The Travel Survival Guide by Lloyd Figgins is a helpful tool to prepare you for almost any eventuality during a trip abroad. As mentioned already on this blog, I attended the Destinations Travel Show in February 2017 and 2018 where Lloyd Figgins is a regular.
Last year he gave me a book to read titled “Looking For Lemons – A Travel Survival Guide” which was very interesting and when I heard he’s published another book I knew immediately I would want to read it!
He published the new book “Travel Survival Guide” in April 2018 and I went to listen to him at the book launch event at the the Stanford Bookstore in Central London.
Lloyd appears to enjoy talking in front of people and his delivery is also quite entertaining so the hour which was allocated for the launch event flew by pretty quick. Lloyd’s personal stories and funny anecdotes made for an entertaining evening after which I bought my own signed copy from him.
The Travel Survival Guide
The book is not only full of useful advice and his stories but he also explains through personal experience how tough life can get if you don’t prepare properly and you are careless.
There is also a list of items in the book which he recommends you take on your next trip, including the Water-to-Go bottle which I reviewed not long ago.
I am not going to go into detail what he actually recommends but rest assured some of them are things you would never think of. Just buy the book to find out what those things are! It’s on sale at Amazon and the Stanfords Bookstore on 12-14 Long Acre London.
What I Have Learned
I am off to Thailand in May and since it is a Tsunami prone area I will definitely use some of the useful advice in the book. Also, while I enjoy staying on the higher floors in hotels I might reconsider given what Lloyd says about it in the book.
One of the most important things I also decided to do thanks to reading the book is to always ask where the nearest emergency exits are on an unfamiliar aircraft as this can mean life or death during a rough landing. Also, I will probably not curse Ryanair or BA any more when they allocate me a seat at the very back by the toilet – it may be my lucky fast lane to survival!
Social Media Awareness
Something else I have done (not purely due to the advice in the book but partly) is I created a Facebook account with a fake name which only my real friends know so we can keep in touch. I have also installed a special software to delete all my tweets and Facebook posts from time immemorial as a lot of that information can be detrimental if in the wrong hands.
For example, would you want the chavs in the neighbourhood know when you and your entire family are out on holiday, leaving your home empty? I would certainly not!
I also never knew there are portable safety belts which you can take with you on bus journeys to make sure you don’t fly off your seat! Last but not least, there were a couple of things I never thought of in terms of safety in hotels, even though I used to work in various hotels for nearly four years!
Anyway, if there are only two travel related things that you buy this year they should be this book and the Water-To-Go bottle: they are super useful and full of good stuff!