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Travel Tips Tuesdays: Can Custom Officials REALLY Check Your Phone?
Plus, Travel Trends to Follow, and Ignore
Jeannie Edmunds
April 08, 2025
Travel news for our favorite travelers.
Greetings Travel Tip-Seekers!
If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in travel. Whether it’s with us, with someone else, or on your own. We’re happy to provide you with helpful hacks to make your life on the road easier.
For NextTribe trips, we are always looking for ways to make our incredible experiences more affordable, and if we find additional savings (e.g. if the exchange rate favors us, or hotels give us better deals) we are happy to pass them along to you, as we’re doing on our trip to Hydra, Greece this Fall.
We always offer interest-free payment plans. We don’t charge credit card fees, which can add up to hundreds of dollars on each trip. And our rewards programs are some of the most generous in the industry: $250 per new traveler referred by an existing traveler, 10% discount after your fifth trip with us, etc.
Our 8th anniversary party this year reminded us how much we love being in a community of interesting, curious, and bold women!
Times are uncertain, and travel can be a great way to escape. Beyond that, travel is transformational—the way we do it. We’ve seen the incredible difference our trips have made in women’s lives. We’re going to continue our mission to build a community of women who love travel, and always look for ways to make it more affordable for you.
Here are this week’s travel tips curated for you from our reliable sources in the travel industry and from general interest newsletters, websites, and publications.
First, for women who travel locally using Uber (or if you’re in an unfamiliar city), please watch this video on how to customize your safety preferences on UBER. The app will also allow you to share your location with a friend. You can also watch this video from LYFT.
If you’re riding in a driverless Waymo, we can’t help you. But we admire you, brave souls!
The Uber app can also check if your ride stops early…a good safety feature.
Immigration and your Instagram
US Customs and Border Patrol officers have always had the authority to check and download information from cellphones if they suspect someone, even US citizens. These days it seems travelers are being pulled aside for secondary inspections. Are we going to let that stop us from enjoying a great overseas trip? Hell no! But you might want to read the following article:
Don’t Follow This Travel Trend!
TikTok has some really great travel hacks, and we do love TravelTok. But this is one of the dumbest trends we’ve seen. So much about the flying experience is out of our control. But you can control when you plan to arrive, and 20 minutes before a flight is just…dumb!
But Consider This One, Because it’s Fun: Noctourism
When I lived in Northern Virginia, I loved to take visitors on nighttime tours of the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and the moving Vietnam Memorial. There’s something magical about seeing the “must-visit” places when it’s quiet, dark, and uncrowded.
Apparently I was ahead of my time. Noctourism. Everybody’s doing it! We even did it on our Vietnam trip last year when we visited a candlelit temple at Ky Lan Lake Park in Ninh Binh.
When we visited this temple in Vietnam at night it somehow felt a little more sacred.
Can’t Wait to Test This
We’re always on the lookout for products that make traveling easier. I ordered one of these and can’t wait to try it out when I fly to Phoenix later this month to host a NextTribe Travelers Reunion Happy Hour!
It’s a cup caddy from a company called Riemot. There are knockoffs all over Amazon but I bought mine directly from the company for $15.99.
No more juggle water bottles & hot coffee on the jetway!
ICYMI: Our “Take Better Travel Photos” Seminar Video + A Special Offer
Last night, Founder Jeannie Ralston demonstrated why she’s the visual genie—I mean Jeannie—in our organization. She really knows how to take great photos, a skill she picked up in her decades of marriage to a National Geographic photographer.
If you couldn’t make it, you can watch it here. And make sure you watch all the way to the end, because she makes a special offer that you’ll want to take her up on.
Jeannie Edmunds
Chief Operating Officer
Don’t Hesitate: Upcoming Trips with Limited Openings
Many of our 2025 trips have sold out! If you’ve been on the fence, it’s time to book the last spots:
Upcoming Trip Previews
TONIGHT! Trip Preview 6:30 pm ET RSVP here.
Experience South Africa like a local. Meet the two women who will introduce us to secret spots and their fabulous friends at our South Africa Trip Preview, Wed. April 30th, 1 pm CT. (Must be midday because of the time difference in Capetown.) RSVP here.
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