Hitting the road

This is a sub-article and forms part of the first time traveller series. This article focuses on the actual day you head off for your flight and covers all those last minute things you should check or look out for.
By now, you should have packed your bags and are ready to go. If not, be sure to check out the previous sub-article.
Heading to the airport: Plan ahead on how you intend to get to the airport. If you are on a budget, you may want to take public transport instead of a taxi. Bearing in mind the time of your flight, if it is too early in the morning you may have to take the last train the night before. Remember to give yourself sufficient time to check-in. The counters normally open two hours before departure time and close about 45 minutes before departure time. Consider whether you would like to do an online check-in to save some time.
Before leaving the house, be sure to check you have turned off all the things that you are supposed to (e.g. lights, water heaters, air-conditioning) and most importantly you remembered your passport and wallet. There is no reason why you should miss your flight because you forgot your wallet or your passport. The rest are secondary as you can always, although not ideal, buy anything that you may have forgotten to bring.
If you are camping overnight at the airport, you might want to load some videos into your phone or laptop to keep you busy while you wait or bring that book you always wanted to read.
For those who have the chance of using a lounge while waiting for your flight, just remember to drink in moderation. You don’t want to miss that flight, do you?
If you don’t have access to a lounge, why not go explore the airport. Most international airports have areas for travellers to dine in as well as shop. Some airports even throw in free movie screenings or web browsing for you to catch up on facebook or other websites.
Whatever you do, please always keep in mind your boarding time and give yourself some time to get over to the correct gate.
Let me know in the comments section below if you have any helpful comments that I may have missed out.
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