Scarlet sweaters and tape: Readers share their travel hacks

The next time you’re on a plane and the person next to you doesn’t seem to own anything that isn’t bright red, it could be Celia Paerels. Kindle case, sweater, sunglasses, headphones, charging cable, everything in shocking scarlet: this way she avoids leaving anything in the chair or the seat pocket.

“Everyone is pointing to red,” said Ms. Paerels, 62, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. “When you see a cardinal, you know it’s a cardinal. You don’t notice a sparrow.”

Ms. Paerels is one of more than 180 New York Times readers who responded to our invitation in September to share their favorite travel tips. A large number of the tips focused on packing (ziploc bags), sleeping better in hotels (curtain tie-clips) or freeing up more space on planes (plenty of strategies for getting empty seats). But a few ideas stood out as particularly clever or unusual.

In addition to Ms. Paerels’ color-coded advice, here are nine of the best.

1. Put the language where you can see it.

Technology has helped break the language barriers. Translation programs are plentiful, and travelers can always cram a few in before the trip Duolingo sessions. But it’s inevitable that you’ll still accidentally say “goodnight” to someone over morning coffee as your brain struggles to find the right words.

Derek Middleton, 42, from Dublin, has a solution in the palm of his hand. It takes a screenshot of common phrases like “Hello,” “Good morning/good evening,” “Please/thank you,” “Excuse me,” and “Do you speak English?” and turns that image into the lock screen of his phone, so that he gets a language lesson every time he looks at his phone and always has the correct terms at hand.

“I’ve found in my travels that people are much more receptive if you make an effort to speak the language,” Mr. Middleton said, “and that usually starts with laughter as I butcher the words.”

2. Pack candy for the crew.

Goodwill goes a long way toward making flying smoother, especially as planes become more cramped and the prospect of unruly passengers sours the mood among flight crews. Mary Anne Casey, 57, from Alcochete, Portugal, has a way to sweeten the experience: When she and her husband board a flight, they give the crew a bag of individually sealed bite-sized chocolates to share.

She recalled once, as they were getting off a flight in Lisbon, “the head stewardess ran after us and started giving us little bottles of port wine. She was sorry that she had forgotten to thank us for the chocolates during the flight.”

3. Avoid long lines with the US Mobile Passport Control app.

You don’t see many happy faces standing in the seemingly endless line at immigration after an overnight flight. Sarah Miller, 62, Corvallis, Oregon, recommends using U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mobile passport control app to shorten the wait.

““I was able to avoid a long line in Portland when I returned from a trip to England last June,” she said. “The standard passport control line consisted of several hundred passengers, and there was no one in the MPC line. Once I opened the app, I was able to take a photo, answer a few questions (all done while walking to the appropriate line) and I was done.

The Global access program offers some similar benefits but costs $100, requires an in-person interview and currently has a backlog of applications up to 11 months; the Mobile Passport Control app is available for use at 33 U.S. international airports for free and without wait time. “It’s a time-saving tool for those of us who don’t travel abroad often,” Ms Miller said.

4. Take your Global Entry card with you, also for domestic flights.

If you sign up for Global Entry, the provided ID card can help speed up border crossings from Canada and Mexico, but it can also be a lifesaver when traveling within the United States.

When Charlie Bishop, 73, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, discovered that his driver’s license could not be scanned at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint for a domestic flight, he was able to proceed with his Global Entry card.

“Pack it separately from your driver’s license,” Mr. Bishop suggested, “so if you lose your wallet while traveling, you can still board your return flight and no longer have to worry about replacing it driving license when you get home.”

5. Book reserve flights with miles.

If you have enough frequent flyer points on multiple airlines, Robert Cohen, 79, of Bixby, Oklahoma, suggests using them to book backup flights on alternate airlines in case something goes wrong with your preferred flight.

“But don’t forget to cancel the backups on the day of travel before they leave so that the unused miles are redeposited,” Mr. Cohen warned. These closing times vary per airline and can be up to 10 minutes before departure. You may also want to book the outbound and return flights separately rather than as a round trip, he said, because “some airlines will not allow cancellation of only part of the itinerary.”

6. Know the secret stash of toilet paper on airplanes.

Mary Jane Cuyler, 42, of Oslo, recalled that she was about 10 hours into a 15-hour flight between Los Angeles and Sydney – “I believe the plane was a Boeing 777” – when she noticed there was no toilet paper in it. the toilet was. She sought out a flight attendant, who pressed a lever under the mirror box and, “much to my surprise,” she said, it flipped open to reveal spare toilet paper and paper towels. “I have since been able to solve that problem myself (although it is rare),” Ms. Cuyler said.

7. Pack a power strip.

Electrical outlets are a problem for international travelers as long as there are devices that can be plugged into them. And even as more and more devices can adapt to different voltages, travelers are simply taking more things with them that require energy.

That’s why Andrea Diamond of Montville, NJ, typically takes a five- or six-plug surge protector with her on international trips. “That way I only need one adapter to plug the power strip into the wall socket and I can charge multiple devices,” she says.

She usually packs the power strip in her checked luggage, but recalls once being stopped for extra scrutiny at a security checkpoint, she said, because “I had a bunch of charging cables in my backpack, and I guess that looked suspicious in the – blasting machine.”

8. Refresh your memory with photo bookmarks.

If you take a lot of photos, the process of figuring out what’s what can turn into a post-trip headache. Fred Essenwein, 78, of Colonia, NJ, has a trick for that. “I take a photo of the name of the city or monument, or even just an entrance ticket, before I photograph the scenic views,” he said. These ‘little bookmarks’ help him remember each place as he puts together photo albums after each trip.

Mr. Essenwein uses online services such as Shutterfly for about ten years to create his photo books, whose subjects included a cruise to Antarctica and classic American cars he saw in Cuba.

9. Use masking tape to make a keepsake.

English travel writer Bruce Chatwin inspired Doug Colligan’s decidedly analogue way of documenting his explorations. Since the 1970s, Mr. Colligan, 79, of Amherst, Mass., has worn a slim one Moleskinenotebook, the brand of which is reportedly a favorite of Chatwin, and a small roll of tape.

“I stick on the pages business cards of good restaurants or shops worth revisiting, as well as brochures of sights and museum shows and tickets of memorable concerts,” Mr. Colligan explains. “The notebook becomes a travel diary and a cheerful souvenir.”

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