Summer travels 2024

With the kids back to school this week, summer is officially over. In July Brian took a trip to Switzerland, while Sherri, Rowan, and Siena visited Nova Scotia. In August the whole family together embarked on a trip to Atlantic Canada, Greenland, and Iceland, visiting New York City briefly at the beginning, as well.

I made a pledge to keep a journal for my trips, one so I could actually remember what we did, but also to exercise that writing muscle daily. For how to share that journal, I debated a lot. A new email for each day of my trip seemed like a sure-fire way to lose subscribers (you all!). Putting everything in one email would be too long. In the end I decided to put the long form writing somewhere else, and then use this space to share some actionable travel tips or learnings, so that hopefully you get something out of this beyond my rambling.

So, first, click over to my Switzerland 2024 Travel Journal, where I recount my visit to Zurich, Wengen, Brig, Zermatt, and Thun.

As for travel tips, here are some of the random things that worked well for me or could be improved on. Your mileage may vary, of course.

1. If you want data service on your cell phone when traveling internationally, use Airalo. Yes, your plan in your home country may have a service that lets you do international roaming (AT&T calls ours International Day Pass), but it’s expensive. AT&T wanted $12 per 24 hour period, which would’ve totaled $132 for my entire trip. With Airalo, I bought 10GB of data service for $24. With a newer phone that supports eSIM’s, you can get set up with a new line in about 5 minutes.

2. Visiting Switzerland specifically? Consider how many trains, cable cars, gondolas, funiculars, and boats you’ll be taking while in Switzerland, then do the math on a Swiss Half Fare card. As of this writing it runs around USD142 and “entitles passengers who are resident abroad to travel on trains, buses, boats and most mountain lifts or railways at half price” for 30 days. It definitely helped in my case!

3. Consider taking your own sunscreen! Sunscreen was exceptionally expensive in Switzerland, like USD42 for a 200ml bottle of SPF30 Avène “sonnenspray”. Oof. I was lucky to have found a small tube in Zurich that miraculously lasted me exactly duration of my trip.

4. Overall I’m not happy with my journals for Switzerland and Iceland. I did an adequate job of capturing what I did (…I went here, I ate this, I did this other thing…) but what’s missing is stories and feelings. My writing is too… see, I don’t even know the word… sterile? Transactional? If you do read the Switzerland travel journal you’ll notice I start trying to capture feelings about halfway through, but it’s too little and it’s too late. If you’re going to journal your trip, please don’t make my mistakes!

5. If you’re planning to visit Iceland, you’ll likely land in the main international airport, Keflavik, early in the morning. If you’re coming from the US, you’ll have arrived on a red eye. Point is, your body will be destroyed, and you won’t be able to get into your hotel or Airbnb until mid-afternoon. You can start touring straight away to fill the time, but an alternate plan would be to book your accommodation starting for the night before you arrive. Then, send the hotel an email letting them know you’ll be showing up early the next day and not to consider you a No Show. Yes, this means paying Iceland prices for an additional night, but now you have a destination, with beds and shower, where you can leave your luggage and unwind.

6. Get Global Entry. Even if you only travel internationally once a year, I think it’s worth it. I’ve used it 4 times now, and each time I’ve waited no longer than 60 seconds to clear US passport control. If you don’t already have TSA Pre, you automatically get Pre as part of Global Entry.

7. If you’re traveling solo, you have to really lean into it OR find some groups to join. As a non-drinking introvert, I had challenges with loneliness or feeling out of place. Not ALL the time, mind you, but enough. I felt I had to find the right kind of restaurant to eat solo dinner at, as most were filled with families and couples. In my past, non-drinking life I could find a barstool and start up a conversation with someone there pretty easily; I don’t feel that’s on the table now. For future trips where I’m traveling by myself, I’d consider doing a tour group, at least for part of it, so that I have people to socialize and dine with.

I’ll follow up with the Iceland journal within the next few weeks. If you’re interested, I have my Switzerland 2019 journal online as well.

Questions, thoughts, feedback, and comments always welcome!