Travel Tips from Brad

• • A few years ago, I got a great tip from a flight attendant—always travel with an apple and a water bottle. Fantastic advice.  I have one more item to add to the mix—a cereal bar.
  • Stretch. Make it your mission to stretch at least once an hour while on an airplane.  With all that water you are drinking, your likely trips to the bathroom should make this easy.
  • Invest in noise-cancelling earphones—no further explanation necessary. Totally worth it.
  • Travel with tea bags. You can get endless hot water on an airplane.  I love herbal tea—it’s delicious and keeps you hydrated.
  • Here’s my big power tip—stop trying to control the situation and embrace the surprises.  Just go with it.  The more you try to plan ahead and pack for every contingency, the more you set yourself up for impossible expectations.  
  • This one is going to be hard—give up on Yelp and TripAdvisor.   They just make you crazy and in the end, you are still in for a surprise.  When have you ever spent an hour on these sites and felt it was a good investment of time?  You still get to enjoy a new experience no matter how many reviews you read.
  • Travel with a toothbrush. After a really tough flight or a really long day, just knowing that you have a toothbrush makes everything seem better.
  • Bring oatmeal packets on the road—they’re cheap, easy to pack and delish.  I love to have them on hand when I arrive late to a hotel and just don’t want to deal with the hassle of going out to eat.  
  • Can we talk about pillows?  Leave them at home. Before your pillow was resting on your airplane seat, there was a guy with a cold sitting there and before him there was a 4 year old covered in play dough.  Any questions?

There you have it! These are my top travel tips—what are yours?  Share them below in the comments.