Do You Know The Laws When Traveling? Travel Tip Tuesday

This week, Meggan shares the importance of knowing the laws and customs of the country you are visiting, and why we need to start making this part of our planning for all destinations.

We should familiarize ourselves with the rules and laws of each country we are visiting for our safety and knowledge, but also to ensure we are respectful travellers and world citizens.

Check out travel advisories for Canadians here: https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories

Check out travel advisories for Americans here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html

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We are travel enthusiasts who do not claim to be professionals! Instead we are two Halifax, NS natives with travel blogs who somehow found one another on the internet and now, we have a podcast!!

Join us every week as we talk about our favourite destinations, travel tips, travel fails and all things travel!

We have a big passion for travelling and talking about travel so we hope you will listen and join the conversation.

You can find us here:

• Our Website
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• Jenn’s Travel Blog 
• Jenn’s YouTube channel
• Meggan and husband Peter’s YouTube

Disclaimer - all episodes are our opinions/experiences, always do your research and make travel plans based on your budget and comfort levels.

Transcript

Meggan: 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. We're so happy that you're here. We hope you're having a great week. Of course. This is Meggan joined as always by Jenn. How are you today Jenn?

Jenn: 0:12

I am doing well. I am loving the September summer that is extending

Meggan: 0:20

I am a September fan. I don't like what September brings us to, but I'm definitely a September fan.

Jenn: 0:27

Fair.

Meggan: 0:28

I like a sweater. So this week actually for our travel tip Tuesday, I wanted to touch on a topic that has come up recently here in Canada, but one that I think is important for everyone and was spurred by Canada's recent warning for Canadian LGBTQI plus residents traveling to the US and just ensuring that they're familiar with US laws before going. So what this did is it really just got me thinking about the true importance of knowing the laws of the land before traveling, no matter where you're going, and really how some people may not think to add this to their travel planning. We always get so caught up, I think, understandably in booking flights and accommodations and ensuring that we're packing what's appropriate. How many of us really take the time to understand the laws that travelers should be aware of when going to a new country and how often I'm sure we all think, oh, where I'm going is fine. I'm sure it's the same as here, quote unquote, but is it, you know, until you look, none of us know. So there's also likely a stereotype about going to certain countries and thinking to yourself, I'm sure their laws are the same as Canada or wherever you're from. But I think in a changing world, we need to start making this part of what we're actually planning for and further to this, even if it's something isn't a law, it can be something that is, you know, disrespectful that maybe isn't in your country that you haven't considered yet. There's so many things now to think about like that. So I looked up a couple of examples I just kind of wanted to share. So for example, did you know in Germany that walking in bicycle lanes is actually illegal? It makes Germans very unhappy, but also it is illegal. And Germans actually, much like Canadians do not wear shoes inside their homes. That isn't a law, of course, but it's one of those things that you really should know as a sign of respect if you happen to enter into someone's home. So those are different things, but still something to consider before traveling there. And then one that I had heard of before, but wanted to share that in Singapore, chewing gum is actually illegal.

Jenn: 2:39

Huh. I did not know that.

Meggan: 2:42

Right, right. So I know that that seems trivial, but it really isn't because a law is a law. So all of this to say that regardless of our destination we should be ensuring that we familiarize ourselves with the rules and laws of each country. We're visiting for safety and knowledge, but also of course, To be travelers and world citizens. So Jenn, I guess I wanted to throw it over to you. Is this something that you consider and research prior to traveling to new countries or even to ones that you've been to in the past? Because of course we know that things change.

Jenn: 3:15

Right. Not in particular. So I had kind of like looked up some rules of the road before we went to Scotland'cause we were renting a car and we hadn't really done that before, but not really. And. Yeah, I guess I, there's things that I kind of like knew about that were different like between Canada and the US and that sort of thing, but it is not something that I have done, but probably something I should look into a little bit more before I go.

Meggan: 3:47

Yeah, I, I think probably a lot of people are the same, and I have to be honest, it isn't really something I've considered much in the past, and I really do understand that. I think that that's also a privilege. But I do intend to add it to all of our travel plans. I really do feel, especially after that warning came out, it just really start, started me thinking like, it's always better to be safe than sorry. You don't know what you don't know.

Jenn: 4:08

It is true. Yeah. And you, you're not gonna be able to plead ignorance with law enforcement in another country, and that's not something you wanna deal with.

Meggan: 4:17

no, and, and that is not you not knowing is not their problem. So, Exactly. So I guess I just wanted to put that out there into the world is something for people to start pondering and thinking about before they start their travels. And that is it for this week's Travel tip Tuesday. So thanks so much for joining us. You can find us as always on social media at Travel Mug Podcast and our website travel mug podcast.com if you like what we're doing. I mean, how can you not?, you can support us here at the show through buy Me a Coffee link is in the show notes. Or leave us a review as well on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We'd love that and thanks as always for the support. Until next time, bye.

Jenn: 4:57

Bye