A few more travel tips

Write a journal. You’ll invariably forget many of your experiences if you don’t bother, and reading about them in years to come can be priceless.

I often tend to choose to sit towards the back of the plane as there's considerably more chance of empty seats next to you. For some reason most people book the nearest seats to the front, yet they will typically save very little time on disembarkation. And the advantage will disappear if the plane disembarks from both the back and the front, which so often happens.

It’s a good idea to put clothes for each person in every piece of luggage in case one gets lost.

When buying luggage, check its weight. If you’ve only got 10kg or 23kg allowance for the flight and your luggage weighs loads without even putting anything in it, you’re already setting yourself up for hefty hold fees.

If it looks like your carry-on luggage will go over the weight limit and trigger hefty fees, cadge a free carrier bag from a duty free shop, or if they won’t give you one buy something cheap and fill the bag with some items in your luggage. It’s extremely unlikely the airline will inspect your duty free bag. But be sensible: a few books and magazines won’t look out of place in a duty free bag, but your toiletries bag and computer might.

Board the aeroplane strategically. If you get on last you can take a quick look at the cabin and land yourself a prized empty row before everyone else tries to do the same after take-off. No-one will know it isn’t your allocated seat.

I know it is said again and again, but pack lightly. If you’re not sure about packing something, you almost certainly don’t need it. You can also buy most essentials at your destination if you discover you need them, almost certainly at less than the cost of putting luggage in the hold. Honestly, you don’t need much of that stuff. When I started a period of more than two years travelling almost non-stop I treated myself to a huge case, reasoning that if I was not going to have a permanent base, I would have enough luggage for a big choice of clothes and other creature comforts while on the move. On day one I realised this was a big mistake, as I dragged my heavy luggage along the cobbled streets alongside Amsterdam’s canals. I now take the bare minimum, usually just a backpack that fits under an aeroplane seat. It saves me a huge amount on airfare add-ons and I have much more freedom to explore each destination, not being committed to lugging loads of luggage around.

If your flight is delayed be sure to check whether you’re entitled to compensation. So many passengers don’t bother to check. I recently took an easyJet flight that was three hours and one minute late, which I confirmed on a flight tracking website afterwards. That one minute over the three hours meant I was entitled to several hundred euros compensation for a £25 flight. It took a couple of minutes to fill out the claim form online. I doubt many people on the flight bothered or indeed realised they were due compensation: the airline certainly didn’t announce anything or highlight the fact that we were due compensation.

At your destination wake up early to avoid the crowds. You’ll likely have the top attractions to yourself, and avoiding tourist crowds will not only result in much better photos, but the soft, diffused light will most likely mean great images too.

You don’t need to get a degree in Mandarin, but learning a few foreign words and phrases can really enhance a trip. Not only will you be understood much better, but locals will be more ready to engage and to help you if you’ve made the effort to speak their language.