My favourites points from Robert Reid:
5. Try to accept all invitations — you really should have time for that cup of tea the silver-haired couple offer you from the balcony in their summer home in Zakopane, or go camping with that Hungarian film crew at a Russian gulag.6. Car passengers see less than bikers, bikers see less than walkers, walkers see less than stoppers — ie those who stop and watch.20. It’s OK to have an opinion of a place, but don’t think you ‘know’ a place after spending two/15/306 days there.27. Always go to visitors centers. Sometimes they give free cookies or popcorn, and the flirty staff sometimes invite you to go out and get drunk (nothing more), as they do in Bogotá.29. Buy a hat. Always buy a locally made hat.32. Russians look mean, but down deep they’re softies that will shame you with their warmth, feed your with their home-grown tomatoes, then intoxicate you with their suddenly produced frosted bottle of vodka. [Editor’s note: :D ]44. Travelling alone is something everyone should do at least once.Via kari-shma
Totally agree with the above tips, but here are some that I’ve come to appreciate from my own personal experience:
4. It’s wise to remember your passport. And don’t pack it in a checked-in suitcase like Louisianan Trey Williams did going to that study-abroad program to St Petersburg during that ‘first summer of Russia’ (1992).
17. It’s OK to get frustrated or mad sometimes, just try to keep it to yourself as much as you can.
18. No, you don’t have to take a group tour, or have advance reservations. But it doesn’t automatically make you a bad traveler if you do.
19. Too much hassle where you are? Look around. If you are in the majority — as foreign traveler — walk two blocks to another part of town, and get out of that tourist ghetto you’re probably in.
24. It’s OK to be uncomfortable, just be honest if something isn’t right for you.
31. Agree on a price before you close the door with any taxi — that is, if they have a door.
37. Take public transit — a tram (I LOVE trams), subway, ox cart — at least once, even if you don’t need to get where it’s going. So few Americans EVER take one, it’s sad.
38. Try to take pictures of things that might change: street signs, people’s shoes, homemade sandwich ads, key-maker tools, overly bright fashion, heavy metal haircuts, grandmothers selling a single toothbrush outside a Moscow subway station after the USSR fell. Old churches and statues rarely change much, some of that other stuff maybe gone tomorrow.
44. Travelling alone is something everyone should do at least once.
