Your Pre-Travel Checklist
Before I start off the rest of this post, I just want to wish everyone the happiest of new year’s.
Guys… it’s 2020! It’s a new decade!
I hope this new era brings better things for you all.
Now… onto the good stuff. I’m about to head to Japan in a matter of days now. Like… what?! I can’t believe it. The second half of 2019 had me so busy, I forgot 87.376543% of the time that I had even booked this back in July.
Look, I know, you’ve finally booked that dream trip to Paris, or Greece, or Rome… but have you thought about what needs to be done before you leave?
We all know that I travel a lot, thus, I’ve got the formula down for everything that needs to be done before takeoff.
To make your life easier, here’s my personal pre-travel checklist to ensure that you don’t forget anything before you leave for your trip:
1. Cancel/Pause All Subscriptions You Won’t Be Using
Are you really going to be using Netflix while you’re venturing through New Zealand?
Probably not.
You could put money right back into your pocket by just taking a few minutes to hit the “pause” button on your streaming services like Hulu or by calling your gym to see if they’ll exempt you from your monthly dues if you aren’t going to be home for the month.
2. Take Out Foreign Currency
I know many of us have credit cards without foreign transaction fees – but trust me, you’re going to need some cold hard cash on you, especially if you’re traveling in a rural area.
If your bank doesn’t offer to order foreign currency online, then ensure that you make the trip to your bank to order foreign currency at least two weeks in advance – it often takes them at least 10 business days for the money to be delivered to your bank, and then you have to make the time to go and pick it up.
3. Set Automatic Timers
My family always did this one growing up. If you don’t know what automatic timers are, they are basically these little timers that turn the lights in your house on and off for you, to give the illusion that you are still home and prevent any burglary.
If this is something you’d like to do, be sure to add it to your pre-departure list of things to do.
4. Call Your Bank to Let Them Know You’re Traveling
This one is so important.
If you don’t call your bank before taking an international trip to tell them that you’ll be traveling, you could get stuck without the ability to take out more foreign currency with your ATM card, or worse – unable to use your credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.
Put this one at the top of your pre-travel checklist… please.
5. Clean Your Space & Do Laundry Before Leaving
When you come back after traveling Europe for 3 weeks, the last thing that you’re going to want to do is clean.
Make your bed. Clean your room. Do the dishes. Wash and fold all of your laundry.
It will feel very nice to come home to a clean home after your adventure around the world.
6. Layout Your Airplane Outfit
This just creates less headache the day you leave because it’s one less thing you’ll have to do.
Look up the weather of your arrival destination, pack a pair of spare clothes in your carry on for when you arrive, and stick to comfy sweats, tee shirts, and sneakers for your travel attire.
7. One Last Good Workout
This one is very optional, but for me, the day of my departure, I like to get a good workout in before I’m involuntarily sitting for 14+ hours on a plane.
It’ll help you sleep better on a red-eye flight, too.
8. Make Sure Everything is Packed
This seems like an obvious one, but what about last minute things that you’re still using right before you leave?
For example: glasses, contact lenses, your toothbrush…
… in the midst of trying to catch your flight, you might forget to pack one of these while you’re running out the door.
9. Ensure Cell Phone Service Is in Order
I have T-Mobile, which makes my phone work in 140+ countries around the world with unlimited data and texting where coverage is accepted.
However, if you don’t have a cell phone service that works with cellular towers around the world – make sure that you’re turning your roaming data off, airplane mode on, and letting your friends and family know that you won’t be able to reach them via texting or calling for the next few days/weeks/months.
10. Try and Finish Groceries in The Fridge
Try to arrange your meals/groceries the week before leaving so that you don’t buy more than you can chew…
… haha… I’m funny…right?
If you don’t do this, make sure to clean out your fridge of anything that will go bad before you leave. Unless, you like throwing out yogurt that expired a month ago… you do you.
I hope my personal pre-travel checklist was helpful!
If you want to read more on packing and other pre-travel tips, click here.