Useful before and after,
- Paper copy of your flight and hotel itinerary: times, addresses, and phone number. Electronic is fine, but paper is works when phone or batteries fail. You don’t want land, get a taxi and say, “Take me to the International Hotel,” only to have the driver say, “Which one?” And you not have the address. Paper’s a great back up for super emergencies. Consider a copy for someone you trust.
- Magazine or book to read during waiting times? Most of us are to excited to read. Read on your phone, just be sure to save enough battery for the landing. Don’t assume a USB charge port on the plane.
- Small backpack for personal hygiene products and other things for use on the plane. On long fights, and especially over seas flights, if going straight to the office or meeting someone, I like to cleanup on the plane or in the airport before meeting them.
- Consider a change of clothes for the unexpected: spilled food or your checked luggage not arriving.
- You maybe flying in hot weather, however a long sleeve shirt will keep you comfortable when the air conditioning kicks in at high altitudes.
- A pen for filling out documents when flying internationally.
- A notebook for travel notes or for writing a journal. Notes are great for when returning to the same location, to remember the subways stops for shops, museums, restaurant, favorites to revisit.
For a quiet undisturbed flight, have an MP3 player, ear plugs/headphones, an eye mask, a window seat.
- Cloth sleeping eye mask, a dark-out mask. If you don’t have one, ask the flight attendant for one.
- MP3 player with earbuds that insert into the ears. Rubber insert earbuds are pretty good for blocking the plane and passenger noises. I also have a pair of noise cancelling headphones which are better for quieting the world, but I prefer the compact earbuds because of less to carry around.
- For flights over 4 hours, I prefer my compact MP3 player because the battery keeps going and going. Whereas my phone’s battery would run down and I want to save the phone for communications and maps.
- Maybe a portable charge battery to charge your phone.
- A window seat so that isle walker do not disturb.
Buy a notebook at a local shop. It’s a souvenir and handy to make notes and store things like a subway map that you use and marked up.
Bon voyage…
Live like you're in the movies 