Tried and True International Travel Tips

I saw a similar list on an internet forum and thought I would add our take to it. These are our lessons and what we’ve learned through our travel experiences.

Check your passport expiration date. Many countries require 6 months of validity, some only 3. I had to renew mine early as we were headed to Latvia which wasn’t a problem but I didn’t know if I could get back into the U.A.E with less than 6 months.  I have a residence visa but couldn’t get any definitive info.  Maybe I didn’t try hard enough?

Check visa requirements. Check your destination country or countries embassy website. With Brexit and changes to the EU and possibly the Schengen zone it is always worth the check.

Make a packing checklist. Ours has gone through several revisions.  This list insures we aren’t packing too little (never a problem) and aren’t over packing. It includes everything from sunscreen to cell phone charger and we check every box before we head out.  It also insures we aren’t going to get somewhere and not have a SD card for the camera or a proper power adapter for foreign plugs.

Make Photocopies. We travel with photocopies of our passport, visa page, drivers license, ATM card and credit cards. We also have a copy in the cloud that we can access and print if need be.

Print your reservations. Plane ticket, hotel/hostel, etc. In the digital age this is becoming less and less of an issue but having hard copies to show in the event of a problem is always a good idea.

Travel insurance. We opt for plans that have both Emergency Evacuation and Emergency Repatriation if we are headed into the developing world and are unsure about the quality of medical care should the need arise. We also get the additional coverage that covers sports activities like climbing and diving.

For Tibet we also added trip cancellation or disruption insurance. Obviously it depends on where you are going and the risks you are willing to take.

In the past we’ve used USAA and Medex and apparently you can use InsureMyTrip.com for some trip insurance comparison shopping.

If you have an issue get a proper receipt regardless of how hectic things seem! We had to take an emergency helicopter flight from the Tibet border to Nepal because the road was washed out in a massive landslide and our hand written ‘receipt’ for $500 didn’t cut it.  Lesson learned.

Keep a stash of USD for emergencies. This was the only way we got on the helicopter in Nepal, hard US dollars.

Notify bank and credit card companies that you’ll be traveling. You’ll also want to check on foreign transaction fees and ATM fees.  My Chase cards don’t require travel notifications anymore and we have cards that don’t have foreign transaction fees. Schwab offers an online banking account that will reimburse any ATM fees both in the States and Internationally so that is worth checking out if you are going to get charged for ATM withdrawals. It all adds up!

Inform yourself about possible scams and other dangers. This is my job.  Shani is like “Hey let’s go to Libya!”  And then I have to research all the dangers and we sort out if it’s really a good time for that trip.  The world is a big place and there are always good alternatives when the security situation is sketchy.

Book your first nights hotel and plan your trip from the airport to hotel. In some countries like Uruguay the airport taxis are great! They are all white Mercedes station wagons but in places like the Dominican Republic you probably want to arrange a driver ahead of time.  A lot of hotels will send a driver for you if you inquire when you book. In Sao Paulo we always used the prepaid taxi stand and this is probably the best bet in a lot of countries.

Exchanging money. We always get cash at the ATM, usually in the airport.  We travel a lot so we also always have USD and Euros with us if we are travelling to a country that will accept either of those.  Also note that when you are departing a country like Argentina those pesos are worthless once you leave unless you have someone who will buy them from you when you get home. Do your research and make sure you aren’t stuck with currency you can’t exchange.

Be smart with your smartphone. We use our smartphones for all kinds of things. Photos of the hotel and photos of landmarks if we get lost. Photos of bus and ferry times can be very useful. We always use Google Maps to assure ourselves that taxi drivers are headed the right direction when we are a little unsure. (Of course this can give you the wrong info when streets aren’t on Google Maps yet! This was our case in Jordan and thought for sure something nefarious was in the making.) You can also get a local SIM and turn your phone into a hotspot for all your devices like our RVing friends Sunny and Todd did. Also be sure to check your telco rates.  In Jordan it was going to cost me $15/MB for data, talk was $2 a minute and text messages were $0.50 each.  It adds up fast!  In the UAE I get unlimited data at 2G, calls at $0.20 a minute and free text messages.

Leave your wedding ring and expensive watch at home. We both have inexpensive travel rings that we aren’t going to cry about getting stolen or lost on a trip.  I bought a mundane all black G-Shock for travel.  It does multiple time zones with the push of a button and is powered by the Sun.  The funny thing about it is that the developing world is awash with fake G-Shocks that look way more expensive than mine. Don’t invite trouble with flashy stuff!

Outfit a proper medicine kit. We always have a stash of Cipro and ibuprofen in our kit plus band-aids and various ointments at the minimum.  Having Pepto and Imodium can go along way and having some at the ready when you need them makes a huge difference when travelling. Shani has a generic antibiotic that has really helped when she gets nasty bug bites that get infected.  Central and South America are really bad for her bug wise.

So there you have our tried and true travel trips, I hope you find them useful. If you have a tried and true tip we should add to our list add it in a comment or drop us a line.  We’d love to hear it!