Travel Tips

We knew the trip itinerary beforehand so we were able to pre-purchase our free time tickets. For this trip we purchased entrance to St. Marks Basilica, Museo Correr and the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. We printed our tickets at home and had them available when we arrived at the location. 

Read the Avoiding Lines page on the Rick Steves website for more information.

In the process of deciding what we wanted see, including museums, restaurants, and other attractions, we added each item to a self curated Guide in Apple Maps. A similar feature is also available in Google Maps. I shared the Guide with Ronna so she had access to it too. Once added, we were one click away from walking or transit directions from wherever we were. This worked out great for navigating streets and the metro, and finding our way back to our hotel!

Knowing that we had a lot of walking in store, we began to walk at least 3 times a week 6 months prior to prepare. Along with this activity we looked at purchasing comfortable walking shoes for each of us and ended up getting Brooks Glycerin 20s and loved them! The nitrogen infused sole makes for a very soft and comfortable shoe. There are many other good shoes available.  We went to Dick's Sporting Goods and tried on lots of them before we decided.

We knew we would be taking lots and lots of pictures so we prepped our phones by making sure we had enough memory/space available. We went through and deleted old apps and offloaded messages to make sure we didn't run out of space. 

We use iPhones on the AT&T network in the US. AT&T offers a reasonable International plan that allowed us to use our phones as we would in the US for a minimal daily cost. This worked out well for us considering we needed to find locations, send texts and other items that came up. Other phone companies probably have similar options. You can find more information on the Rick Steves site here: Phones and Technology.

We used a travel adaptor power strip with an extension cord to our phone chargers. We used folding chargers that were easy to pack, similar to these (click here) There is some great information on the Rick Steves site on Electric Europe to help with this.

We did the Rick Steves 10 day Tour but were actually in Europe for a total of 3 weeks. To wash clothes, Ronna purchased laundry detergent sheets that were easily packed and we used the Rick Steves clothes line to hang clothes out to dry.

We used packing cubes that helped us keep things organized in our carry on luggage. Similar to these cubes in the Rick Steves store. See the great information on the Rick Steves site on Packing Light.