union. They do not charge an exchange fee for foreign currency transactions. That easily saved us 2-3%. Except at ATMs that we suspected may have been out of money, I never had a problem using it.
Packing list:
1.) A bandanna (this could serve as a quick-drying washcloth, or as a cooling rag to wear in the desert and Egyptian Museum)
2.) If you bring a swimsuit, remember to bring a plastic bag so you can carry it wet
3.) Sunscreen (see above)
4.) Hat (see above)
5.) In Egypt: a wedding ring (women are treated better if they're already married)
6.) For the Egyptian Museum: a fan (paper or electric)
7.) If visiting a pyramid, especially the Red Pyramid: a head lamp
8.) Socks and undies that you can throw away as you use them (makes room for souvenirs)
9.) Cleanup kit in a waterproof pouch or ziplock bag (you'd be surprised what effects air pressure and luggage handlers will have on an otherwise "sealed" bottle).
10.) Emergency poncho. It only takes up a few inches of space, and you'll have it if you need it.
11.) Butter knife. I'm ashamed to say, I took one from the Economy Hotel to use for the rest of our journey. If I ever go back, I promise to return it.
12.) More camera batteries. I took four in all. It was just enough for the 1,300 pictures I took. I did not need to bring a charger or an electrical converter/adapter.
13.) An extra copy or two of the itinerary (see below)
14.) Addresses for postcards
15.) Tape flags. These are a 3M invention that act as page markers. The night before, bookmark each page or section in the guidebook that you think you'll need the following day. Small post-it notes would also work.
16.) A battery-powered alarm clock with a fresh battery
17.) A bigger bottle of hand sanitizer to refill the little bottle
Guidebooks
My local library (Skokie Public Library) is an excellent resource for travel books and guidebooks. I checked out everything I could get my hands on before the trip. I compared them all and picked the best one (I thought) for each city.
I found that most guidebooks fall into one of two categories: good for planning or good for traveling. The Rick Steves' guides were pretty good for both. They had a good overview of the city and its history, (usually) gave excellent directions, had several good maps, and acted like a tour guide in your pocket at the major sites. They were also smaller to carry than most other guides. So, I chose Rick Steves' Athens and Rick Steves' Istanbul to take with me on the trip. I also printed off some extra info that wasn't covered in the guidebooks (see below). If you are more visual, DK's Eyewitness guides have excellent color cut-away pictures that show you the outside and inside of buildings. They don't tell you much about the history or practicalities though.
Rick Steves doesn't have a Cairo guide (he should!), so I was left with several unappealing options. The Rough Guide was huge, and it covered too many little sites that we didn't intend to see. And it didn't go into depth on the big sites we did intend to see. I made copies of some pages in the Cadogan guide for its tour guide information (e.g. to your left are the earliest examples of...). It also had a good section on history/chronology and a good glossary. It was especially good for Saqqara. The only bad thing was that it was very out-of-date for practical stuff (hours of operation, cost, etc.). If there had been an updated Cadogan guide available, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Instead, I bought the Lonely Planet Egypt guidebook. It is huge (over 500 pages), and it covers all of Egypt (which we didn't need). It glosses over some really important stuff, but it was great for timelines, culture, travelers' tips, etc. The Egyptian Museum chapter was decent. The Eyewitness guide was good for its map of Coptic Cairo, Khan al-Khalili, and downtown (Midan Tahrir), but its depiction of the Giza Plateau was off-the-mark.
I did a lot of research for good places to eat before we left. As it turns out, we didn't really need these recommendations (especially Egypt where we ate at the hotel). We had better luck just wandering around, looking in windows, reading the posted menu, and picking a spot at random. With few exceptions, we had great success.
Extra Info
I brought along a lot of info I didn't end up needing. Restaurant recommendations were one example. Language guides were another. I think it is important to try to learn at least a couple words in the local language. High on the list: a few essentials (yes, no, how much), a few numbers (especially one and two), and a few pleasantries (hello, please, thank you, excuse me, goodbye). I also hope you'll learn the alphabet. For reinforcement, and for the other stuff you don't want to have to memorize, put together a cheat sheet (see below). I did not end up needing the binder full of Greek, Arabic, and Turkish that I had brought with me. I also didn't need the Arabic phrase book/dictionary I brought. The cheat sheet was enough.
What I ended up needing most was transportation maps. The Rick Steves' Athens guidebook did not have a complete color guide for the metro. (I think I'll email him about that.) I was so thankful I had printed one from the Internet and brought it along. I also had a big Athens bus map (shrunk to one page), plus a stop-by-stop route guide for several specific buses, namely #035, #200, and #024 (for bus terminal B). I was also grateful to have an excerpt of Cadogan's Greece guidebook for the Roman Forum.
Rick Steves' guidebook for Istanbul was much better for transportation (perhaps because they make it so easy to be a tourist there). But his guidebook had no information on Üsküdar. It was helpful to have a couple pages from Lonely Planet Istanbul so I would know what I was looking at.
If you can, print a map of each airport before you leave. I ripped the Cairo airport map out of the EgyptAir magazine on our way there. I hope to scan it and post it on-line for other travelers to use.
I also printed a picture of the front of each hotel from their websites. That helped us find them.
Cheat Sheet
For each city, I made a half-page, laminated sheet. OK, so I was a bit of an overachiever. One side was a language reference. The other side was a map. I used the Frommer's map for Athens, the Lonely Planet downtown map for Cairo, and the Time Out map for Istanbul. I scanned them and shrunk them down to size. The language reference included the alphabet, numbers, key phrases (yes, no, hello, goodbye, please, thank you, excuse me, I understand, I don't understand, where is...?, how much...?, more, less, enough, too expensive, entrance, exit, open, closed, right, left, good, without), some nouns (stamp, ticket, airport, and toilet), and some restaurant talk (water, tea, orange juice, bread, cheese, chicken, lamb, rice, potato, and the check). Almost everyone spoke English, but I think they really appreciate you trying. Because it was small and laminated, it was an easy thing to whip out at a moment's notice.
Itinerary
Our itinerary was positively invaluable. I spent many months putting it together. It listed each day separately. It told us the sites to see, how to get there (mass transit connections, walking directions, and address), how much it should cost (in local currency), hours of operation, how long I thought we'd spend there, guidebook page numbers, and any other pertinent info about what to do. For transit days, it listed our carrier and flight number, confirmation code, scheduled departure/arrival times, probable terminal. Plus, it had the hotel, how to get there, and our confirmation/voucher numbers. At the top it had a rough budget, so we'd know about how much money to withdraw. It was so incredibly helpful. We brought several copies with us. I kept a separate sheet for each hotel voucher (which you surrender at each hotel), and a confirmation page for each flight. As we went, I wrote down little notations about each place so I could remember what we did and blog about it.
Before You Leave
1.) Get yourself a web-based email account (like gmail or yahoo), and email yourself a PDF copy of your itinerary, a scanned copy of the photo page in your passport, and all of your confirmations for hotels and flights. Fill your on-line address book with email addresses and mailing addresses for postcards. While you're at it, email your itinerary and passport to someone not going on the trip. If something happens, they'll know exactly which city you are in, where you are staying, what flight you were on, etc.
2.) Print weather reports for as far into the trip as you can. If you want, you can even check the sunrise/sunset times so you don't get caught in the dark. It can be very different from city-to-city. Watch out for daylight savings time changes.
3.) Let your debit card and credit card companies know you will be traveling abroad. If you don't they may put a stop on your card, and you become stranded with no money.
4.) Eat or freeze everything in your fridge. Empty the dishwasher and washing machine.
5.) Turn down the furnace. (I meant to do this, but I forgot at the last minute.)
6.) Lock the doors and windows. If you trust your neighbors, let them know you'll be away.
7.) Stop the mail.
8.) Water (but don't over-water) your plants
What's Next?
My company's vacation accrual policy is changing yet again next year, so I have about five weeks I need to take before December 31, 2010. So, where will I go next? Ireland? London? Thailand? China? I want to see them all! Who wants to come with me?
