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Traveling can be stressful, especially international travel.
To make traveling to another country a little less stressful, I’ve put together a list of things you can do before traveling internationally so you can feel prepared and comfortable outside of your home country.
I’ve done a lot of posts in the past all about traveling like how to Survive a Long-Haul Flight in Economy, How to Travel More While Working Full-Time and The Best Sites for Finding Cheap Flights. If you’re traveling internationally soon or just in general, I highly suggest checking out those posts to make your travel experience so much better.
Around 3 years ago, I moved outside of Sydney, Australia. Being originally from the USA, I’m constantly traveling on 24 hour flights back and forth to visit friends and family while also still traveling to different countries around the world. Needless to say, I’ve done a bit of international travel and have experienced some ups and downs along the way. With my experience, I’m hopefully able to help others avoid the mistakes I’ve made in the past while also giving my recommendations of how to make your travel experience less stressful.
Traveling With Money
I’m personally not a cash kind of person. Carrying around a lot of cash, stresses me out. I know a lot of people like to travel with a little bit of cash, which isn’t a bad idea incase you need to catch a taxi at the airport or just want to have some emergency money. However, what I prefer and recommend is getting a credit card, specifically one’s without any international transaction fees.
I currently have two credit cards, both from Capital One and am more than happy with both. For traveling specifically, I have the Capital One Venture Card and I also have the Capital One Savor Card, for everyday purchases.
The Capital One Venture Card is specifically used for travel with earning miles for every dollar you spend. I specifically chose the Venture Card because it has a zero annual fee, zero transaction fees, rewards and perks and also 100% covered from any fraud. There are other credit cards that give you a lot better cash back, but they have an annual fee, which I wasn’t interested in having.
Also with the Capital One Venture Card, with spending $1,000 in the first three months I got 20,000 miles which is equivalent to $200 for flights and which I was able to meet that threshold with booking my flights back home over Christmas time. What really sold me on the Capital One Venture Card was that it was also 15 months interest free. International flights can be expensive. With having 15 months interest free, I was able to make payments to my flight back home on my own time and without having to worry about fees or interest being added on top of it.
With all the perks of having a Captial One Venture Card, regardless of what you choose credit card wise, a 100% fraud covered, zero international fees card, is what you should be looking for when traveling. This will give you the peace of mind that you can use this card anywhere in the world without any penalties and if there’s any concern about fraud, you’ll be 100% covered. Also, a lot of credit cards these days, give additional insurance on flights and rental cards which is a great plus and means you can skip on travel insurance.
It’s also important to make sure you let you bank know that you’ll be traveling overseas. That way if you do need to take cash out, they won’t flag any transactions while you’re traveling.
Have the Right Travel Equipment
A major part of having a stress-free international travel experience is having the right travel equipment. From trying to catch some sleep on a long international flight to charging your phone in a foreign hotel room, having the right travel equipment is essential to your trip.
I wrote a whole post specifically about Top Amazon Travel Products You Need in Your Life which you can check out for a long list of my go-to Amazon travel products. However my top 2 products for travel equipment is a great neck pillow and a converter/adapter combo.
The neck pillow that I’ve talked about multiple times on Our Wandering Mind is the Cabeau Evolution Classic Memory Foam Travel Pillow. This pillow is absolutely great and you can get it for so much cheaper on Amazon than at the airport.
Another product I’ve talked about multiple times is an international converter and adapter in one. This specific adaptor is incredibly cheap on Amazon, like $11 and I have had mine for years since I studied abroad in Australia.
An adaptor is what adapts your cord to the outlet and allows you to plug things in. A converter, however, is the essential addition that converts the electricity voltage to what your device needs. Do you ever hear about blow dryers blowing up when using them in a different country? That’s because the voltage wasn’t converted. Different countries have different voltages and to protect your device and yourself, make sure you get a travel adaptor and converter all in one.
As I mentioned, I’ve had this Travel Adaptor for four years now and it still works great! You really can’t beat the price so I highly recommend you add this to your Amazon list!
Essential Documents
I know we live in a digital kind of world now, but when it comes to international travel, I like to go old school with having my itinerary and travel documents printed out as well. Before traveling internationally you should check to see if you need the following documents:
- Vaccinations
- Visas
- Tickets and Booking Confirmations
Making sure you have all the proper documents like a visa is essential before arriving abroad, but having a printed out copy is also essential in my opinion. For example, the Australian visa says that it’s completely electronic and you don’t need to print out your visa, however you still should. My friend when we went to our Girl’s Getaway to Queenstown, NZ was specifically asked for a physical copy of her visa even though it said she would never need to print it out.
She had to take the time to connect to the airport WiFi and then search through all her emails to find the proper visa approval document. If you just have everything printed out in a secure folder, you know you have access to everything regardless of any technical problems that may arise and have the peace of mind that you’re prepared for just about any situation.
You should also have a photocopy of your passport.
Hopefully nothing happens to your passport when you’re traveling abroad, but better safe than sorry. Either having a photocopy of your passport in your secure travel documents folder and electronic scan copy of your passport is key when traveling internationally. I recommend having a physical photocopy and a scanned copy available either in a Dropbox or somewhere that a family member can access it if something was to happen.
When I went to Montreal for New Years Eve one year, my wallet and phone got stolen, which means my enhanced license that allowed me to get into Canada and to get back in the U.S. was taken as well. My parents had a digital copy of my passport that they could send me via email and I was able to print it out at the hotel and show it at the border and explain the situation. It will definitely still be a pain if something is to happen to your passport, but you’ll be able to get a lot further if you have a scanned copy available.
Do Your Research
When I traveling internationally, I like to do my research. This doesn’t mean that you have to have your whole trip planned out to a T, but it means having a list of possible things to do or places to see when you’re abroad.
When I’m traveling, I like to spend my time actually enjoying the new place instead of spending time connecting to WiFi to search the must-see destinations in the area.
This is definitely something you can do and should do ahead of time so you spend more time enjoying your actual trip.
Pinterest is definitely my favorite when it comes to planning trips. I like to start by searching Travel Guides in the area to see popular destinations, but then also simply Googling the destination and checking out Trip Adviser as well. From there, I either simply make a list on my phone of places to visit or if I book specific activities or there’s a lot of things to do on specific days, I like to print out an itinerary.
You check out some of my popular travel guides below of places I’ve traveled to in the past years:
- Picture-Perfect Destinations in Acadia National Park, Maine
- Queenstown Girl’s Weekend Getaway
- Why You Need to Visit Whitsundays
- Travel Guide: Cleveland, Ohio
- Travel Guide: Melbourne, Australia
- A Complete Guide to 24 Hours in Sydney
- Travel Guide: Kennebunkport, Maine
I have over 50 travel guides on Our Wandering Mind which you can check out here.
International travel is so exciting, but it can also be stressful. Definitely making sure you’re prepared with the correct documentation and doing your research ahead of time, will ensure that you’ll have a fabulous time abroad on your trip.
I hope you found this post helpful for your next international trip. Where are you traveling to next? Let me know in the comments down below!
