Pre-Travel Checklist: 10 Vital Steps
Checklist Advantage
Planning for a trip abroad has a lot of steps. Having an easy to mark pre-travel-checklist can speed up the process. The checklist below considers the most important parts of being fully prepared for a journey.
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Checklist Major Points:
- Medication
- Documents
- Insurance
- Banking
- Transport
- Lodging
- Finances
- Friends and Family
- Packing Checklist
- Confirm your Ride
Medication
Check to make sure all necessary travel vaccination and prescription medicines are fully stocked and up-to-date. Double check supplies such as painkillers and stomach medicine are stored inside your travel med kit and nothing is expired. Bring your international vaccination paperwork, medical clearance, copies of medical papers and doctor prescriptions with you for refills if needed.
Documents
Make sure all your documents are organized. This includes your passport and driver’s license. Both should have more than six months before their expression. All your documents should have physical copies kept in your luggage. Also keep an encrypted micro-USB stick with all the necessary information.
Pre-Travel Checklist Documents include:
- Passport
- Passport Card (if applicable)
- Driver’s License (and international driver’s license, if applicable)
- Plane, train or bus tickets
- Senior or student ID’s for discounts
- Health Insurance Card
- Emergency contact information (name, number and email address)
- Travel visas and extra passport photos (often needed to obtain visas)
- Forms of payment, including cash, debit cards, credit cards and prepaid cards
- International vaccination certificate
- Contact information of local friends in an area
- Contact and address information for embassies and consulates in the country you visit
Waterproof and Fireproof Document Case
When traveling with vital documents, their protection is important. Some documents are best left inside your medical kit, where they’ll be easy to find. But other documents, some which may be hard to replace, should have a separate container. I personally travel with a Waterproof and Fireproof Document Case. It’s sturdy, easy to store in my backpack and has protected important documents like my work contract and degree from certain doom.
Verify Travel Insurance
Always travel with insurance coverage Some travel cards offer travel insurance protection for free, so make sure your insurance start dates start at or overlap with these deals. Your travel insurance generally needs to be purchased well in advance for full coverage.
Flights, Transport and Lodging Tickets
Look at all your travel information, including departure times (AM or PM), departure dates, arrival dates, hotel or hostel reservations and other transit information. If you have a layover in another country, make sure you can either stay in the airport for the full time period, or you have the necessary documents to leave the airport and return later.
Call Your Bank
Inform your bank of your travel plans so they don’t lock your cards while using them abroad. It is advisable to bring cash on your journey along with a little extra emergency money hidden somewhere in your luggage.
Stop Monthly Payments
Be sure to cancel all unneeded monthly payments while traveling. This can include phone plans, streaming services or mailed subscriptions. Alternatively, if you have bills that you must pay while traveling, such as rent, utilities or car payments, make sure all payments are automated. Have a way to call your country of origin internationally in case there are any issues.
Keep Friends and Family Appraised
Let your loved ones know where you’re going. Consider sending them an itinerary of your travel plans and check in regularly. Consider downloading mutual communication apps to message freely internationally. Two secure methods include Telegram and Signal.
Download Travel Apps
Before traveling, download all travel apps needed for your journey. Look specifically for apps which work offline.
- Navigation App (Google Maps offline or Maps.me)
- Translation App (Google Translate offline dictionary)
- Conversion App (Unit Converter)
- Multi-Factor Authentication (Fingerprint scanner and password)
- Local rideshare (Didi, Uber, Lyft, Grab etc.)
- Entertainment Apps (downloaded books, videos, games, Overdrive, Libby, etc.)
- Set Clock to local home time and the time of your destination
- Download a VPN (Virtual Private Network)
- Backup your device’s important information, including an online photo storage feature
Run Through Your Packing List Again
Read out all items on your packing list. Audibly say the name of the item out loud and lay your hand on the item in question
Confirm Your Ride
Confirm your ride, either online or by calling someone, to the airport, bus station or port you’re leaving from.
Once you’ve gone down this checklist, you’re all set for your adventure. Having a pre-travel checklist for reference is can help prevent a lot of stress when leaving the country.