Airports & Flying
Liquids rules exist because of one specific 2006 plot
The 100ml limit is not arbitrary security theatre. Understanding where it came from also explains why it is finally changing.
Suitcase Theory — A working theory of travelling light
Packing
The one-bag rule is a constraint, not an achievement
Travelling with a single bag is not about minimalism. It is about removing an entire category of failure from every journey.
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Airports & Flying
Connection times: what the minimum actually assumes
The minimum connection time printed by an airport is a technical figure with specific assumptions. Most of them will not apply to…
Trains & Ground
Overnight trains are accommodation, and should be priced that way
Comparing a berth to a seat is the wrong comparison. Compare it to a seat plus a hotel plus a transfer.
Booking & Money
Card fees abroad: the three charges nobody separates
Foreign transaction fees, ATM charges and dynamic currency conversion are three different costs, and only one is unavoidable.
Booking & Money
What travel insurance actually declines, and why
Most declined claims fall into a handful of categories, and almost all of them are avoidable at the point of purchase.
Where You Sleep
How to judge a hotel from the listing without staying in it
Photographs are curated, ratings are inflated, and the useful information is in three places most people skip.
Packing
All packing →Packing
The one-bag rule is a constraint, not an achievement
Travelling with a single bag is not about minimalism. It is about removing an entire category of failure from every journey.
Packing
Carry-on electronics: the rules that vary and the ones that do not
Batteries, drones and power banks are governed by international rules, national ones and airline policy, and the three do not agree.
Packing
Why the bag weighs more on the way home
The return leg is where allowances are breached, and the reason is structural rather than a failure of discipline.
Airports & Flying
All airports & flying →Airports & Flying
Liquids rules exist because of one specific 2006 plot
The 100ml limit is not arbitrary security theatre. Understanding where it came from also explains why it is finally changing.
Airports & Flying
Connection times: what the minimum actually assumes
The minimum connection time printed by an airport is a technical figure with specific assumptions. Most of them will not apply to…
Airports & Flying
A seat map tells you more than where you sit
Row numbers, blocked rows and the shape of the cabin encode information the booking page never states outright.
Trains & Ground
All trains & ground →Trains & Ground
Overnight trains are accommodation, and should be priced that way
Comparing a berth to a seat is the wrong comparison. Compare it to a seat plus a hotel plus a transfer.
Trains & Ground
Rail passes are usually the wrong answer, and sometimes the right one
A pass wins on specific patterns of travel and loses badly on others. The break-even is easy to calculate and rarely calculated.
Trains & Ground
Rail fares are set by three different systems at once
A train ticket may be priced like a commodity, like an airline seat, or like a public service, and the three behave nothing alike.
Booking & Money
All booking & money →Booking & Money
Card fees abroad: the three charges nobody separates
Foreign transaction fees, ATM charges and dynamic currency conversion are three different costs, and only one is unavoidable.
Booking & Money
What travel insurance actually declines, and why
Most declined claims fall into a handful of categories, and almost all of them are avoidable at the point of purchase.
Booking & Money
Airline pricing is buckets of inventory, not a rising curve
Fares do not creep upward day by day. They step, because seats are sold in blocks and each block has its own price.
Where You Sleep
All where you sleep →Where You Sleep
How to judge a hotel from the listing without staying in it
Photographs are curated, ratings are inflated, and the useful information is in three places most people skip.
Where You Sleep
Hostels, guesthouses and the middle nobody books
Between a hostel dorm and a chain hotel sits a category that is consistently better value and consistently overlooked.
Where You Sleep
Check-in times exist because of housekeeping, not policy
The gap between checkout and check-in is a cleaning schedule, which is why it can sometimes be negotiated and sometimes cannot.
Travel Routine
All travel routine →
Travel Routine
Jet lag has a direction, and that changes what works
Flying east and flying west are different physiological problems. Almost all generic jet lag advice ignores this.
Travel Routine
Doing laundry on the road is a planning decision
How you handle washing determines how much you carry, which determines almost everything else about a trip.
Travel Routine
A travel day works better as a routine than as willpower
The days you move are when things get lost, missed and forgotten, because the ordinary structure that prevents that is absent.