Travelling lessons from Tenerife
I wanted to write about some of the travelling lessons I'm taking away from my week in Tenerife.
Travel
Definitely carry-on is the way to go. It avoids queuing up to check in luggage and you can just walk out the airport on the other side.
I think it's a good idea to carry an empty water bottle through security and then ask a restaurant to fill it up. Or just buy it there. But definitely take a drink on the plane.
My flight was only 4 hours but I didn't have enough music. I've fixed this for the way back by using NewPipe to download loads of mixes.
Money
In short, Revolut is awesome. I've been using it as my daily account for a couple of months now. I've been using it to withdraw money in Tenerife. The important things to remember are that you want to try and find an ATM which doesnt charge a fee for using it. I checked 3 before finding a free one. You also want your withdrawal to be charged in the currency of the country you're in (Euro) and not your home country (GBP). This is because the ATM does the convertion using some crazy exchange rate. I would have had a £1:€1.000295 rate had I withdrawn in GBP but instead I kept it in the local currency and got given £1:€1.1214, the official InterBank exchange rate. I saved around £23 by using Revolut on £230 of withdrawals.
Kit
I've been living pretty minimally for the last few years anyway but now was a good chance to pack everything I will be taking in a couple of weeks and see what's good/bad. Here is what I've found so far.
Bag
Osprey Farpoint is a great bag - maybe too big for me but it's good future proofing and the bag is really well made.
I think it's better to keep the straps out for carrying around an airport and then fold them away on the plane so they don't get caught in the overhead locker.
Clothes
I got rid of 1 vest (because it was making my tan worse and I didn't wear it) and 1 pair of old underwear.
I brought 2 short USB cables but I'm going to switch one out for the 1.5m one I left at home.
Other
I brought a microfibre towel and didn't really use it but that's because the hotel provided fresh towels daily. I'll still keep it, however, as it's incredibly useful and dries quickly.
I only brought and needed two liquids -- toothpaste and deodorant -- so that really simplified security. I've heard tooth powder is really good and solid deodorant seems to be a thing so I could eliminate liquids all together.