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Business travel tips & tricks

General advice

Uncategorized

  • in EU your national id card needs to be valid for at least 3 months after you plan to come back (EU has a weird way of interpreting "valid until" date)
  • some countries want your passport to be valid at least for 6 more months before they issue a visa etc

Behavior

  • if going with other people from the team (not necessarily the company), try to spend extra time after work together. This has high impact on the team behavior in the long term
  • better stay on the safe side with jokes and other silly behavior while in a multi-cultural group. Something that sounds silly in your culture may be offensive in another. Also, some people are just extremely sensitive
  • do not get in conflict with the law. Crossing a red light as a pedestrian may cause you extreme amounts of trouble when you are a foreigner
  • carry your passport on your person at all times

Transportation

Car 🚗

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYpuPZYrd2M - why one should wear a seatbelt while in a car (WARNING: it's a drastic, but very effective explanation)
  • some taxi drivers in many countries, are, unfortunately, malicious: try to use an Uber-like app to avoid being scammed

Airplane ✈️

  • store your larger devices during taxi, landing and takeoff. Most landings are smooth, but you really don't want to be hit in the face with a laptop if the landing happens to be a little bit more rough than usually
  • if airplane engine malfunctions during takeoff, it often ends with a fire. You have like 94 seconds between ignition and an explosion, so during evacuation make sure you do everything in your power to get away from the airplane by the time this happens. It is good to have your phone, credit card and passport in your pockets when you are running (you can prepare that during taxi) as you cannot take any luggage with you in such situation (don't worry, it is insured)
  • use noise-cancelling headphones on longer flights, if you can. Bose makes decent ones. The in-ear version seems to cancel airplane noise better than the around-ear version
  • during flight, try to maximize the time you have your seatbelt fastened due to possibility of an unexpected clear air turbulence
    • if the pilot suddenly enables the seatbelt sign, this could mean he has seen something big and unavoidable on the weather radar and you now have less than 30 seconds to hit turbulence
  • be extremely nice to cabin crew. This never hurts.
  • the charge power from a USB socket is usually terrible, think 3 watt... But many airplanes, including economy, have standard wall sockets in the seat in front of you or in the arm rest. If you connect a "fast charging" charger, you can easily get 18 watt
  • https://youtube.com/shorts/yGDkiUAwxRs - in case you think lithium-ion batteries are safe for air travel in the cargo hold

Boarding in a group

Authorities 👮

Accommodation 🏨

  • choose a Bed & Breakfast place close to the target venue
  • for multi-day conferences the target venue itself (often a hotel) is usually the best option (reduces logistics a lot etc). Book it early because it sells faster than the conference tickets do.

Organization

  • if going with other people from the team (not necessarily the company), try to book everyone into the same hotel, it has a few advantages:
    • you can have breakfast together
    • it's way harder to sleep in, other team members will wake you up if you fail to show on breakfast
    • it's way harder to get lost or robbed on the way to the target venue
    • you can get a discount if you arrange it upfront with the hotel manager
    • if you manage to fill the entire building, security is slightly enhanced because you and the staff are the only ones allowed to be there
  • when choosing a target country, see who can travel where
  • a classic way to integrate a team is to lock them up in a room with team-based riddles for an hour, there are "escape rooms" almost everywhere nowadays
    • pick one which has good reviews
    • two consecutive sessions is enough, don't do three
    • pick a location with many rooms
    • make sure there is water to drink
    • to divide 12 people into groups for sessions in three rooms use this:
Session 1:
abcd
efgh
ijkl

Session 2:
ijgh
abkl
efcd

Session 3 (hopefully not, 2 is enough):
efkl
ijcd
abgh

Destinations

Serbia

  • they only accept local currency there. You can get some at the airport ATM provided that you request something that is divisible by 500 dinar. Consider using a Revolut card
  • no running in Serbia. If you try to run, some random person on the street will tackle you - apparently the only people who run there are thieves immediately after committing a crime
  • we ate a small Pleskavica in GASTROTEKA, Belgrade, everyone enjoyed it, it's recommended
  • when you exit the customs at the airport, turn right and backwards (so you are walking away from the ATM), you can buy a local sim card with plenty of data for ~3 euro
  • do not use local taxis, use a Car:go mobile application to keep the costs reasonable. UPDATE: government has made it illegal...

Asia in general

Thailand

  • bring USD cash (watch per-person limit of transfer without declaration in origin, destination and transit countries!), exchange it in Yellow Bank (Kungsri) for best rate
  • get a car, not a motorbike. On Ko Samui use ID car and scooter Rental, the guy's name is Ian, he is legit while other rentals may want to hold your passport (illegally) etc
  • on roundabout it's the car on it that goes first (but on Ko Samui nobody, even taxis, know this)
  • drive on the LEFT side of the road. On unmarked intersection the car which goes straight on the bigger road has the right of way (it's not left vs right)
  • get revolut Metal, exchange currency on the week days
  • to get cash use yellow bank ATMs (Kungsri) to get 30kTHB in one go for a single 220THB fee. Sometimes other ATMs can do the same, but sometimes they'll have the same fee but a lower limit

USA

  • in California and Nevada you can turn right on red light, unless there is a sign which says "no turn on red"
  • don't leave valuables in your car, in fact you cannot safely leave anything, even a USB cable may get you a smashed Window
  • Avis is decent for car rental
  • southwest airlines are not listed on google flights and they fly a lot on west coast, check on their website directly
  • in California it's hot during the day and cold during the night, you need appropriate clothes, come prepared