A pilot and Instagram influencer with 500,000 followers shares her 8 best travel tips

• Maria Fagerström is a Swedish pilot and Instagram influencer living in Spain.
• She shares insider secrets about her life as a pilot with her nearly 500,000 Instagram followers.
• She shared some of her best travel and packing tips with Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Swedish influencer and pilot Maria Fagerström uses Instagram to share her life as a pilot, her travels, and the home she shares with her boyfriend with her nearly 500,000 followers.

In some posts, she answers questions that followers have about her unusual and glamorous life, from what flight school is like to things people don’t know about being a pilot.

As a short haul pilot, Fagerström usually gets back to Spain to sleep in her own bed, but during her time off, she travels frequently. Here are some of her best tips for traveling.

1. “I always bring an empty water bottle with me to refill once you go air side whenever I travel as a passenger,” Fagerström told Business Insider.

2. Bring extra socks in your carry-on to wear if you want to take off your shoes, especially for going to the bathroom.

3. Tag your checked luggage, and add an extra label saying “fragile,” which “may increase the chances of airport staff handling your stuff with more care” according to Fagerström.

4. Always bring a fully charged power bank for when your batteries run low.

5. Fagerström also said she always brings her “precious noise-cancelling headset.”

6. Board early, so that overhead bins don’t fill up, or you might have to check bags at the gate. In the rush, your bag could get tagged incorrectly and be lost when you arrive. “Happened to me more than once so I always try to board first,” Fagerström said.

7. Never exchange currency at the airport if you can help it — ATMs are usually faster and cheaper.

8. Finally, a tip from Fagerström’s father, a long-haul pilot, on fighting jetlag: “Listen to your body and get some sleep whenever you can, even if it’s only a 15-minute power nap in the middle of the day.” She also advises staying away from sugar.

You can follow along with Fagerström’s travels on Instagram right here.