Keep currency from your departing country when a layover is involved
Travel hack guinea pig at your service! I actually came up with this one just as the flight attendants came down the aisle with the food cart, on my AirAsia flight from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, on my three flight journey to Cloud9, Philippines. I was pretty excited to trial this travel hack and it was a success, so here it is!
Instead of desperately trying to spend your last penny at the overpriced souvenir shops at the airport prior to leaving the country, because the foreign currency will be of no use back home, pocket it! Why? Because it’s the perfect solution if you have a short layover or overnight layover in another country before your final destination.
I kept the highest note available from Thailand which was 1000 Thai Baht (about $40AUD) to pay for my onboard snacks, knowing that the change I would get back from the break would be in my country of destination’s currency! A simple “sorry it’s all I have left” will serve as an apology to the attendant as you pay for one snack, while she robs the last of the change in the cash box. Most airlines will accept payment for on-board services from both the departing and arriving countries you are traveling between, but the change usually always comes back in the destination’s currency.
No need to visit the currency exchange at your layover stop, where they will charge sky high commission fees, nor a trip to the ATM and pay the big withdrawal fees when you arrive at the layover country. Even if you do need to get cash out later at the ATM at least you’ll have enough money to cover transport to and from the airport to your accommodation (if spending a night there) and food on the go. You could even get really cheeky and break a second big note towards the end of the flight, as by this stage they would have plenty of cash in the kitty!
Music on the Go
With so many different types of music apps and programs out there it’s hard to know which one to choose. I have an old school mp3 player as I can play it 24 hours straight without having to recharge. Music truly is a saviour when embarking in tedious travels. As I recently purchased a new laptop I didn’t want to risk downloading free mp3 files nor pay for a program. I stumbled across a brilliant program called “Youtube to mp3“, which allows you to drag and drop any Youtube clip into the program window and it then converts the file to mp3. Totally free and safe! So stoked I can download endless songs!