Five Things to do Before You Hit The Road

Picture This: You’re ready to head out on your highly anticipated trip. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a weekend city break, or a 2 week trip, or a month-long trip. You have the big things figured out, and now it’s 2 days to your departure. Are you really ready?

Every now and then I get asked about how I get ready for a trip. The answer really depends on where I’m going (i.e how far it is), the length of the trip, and who I’m going with. While I absolutely weirdly enjoy looking into trips in my free time, I can also be quite the procrastinator!  I gave it some thought though, and here are five things I do (48 hours to 30 seconds) before hitting the road.

 

Send Someone my Itinerary:

This one is pretty simple and is a safety measure. I usually send my sister an email or a chain of emails with my flight and accommodation information. That way, if I need to be reached in case of an emergency, at lease someone has a clue on where to start.

 

Set Up Bank Travel Alert:

I’m not sure about your bank, but my bank has declined my transactions abroad whenever I’ve forgotten to put on my travel alert. This is something I usually put off till the last-minute but it is important. There’s nothing like being broke and stranded alone in another country. You don’t need that to kick off your holiday.

Sort out Finances:

When I first started travelling,  I struggled with this quite a bit. What is the best  and cost efficient way to pay for expenses on the road? Credit card? Cash? Travellers cheque? Do I change money before I leave? Do I change at the airport? or at a currency exchange? The answer is to do what works for you, but have a plan. I take enough from my local bank to have funds to get from the airport to my accommodation and that’s it. Once I’m at my destination, I use  ATM’s in big chunks and that has given me the best exchange rates. Yes, you might incur a fee, but it works out all in all. I may get carried away and temporarily forget the status of my personal economy, cash helps with that problem 🙂   . I always have a credit card on me just in case.

 

Find my passport

There’s nothing like getting ready to leave for the airport and then finding out that you don’t know where your passport is. This will stress you OUT! I always check that my passport is where I think it is. I might just even put it in my hand luggage the night before a trip to be safe. With a passport and some money, everything else is extra!

 

Figure out Transportation From The Airport

I always have an idea on how to get to my accommodation from the airport. If I’m within Europe, I typically take public transportation (i.e an airport express bus, train, or metro). When travelling further out (for example to Southeast Asia), I’d take a taxi but before hand, I look up an estimate of what it should cost, and reputable taxis from the airport. After hours and hours of travel and layovers, you want to get to a bed quickly but safely.

 

Bonus: Plan the first 24-48 hours of the trip

If I’m going on a long trip (over a week), I try to plan the first day or two’s activities in detail so I don’t just do nothing. This is especially important when I’ll be changing time zones significantly. I know that if I have no immediate plans there’s a chance I’ll fall asleep for hours on end (this may have happened to me in Thailand 🙂 ). Having something planned forces me to get off to a great start with jet-lag. So what do I do? I generally would try to start with a simple city walking tour. I’m easily acquainted with my new surroundings and meet people through a walking tour. If you’re in Europe there’s almost always a Free Sandeman’s tour around.

 

Those are some tips that have worked for a procrastinator like me. There many others that come to mind, but I decided to start with these. What do you typically do before you hit the road?

 

Xoxo,

Dee