Travel tips and advice: The 20 things we only do on holidays http://www.traveller.com.au/travel-tips-and-advice-the-20-things-we-only-do-on-holidays-h0x7co

1. SHARE We all have them. Strange little foibles. Rituals that have become
an intrinsic part of any holiday. It doesn't matter if you're visiting
somewhere new or the same place you've been to every summer for
the last 30 years – if you don't do a certain activity or eat a certain
food, it just feels wrong. Like the holiday somehow didn't count.
We all have our fair share of curious holiday habits. Some of them
will sound very familiar, others... perhaps not.
1. Drink booze at 6am
The one advantage of the timeless, twilight-zone quality of the
airport is that it's perfectly acceptable to get yourself a drink before
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Travel tips and advice: The 20 things we only do on
holidays
Penny Walker
Champagne for breakfast? Why not, you're on holidays. Photo: Alamy
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2. your flight. Even if it's 6am. Hey – it's 5pm somewhere.
2. Go on an airport shopping spree
Photo: Alamy
This could be because you like a bargain and are saving on tax. It
could also be because you get to the airport and realise that you left
packing until the last minute and aren't as prepared as you should
be. Whatever the reason, the hour before your flight is usually
spent buying more travel adaptors, armfuls of sweets, another pair
of headphones, and unnecessary clothes. "Every single time I visit
an airport, I simply have to buy a shirt," said one of our editors.
"It's pretty much the only clothes shopping I ever do."
3. Take a taxi
You wouldn't dream of getting a taxi at home. It's public transport,
walking, or, at a push, a service like Uber or Swift. But all
reservations about pricey taxis go out of the window as soon as you
touch down on foreign soil. Who cares about the cost? You're
getting a taxi to the hotel. You can work out the public transport
system after a drink. Or not.
4. Pay too much for hotel extras
You never eat macadamia nuts at home. But when you find them in
a little jar beside the mini-bar. Must... eat... nuts....
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Whether it's splashing out $8 on a stingy tub of Pringles or
indulging in an extortionately overpriced and often mediocre
cocktail at the actual bar, we're suckers for shelling out too much
for little extras at our hotel. Partly because we're so tired after our
journey, partly because we're on holiday, so just past caring.
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3. 5. Refuse help with your bags
Photo: Alamy
You finally make it to your hotel and are asked "can I take your
bags?" The answer is a resounding "no". You've carted them to the
airport, checked them in, lugged them off the baggage carousel,
wheeled them to your crushingly expensive taxi and, in some
instances, managed to get them from the taxi to the check-in desk.
After all that, you're damned if you'll start paying someone to
move your bags at this late stage in the game.
6. Take advice from your waiter
You tell Australian waiters what you want and then watch them
scurry away. But waiters on holiday are another matter entirely.
You activitely seek their advice - and take it - without a second
thought. And not just on the best dishes to order, but where to
shop, the best sights, and the quickest way back to the hotel.
7. Talk to strangers
On holiday, suddenly everyone wants to make new friends. How
many times have you struck up a conversation with the next table
at a restaurant at home? Strut into a beachside taverna, however,
and you're suddenly a socialite.
8. Commit theft (sort of)
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4. Photo: Alamy
Now we don't mean bathrobes or towels. But after being charged so
much for those macadamia nuts, we try to get our revenge on the
hotel by pinching little things – espresso capsules, shampoo,
shower gel... Sometimes there's a sewing kit that finds its way into
your bag, never to be used.
9. Check the weather forecast in another location
Don't believe anyone that tells you they don't this. They're lying.
Everyone checks the weather at home, just to make sure it's
raining.
10. Overestimate your reading needs
It takes you weeks to get through a novel at home, what with kids,
chores, work, Netflix... Yet you always pack at least five kilos of
literature for your seven-night break. And then read three chapters
because your children have made their own holiday plans that
don't involve reading.
11. Eat food you don't normally eat
Photo: Alamy
All routine goes out the window. Breakfast? Goodbye cornflakes,
hello slabs of smoked salmon, cornichons, and a big slice of cake
from the hotel buffet. Holidays seem to involve eating your own
body weight in fish. Perhaps it's a by-product of being close to the
sea. You suddenly want to eat it all.

5. Then there's the sheer childlike wonder of visiting the local
supermarket to see what weird and wonderful things the locals like
to eat and trying as many of them as you can. Often against your
own better judgement. You only live once, right?
12. Take part in eating challenges
Usually reserved for the final night. And usually one for dad, in a
desperate bid to impress the kids and win a T-shirt.
13. Sleep in the afternoon
Maybe it's because the shops have closed. Maybe it's too much sun.
Maybe it's all that salmon. Whatever the reason, afternoon naps
only become a fixture twice a year: at Christmas and on holiday.
14. Buy postcards you never send – and other pointless tat
Photo: Alamy
How many unused postcards are out there in the world? It must be
millions. They're a great momento – they have the name of your
location printed in big letters across a picture so it's easy to
remember exactly where you were. They you get home and put it in
a shoebox under the bed. Never to be seen again.
The same is true of fridge magnets, thimbles and cheap
destination-specific tat – generally bought from a street hawker.
Carved Sudanese pyramid? Solar-powered Japanese sumo-wrestler
figure? Tuk tuk made out of a coke can? Yeah, go on then...
15. Get lost
Some like to do this on purpose. There's no better or quicker way of
learning a city then getting lost. It helps to have a map if you get
desperate. But make sure it's a paper one. Google Maps sucks you
into its reassuring warmth so quickly that soon you'll be walking
around with your head stuck in your phone, failing to notice that
you're strolling past the Eiffel Tower.
16. Visit obscure museums

6. The Icelandic Phallological Museum, Iceland Photo: Alamy
Imagine your better half suggesting a Saturday afternoon trip to
the local ethnographical museum to see a smashing new ceramics
exhibition. You'd call the exorcist. But on a city break suddenly the
most obscure cultural attractions develop a magnetic pull. But
darling, the guidebook says it's one of Hungary's six best
museums...
17. Watch Bloomberg
We all do it. Knowing full well that in some countries, the only
channel we might be able to get in English is BBC World or
Bloomberg. Which will be showing something particularly dry like
a long report on Singapore's economy. Some also buy a local
newspaper. That they can't read. To add to the box with the
postcards.
18. Gamble on random duty-free at the airport
Why keep those leftover euros for your next trip to the Med when
you can buy ouzo now? Nearly everyone has an odd bottle of booze
in the cupboard, sticky and gathering dust, that was too intriguing
to resist at the airport – banana-flavoured Malibu, limoncello,
coconut-flavoured Bacardi, snake wine... You end up trying to foist
it off on friends that you think are drunk enough not to notice how
terrible it is at Christmas parties.
19. Purchase a Toblerone

7. Toblerone: Available at airports universally. Photo: Alamy
Are Toblerones bought anywhere else apart from airports? People
do, of course, spend an obscene amount of money on other
overpriced confectionary, but these triangular treats seem to be a
firm favourite.
20. Buy your favourite Aussie food the moment you get
back
There's always something that you buy as soon as you touch down
on home soil. Most Australians heading away for any time longer
than a weekend will suffer separation anxiety for being deprived of
Vegemite on toast and a decent flat white. And we all know Aussies
do coffee better than any other country in the world.
The Telegraph, London
See also: Sorry world, Australia's coffee is better than yours
See also: The secret to getting into airport lounges when you're
flying economy
Penny Walker
Traveller
Mar 8 2018
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