As you may know, The Art of Charm just finished our first European tour, completing programs in both London, England and Munich, Germany. We also had a lot of fun along the way, and during a discussion with Alex Weber, we realized there are some great travel tips we’d like to share with you guys. Enjoy!
Want to infiltrate the nightlife scene?
Do some daytime approaches and ask people your age where are cool places to go that night, or on the weekend. If they respond with something like “we’re going to XYZ club,” you can pretty easily invite yourself here. Have people save their numbers in your phone so you’re sure it’s correct, then send a text to confirm.
Staff at cool hostels are also great to ask about bars and clubs.
If you want to get a phone, the easiest way is to buy an unlocked tri- or quad-band GSM phone (try craigslist) and buy a cheap prepaid SIM card. If you’re going to be traveling among different countries, it may be worth it to spring for a worldwide phone and data plan. They can be pretty reasonable, or expensive. Shop around a bit.
Do any of you guys have tips about international phone plans? Leave a comment below!
Making the rendez-vous can be a bit of a challenge, so do your homework! First, read up on the culture to see if people tend to be punctual (Germany, Switzerland, etc) or are more… “relaxed” about time (France, Spain, the Caribbean, etc). Get a map so you know how to get around town, and get places on time even they are unlikely to be. Bring something to amuse yourself (books work great here). Send them a text to let them know you’re on the way, and keep it to simple language–now isn’t the time to banter!
Text can lead to clearer communication since you have time to read, translate, and edit your message before sending it. Body language accounts for so much of communication when you’re not an expert in the language that phone calls can be very challenging.
Buy a multi-country outlet adapter and bring a native power strip and you’ll be able to charge all of your ninja tools at once. This is especially awesome if you’re travelling with other people from the same country–they’ll appreciate your foresight.
Tipping and culture are different everywhere, so again, do your research. VirtualTourist.com is one great site, Alex recommends WikiTravel.org
Buy tickets for the train/bus/tram. If you don’t, you can get taken to the police and have to pay fines, it can seriously ruin your trip and your wallet. When I was in Budapest before, I didn’t buy a ticket and almost missed a train out of the city when the conductor found out. I had to run to an ATM to pay the fine, and barely made it back! Always buy a ticket.
Slide through airline security.
Wear as little metal and suspicious-looking clothes as possible. Avoid boots, as many airports will require you to take them off for inspection (even overseas!) If you can eschew a belt, do it.
Finally, one more trick from Alex that we all do now: bring an empty water bottle through security, (Sigg and Nalgene are two famous brands, but you can use anything here–even an empty Poland Spring bottle) then fill it up from a water fountain/sink by your gate. Presto! Free water on the plane.
Any other ninja travelers want to share their tips? Leave them below 
