No matter where you go — African safari, Mediterranean cruise, Great Wall of China, or family reunion in Wichita —  travel is often tough. Here are some things I’ve learned:

Take your rattiest underwear and toss it out as you go, every day. You’ll buy new when you get home.

If you’re prone to motion- or sea-sickness take gingersnaps along. They don’t make you sleepy like Dramamine does, plus they’re good with a restorative cup of tea.

Take packets of hand cleaner. Besides hands, they can be used to clean iffy toilet seats, get the sticky off a restaurant table, or bugs off the windshield.

Carry neatly folded lengths of toilet paper in plastic baggies. How awful is it to conduct your business in an enclosed stall and then realize there’s no t.p?  This goes double in some countries where they hang the loo paper on the outside of the door. If you forget to take some before you go inside, well…! I’m just sayin’, BYOTP.

Blue Buff bandana.

Bandanas made of seamless loops of stretchy polyester microfiber — Sahalie Buffs® — are indispensable. They come in riotous designs as colorful as a giant box of crayons. They contort to keep your head and neck warm when the weather turns cold, sop your sweated brow when the temperature soars, and become a hat or headband if you have a bad hair day. What more can I say? Oh! no, I do not own shares in the company.

Wear your most vertsatile earrings and leave all the rest at home. Limit other jewelry to one necklace, one bracelet, one ring, one watch. Less is less.

Don’t take a garment you’ll only wear once. Plan a color scheme and stick to it. A few neutrals, a pop of color, and you don’t have to worry about what goes with what.  Everything goes!

If you have limited time and you stop to take photos of everything, that means you aren’t seeing anything.  Buy. The. Postcard. If you must have a picture of you with Big Ben, put yourself into the frame quickly, then look at the sight you’ve paid thousands of dollars to see.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxSunrise, Bryce Canyon, Utah. There was no postcard.

Our shadows, ourselves.

Do I buy the postcards? Yes, but…when you’re lucky enough to be in a beautiful place that you know you’ll never see again, it’s hard not to snap a picture or two, especially with the instant gratification a digital camera provides. I do have a way to take “selfies” that aren’t so “in your face” though. Watch:

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