Good tips! Idk about packing ties in my shoes, though, although that may say more about the state of my shoes than anything else! I usually roll them up and pack them in my bras.

Great tips! One that I do every time I fly, even with other first time fliers, is use the business line through security that a lot of airports have now. This lane is for experienced fliers and signs often say so. I'm not sure if people find this intimidating or if there really are that many newbie fliers but the business line is typically much shorter (the longest I've waited in a security line has been about 7 minutes using this line and that was during a rush time through Atlanta Airport.)

That being said, people don't take kindly to those that gum up the works by being unprepared going through this line so you'll want to be ready. Take your shoes off, belt off, have your wallet, keys, change, jewelry (especially anything steel because it will set off the detectors and result in a pat down, found this out the hard way when I didn't take off a cuff I was wearing) etc in a ziploc that you can drop in the bin without digging around in pockets, your clear quart bag full of liquids out of your carry on and your ID and tickets in hand. drop everything except your ID and tickets (and any e-readers that you may have- the scanners can screw with some of them) in the bin, go through the scanner, grab your bin of stuff and move thy booty away from the end of the conveyor before putting belts, boots and gear away. Your fellow fliers will appreciate your courtesy and you've just made it through security in 5 minutes!

Another thing I do is check to see if there are any shows, events or restaurants in the area that we will really want to check out. If there are, I get the tickets in advance and I make reservations for the restaurant (if they accept them). This eliminates the disappointment of sold out shows, booked restaurants and the classic 'Damn, I really wanted to go to <insert location here> and I didn't realize they were closed today!' incident.

Travel with a basic plan, don't overbook yourself (especially that first day) and leave yourself some time for relaxation and impulse trips to that little hole-in-the-wall place you didn't read about online.

Any tips on how best to pack toys or the packer you've decided not to wear on the flight? Especially in carry-on. Shouts of "whose bag is this" and random bag searches through the security line can turn even me, the most unabashedly sex lovin' queer, a little bit red in the face.

Btw, I think you should change "stewardesses" to "flight attendants" in tip #8 =)

Great post, thanks for the tips. I have to second changing "stewardess" to "flight attendant" in #8. That term has pretty misogynistic connotations.

My wife and I lived in Dublin one summer. We went to a social night at the local (and awesome and unfortunately named*) Outhouse LGBT community centre. Great to have a crowd of nice folks to give us tips on good clubs and pubs, friendly areas and dodgy neighbourhoods. Plus we had a good group to share a few pints with over the summer that weren't our work colleagues. We've since done this in other major cities with shorter periods of time with mixed results, but the Dublin experience was so positive we'll keep trying in the future.

*An outhouse in Ireland and the UK isn't a privy/ latrine but a shed or small barn or other out buildings that aren't the main house. So, a good pun for the LGBT community relative to "mainstream" heterosexist society. Even if it sounds weird to North Americans.