27 Genius Travel Hacks So Clever, Thieves Won’t Even Try to Steal Your Stuff
Isn’t it wild how tourism has bounced back like a boomerang on a trampoline? The United States is gearing up for a whopping 85.2 million international visitors in 2025—surpassing pre-pandemic times! So, with the travel bug biting harder than ever, who hasn’t found themselves scrambling over packing hacks or hunting for tips on how to keep their stuff safe without turning into a stressball? Well, buckle up, because we dove deep into some Reddit treasure troves where seasoned travelers spill their secrets—from managing your documents with ninja-like precision to packing smart enough to rival a pro. Trust me, these nuggets of wisdom might just change how you hit the road next time. Ready to unpack these genius travel hacks?
In many places around the world, tourism is back and in full swing. The United States, for example, expects international visitor arrivals to surpass pre-pandemic 2019 levels in 2025 with 85.2 million.
So in order to make the most out of our holidays, we decided to dig through the internet for useful travel tips and found a few Reddit threads where people have been sharing their favorite packing hacks, smart techniques for managing documents, and other gems. Continue scrolling to check them out!
Never forget your Towel.Just about the most massively useful thing any interstellar Hitchhiker can carry. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the beady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward of noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course you can dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.
A proud salute to the all-mighty Douglas Adams.
Clean up your home/room before you leave. Once you return home, possibly exhausted from all the travelling – you can just crash.
For a trip of a week or more, sit down and figure out what clothes you’ll need and how much money you should bring.
Then bring half the clothes and twice the money. You’ll probably still bring back unworn clothes, and be out of money.
Note: This does not apply to underwear. Bring all of those.
My tip is to download the map of the towns you are visiting. You can do that easily in the Google Maps app. If you have the map downloaded on your phone you can easily find your way around town even if you don’t have any internet connection. It won’t show you the route you should walk from A to B, but through the magic of GPS you will still see where you currently are and if you are moving in the right direction.
I know I’m going to get slack for this because Walmart. But I like to put in an order at the Walmart for pick up when we go to Orlando. I order diapers, snacks for the kids, sun screen etc. I pick the order up when we get there. We save $$$ because we have snacks and breakfast at our hotel. Plus then we don’t need to pack diapers and other baby items.
For international travel, I’d say call your credit card/bank ahead of time to let them know what country you’ll be staying in. Make copies of your passport, and know where the embassy is located. Make sure you know the rules, customs and laws of the country you’re visiting. And never put your money in one place, split it up and put it in your front pockets.
Pack a complete outfit in your carry-on. Delayed baggage is extremely common and it’s best to ensure you have backup clothes so you can at least wash them without having to hang around a hotel in a robe half of the day just to have some clean undies.
Learn a few key phrases in the language of the country you’re in. Ex: hello, thank you, I am lost, where is the bathroom, etc. Have a phrase book handy. Many countries now have a high English-speaking population but you never know. And it makes you look like a more considerate tourist.
Put a big ribbon on your big black suitcase to distinguish it from all the others at baggage claim.
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