5 Tips For Visting Cambodia

Preparing for a vacation is exciting and can be a rush. Often, little things can make a big difference to having a successful trip.

You can wing it and end up like me being stranded with no bus just after the Laos border and 800 km to your next stop, wake up covered in bed bugs, be ripped of with donation scams, or you can sidestep these experiences by following the advice from people that learned the hard way.

Below are five important tips taken from my book, Cambodia 50 Facts You Should Know When Visiting Cambodia.

1: Although you can get a Cambodia visa at all borders, it is easier and faster to get one online if you are entering from one of the major land crossings or arriving by air. This will often be a great help when crossing from Thailand to Cambodia by using the Poipet border. See the government website.

2: US dollar is accepted all over in Cambodia. Do not change your US dollar over to Cambodian Riel as you cross the border. The exchange rate is bad at the border, and there is no need for Cambodian Riel.

3: Affordable accommodation can be booked online through Booking.com. Although many upper class hotels are on Expedia, the middle and more affordable class hotels are often only on bookings.com. Getting a hotel room online often can save you up to 50% in hotel fees. You pay nothing up front, so if the hotel room does not turn out like it should, you just cancel the booking and let the website know why.

4: Always check your room before you accept it or pay any money. Once you paid, it is normally impossible to get a refund. Often you are given a cheaper room first at full price. When you refuse, you will often suddenly be taken to the correct room. At times, air conditioners, warm water heaters and toilets may not work. Always check first. Remember, it is Asia, just go with the flow and smile.

5: Children begging are often employed by people that do not work and force the children to work long hours. Do not support this sad industry. Know that almost all children in so called orphanages have at least one living parent and are there for unsuspecting tourists to give money to the owners of the orphanage that rarely goes towards the children.

Get even more tips for visiting Cambodia by getting the full book today.

5 International Travel Tips

Advice for travel can be found all over the Internet, from friends and travel agencies, government websites, as well as airlines.

The problem is not a shortage of information, but an overload of information. Wasting time sifting through numerous tips that in most cases have no relevance to you, often leaves you frustrated while at the same time possibly causing you to forget the actual advice you do need.

Below are five important tips taken from my book 100 International Travel Tips.

1:Make a PDF scan copy of every page of your passport, or take a picture with your cell phone. You can also make hard copies of your passport, and keep it in your carry-on bag. In case your passport is lost or stolen, you will have proof of who you are. Also do the following: take a picture of the entry-stamp page of a country as soon as you pass through customs, as well as any visa that you receive at a customs' border post. People have been allowed to fly home with only scans and pictures of their passport’s pages. If you make hard copies have them certified as original copies. Leave additional copies of your passport, itinerary with hotel bookings, contact details, and flights with family or friends – in case you run into trouble.

2:Do check that your passport was, in fact, stamped when you pass a customs checkpoint. In addition, check the date of the entry stamp, as well as the expiry date of your visa. Scams occur in countries where a passport is incorrectly stamped, or not at all, on entry. You will be fined heavily when you try to exit the country. Most tourist visas are valid for 90 days, in blocks of 30 days. Do check the expiry date of your visa, as you will be fined for overstaying a visa. You may also be banned for a time if you overstayed for too long. An overstay can easily be $10 a day or more.

3:Inform your bank of the dates and places you will be traveling to and from. Banks may decline foreign charges, and even stop your cards, if they are not notified to expect foreign charges. Keep your bank details with you in case you need to contact your bank to have a purchase approved or a stopped-card reactivated.

4:Get a Skype account for free. Load your account with $30 of credit to allow you to call landlines and cell phones, should your wallet and cell phone get stolen. Most hotels and Internet shops will allow you to call, or you can ask a fellow traveler who has a smart phone or tablet to allow you to call using your account.

5:Put a piece of paper in each luggage with your contact details and possibly home address, as well as your itinerary with connecting flights and final destination. One of the main reasons bags are lost, is that tags get miss printed or ripped off, and no one has any idea where the bag should go or who the owner is. Other common causes of lost and delayed bags are late check-ins and tight connections (less than three hours between connecting flights, min 90 minutes suggested).

Get even more travel tips by getting the full book today.