Heir travel: the royal family's secret travel rules

Extremely tight schedule - Telegraph royalty correspondent Gordon Rayner commented that: "Touring the world meeting heads of state and being shown cultural treasures sounds like a wonderful life. Yet I have no envy for the Royal family. Their visits to world-famous sites rarely last more than 40 minutes, and the chances are they will never return."

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Everything's prearranged - They might look relaxed and completely at ease in the publicity snaps, but literally every single activity they partake in on their official visits has been carefully arranged beforehand.

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Everything's prearranged - Like satellites that orbit planets, so the royals are constantly surrounded by all kinds of assistants and staff keeping them updated on the day's events.

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They travel by train - If they have to go somewhere within Great Britain they can take the British Royal Train. The Queen often travels home for Christmas at Sandringham by train.

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They take the train - They also travel by car. Once, Harry and Meghan arrived an hour late to Cardiff traveling by car because they got stuck in traffic.

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BYOB - Gin and tonic for Prince Charles and red wine for Camilla! Yes, this royal pair is known to bring their own booze on their travels. With the utmost discretion, obviously.

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BYOB - The official reason is to avoid their drinks being spiked. In fact, their secret stash of booze is often (discretely) carried by their bodyguards.

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They always pack a black outfit - Any self-respecting royal always brings a black outfit on their travels. This is in case of an unexpected death. Protocol dictates that once they arrive back in the UK they're appropriately dressed for the occasion as quickly as possible.

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They always pack a black outfit - When Elizabeth's father George VI died in 1952 she was visiting Kenya and hadn't brought anything black to wear with her. When she arrived back in the UK, she wasn't able to leave the plane until adequate attire had been provided. A lesson learned in the most bitter of circumstances.

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Immigration - Crowns and lofty titles are all very well, but it doesn't relieve you of being checked by customs and immigration like the rest of us mere mortals.

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Immigration - Each member of the royal family must carry a valid passport with them while traveling, except the Queen. However, if she doesn't carry one—after all, all British passports are issued in her name—she's still subject to identity checks.

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Heirs never travel together - Though not an official rule, it is custom that no two heirs to the throne should ever travel together by plane. The practice apparently was put in place by Elizabeth in times when air travel posed much more of a risk than it does now.

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Heirs never travel together - Though it appears that in recent years the Queen has become much more lenient regarding this "rule." This is evidenced by the fact we often see William and Kate bring their kids along on flights to official visits. Still, she does have the final say.

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Their luggage is tagged - All royal trips are perfectly organized. All their luggage has tags with the appropriate name on it.

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Their luggage is tagged - According to the Express, Queen Elizabeth has yellow tags on her luggage on which "The Queen" is written. Kate's luggage tags are yellow and William's are red, just like his dad's, Prince Charles. Princess Anne has green and little Prince George has blue.

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The queen's jet lag cure - At the royal age of 93 and on a punishing schedule of potentially 250 official state visits a year, the Queen doesn't just bounce back from jet lag like she might have done in her twenties or thirties.

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The queen's jet lag cure - Which is why she never travels anywhere without barley sugar! According to experts this is to stimulate her metabolism, so that her body clock adjusts quicker.

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Meghan Markle's essentials - Though not an actual rule either, there is a certain product that the Duchess of Sussex never travels anywhere without.

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Meghan Markle's essentials - She never goes anywhere without tea tree oil, an essential oil that comes in handy in case of acne or mosquito bites, to name a few examples. It can also be used as a disinfectant!

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A small army of employees - They might look like they travel all alone in the official photos, but in reality they travel in large numbers. The British royals have a horde of staffers and employees at their disposal, who take care of absolutely everything during their foreign stays.

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A small army of employees - Secretaries, nannies, hairdressers, bodyguards, and doctors are all part of the royal entourage. The Queen usually travels with about 34 staffers, whereas William and Kate have about seven to twelve staffers at their disposal.

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Identical outfits - As a British royal, wearing your Sunday best is extremely important. When you're the Queen of England, ridding your garment of a red wine stain with the help of say a hand dryer is totally unthinkable.

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Identical outfits - Which is why for every outfit an identical one is packed as well. Excess baggage isn't a problem for the royal family apparently.

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Always dressed to the nines - Speaking of clothes, have you ever noticed that the royals never ever seem to be wearing casual clothes while traveling?

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Always dressed to the nines - On the contrary, every time they step out of an airplane, they're dressed absolutely flawlessly!

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Budgetary concerns - According to Hello! Magazine, in 2017 the total cost of all royal travel was US$5.8 million.

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Budgetary concerns - And in 2018, Charles and Camilla's tour of Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands cost £417,000.

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No private jets - The royal family are under no official obligation to travel by private jet.

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No private jets -

Though you will probably never see Prince Philip or Queen Elizabeth on commercial flights, William, Kate and Harry have all been known to have flown with British Airways, Ryanair, and American Airlines.

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Greetings in several languages - As they all represent the UK in some official capacity, learning about the culture and customs of the countries they visit is important.

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Greetings in several languages - Which is why whenever they visit another country they make sure that at the very least they know how to greet people in the local language.

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They pack their own blood - It sounds a bit morbid, but both the Queen and Prince Charles carry around a bag of their own blood!

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