I don’t remember where I got the link to this list of 50 Years of Travel Tips — it might have been on Kottke.org or something he linked to — but it’s got some great ones! Highlights:
Don’t balk at the spendy price of admission for a museum or performance. It will be a tiny fraction of your trip’s total cost and you invested too much and have come too far to let those relative minor fees stop you from seeing what you came to see.
The most significant criteria to use when selecting travel companions is: do they complain or not, even when complaints are justified? No complaining! Complaints are for the debriefing afterwards when travel is over.
Sketchy travel plans and travel to sketchy places are ok. Take a chance. If things fall apart, your vacation has just turned into an adventure. Perfection is for watches. Trips should be imperfect. There are no stories if nothing goes amiss.
You can get an inexpensive and authentic meal near a famous tourist spot simply by walking at least five blocks away from the epicenter.
If you are starting out and have seen little of the world, you can double the time you spend traveling by heading to the places it is cheapest to travel. If you stay at the budget end, you can travel twice as long for half price. Check out The Cheapest Destination Blog. In my experience, these off-beat destinations are usually worth visiting.
The best souvenirs from a trip are your memories of the trip so find a way to memorialize them; keep a journal, send updates to a friend, take a sketchbook, post some observations, make a photo book.
When asking someone for a restaurant recommendation, don’t ask them where is a good place you should eat; ask them where they eat. Where did they eat the last time they ate out?
The authors also have a newsletter with regular travel tips and brief discussions of travel topics: Nomadico. Unfortunately, they host it on Substack, but there’s an RSS feed so that’s something.