Now that I think about it, airport experiences are either stressful or pleasant. There seems to be no middle ground. I’ve had my fair share of both so if you want some tips on getting by smoothly then keep reading, because I’ve got you sorted. Whilst I can’t guarantee you won’t have an annoying neighbour in the seat next to you, I can give you a bunch of tips to take away some of the stress at airports.

• Someone taking up the only socket at the airport? It happens, and it’s frustrating. However, until the airport finally comes to understanding more sockets are needed, you can prevent this situation by carrying a multi-socket adaptor so multiple devices can be connected from one plug.

• Download your boarding pass, rather than screenshotting, as if your iPhone is on low-saver photo storage you might find the photo of your pass doesn’t open without Wi-Fi.

• Struggling to fit all your liquids into one clear bag? Remove the lids on items such as perfumes, creams and makeup. As these aren’t liquid, you can just put the lids into your bag then put them back onto your items when you pass luggage checks.

• Can you bring liquids if they are frozen? The jury is out on this one. I had an ice-cube tray that was frozen which passed controls, but I think this was because the trays were fully frozen. Yup, not even a drip of water. If you have a non-valuable item, you could try this but I’m unsure if this would work in each and every airport.

• Familiarise yourself with the 3-letter-destination-codes for your location as, believe it or not, some of them aren’t as obvious as you might think. This will save you time when locating your baggage upon landing.

• Buy some universal trolley/cart coins for your region. Most post offices sell them. Essentially, these are keychains which work in all slots where you need to insert a coin. So useful when you don’t have cash or don’t want to insert your card details into a dodgy-looking machine.

• Set an alarm for when your gate closes. No more looking at the departures board every 15 minutes!

• If you know you’ll buy something from Duty Free, order online to collect at the airport to save yourself some time.

• Sleeping at the airport? Search up ‘sleeping spots’ so you can see where others have slept, as some areas of the airport are locked off at a certain time. Don’t make my mistake of sleeping right by the airport door either!

Don’t forget to check the link at the top of this post for more travel-related tips and tricks. Until then, see you in the next post!