6 top tips for the travelling expat

According to popular belief, us expats ain’t loaded.

For many expats the annual trip home is not a holiday and certainly not relaxing. There is a lot of pressure on our time to spend time with our loved ones, whilst trying to rest a little and catch up with friends and their families. There just isn’t enough time and something has to suffer, it’s usually the rest and relaxation.

Hubby and I travel alone so we can stretch the visits with the families but have decided it’s not really working for us and with so many family and friends travelling out to see us, we’ve decided to travel together from now on. There will be additional costs involved such as accommodation as it’s impossible for us both to stay with anyone for 2 weeks and we will need to hire a car. To date I’ve been able to borrow my parents car, but as they go down to one car soon, this option will no longer be possible.

I’ve been in the UK on this visit for 7 weeks, sorting out schooling for the youngest child and evicting tenants. Hubby and I are likely to return to the UK in September to settle son into his boarding school and I thought I’d share some of the things we are planning to do on our next visit. (finances permitting)

1.       Spend a night at a hotel on arrival, to sort out sim cards, finances, hire a car, buy phone card. Ensure we have everyone's phone numbers, hire a sat nav.

2.       Stay in accommodation that is accessible for family. They are in Bath, Gloucester, Monmouth, and Leeds. This will be dependent on price

3.       First planned visit is to Sister in laws to collect our post, we use her address for all our correspondence

4.       Visit to the supermarket to stock up on essentials, toiletries, basic food stuff that we find our family don’t stock (personal preference not a complaint)

5.       Let people know where we are staying in advance of our trip, giving them enough notice to make plans to come and visit us or let us know when they are in so we can make plans for travel to them

6.       Spend our final night at the airport, via Sister in Laws house to collect any additional post, return hire car and enjoy the last night and relax

 

Top 7 tips to saving money as an expat traveller

If, as an expat,  like me you travel from place to place visiting family and friends, make the most of the hospitality offered.

I travel with suitcase and hand luggage, it’s difficult negotiating public transport. I always feel obliged to bring a gift or pay for a meal to say thank you for the offer for collecting me and letting me stay at their house for a while.

But there are other ways you can repay their hospitality without it costing you a fortune, as to be honest, sometimes a hotel and room service would be cheaper.

1.       Use their toiletries and towels. Seriously lugging extra stuff around isn’t necessary, don’t feel guilty, these people are putting you up because you are their friend

2.       Make sure they take you up on an offer to babysit, or collect child from school, sit with their child and do homework, listen to reading, take over the bedtime routine

3.       Cook the family a meal while you’re there, unless they’re obsessive about their kitchen and
           have fancy fads.

4.       Do the washing up or load and unload the dishwasher after dinner

5.       Hang the washing out, take it in, do the ironing

6.       Tidy up after yourself, use the bathroom after they’ve finished with it

7.       Give your host family some time to themselves, go to your room if you sense tension, go for a
           walk if you’re sleeping on their sofa.

Your host isn’t on holiday but they’ll welcome the break from routine if you just help out a little in some of the ways above.

Can you add anymore tips to the list or are you a host who wishes there was something their visitors did or didn’t do?