For medical emergencies, contact the emergency hotline for the country you are in. Alternatively, head to the nearest hospital if you are able to.

If you have travel insurance (which you should), contact them as soon as you can as they'll be able to provide further assistance and cover some expenses you may incurr.

If you're in an extreme circumstance where you're injured, contact your embassy who can keep your family updated and assist with any medical evacuations if needed.

If you're in the unfortunate situation where you've lost your passport, the first thing you should do is report it to the police at the nearest police station. They should provide a police report that you will need as proof of loss.

You'll need to then contact your nearest embassy in the country you're in. They should be able to provide further information an assistance in providing you an emergency passport to help you get home.

Make sure you have the following:

• The police report
• Proof of Identity
• (hopefully) A digital copy/ image of your lost passport

This will help identify and verify you.

• Your upcoming flight if it's very soon.
• Money to pay for embassy services.

If you had a physical visa stamp on your lost passport, you'll also need to resolve that issue. Speak with your embassy on the correct path to take. Without proof of your visa, you will have difficulty when departing a country.

Earthquakes can be common in parts of the world like Asia, America & parts of Europe. You should always check if the country you're visiting is an active earthquake area so you can mentally prepare. The worst thing you can do in any emergency is panic, so here are some tips on how to protect yourself in an earthquare.

If you're indoors, you should try hiding under a stable piece of furniture like a table or anything that is fixed to the floor and won't move. Hiding under a table can protect you from any objects or materials that may fall in severe earthquakes. Hold onto the table leg tightly & try to stay low to the ground to keep yourself from falling out of the tables protection.

If you're outside, you should also try to find some stable cover and/ or assume a crouched position on your hands and knees with your head down and your hands on your head to protect it. If you have a bag or other materials, you should use it to cover your head for more protection.

If you are caught under rubble, you should try to stay calm and conserve energy. Due to this, you should not constantly yell out for help to conserve energy. Try to seek help without exerting yourself and use other objects like clanking metal to create a loud and noticable sound for rescuers to hear.

I know, it can feel like throwing money away at times, but getting travel insurance can give you peace of mind when travelling. As I've mentioned, keeping travel stress free and easy are always my goals. You don't want to be stuck in a foreign country dealing with lost luggage, medical issues or more with no one to help you or cover costs.

You can purchase travel insurance any time prior to your trip (and even while on your trip in some cases), but I recommend buying insurance at least 1 month from when your trip starts. You should also keep as much information about your bookings, accommodation, activities, etc as you can, so if you have any issues, you can easily provide supporting documents to your insurance to help things go smoothly.

It's important to check travel adviseries for the country you plan to visit. Not only for your own safety but for your travel insurance.

If your country lists another country as a "Do Not Travel" area, then there is a possibility that your travel insurance may not be accepted or may become void.

Every country has their own advisory websites. For Australia, we have the Smart Traveller website to check, which provides a good overview of the dangers in every country and the level of precautions you should take when travelling there. Regardless of insurance related reasons, it's always good to check these websites for up-to-date information on the place you're travelling to. Especially if it's a more turmoltious country.

The easiest way to cut down of luggage is to not have any! Backpacking is a popular form of travel for many people and while it's not for everyone, there is a lot more freedom and flexibility in travel when all you have to worry about is the bag strapped your back. Backpacking relies on only keeping what you need and nothing more. This does mean you usually won't be taking any big souveniers home, but you'll be able to easily navigate trains, planes, and tiny hotel rooms like it's nothing.

I've never personally tried backpacking as it's not my style of travel, but if you're looking for some tips, I can hazard a guess. Only keep essentials like toiletries, medication, a few changes of clothes and other basic things to get by. The goal of backpacking is to travel light and be flexible. You'd be surprised how little you actually need when travelling. Especially if you visit common tourist countries. They'll usually have everything you need in convenience stores, laundromats & in your acommodation so you can pack even less.

Travelling is a huge industry and that has opened up businesses that cater to the casual and hardcore travellers. You can find many brands that create travel/ hike specific items that prioritize size, durability & security in their design. While they're usually costlier than the non-travel versions, sometime the cost is worth it.

For me, I've enjoyed a few items from a brand called Matador who specialises in travel gear like super compact towels, waterproof toiletry bags and heavy duty travel bags. There are many brands like them, and theres no doubt you can find something that will make your travel much easier and carefree, for a price.

I'd only recommend buying these specialised items if you are a regular traveller (at least once or twice a year). Any less than that, and it's not really worth the price. Normal items will work just as well. These travel items are a luxury, not a requirement. But for those who do travel regularly, it can really elevate your experience.

Common travel items

• Travel pillow/ neck pillow
• Travel power adaptor
• Travel/ compact towel
• Toiletries bags
• Powerbanks
• Passport wallet
• Rugged backpack

If you have the money for it and want to get the most out of your luggage space, buying a portable vaccum with vaccum/ compression storage bags can be a real saviour.

Especially when dealing with a lot of clothing, vaccum packing your clothes can more than half the space that they take up in your luggage. It's also good for push toys, reducing their size dramatically. It's such a good idea that some claw machine places even offer to vaccum pack items on site so you don't have a giant plush toy to try and carry back to your hotel.

I need to put a disclaimer in front of this section as I have never tried posting items myself and from what I've heard online, it can come with a lot of risks. Dispite that, I feel it's still worth mentioning as an option as sometimes, you may not have any option other than posting large or heavy items back home.

If you end up with too many souvenirs through your travels and are considering buying a suitcase just to take everything back home, consider posting your items instead. Postage can often be quite affordable, at least compared to buying an extra suitcase or buying extra weight on a flight. While it does come with the risk of having your posted items lost in the mail or fragile items broken. The best thing to do is instead is posting your clothing and items you don't mind losing via post and keep your valuable souvenirs in your suitcase back home. This way you can save money, save some trouble and not have to worry about if everything you buy will fit in your suitcases.

Places like Japan have a lot of great options for transporting luggage throughout the country. If you're travelling with a lot of luggage and you don't want to take it with you between hotels, these luggage forwarding services can be a life saver and are fairly cheap and easy to do.

All you need to do is fill out a form, which hotel staff can usually help you with, then your luggage will be taken from one hotel to another without any stress on your part.

Reviews are a great way to get a general sense of how good a hotel could be. You should focus on the negative reviews but also don't take every negative review at face value. As mentioned, different people have different priorities. What one person finds really horrible, might just be a minor inconvenience for others. Different rooms also have different positives and negatives within the exact same hotel. Read as many varied reviews as you can to get a better picture of the hotel. People who write a good paragraph or provide photos are the best to look at.

Do some quick research about the area the hotel is in. Even if a hotel sounds amazing, if it's in a dodgy area of town, you might not want to walk around at night, or it could be a ghost town or any other myriads of issues. Knowing the area the hotel is in can also give a better idea of what kind of hotel you could be walking in to. If it's a big nightlife area, you can expect a lot of noise late into the night, conversely, if it's quiet and dark, it could be an old and run down place.

While not a high priority when choosing accommodation, having a 24-hour reception desk or ever late hour reception can be a huge help when travelling. Most importantly as it makes check-in and check-outs easier; if you're delayed or early to check-in, there's someone there to greet you and even if you can't get to your room yet, you can speak to someone and confirm everything is okay.

But 24-hour receptions are more than that. It's a form of safety and security. You know someone is always watching the enterance, you know you can ask them questions or bring up issues about your stay at any time, and they can usually help with tourist information about places to visit and things to do.

Hotels are usually the only accommodation that you can get this kind of service at and while you can definetly live without it, it definetly makes your stay feel a lot nicer when you have staff you can rely on for assistance at any time.

Don't prioritize finding hotels that include breakfast. While it can be nice in situations where there isn't a lot of food spots in the area; in my experience, hotel breakfasts aren't that great, are usually limited in the types of food & how much is available & often have a limited timeframe where it's available. I would rather spend my energy and money on looking for a hotel that is clean & spacious, than purposely looking for one that includes breakfast. This allows you to be more flexible with your plans, and you'll be able to try local cafes around the area which usually have much better breakfast options.

There's nothing worse than having an amazing hotel, but it's so far away from public transport that you waste a good chunk of your time travelling to and from the hotel. My order of transport preferences would be subways, trains, buses, then taxis/ Ubers. If possible, subways are the best place to try and find a hotel near, they'll usually have food options around, have other transport connections nearby & unlike trains, they generally won't be heard since they're underground. Trains are the next best option for the same reasons except you will most likely hear the sound of trains at night. For subways/ trains, any hotel within a 10-15minutes walk would be ideal. Buses are a decent, but if it's your only public transport option from the hotel, you may have issues when it comes to luggage or big shopping hauls. Finally, taxis & Ubers should be a last resort. I would only choose a hotel without public transport if it was something really special like an old traditional hotel, or an amazing, secluded view, or some other reason that really makes it worth not having good transport options. But if you're booking one of those expensive high-class experiences, I'm guessing the cost of taxis wouldn't be a huge issue for you anyway.

I've mainly visited Asian countries where space is very limited, so your experience in other countries might differ. However, from my experience, you're more likely to have a cramped hotel than one that is spacious unless you're willing to spend a premium for that extra space. With that in mind, be aware of the square meter space available in your room. Pictures don't always provide a true idea of the space. If you're travelling with multiple suitcases, you're likely to have space problems no matter where you book (excluding premium hotels). Be mindful of this, you'll either need to spend extra for the spacious rooms or rethink your luggage strategy. However, as a solo traveller, I haven't had much trouble even in quite cramped hotel rooms. Realistically, your room is mainly for sleep and getting dressed for going out and exploring the country you're visiting, it doesn't need to be fancy. While space is nice, choosing a slightly smaller hotel room shouldn't be a make or break when choosing a hotel, if all else about the place is great, it's probably worth the compromise. The only times where I might prioritize room size is when staying more than a couple days in a hotel, carrying a lot of luggage, it's your last hotel on the trip where you will probably have a lot of souvenirs to pack and if you want some space to relax before your trip back home.

If you're on a tight budget, there are ways that you can find extremely cheap accommodation. This most often means capsule or dormitory style accommodation which isn't for everyone. I would only recommend this type of accommodation for backpacker style travellers who don't mind sharing spaces like bathrooms, kitchens and sleeping on bunk beds. They're usually not the cleanest accommodation either, as they're usually very casually run with as little upkeep as possible. One upside to this accommodation other than price is it's a great way to socialise and meet new people if that's something that interests you. But if you can pay a bit extra, there are plenty of places that provide private rooms while also providing great social spaces to meet other travellers.

Booking hotels can be one of the more difficult parts about planning a holiday. Trying to find cheap, clean, spacious hotels is like finding a needle in a haystack at times. Sometimes you may be tempted to book hotels as soon as you can to try and get the cheapest deals, but that's not always the case.

At least when it comes to using third party sites like Booking.com (Which is what I predominantly use), hotels usually wait until 6 months out from the booking date before showing rooms as available. Sometimes the timeframe is even shorter than this, I generally find the best hotels around 3-4 months out from the booking date.

You may be able to book earlier if you use the hotel sites directly; but for me, I enjoy having the flexibility to easily cancel, edit and change my bookings through a central place. It keeps my itinerary planning flexible and if I realise that a hotel might not be what I expect, I can easily cancel and look for another through sites like Booking.com.

However, if you know for a fact you're want a specific hotel, you may be able to book earlier, and even get cheaper prices if you book with them directly. I personally prefer the third party sites as It can be quite a hassel trying to change things if your itinerary changes.

As someone who appreciates simplicity, cleanliness and reliability, hotels are easily the best option for booking accommodation when travelling. While they're usually the most expensive option, the costs are worth it in my opinion. Quite a few have 24-hour receptions, making queries or issues easy to solve quickly. You get to have your own private room & bathroom, and if you get a really nice hotel, the views, space and customer service goes a long way to making your travels that much smoother.

In my opinion, travel is already quite stressful, so I like to reduce my troubles as much as possible. That's why hotels are my preferred option as long as they're reasonably priced. It's a luxury I think is worth the costs (most of the time). The only downside (which can also be an upside) is the lack of socialising that can occur at a hotel compared to a hostel. It's an introverts dream, but being able to meet other travellers has its own charm when you're in a new country. That's one place where hostels shine. But if you prefer the quiet of your own room after a busy day exploring, you can't do better than a good hotel. Although not all hotels are created equal, and you'll need to do your research to find the best ones.

Hostels are a great and affordable option for travel, but they usually come with some downsides compared to traditional hotels. They're generally less clean, with upkeep being less regular, you're usually sharing a room and facilities with strangers and storage space can be limited. If you're okay with those issues, there's no reason not to book a hostel. In some ways, they can be better than a hotel. Especially if you're looking to meet fellow travellers, hostels provide a homely vibe allowing you to bump into other travellers and maybe make some new friends.

Hostels usually mean you're staying in a dorm style room with bunk beds or many beds in one room & sharing bathrooms and lounge spaces. While there are some hostels that offer private rooms, dorms are the norm. If you see accommodation with an extremely low price, It's almost always a dorm room.

If you're more of an introvert, or prefer daily room cleaning and storage space, or simply want to be away from people after a big touristy day out, hotels are still the better choice. While most hotels are a very private experience, if you're looking to be more social, there are usually social lounges or bars in hotels where you can try and meet new people, however it's a much different vibe compared to hostels.

If you're unfamiliar with capsule hotels, they're one of the more unique and extremely cheap options you can book when travelling. They're more common in Asia, but have been popping up across the globe as a quick and afforable accommodation option. They have a vibe that is a mix between a hotel & hostel but with even less space for yourself.

As the name suggests, in a capsule hotel, you get your own "capsule", which usually takes the form of a tiny cell that only has space for you to sleep in and maybe keep a backpack with you.

They're usually cleaner than a hostel but still have shared facilities and even less space for your items (usually only one locker). There are some positives like strict noise rules at night, usually safer storage of luggage compared to hostels & capsule hotels are usually separated by gender if you feel uncomfortable sleeping in a mix-gendered hostel. While they usually have some soundproofing, one loud snorer in the room could keep you up all night.

I couldn't recommend capsule hotels as a long term stay option, unless you travel very light and are a heavy sleeper. Capsule hotels are good for a quirky experience and there are some genuinely nice capsules you can stay in. But it's ultimately a claustrophobic box with limited space, sleeping next to lots of other people, with shared bathrooms and storage space. They're the cheapest option for a reason. A two-night stay is the most I think the average travellers could handle.

AirBnBs used to be a really affordable and great experience, although I've never been a big fan of them, they've definitely had their place in the past. Over time though, they have become a less and less favourable option in my opinion. To me, it lacks the safety and security of booking with a proper hotel, that has staff, security cameras, daily cleaning, and lots of other little niceties that most AirBnB don't have. When you're travelling in a different country, you don't want to have trouble with your accommodation. The hands-off approach of AirBnBs mean there's a lot more issues that can arise with little assistance from the owners, as it isnt the same experience as a hotel.

It may be a more affordable option compared to hotels (although the gap in price has been shrinking), but if you're wanting something cheaper, I think hostels are a fine option that still have some hotel-like features. Some hostels even offer private rooms instead of the usual dormitory style rooms.

The only time I would consider an AirBnB is if I was travelling with a group for a long stay somewhere. That's really the only point where AirBnB can shine as a way to live in a city for a short amount of time.