After spending the day in Sentosa, I was surprised when my hotel room was locked and I was already checked out
5. Make sure your itinerary is confirmed
For a hassle-free trip, plenty of people book with travel agencies to get the stress of looking for hotels, promo fares, and tickets to activities out of the way. Before you leave for your trip, make sure that everything is confirmed and you have the tickets with you. Call your travel agent, and if they’re based abroad, send them an email. You wouldn’t want to be like me, standing in the lobby of a hotel in Singapore, confused because I was already checked out a day before my flight home. But that’s a story for another post.
Ayutthaya in Thailand
4. Make friends
Even if you’re with your barkada, be open to meeting new people on your trips! You never know what kind of interesting people you meet outside Metro Manila and the Philippines. This is especially true when you’re in another country because it opens you up to different cultures. On a solo trip to Hong Kong, I stayed at a hostel in Causeway Bay and made friends with people from all over the world. I also met a bunch of Filipino girls in Ayutthaya in Thailand, and we still keep in touch on social media. Make friends, hang out with them, and exchange email addresses and social media links. You’re going to learn a lot from them.
 
Boracay’s sunsets are not to be missed
3. Take lots of photos!
As they say, “pics or it didn’t happen!” Make sure to bring a good camera that can take decent shots. You don’t need a DSLR or a GoPro to take amazing shots, because you’re not after Instagram-worthy snaps but pictures that you can look at 10 years from now and make you nostalgic. Take photos of everything: the sunset, the sunrise, the people, buildings, food, clothes, selfies. It doesn’t hurt to take a good shot, too. Imagine the likes you’ll get on social media if you upload them!
Care to try Pampanga’s camaru? It’s made of fried mole crickets
2. Be adventurousÂ
You’re on vacation. Have fun! Try things you haven’t tried before. This is especially true if you’re out of the country. Try local delicacies, no matter how strange. Get off the beaten path and explore what’s not on the travel guide. As National Geographic keeps saying, “let’s get lost.” Because it’s when you are lost that you truly find yourself and know your limits. It also makes for a good story! Remember, no good story starts with someone being uptight. Which leads us to our number one tip…
Palaui island
1. Have fun!
It may sound like cliche advice, but it’s the one advice that everyone forgets. People on vacation still worry about school or work, check work emails, or worse, do actual work. Vacations are meant to forget about “real life,” to escape responsibility, even for a few days. The world is more beautiful than the world wide web. You can still use your phone, though, but only to upload photos that will make your friends jealous *wink*.
Did we miss any tips? Share yours below!
Your perfect summer partner is Sun Postpaid’s #SunPostpaidiBundles, affordable mobile Internet packages that are designed to fit your lifestyle. For P199 for every 30 days, subscribers can avail of the social bundle, e-mail bundle, photo bundle, and chat bundle.
The social bundle will grant users access to Facebook, Twitter, Waze, Foursquare, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Path (Send SOCIAL199 to 247 to register), while the e-mail bundle will give access to Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com, and Exchange (Send EMAIL199 to 247 to register). The photo bundle lets you upload photos to Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Regram, Imgur, and Tumblr (Send PHOTO199 to 247 to register). For P249, you can avail of the new chat bundle, where you can socialize on Line, WeChat, FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Kakao, Chikka Messenger, Oist, and Google Hangout.
Safezone ensures that the subscriber will only be able to access sites and apps part of the package you availed. A Safezone Paywall will appear on websites that are not part of your package to stop unwanted charges. For more details, visit the Sun website.
