Top 3 Travel Apps for Traveling to The Philippines or Asia

Our Two Most-Used Phone Apps for Philippines Travel

We traveled to the Philippines for a month. We used many smartphone apps, travel and non-travel, on a regular basis. However, some of the apps helped us so much that we wanted to share here and in this video: Top 5 Travel Accessories & Apps For Month-Long Philippines Trip

Kayak Mobile App – Kayak, the online travel company, owned by Priceline (who also owns Booking.com, Agoda). Kayak Mobile, which is free and truly incredible, can do a lot more than search for hotels and flights.

The Kayak Mobile App can track flights and the best feature which many do not know about is that it can create an itinerary of your trips automatically when you email your hotel or flight bookings to trips@kayak.com. You can visualize your trip day-by-day in chronological order, so you will have a clear idea of your entire trip without double booking or overbooking anything.

We had hotel change every 1 or 2 days for our month-long trip, so the Kayak Mobile App helped us a lot in organising all our bookings together. Also, at the airport the Kayak Mobile App alerted us about flight delays, gate changes, and even our airport baggage carousel numbers long before they became available on the display board.

Grab – Many Asian countries don’t have Uber, but they have Grab. It’s a very handy app to call a taxi or bike if you don’t want to get scammed and avoid any hassle. We used Grab almost every day in the Philippines and it saved us a lot of time also.

Airalo – This is an eSIM provider that will save you a lot of time and hassle. You can install your destination country’s SIM before even leaving your home country and you will have the network when you land. We also installed a local physical SIM on our phones, but the pain and hassle will make me think twice before installing a physical SIM again.

Top 10 Things You Need to Know Before Flying Lynx Air

Lynx Air – What You Must Know

I flew with Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier Lynx Air from Halifax to Toronto and learned these top FAQs you must need to know before flying with Lynx Air next time.

1. Lynx Air doesn’t provide free carry-on luggage; you have to pay for it. However, they do provide 1 free personal item. I found their personal item size (6x13x17) to be slightly smaller than many other airlines.

2. If you need to, you can purchase checked or carry-on bags before you arrive at the airport to save money.

3. Always check-in online to make sure you have the flight and you may be able to get better seats for free.

4. No food, snacks, or drinks will be provided. You will only get a sad little cup of water.

5. There is no entertainment or anything like that whatsoever. Arrange your own.

6. There is no charging outlets. Bring your own power banks.

7. Lynx Air seats do not recline and don’t expect them to be comfortable like international flights.

8. Expect delays and cancellations. This is because Lynx Air does not have an abundance of planes.

9. I found their pre-boarding and on-board flight services to be not too bad. Lynx Air is a no-frill airline but I have to give their employees and flight attendants credit for being nice and providing good service. This is based on my own experience; your experience may vary.

10. Based on the facts I mentioned above, I would still fly with Lynx Air in the future to save money.

Merino Wool T-Shirt – My First Impressions of a Merino Tech T-Shirt

First Time Buying A Merino T-Shirt

After waiting for many tears, I finally bought a Merino wool T-shirt. Merino wool clothes are expensive. The are made from a specific type of Merino sheep wool and offer some unique characteristics.

Some of the benefits Merino clothes offer include:

- Super Soft & Comfortable

- Moisture Wicking & Odor Resistant

- Naturally regulates body temperature to keep you comfortable all year round

- Perfect for travel

What I have heard is that you can wear Merino clothes for a few days without any odour. Also, its natural heat-regulating property keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The big disadvantage of Merino wool clothes is that they are very expensive. For example, a t-shirt can cost around $100. This is what kept me from buying a Merino t-shirt for a long time.

The t-shirt I bought is made by a brand called Merino Tech. It is made of 100% organic Merino sheep wool from New Zealand. When I first opened it, I was impressed right away.

The fabric feels very smooth and soft. It also looks high quality. I found a few Merino socks included as a gift. My main reason to buy a Merino wool t-shirt is for travel. I am going on a trip to the Philippines next week for almost a month and this will be a good opportunity to put my Merino wool t-shirt to the test.

I have a video review which can be viewed here:

Merino T-Shirt First Impressions

How to Keep Your Money Safe When You Travel

Best Way to Keep Emergency Money When Traveling

There are bizarre ways to hide money, when you travel or even at home. Some examples include, diversion soda cans, hair brushes, peanut butter jars, books, potato chip cans, and many other ways.

Some of these are good places to hide cash while traveling and some of them are dumb. Today, I will talk about my favourite and in my opinion, this is the best way to hide emergency cash when you travel.

I hide some emergency cash in a money belt that you can wear just like a regular waist belt you would use with your pants. I am not talking about a pouch type of travel money belt that amateur travelers use. I have a video on that here: Why Business Travellers Don't Use Money Belts & You Should Too

The wearable money belt I use works just like a regular pants belt. Because it is made of fabric, you don’t need to remove it going through airport security. There is a hidden compartment inside it where you can stack cash. In the unfortunate even of getting robbed, you still will have money on you to return to your hotel.

I usually keep $50 to $200 cash hidden in my belt and it is always with me because I don’t use a regular leather belt when I am traveling. 

Also, I keep several wallets in my bags and hotel and spread out my cash and credit cards. If I lose one, I will have a backup to continue my trip and will not get stranded in a foreign land.

I have a video on the above which can be viewed here: The Best Ways to Hide Money While Traveling

The Best Number 1 Most Important Travel Hack You Didn’t Know

The Top Travel Hack You Must Know Now

The most important and best travel hack starts before you even leave home and not following this travel tip may risk your next trip. Today, I will talk about what you should be doing before taking your next flight.

When you are heading out for your next trip, the first thing you need to know is the travel requirements of your destination country. There can be various things required such as visa requirements, vaccination requirements, and other travel documents you may need to present there.

Not having the right documents can end up with your entry being declined and lots of hassle and waste of money. In the past, I used to ask around and search for my destination’s required documents. This was a lot of hassle, was very time consuming, and sometimes resulted in getting inaccurate information.

There is no need to do as I did anymore. A Canadian global travel requirement website called Sherpa has a database of most of the countries and can give you any travel requirements in a breeze. You have to enter your passport country and your travel from and to countries and you will get a list of everything you need to know before leaving home.

If you need to fill out any online forms, Sherpa can even give you a link and give you details. There might be other websites like Sherpa, but so far I haven’t found a reliable one like it.

I have made a video on Sherpa, which you can view by following the link below:

The Best Number 1 Guaranteed Travel Tip You Didn't Know