Reddit is home to just about every type of content available on the Internet. It’s where nunchuck videos, cat photos, celebrity Q&As and conspiracy theories come together in online harmony. No topic is too broad or too niche.
For that reason — and that the platform has about 330 million monthly users — it’s become an interesting intersection of travel tips and ideas. We combed through Reddit’s travel “subreddits” (think sections, if you’re not familiar with the site) to find the most useful hacks for your next trip.
How to take care of your skin on a flight
You’d die before you could research every skin-care product available out there for travelers. This thread in r/AsianBeauty breaks down users’ thoughts on the best masks, moisturizers, balms and gels to use while traveling. For example, a flight attendant notes that you don’t have to pare down your routine just because you’re traveling by plane. Instead, decant or de-pot your products into smaller, TSA-approved containers.
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Make sure you’re mindful about your beauty routine onboard and consider your seat neighbor. Some Redditors recommend various face mists to use in-flight, but make sure you use them in the lavatory only so you don’t spritz those around you.
How to pick the best travel pants
Not all of the clothes in your wardrobe are good for the road. Instead of spending hours Googling “good travel pants,” check out the crowdsourced answer in r/OneBag, a subreddit devoted to “the art of minimalist packing.” There’s a handful of options, plus arguments to back up those opinions, to find the best-performing pants on the road. Criteria for judgment includes number of pockets, material and durability. Favorites include the ABC Pant Classic from Lululemon for men and the Willary C-Fit Core Pants for women.
As with any online shopping, what works for some people and body types won’t look the same for you. Try ordering a couple options and trying them on well before your trip.
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How to blend in when abroad
If you’re trying to fit in outside of the country, there are certain details that will give away your tourist status immediately. Some of those hallmarks are obvious (like a big foldout map or a selfie stick), and some are more subtle. In an r/AskReddit thread, a user asks: “Non-USA Redditors, besides accents, what is a dead giveaway that a tourist is American?”
There’s nothing wrong with being yourself when you travel, but it can be enlightening to learn what others notice about you because of your culture. One easy tell for foreigners is when American travelers ask about directions in terms of miles — not used in the metric system. Other signals included asking for ice in your drink, naming your home city or state rather than country when asked where you’re from, wearing a baseball cap and speaking at a loud volume.
How to tell if you were in the wrong to deny a family your empty row on a plane
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There’s a corner of Reddit devoted to giving users “a place to finally find out if you were wrong in an argument that’s been bothering you.” For Redditor aboveaveragek, the argument in question took place on a red-eye flight across the country. The Redditor had paid extra to book an exit row that appeared to be empty so that he could lie on the seats and get some sleep before landing and going straight to a meeting. Come boarding time, a mother and her two young children were sitting in the Redditor’s exit row and asked him to take her aisle seat instead. “Here’s the thing: if circumstances were different, I would have!” the Redditor wrote. “But I explained that I had a meeting at 8:30 and paid extra for that ticket so that I could sleep.” The mother dismissed the Redditor’s request until a flight attendant stepped in and explained that children couldn’t sit in the exit row in the first place.
Was the Redditor in the wrong to deny the family in the first place? According to the most popular answer (with more than 23,000 “likes” to back it up), you’re allowed to hold on to the seat you paid for, even if that means a family can’t sit together.
How to know if the stuff in your suitcase is too weird
A post in r/AskReddit prompted users to share the weirdest things anyone had seen or personally packed in their luggage for a flight. It turns out, people are traveling with extremely weird things in tow, including: a chicken preserved by taxidermy, a glove full of about 1,000 pennies, human remains, live spiders, homemade sex toys, amethyst sex toys, metal sex toys, vibrating sex toys, lawn gnomes, a goat skull, a human skull, a whole dead carp, an entire frozen beef brisket, “fake butts mounted on wood,” every kind of knife, and dumbbells. If you’re not sure whether something in your carry-on bag is going to get through security, check out TSA’s What Can I Bring website or tweet them about the object in question @AskTSA.
How to pick a credit card with travel benefits
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Credit cards and their potential benefits operate in an intricate world. Reddit has a bunch of corners discussing every aspect of the credit card universe to help you get the most out of the system. For starters, there’s a breakdown of miles vs. points to clear up that confusion. A next-level credit card subreddit is r/churning, where an active community of people discuss ways to profit from sign-up offers. They host daily and weekly digital meetups to discuss pros, cons, gleaned wisdom and painful lessons learned. Once you’ve found the right credit card for you there, find out how to use your points on r/awardtravel.
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