Travel hacks from happiness expert to make travel more convenient, never miss a credit card payment and 5 free things to do anywhere you travel
Insider Letter #035
š Hey friends,
Welcome to Travelling Lens Insider Letter, where every fortnight I send you a carefully curated letter of all things travel, travel photography and points & miles.
I just returned from a trip to the US, it was so lovely to see friends and familiar faces again.
Now, onto this weekās letterā¦
āļø Travel, Points and Photography
š³ Hereās how to never miss a credit card payment. Itās so simple you might have missed it.
āļø Airlines have become heavily reliant on credit cards for profitability. So much so theyāre choosing which they to fly based on how itāll influence the spending patterns of credit card customers. If youāre curious about the points and miles credit card world, this is a really interesting read.
š§³ Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin and her Hollywood show runner Elizabeth Craft share dozens of travel hacks in this episode. All to help make traveling more convenient and less stressful. You might pick up an idea or two from here!
š When we visited Tuscany in July we got an international driverās permit so we could hire a car to drive around Italy. But do you need an international driverās permit when hiring a car overseas all the time? No, not always. This breakdowns where and why you might need one.
šø The latest update to Adobe Lightroom has just made editing landscape photos easier and smarter. This 10 minute tutorial shows you exactly how to use the landscape masking feature to pick and choose elements of your photo to editācutting out a ton of manual editing time!
In case you missed it š
1 Big Mistake I Made When I First Started Taking Travel Photos
Like most beginners, I made a lot of mistakes when I first started taking travel photos during a trip.
The Best Resources To Use To Get Started Learning About the Points and Miles Game
I love learning about about how to play the game of points and miles to save money on travel and optimise my travel experiences.
AI and the Future of Travel (Including an AI Prompt You Can Steal Plan Your Next Trip)
Do you use AI to help with travel planning?
šø This Week in Notes
Your credit cards, points, and miles. All in one place.
If youāre a frequent flyer or are just getting into the points and miles game so you can travel for cheap, keeping track of your points and miles can feel overwhelming.
Iāve been using Notion to easily organise everything related to points and miles. So, if youāre looking a simple and flexible system to do just that, join the waitlist to be the first to know when my Points Hub PRO in Notion becomes available.
š Substack Finds
I love this idea of sending a postcard when you travel. Itās a fun and light weight activity you can do. Plus itās a lovely souvenir gift to yourself if you send it back home (to yourself). Psychologist Katie Blake, PhD shares 5 great reasons to send a postcard next time you travel.
After reading this book review from Michael Wriston, Iāve added Flashes of Brilliance to my reading list. If you like taking photos, I think youāll find this book interesting as well!
Daniel Catena shares 5 free and fun things you can do almost anywhere you travel to.
š Travel Reading
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.
This is an oldie but a goodie, one of my favorite personal finance books thatās not really about money at all.
Your mindset and behaviors matter more than what you know mathematically about money. Because we make choices based on our real life problems, feelings, past experiences, beliefs and habits.
Spending money on coffee, travel and camera gear might be right for meābut be wrong for my next door neighbor.
Housel shares 19 short stories to show you how to think about money to make decisions thatās right for you.
If you havenāt read it, I think youāll enjoy it!
š¬ Final Words
Creating memorable experiences is a smart use of your time and money.
Iām on a mission to help you create memorable travel experiences, capture personal documentary-style travel photos and get the most out of your points & miles so you can see the world more often (and in comfort!)
Got a question? Send me an email or a direct message, Iād love to hear from you!
If you enjoyed this, comment, restack or share it with one personāthatās the best compliment I could receive from you.
Your friend,
Janice
I'm a travel writer, photographer, points & miles optimiser and Notion Consultant. To get in touch, email hello@travellinglens.co.
p.s. Want to an easy & organised way to plan your next trip? Get my free Travel Hub trip planning system in Notion.
Janice ā this is such a calm, competence-inducing roundup. I really appreciate how you balance the tactical (credit cards, permits, Lightroom updates) with the human side of travel ā the Gretchen Rubin episode and the postcard idea both feel like reminders that travel is meant to reduce friction, not add to it.
Also loved the quiet throughline around systems: paying cards on time, organizing points, editing smarter, not harder. Itās all in service of freeing up attention for the actual experience ā which pairs perfectly with that closing note about memories being a smart use of time and money.
Always walk away from your letters feeling a little more grounded and a little more capable.
ā Kelly
I always appreciate these Janice thank you.