Travel guide book
Given we are always looking to reduce luggage weight, each time we finish visiting an area, we rip those pages out of our (second hand, slightly out of date) guidebook. What started out as a heavy-ish book is now so thin and light that it's no trouble to cart around. The rest was tossed as we left the country!
A book is very handy when internet is unavailable or expensive, but the benefit of the internet is currency and more than one source of information. Loney Planet (.com) is a great site for figuring out where you want to go and when is good to go, plus lots of tips for various locations. Wikitravel (.org) is a great resource for heaps of useful information, including more detailed information that Lonely Planet to facilitate enjoyable travel. It was particularly handy when we were first in France wiithout having done any research - it helped us to be on top of things like knowing where to stand on the platform that lined up with the carriage we were booked into for easy, quick boarding.
Trains
Speaking of trains, it's very handy when booking a train to find out a) the name of the final destination of the train (so you can find it on the schedule and which platform it is leaving from), b) the name of the last stop before yours, and c) the anticipated time of arrival at your stop (though this can vary!) This particularly helps when you have lots of luggage and need to get ready early for an efficient exit. We always ask someone as we get on and off the train, to double check it's right, as schedules and platforms have been known to change and if PA announcements aren't in English you can miss the advisory announcements.
Also, the number of people we've come across who have been caught out for not validating their train and bus tickets gives us an indication that it's a good earner in fines! Train tickets must be validated in the station before boarding the train, the bus tickets as soon as you board. If you get on a train and forget to validate, head to the front carriage and seek out the conductor to say you've had a problem and need him or her to validate it. This is a last resort, but can often help you avert a hefty fine (around AUD $100 per ticket).
Another thing to watch out for is not to accidentally board a first class carriage - which would then have you lugging your gear through the inside carriages, which is a lot harder - and by the time you get to a carriage you can be in, if it's busy, you'll be lucky to find a seat that you may well have managed to get if you'd boarded a second class carriage in the first place! Trains in France are three times more expensive than in Italy, but also three times nicer/more comfortable/way better toilets so that's some compensation for the shock when purchasing tickets. Train tickets in France also must be validated att the station before boarding.
Travel tips
Hard won in many cases! Hopefully to make others' travel experiences more of a breeze :o)
Water
An essential that ends up being very expensive and unecological to buy, or risky from taps in however many destinations. Our solution? A 'portable Waterman' - a travelling filter, ioniser and alkalinizer. It is small, light, cheap and convenient, and designed for this very purpose. Our research showed it to be a much cheaper and more effective option than a number of other portables on the market. The water filters quickly, after which we pour it into our main water bottle. (We leave the filter bottle empty and in a plastic bag while travelling as it has a tendency to leak a little bit - which doesn't concern us as it is easy to work around.) For those who are interested, in Australia you can buy it online from IonLife.
Toilets
A fair percentage of public toilets in Italy are squat toilets, which are not ideal for everybody. The way around it - when the option is available - is to use the disabled toilet, which I have always found to be a much more comfy and Aussie 'traditional' style throne :o)
Buses vs. trains
Train stations in a lot of the smaller places in Italy don't have elevators or escalators, so if you don't have the capacity or inclination for hauling luggage up and down stairs for boarding, disembarking or changing platforms, you might want to consider buses. They are always on ground level, and can often be in a location that is more central and convenient than the train anyway. They are a bit slower, and you would need to check if there is a toilet on board if you're doing long haul, but it's worth considering. Also, bus routes can often be more scenic than trains.
Snacks and cheap eats
We travel with snacks to avoid expensive food and snacks in places where there is a captive market (especially of the tourist variety!) A good trick is to buy cheap, plain biscuits (much cheaper than the fancy, yummier ones) and travel with a jar of Nutella! (Much nicer in Italy than in Australia). Nutella is great (and cheap) for a stand alone chokkie hit, plus it's fabulous to spread on those cheapie plain biscuits to turn them into yummy ones. It's also really nice smeared on fruit (pears, bananas, oranges, etc).
Supermarkets are the cheapest option for some ready made snacks and meals, so it's often a good lunch stop. A nice piece of bread from a bakery and a banana make for a cheap, wholesome, yummy light lunch. We travel with some disposable cutlery and a plastic cup and it's amazing how useful they are (the cup doubles as a cereal bowl! We buy cereal and non-refrigerated UHT milk (goat milk where possible though!) for a far cheaper and quicker breakfast option than what is generally available at accommodation places - usually at a cost of an additional $15-20 and in any case, often not what we like/choose to eat.
Avoiding the main tourist streets is a good idea when looking for a place for a meal - even one street back can make quite a difference. I like to ask where the locals recommend. In Italy, Pizzerias, Tavola Calda, Self Serve and Trattorias are cheaper options than 'Ristorante' - i.e. expensive - options. Also, bars have snacks, but it is cheaper to stand at the bar and eat, or take away, than to sit at a table. Nearly all eating places have a cover charge for table service - it's a good idea to find out what the cover charge is before you sit down.
Towels
We're travelling with a small towel each, and both are suitable for the beach as well as the bathroom. One is a dark colour, and the other multi-coloured, so they work in any situation and don't show the dirt! It's also a good way to avoid travelling with two towels the same colour to forever get confused about who's towel is whose.
Cushion
A blow up cushion is a Godsend. They take up very little room, weigh next to nothing, and yet they turn any chair or seat or step or piece of ground into a far more comfortable (and clean!) option. Priceless I say!
Car hire
We've learned from another couple that when you ask to hire a small car and they 'upgrade' you to a larger car at no additional cost, best not to assume they are doing you a favour, and politely insist on a small car! This couple discovered that for travelling on the small, winding country roads and also for parking, the larger car created quite a bit of stress for them. At one point they had to push their side mirrors in to get through a tight spot. If anyone ever wonders why there are so many small cars in Italy, it's because they are better!
It's not that cheap to hire a car in Italy, but France is way over the top - I asked in three places and the range for one day's hire with GPS was 110-220 euro ($220-440ish). My understanding is that if you make arrangements from Australia to hire a car as part of a package, the price is way better.
More tips will be added as we think of them or discover them :o)
Paper napkins
THE most versatile and handy item...and free if you really want to do the budget travel thing. Most places give you a paper napkin when you buy takeaway or sit down. Sometimes they give you two, sometimes there's a dispenser to help yourself. Any which way, I usually take one or two extra and stash them in my bag. Not only for use as serviettes, but also handy to take the place of a plate (with dry foods!), plus - and most importantly - a great substitute for tissues or toilet paper...especially the latter, which is more often than not missing from most free public toilets and Italian trains!
Internet access
...a bit of a challenge in Italy! There are very few free wireless hotspots - in fact we've only come across one cafe (in Assisi) that allowed free internet if you bought something. We've occasionally found a connection when testing in a street, but it's a lot of mucking around, not to mention hit and miss, and fluctuating signal.
In peak tourist spots the cost of internet is over the top ($6-18 per hour). Worth asking at the tourist information centres, as they generally have a list. We finally got onto one system where you by an hour, get a card, and you can come and go anytime over three months to use up that hour. They give you a list of different offices in different tourist locations (not always where we were visiting!) and it has been handy to use internet this way in these towns. There would be others similar, but this one is called 'Internet Train.' I noticed internet in France is half the cost of Italy. Good to keep an eye out for accommodation offering free wireless connection - in Nice we took advantage of that to catch up on lots of internet time and saved heaps.
Notebook
...that's the computer version, not the paper version :o)
We've found the notebook to be an absolute essential for our travels. It wouldn't be the case for everyone, but we use it not only for internet surfing and emails, we also use it for loading, storing, sorting and editing our gazillion photos, and we also use if for uploading changes to the website - mostly, but not only, travel blog and blog pics. It's an Asus eeePC and I'm really happy with it. It's quite small and light, easy to use, easy to cart around, battery life is very good (around four hours) and the best bit is that it helps while away many an hour on trains...somehow our train trips seem much shorter than usual! What a Godsend :o)
Research vs. 'winging it'
We had an interesting debate about this with Thomas when we were visiting him in Switzerland. Is it better to research and plan ahead and know what is going on, or just turn up in a place and work it out when you get here? In the end it seems to be an individual's preference. I've done it both ways and as a result I am very clear that for me at least, a bit of basic research prior is extremely useful, and it is a bonus if it is possible to organise accommodation for the first day of arrival in a new place (especially if it is late and the tourist office is closed!) Having said that, even though it has proved a tougher slog when I've winged it, I have always survived and it has taken me in unexpected directions which on occasion I have been glad of.
Insurance
Make sure you carry a small card on you or in your wallet stating you have travel insurance, including with which company and your policy number. A guy at the guest house we were staying in was in a coma and no one knew or could easily find out if he had health insurance. This influenced which hospital he could be in and the level of care, and I believe it compromised his wellbeing. He was in intensivee care and unfortunately died (and didn't have health insurance so his family looks like footing a bill that would be something like US$20,000)
Credit and Debit cards
Great idea to carry a debit card with you - it's a great way in some countries to avoid hefty fees for using credit card. We've saved something like $60 so far by having a debit card.