Kristen Briggs, our Adventure Development Manager weighs in with her best adventure tips:

As the Adventure Development Manager at Inspired Adventures, I’m asked a lot of travel-related questions and I’m expected to know the answers! Luckily I have a fair bit of travelling experience behind me.

But if you’re a first-time traveller (as I once was), you may not know what to pack or what to leave behind. So if you don’t know the difference between a Therm-a-Rest and a Polartec, I’ve compiled my top five tips for travelling like a pro…

1. Batteries in your sleeping bag

I have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro twice. For anyone else who has trekked in cold climates or at altitude, you know that batteries run out very quickly in cold weather. So try slipping your batteries in the bottom of your sleeping bag overnight to stop them from draining.

2. Always carry a pillowcase

When you embark on adventure travel, you never quite know where you’ll end up. Carrying your own pillowcase serves many purposes from the obvious covering of perhaps a not-so-fresh pillowcase in a local guesthouse, to the perfect place to store your washing. When travelling try stuffing a jumper into your pillowcase as a makeshift pillow.

3. Cards equal camaraderie

From snap to 500, a deck of cards can provide hours of fun for long nights spent under the stars. As a tour leader and as a participant, I’ve found that a good card game brings the team together at the end of the day. Even for those not playing, the camaraderie of a card game is undeniable.

4. Keep warm

In extremely cold climates, you’ll find that it’s quite hard to keep your extremities warm. In some cases, even in destinations that are warm during the day, temperatures can drop to near freezing at night. So if you’ve forgotten to pack thermal gloves, cut a thumbhole in a pair of woollen or thermal socks to make mittens. Another of my favourite travelling tricks is to fill my water bottles with hot water at night and put them in my sleeping bag for toasty tootsies.

5. Get a good night’s rest

When travelling, a good night’s sleep is vital to ensure you can pack everything into every day. This means that even if you’ve never used them before, you should always pack earplugs. Whether it’s a noisy, nasal tent mate or the sounds of local wildlife, a set of reusable earplugs will ensure you have a peaceful rest and wake up refreshed, ready for new adventures.

Travelling is a learned art and with every new adventure, you will find new and inventive ways to get through the tough, wet, scorching hot and freezing cold times. So throw away your watch, open your mind and adapt to the rhythm and flow of your travel destination—the world is waiting to amaze you.

About Kristen

Kristen is a keen explorer and has travelled to some of the world’s most remote destinations, including Mount Kilimanjaro, and the jungles of Central America and Southeast Asia. She joined the team at Inspired Adventures in 2011 and has since lead more than 10 adventures.

Kristen recently returned from sailing around the Tahitian Islands and would one day love to explore the Petra ruins in Jordan.

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