I am a professional speaker and have been traveling every
week for over 30 years. Here are some of my favorite Travel Tips:
I use potato chip bag clips to clip curtains, (They
are much better than clothes pins) I also carry duct tape to tape the right and
left edges of the curtains to the walls. I also use it to go over the clock and
other little white lights that seem to be on the light switches, floor plugs,
lamps and all over hotel rooms these days. I hate them.
I carry a hot pink velour tract suit jacket to keep warm and
to put over the bed side lamp, to keep the horrible blue light bulb light from
keeping me awake and to give my hotel room a nice, soft pink glow. It's lovely. I also carry the red piece of plastic from Wal Mart to tape over other
blue lights.
Even though I ask that my hotel room bill NOT be put under
my door as it wakes me up!!! Hotels still do it. So I tape a note on the outside bottom of the door of my hotel room. With a drawing of the bill under the door with a
circle and a cross through it. By the way, they still untape the sign sometimes
and ram the bill through!!!
Sometimes the hotel room air is very, very dry and hard on my voice as I am a professional speaker. There are too many germs in the shower to run the shower steam and that wastes water, so I take a wash cloth and soak it in hot water and breathe that steam and hot water in and sometimes lay it on my face and lay down for a moment, so it's also calming.
I work out when I travel and if I strain anything I either
use the dry cleaning bag and fill it with ice to wrap say a strained knee or my
shower cap! The ice bucket liner, the dry cleaning bag in the closet or
my shower cap can also be used to pack a wet bathing suit or spilled make up or
shampoo.
Because I have hacked the ice bag trick so many times I also
pack a few gallon zip lock freezer bags. Freezer bags or the ice bucket
lining can be used to go over the channel changer so you don’t have to touch
that germy device. I don’t typically watch TV when I travel, but sometimes I
need to comment on the body language of some public figure so I have it
ready.
I carry a pumice stone it can take off magic marker and
other stains from your hands if you are very gentle in a pinch so can a cardboard
nail file.
I have a little photo of me with my family taped to a bent
piece of cardboard that I put on my bedside table in the hotel room. It's
wonderfully comforting.
I ask the bellman to unplug the mini fridge for me as the
sound drives me crazy, but I have figured out how to get behind almost any
cabinet to unplug it myself.
Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
