Travel tips: the checks that stop the usual mistakes

Check the rain, not the adjective

"Best time to visit" is the most-copied sentence in travel writing, and it is usually copied from somewhere that copied it. The thing to look at instead is the monthly rainfall series for the place — thirty years of averages exist for almost everywhere — and to ask one question: is any month being recommended that has more than 250 mm of rain in it? That is the threshold above which a "best month" is under water.

Every destination guide on this site is checked against that series, and the check has caught real errors: a month recommended for an island that gets its typhoons then, a hill town whose "dry season" was the one month it floods. Where a wet month genuinely is the best one — the waterfalls are full, the desert blooms — the guide says so and says why.

• Look for the driest three or four months, then check whether they are also the hottest or the most crowded
• Shoulder season is usually the month either side of the driest ones: fewer people, prices down, weather still fine
• Read a caveat carefully — "except the burning season" or "midges peak in high summer" is the whole point of the sentence

Money: the ATM decides more than the exchange rate

The exchange rate you see quoted is not the rate you get; the machine and the card between you and it are. Two things cost travellers more than any rate: independent ATM operators that charge a fixed fee per withdrawal and offer a poor rate, and "dynamic currency conversion" — the screen that offers to charge you in your home currency, at a rate the operator sets.

Always decline the conversion and pay in the local currency; the card issuer's rate is almost always better. Use bank-owned ATMs, ideally inside a branch, and withdraw larger amounts fewer times where a fixed fee applies. The guides on this site name the operators to avoid and the banks to prefer in each place, because the answer differs by country.

• Decline "pay in your currency" at every terminal and every ATM
• Prefer bank ATMs to the standalone ones in tourist streets, hotel lobbies and convenience stores
• Carry a second card from a different issuer; a swallowed card abroad is a bad day
• Know whether cards work at all where you are going — some places are card-first, some still run on cash

Entry rules: your passport, the official page, and the date it was checked

Visa rules are written per passport, and a page that says "most visitors do not need a visa" is telling you nothing about yours. Look up the rule for your own nationality on the destination's official immigration page, and note when it was last updated: e-visa schemes, arrival cards and fees change with little notice, and a two-year-old blog post is more dangerous than no information at all.

Two things the official page will not tell you. First, where the rule is actually enforced — whether the airline checks a form at the gate or nobody asks until the immigration desk. Second, what the transit rules are if you connect through a third country. Both are worth a few minutes before booking rather than at the airport.

• Check passport validity: many countries want six months beyond your departure date
• Screenshot or print e-visas and arrival cards; airport Wi-Fi is not a plan
• A "visa on arrival" still has a fee and a queue — carry the cash in the currency they ask for

Getting around: find out whether the app works before you land

Whether Uber, Bolt or Grab operates in a place changes what your first hour looks like. Where an app runs, the airport transfer is priced before you get in and there is no negotiation at the kerb; where none does, you need to know the licensed taxi rank, the metered fare, or the flat airport rate before somebody quotes you one.

The answer is not by country. Uber runs in the capital and not on the island; a licensed-taxi-only rule means the app summons an ordinary cab at a fixed price; some cities have a local app nobody outside has heard of. The guides here say which apps run in each place and roughly what a ride costs, and mark the ones that do not.

• Install the app that runs there and add a card before you fly — verification can need a text message
• Where there is no app, agree the fare or insist on the meter before the doors close
• Airport transfers: know the travel time and distance, so a "forty-minute" quote for a fifteen-kilometre ride rings a bell

Where to stay: watch it before you book it

Photographs are taken at the widest angle, at the best hour, with the mess moved out of frame. A short video walk-through cannot hide the size of a room, what is outside the window, or the road noise, which is why every listing on this site has to have one. When you book anywhere else, ask the host for a video: a host who has nothing to hide sends one.

Then check the two things that decide whether you sleep: the floor and what the bedroom faces. A ground-floor room on a street with bars is a different holiday from the same room facing a courtyard, and neither photo shows it.

• Ask which way the bedroom faces and what is under the window
• Check the distance to the airport from the address, not from the city centre
• Quiet dates are negotiable: a midweek night in shoulder season rarely goes at the listed price

Stay connected without paying roaming

Roaming charges outside your home region are still the easiest way to spend fifty euros on nothing. For a phone that supports it, an eSIM bought before departure works from the moment you land; for a longer stay, a local SIM from an official shop — not the airport kiosk — is usually cheaper still. Either way, the download for maps, tickets and the ride app should happen before the plane, on Wi-Fi.