This post covers important — though less exciting topics — like:
- What do you need to get into the country you’re going to?
- How are you going to pay for things once you’re there?
- What if the worst happens and the trip is canceled or interrupted? Or someone gets sick or injured?
- How will you communicate with hosts and others where you’re going, and with people back home?
Entry Requirements
Entry requirements for countries vary depending on what passport you carry, how long you plan to stay, and sometimes where you’re arriving from.
- Sometimes you need to apply for and receive a visa ahead of time.
- Sometimes you need an electronic clearance shortly before you arrive.
- Sometimes you need an outbound ticket and/or evidence of sufficient funds.
- Sometimes your passport must be valid for at least six months after you plan to leave.
There may also be a tourist tax or other entry fee. Sometimes the airline includes it in the fare. Sometimes not. Guidebooks are a good starting point for this information, supplemented by official government sources, because it does change.
Payment Methods
Popularity of payment methods varies by location. Check where you’re headed to see how they do things. In remote areas, cash may be the only form of payment accepted and there may be few if any ATMs.
- Credit Cards: We use credit cards when we can since the currency exchange rate is better and it’s easier to keep track of expenses.
- Cash: We use ATMs to get local currency, though if we need cash right away we’ll bring some dollars to exchange at the airport. We recently got an ATM card that reimburses transaction fees just to use while traveling.
Credit Card Tips
- We generally carry at least two cards with one as a backup. (We have had one get canceled while traveling.)
- Use a credit card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.
- If anyone offers to charge you in your own currency rather than the local currency, don’t do it! You won’t get the advantage of the exchange rate that the credit card gets.
- If you have a US credit card, it’s probably not chip-and-pin, which is common outside the US. Be prepared for it not to work at some unattended card machines, though the wide usage of tap-to-pay helps. (One reason I purchase tickets and things ahead of time is to avoid this potential problem.)
- On our most recent trips to Europe and the UK we deliberately held out about $20 worth of pounds and euros for our next trip so we’ll have some local money when we land. And on a few recent trips we’ve spent no cash at all.
- In Thailand they were very finicky about accepting US currency. Many places accepted only pristine $100 bills. The slightest ¼ inch tear and they’d reject it.
- We’ve been to a couple of places that are cash only AND where ATMs were rare and sometimes not functional, and at least one place (Drake Bay in Costa Rica) where everything had to be paid for in cash AND there was NO ATM. We did some serious cash planning on that trip. Again, research helps!
- In some countries we’ve been to — Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Belize, the British Virgin Islands — you can use US dollars. Change may be in the local currency.
Insurance
I almost forgot this topic, and it’s important! Travel insurance covers two key things:
- Medical and safety
- Cost of trip cancellation, delay, interruption, or other issues like lost or delayed baggage
Your US health coverage, if any, likely isn’t applicable outside the US. We’ve never had to get treated for anything serious while traveling so we don’t have personal experience, but I’ve never heard of anyone not being treated. You’ll just have to pay for treatment and get reimbursed. Post COVID, some countries require proof of medical coverage for entry.
Coverage of costs is often limited to certain reasons. We pay extra for cancel-and-interrupt-for-any-reason coverage. Again, we’ve never had to use it, but it’s worth the extra money to us for the peace of mind.
We use Travel Insured International. There are other companies out there; whenever I check Travel Insured still seems the best option for us. You can only add the cancel-and-interrupt-for-any-reason coverage within 21 days of your first major non-refundable expense.
Travel Details
Planning ahead generates a lot of details: confirmations, tickets, documents. I hang onto all of it until the trip is over, using a backup method if it’s critical. Here’s how we handle it.
Digital
Most things can be handled digitally, which I prefer because it’s less to carry.
- We download digital items we’ll need while out and about, like tickets, to our phones so we can get to them even without a network connection. (We had a panicked moment at St Marks in Venice when they wouldn’t accept our printed QR code and insisted on seeing the full email. Which I couldn’t get to because I didn’t have a signal. They finally let us scan the damn code and it worked. So now I keep that stuff on my phone.)
- Things I don’t expect to need I just retain in email until the trip ends.
- We use Google Drive for backups.
- Guidebooks are now digital so they go on the eReader and/or phone.
Paper
We like good old-fashioned paper copies of some things too. With paper you’re not completely dependent on your device (or your own memory).
- As I mentioned on our page about planning a trip, I like to book sights and attractions ahead of time when I can. Sometimes you need to have a printed version of tickets.
- We carry a paper copy of our proof of travel insurance, plus a digital backup.
- Steve carries a list of the hotels we’re staying in, just in case we get separated or need to get a taxi. This was handy in Thailand and Japan, where we had the names and addresses in Thai and Japanese too.
- I print a quick reference guide for each location (that can also be accessed digitally) with information about:
- where we’re staying, and anything we need to do when we arrive
- anything scheduled, like transportation or tours
- any “to-do” items like getting local currency, booking tours once we’re on-site, picking up tickets, checking in for flights, etc.
- a list of sights we’re interested in, with hours and directions as needed
- We carry a folder with anything printed, like any visas or tickets, so they’re easy to find.
Keeping in Touch
Free WI-Fi is common in lodgings and many restaurants and cafes. The deadzone is typically when you’re walking around. Find out what international offers your mobile provider has and, if you think you will need something beyond that, consider getting a local SIM card (or an eSIM if you can). We aren’t heavy data users so our current Verizon plan offers sufficient coverage through most of the world that we don’t buy eSIMs.
Prior to that we purchased SIMs and later eSIMs. Many plans are data only. Some offer a local phone number for calls and text, though those usually cost more. We used Nomad most recently and were happy with them.
When we didn’t have access to texting we used email and apps like Facebook Messenger or GroupMe to stay in touch over Wi-Fi with friends and family. Many local businesses use WhatsApp so we do too.
Dealing with Other Languages
If you don’t speak the local language, Google Translate comes in handy. Don’t forget to download the language while you have Wi-Fi. (We had a lot of fun with the photo option while in Thailand and Japan.)
Some basic phrases like please, thank you, excuse me, and standard greetings — and a smile — will get you a long way. Many guidebooks cover some basics. It’s amazing how much you can communicate without language. One of our favorite examples was a grocery store in Greece. We couldn’t understand when the cashier told us how much we owed, so she typed the number into a calculator and showed us. Brilliant!
I’ve found Duolingo a fun and free way to learn a language. Though I never got anywhere close to fluent in anything I felt a little less lost. Plus I just find languages fascinating.