Tick Off Your Travel To-Do List
03/04/2018Getting ready for any kind of trip is often simultaneously one of the most fun and exciting and one of the most stressful parts of travelling. It’s fun and exciting because you get to plan for all of the wonderful things that you’re going to do while you’re out in the world but the stress comes with the fear that you’re going to end up forgetting things or missing some crucial detail that will doom your entire trip. Of course, the truth is that the potential for forgetting stuff can get pretty high if you’re not planning everything as carefully as possible. If you try to wing everything, then you’re just going to end up missing things and making life harder for yourself. With that in mind, here are some things that you need to make sure to tick off your travel to-do list before taking your trip.
Travel insurance
It’s amazing how many people end up taking large trips without really considering the need for travel insurance. They assume that everything will be totally fine on their trip and there’s nothing to worry about at all, so there’s no real point even bothering with travel insurance. And sure, most of the time you’ll probably find that there isn’t much of a need for travel insurance, but that doesn’t mean that it’s in any way a waste of money. After all, it’s much better to have insurance for travel and not really need it than to need it and not have it. It’s not the most expensive thing in the world, and it’s often incredibly easy to organise. There really is no good reason not to have at least some form of travel insurance in place before you go anywhere.
Your documents
There are often a lot of documents involved in taking any kind of trip. From your passport to your plane tickets to any other documents for things like accommodation. (And, of course, your insurance documents!) And we’ve all had that experience of being at the airport and having that frantic, panicked search because you’ve forgotten where you put your passport, or worse, left it at home. The best thing to do is to have all of your documents put together in one place so that you can find them at a moment’s notice. Not only that but keep a note on your phone of exactly what you have in your collection of documents so that you can immediately see if something is missing.
Money
Money is always going to be a part of travelling, and there really isn’t much any of us can do about it. From plane tickets to accommodation to transport to food, you’re going to need money for just about everything. Of course, carrying around a huge wad of cash in your pocket is always going to be a dangerous thing to do. If you’ve got some kind of secret compartment in your luggage, then that’s often a great place to keep your cash, and it’s also worth checking to see what kinds of charges there are when using your card abroad. After all, having access to emergency money is great in case something bad happens, but you don’t want to end up paying huge amounts extra for it.
A spare phone
Most of us wouldn’t even consider taking a trip without our phones. And that’s okay! After all, you want to be able to keep a record of your trip as well as keep in contact with the people that you meet. But if something happens to your phone, then the last thing you want is to suddenly end up in a position where you can no longer get in touch with anyone. That’s why getting a cheap phone with a prepaid sim card and a few essential numbers in it is so important. Sure, it can’t replace the things that were on your main phone, but it will prevent you from being completely isolated if something does happen.
Now, your travel to-do list can be as detailed as you want but be warned that it’s entirely possible to go too far. If you end up putting every tiny little detail onto it, then you could very easily fall into a situation of not being able to see the wood for the trees. You focus so much on tiny details that you miss something that would otherwise be glaringly obvious. It’s also worth leaving a few things unplanned because of those kind of unexpected and spontaneous elements can often be what make a trip more fun and exciting than anything else. The perfect trip should always be a solid balance between things that you’ve planned and things that you leave totally up to chance.
