If you’re a student, there’s no doubt you will be heading back home soon to spend the festive period with your family and friends. Travel over the Christmas periods, be it by train, car or bus can be stressful and expensive without proper planning.
To ensure your Christmas commute doesn’t turn into a festive fumble, follow our top five tips for a stress free journey home this Christmas.
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Plan Your Route In Advance
There’s nothing worse than boarding a train, only to find out there is going to be huge delays, or setting off down the motorway to be greeted by thousands of brake lights and miles of traffic.
To ensure you don’t get caught out, plan your route in advance and use relevant public transport websites to avoid delays. If you’re travelling by car, input your destination into your GPS or smartphone before setting off to see if there are any avoidable delays en route.
Useful Websites:
- National Rail disruptions - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/today.aspx
- GWR live network updates - https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/live-network-updates
- Google maps (includes traffic statistics in real time) - https://www.google.co.uk/maps
- Waze app - (live traffic updates) - iOS/Android
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Avoid Public Transport At Peak Times
Following on from planning your route in advance, you should consider avoiding public transport at peak times; these are usually easy to spot on ticket sites as fares shoot up. If you can’t avoid travelling at peak times, pack lighter and be prepared to stand.
If you’re driving back home, you’ll find some benefit in taking off late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Between midnight and 5am the roads are generally a lot quieter, it goes without saying that you should only be setting off at this time if you can stay awake and alert for the whole duration of your trip home.
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Get Your Work Done Before You Leave
Nothing will stress you out more over your Christmas break than thinking about the stacks of work you have waiting for you back at uni. Dedicate some time before you leave to complete as much work as you can – submitting that assignment before your break will be a huge weight off your shoulders and gives you time to relax on your return.
If you’re struggling to get work done at university, check out our handy guide to stop procrastinating and start studying!
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Make a List (and check it twice!)
Just like our favourite festive character does, making a list will help keep you organised before you make the trip home, here’s a couple of things you might want to include on your lists:
- Essentials to take home – clothes, valuables presents.
- Empty fridges and cupboards to prevent things going off whilst you are away.
- Give the house a clean – any crumbs or rubbish left lying around can attract rodents.
- Take the rubbish out.
- Book your transport tickets.
- Switch any lights, electrical devices and heating off.
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Lock Up Your Property Before Leaving
Student accommodation can be an easy target for thieves over the Christmas period as they are usually empty. As well as ensuring all windows and doors are securely locked, take note of these extra precautions to ensure your house isn’t broken into:
- Don’t announce your return home on social media, it is also good practice to ensure strangers can’t see your address on Facebook by improving your privacy settings.
- Remove any valuables from the property.
- If you trust and get along with your neighbours, ask them to keep an eye on your property over the period you are away.
- Move any appliances such as your TV/games console away from the window.
- Timer switches on lamps are a worthwhile investment for deterring
- Register any valuables that will be left behind on Immobilise – this makes stolen items harder to sell and will assist in making an insurance claim and retrieving
- Ensure your door is deadlocked before leaving.
Stress Free Student Accommodation With Digs
Whilst a stress free journey home this Christmas may be down to chance, securing your university accommodation doesn’t have to be. At Digs, we make life easy for students and landlords alike!
If you have any questions about our services, give one of our friendly team a call on 0117 930 8759.
