This is not your average travel post that tells you to buy an international outlet adapter. You likely already know that. This post is about the more uncommon travel tips that I’ve picked up over the years. This post will hopefully help you be a more prepared traveler for your first time or eighth time across the pond. 

• Get your passport(s) EARLY

  • Do not wait until the month you’re supposed to be leaving to get a passport or update it. It’s kind of a big deal. While we are on the subject, go ahead and scan a copy the passport and your driver’s license and back it up to your cloud. Just in case you lose it while abroad, this can help speed up the process of getting home.

• Do. not. wear. shoes. without. socks 

  • Don’t be that person on the plane.  Wear socks, folks. Keep the tootsies warm and keep your neighbors from smelling your stinky feet. Also, it’s great to wear socks so that when you go through the security line and have to take your shoes off, you aren’t barefoot in the nasty, germ infested air port. Didn’t you see that article about how gross airports are? And in case you didn’t know how absorbent your feet are, your feet can taste garlic (seriously, look it up) so just imagine all the stuff your feet can pick up off the ground. Gross, I know. If I see you in an airport and you’re wearing flip flops, just know that I’m judging you and you nasty.

• TRAVEL CARRY-ON ONLY.

  • Do not trust your bag with the airport. They will lose it and bad times will be had by all.  But seriously, carry-on only travel can be done. My family of 3 has traveled to the beach with 1 backpack and a diaper bag, and we are normal folks. We just take HALF the amount of clothes we need and do laundry while we are at our destination. We take pieces that can be mixed and matched to create new looks. If you want to see my reasoning for carry-on only travel, check out my post here. 

• Call your credit card companies

  • Call them the week before you leave and let them know you’ll be out of the country. You’d hate for them to put a freeze on your accounts because one day you were in Nebraska and the next day you were in Italy. It will be no good for anyone and you’re gonna have a bad time.

• Let the embassy know

  • Contact the US embassy wherever you’re going and let them know where you’ll be staying and for how long. Did you know that if a natural disaster or terrorist attack should happen while you’re vacationing that the US embassy would not know to try and get you home if you don’t tell them you’re there? This can usually be done through their website. It takes about 5 minutes and will give you some peace of mind. 

• Travelers insurance

  • This is a must. Trust me. It’s inexpensive and can help in a variety of situations. The plan that we have used before is around $40 and includes coverage for is something should happen to us on the plane or if our flight is canceled. We’ve never had to use it but if we did, we’d be so happy that we have it. 

• Research the local hospitals

  • Find out which ones take your insurance. This is very important especially if you have accident-prone children. I ended up finding the hospital closest to where were staying and called my insurance company to ask if that hospital was on our list of providers. 

• Get an external battery for your phone

  •  Unless getting lost in a foreign country is your thing then don’t get one and let your phone die and you’ll have to buy an old fashioned paper map (GASP) which you won’t know how to read, because who reads maps anyway? And how the heck are you supposed to refold that thing? The external battery for phone is also useful for when your children need quick access to Paw Patrol or Peppa Pig. Ya know, emergency situations.

• Carry your child’s birth certificate in an envelope and then put that envelope in a plastic baggy

  • (We also keep a scanned copy in our cloud that we can access when traveling, if somethings has happened to the hard copy). Sometime’s the airline will ask for the birth certificate when you’re flying with a child, especially if the other parent isn’t present. For more information about traveling with kiddos look at my post here.

• Look at restaurant menus ahead of time in the areas where you’ll be

  • This is a good idea if you’re going somewhere where you don’t know the language. I typically research restaurants ahead of time and find places we want to try and instead of spending half an hour deciding what I want, I already have an idea by the time we get there so we can get back out and sight see. This is also helpful if your kids are picky eaters. 

I’ll be posting several more posts about travel in the coming weeks so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything! Do you have any travel tips that I missed? I’d love to hear them!