How to Prepare for International Travel: 5 Insider Tips
Before you head out the door and get on a plane for your vacation in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America or the South Pacific, let’s look at some insider tips on how to prepare for international travel. Some of these tips may seem obvious. In fact too obvious that we may even overlook these tips, ending up regretting or suffering from the lack of preparation.
Visa and reciprocity fees
Many countries in South America require travelers to have visas or a receipt of paid reciprocity fees in hand when entering the country. Your visit to Chile or Argentina will set you back $160 per person. Argentina requires visitors to pay in advance through their
immigration website.
A visa is required if you are traveling to Russia, China and Australia. You need a letter of invitation from a tour company or hotel for Russia and China visas. In other words, confirm with your travel agent on visas or reciprocity fees before traveling.
Another important tip is to check the expiration and number of pages you have on your passport. All countries require passports to be valid for at least six months and to receive a Russian visa you will need two blank pages on your passport.
Credit cards, cash, traveler’s checks and exchange rates
For exchange rates please use Travelmath’s currency calculator. For example US$1 is
32.7 Russian ruble. US$1 is
0.72 Euro.
With the Internet and the sophisticated worldwide banking system, traveler’s checks are becoming obsolete. Added to that many banks and financial institutions are providing no fee transaction or withdrawal of cash in ATMs around the world. Try googling no fee card you might be able to find one that suits your needs.
You no longer need to carry and worry about where to store your bulky traveler’s checks while traveling.
Another important tip is to inform your credit card companies and bank of your intended vacation. Because of security reasons your credit card or debit card may not work in foreign countries. A call to your bank and credit card companies will save you lots of unwanted anxieties and troubles.
Most credit cards charge a foreign transaction fee when you use your card overseas. Find out if yours charges. If it does, check out Capital One. It is one of the many companies that provide a credit card for international use without foreign transaction fees.
Jetlag and time difference
Another tool that is essential is our time difference tool. Dallas and Beijing, China has a
14-hour time difference which means when you’ll face daylight your body will tell you it’s time to sleep.
Jetlag can be a real problem if you are not prepared.
Rick Steves has great tips on jetlag you may want to read more about. He has four great tips on conquering jetlag. They are:
1. Leave home well rested.
2. Use flight to rest and reset.
3. On arrival, stay awake until an early local bedtime.
4. Consider jetlag cures
Source:
Rick Steves
How far is the airport from your hotel?
Traveling into a foreign country and not knowing anyone can be daunting. It’ll be worse if you arrive on a late flight. We prefer to have pre-arranged transportation to our hotel especially for late arrivals.
Use Travelmath’s distance calculator to find out the approximate distance and driving time from the airport to your hotel. Could you imagine if your research says it is
45 miles from Tokyo International Airport to central Tokyo and your cab driver says it is 100 miles?
These tools will save you money and headache:
Driving distance
Driving time (without taking traffic jams into consideration)
Mileage chart
Vaccinations
You may not like vaccinations but certain countries will not allow you to enter without a vaccination certificate. Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania are yellow fever regions of Africa. These are also fascinating countries to see the Big Five and visit mountain gorillas.
All travelers must have yellow fever vaccination no less than 10 days prior to travel. They will deny entry without a vaccination certificate.
Check out U.S. Department of State’s visit Tanzania’s
page for current information.
Travel insurance is another important piece of information you need. We will write in detail about travel insurance in the next post.
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