Travel Tips for BJJ /// By: Raquel Pa'aluhi-Canuto

My husband and I travel often. From the outside looking in, we seem rich and like we're living the life. But the truth is, we are very smart travelers. We weren't always this way but over time we've learned a handful of things that's saved us thousands of dollars. Today I want to share some of these with you in hopes of saving you the trial and error time I've been through! Here it goes:

1. Flying on a dime - if you're like me and like to travel but are on a budget or like to save money, buying red eye flights are usually the way to go. In the beginning, I did it to save time because I hated wasting my day flying. I also preferred to sleep on the plane like I normally would and not when I got in, thus wasting time there. It wasn't until later that I realized the cheapest flights were between 10pm and 2am. So it was a win/win situation for me. Also, legend has it that on Tuesday's, flights are cheapest. I won't confirm these rumors but I will say that I got tickets to Portugal for the Europeans this year for $430 round trip AFTER my friends purchased theirs for closer to $700. My tickets were purchased on a Tuesday...

2. Where do I stay? - Luckily for us, we've made so many friends along the way that we almost never have to get a place to stay. There's usually a couch, extra bed and once in a while a floor for us to sleep on. However, that's not always the case. When we're traveling with a group of people we normally check the Motel 6's. It's not as bad as you think! On a scale from 1-5, I'd give majority of the ones I've stayed at a 4 for cleanliness and comfort. For $65-$80 a night you can put 4, sometimes 5 people in a room and split the cost. For a trip like Worlds or Pan Ams when the tournament is 4-5 days long, it helps a lot. Another option we love using is AirBNB. When we do, I thoroughly enjoy browsing through houses and apartments for the cutest place! While we were in Germany recently I paid $130 for 4 nights in a flat near the old downtown Berlin. What's amazing about using Air BnB is that you can find a place that suits your needs. We've gotten places right around the corner from where we needed to be which in return saved us money on Uber, renting a car and gas! It also helps when there's a kitchen, washer and dryer on site. Something we did in Ireland was stay at a place called Aparto which was an off campus college dormitory. It included everything a hotel would plus a kitchen, laundry room and a gym starting from 50 Euro (59USD) a night. I have never stayed at a hostile but hear it is another great option as well.

3. Packing - I have traveled for a whole weekend to compete, gi included, with a normal sized backpack to avoid paying for baggage fees. This normally includes, 5-6 pairs of underwear, 2 sports bras, 3 pairs of shorts/yoga pants and 3-4 tops. How do I do it? I fold everything as thin as possible (so I leave it longer). I stack them all together, stick them in between my gi, fold my gi in half, sit on it to compress it and slide it into my backpack. If your bag is like mine and has a lot of extra pockets on the side, that's where all your toiletries, chargers and thingamajigs go. If you're traveling for a longer period of time, airlines usually allow a small luggage (normally 25 lbs) and a personal item. That usually scares people but I've never been stopped from bringing a backpack as my personal item and a small rolling luggage which should be more than enough for one person. If you like to overpack, a trick I've used for years now is I roll all my clothes up rather than folding it. It normally gives me double the amount of space for clothes. For the most part, flights to foreign countries allow at least one check-in luggage so that is helpful.

4. Washing on the go - With that said, there is not always an available washer or dryer in hotels and in foreign countries it's harder to find them in apartment buildings. There is normally a laundromat in most cities that are walking distance or a short bus ride away. But if you want to save money here are a couple ways to wash your clothes. 1) Dump your clothes into the bath tub; 2) Run hot water over it and sprinkle detergent as the water is going; 3) Once it's filled, let it sit for 5-10 minutes before twirling them all around and scrubbing them all together to get the extra funk out; 4) Drain the tub; 5) Rinse them out with clean water then squeeze the water out as best as possible; and 6) Hang them in the nearest sunlit spot. Another trick a friend suggested to me is to take the extra large Ziploc bags for smaller pieces of clothing. Fill it with soap and water, shake it around as needed, rinse, squeeze and hang!

5. Apps - my favorite apps for traveling has to be Google Translate and Apple Maps. On maps you can route everything from driving to walking and even the train or bus routes. While we were in Germany I used the train and bus to get everywhere. Apple Maps gave detailed instructions on departure and arrival times, the amount of feet to walk, streets to turn on, what side of the road it was on and obviously what buses and trains to take to get around. It was amazing! I searched the route on maps, screen shot it and followed it once we left wifi. It was even easier to follow than the website for the bus route itself. My second favorite, Google Translate. There is now an option on there to take a photo of whatever it is you're trying to read so in our case it's normally menus. You snap a photo of the menu, highlight the area you want translated and it translates it all in seconds! There is also Uber and Lyft which I use sometimes when I'm traveling as well. There are literally apps for everything these days but for traveling, these two are my favorites.

6. Saving money - It is easy to over spend on trips when you're buying on the go. Especially in tourist cities, event centers or airports where prices are hiked up. You're constantly stopping at the nearest gas station, cafe, pharmacy or mall for necessities and items you may have forgot. I normally pack food for the flight or first day of travel so we don't have to buy anything. I also bring a water bottle to fill up at gas stations or restaurants with soda fountains in the airport. I've even packed my french press before to avoid buying coffee everyday and also to make sure I had coffee everyday. When we get in, our first stop is usually a grocery store to get vegetables for salad and fruits and bars to snack on. Another thing I like to do while traveling is find the nearest dollar store. There's always something you forget whether it be a toothbrush, shampoo or socks and these things gets costly pretty fast. The dollar store has just about everything these days. Once in a while we'll get lucky and find a penny grocery store which is helpful for the little things like seasonings, oil, rice, etc as well as the main groceries but at a much lower price. Recently while we were in Ireland it started to rain and my husband forgot his jacket. I was thinking, Great! He just got a new one and now we have to spend 30-40 Euro on another one! About two blocks from our place we saw clothes through a store window so we walked in. It ended up being a thrift store. We found him a nice jacket for 3 Euro, took it back to the dorms and washed it. He had a jacket for the rest of the trip and we saved money too.

Raquel and Renato at the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland.

7. Tourists attractions on a dime - Most cities are rich in history so there are a lot of sites to see or things to do that's free. A good way to see the ones that are not free for at low price is by searching Groupon or third party ticketing websites. There's always some kind of special going on that the companies website doesn't offer. I almost never buy from the company site. If you search the attraction on google, the first thing that comes up 9 out of 10 times is a website offering 20%-30% off.

Happy travels!