13 Things We Always Do Before Taking A Trip

The time between planning a trip and taking the trip is a mix of excitement & stress. You’re excited to go, but you’re also thinking about everything you need to do before you go. And you’re worried you’ll forget something. These are the 13 things we always do before taking a trip, especially an international trip. We have traveled and packed a bag so many times we’ve lost count. Charlene traveled for work for 15 years, packing a bag a minimum of every other week. We have both been globe-trotting since 2013, and we aren’t slowing down. We also plan trips for other people, including some tips to get them ready to leave. The point is, we know what needs to be done.

Use this as a checklist for you to determine what you need to do before you go. Apply the checklist to a calendar so you aren’t scrambling to complete everything in the last week. Missing sleep days before a trip, because you have thoughts about what you still need to do, is the worst. Take care of some of the less fun, but crucial, things once you’ve finished planning. This will allow you to feel freedom the second you board your flight.

Skip to a section within this checklist

1. Get travel insurance (if you haven’t)
2. Organize your itinerary
3. Gather documents and make copies
4. Get currency to bring
5. Get your phone travel-ready
6. Hire a house sitter
7. Make a plan for your pets
8. Shop, do laundry, and pack
9. Set travel alerts
10. Re-confirm all reservations and documents
11. Pause your mail delivery
12. Clean your house
13. Get your beauty rest

1. Get Travel Insurance (if you haven’t)

After booking the main parts of your trip, consider purchasing travel insurance. In fact, you should be doing this when you plan your trip. It’s important to buy travel insurance as early as possible. While you can usually wait until up to 48 hours before your trip, that will limit the coverage available to you. If you are able to purchase travel insurance within the first 14-21 days of booking your trip, you may be able to get Cancel For Any Reason Insurance (CFAR). This means you won’t have to prove some catastrophic event or unexpected illness in order to get money for things that you can’t cancel. Typically, you will need to cover your whole trip to get this insurance. That said, eligibility for CFAR insurance depends on a few variables, so the sooner you look for insurance, the better. 

When searching for insurance, there are two types of insurance to consider, and you can often find plans that cover both: standard travel insurance and actual medical coverage during travel. Two insurance companies we recommend are Insure My Trip and Ekta. Insure My Trip is a marketplace for different trip insurance plans, allowing you to compare side by side, and it is very user-friendly. 

Ekta will offer you 3 different levels of plan coverage and has low prices for each level of membership. What we like about them is that if you are a thrill seeker, this is one of the few companies that will cover you. They cover adventure-type injuries, and the highest level of insurance also includes legal assistance and more. If you haven’t purchased insurance yet and want to know more about your options, you’ll want to read the To Insure Or Not To Insure Section in our “Essential Guide to Flight Booking Like a Pro”

2. Organize Your Itinerary 

Create an itinerary and add all your bookings to it. This can be anything from adding everything to your calendar, a document, or a spreadsheet. You can also invite your travel companions or share it with them. We create a Google doc and outline everything we are booking with details of when and where. Include flights, transportation, accommodations, pre-booked activities or restaurants, addresses, and any other necessary details you may need to reference. We also use this as a planning tool to add ideas and notes as we plan. 

This might sound like a lot, but a smooth trip requires some organization! If you hire a travel planner, they can create this for you. Our custom travel planning service includes a beautifully crafted itinerary (accessible in an app). The itinerary is complete with day-to-day plans, restaurant recommendations, and all tickets and confirmations stored directly in the itinerary. Our Custom Travel Planning Page covers the details of what’s included and how to request our services. 

[stock photo of travel plans and documents]

A document to reference will reduce your stress while traveling, so you can just GO while you are traveling. Send this to your mom or someone close to you who isn’t going. You want someone to know where you are, just in case something urgent comes up, or a natural disaster occurs. We hope this doesn’t happen, but it’s better to plan ahead. In addition to an itinerary, we use the TripIt app. 

TripIt is connected to our email, and when we receive booking confirmation emails, TripIt automatically adds them to an electronic itinerary. We can access this while we are on the go. You can invite other TripIt users to join the trip, and they will be able to see it too. This is more concise than the notes we have in the actual itinerary.

3. Gather Documents and Make Copies

Confirm you have all the documents/ reservations you need. Take a picture of your passport info page- you’ll need this if you lose your passport. If you lose your passport, head to a consulate or embassy to get a new one ASAP. Go to Travel.State.Gov to register your travel plans. This way, your government knows where you are if a natural disaster or worse occurs where you are. 

Print or save electronic copies, to your phone, of all confirmations and tickets for flights, lodging, transportation, activities, and restaurant reservations. It’s also a good idea to take pictures of your credit cards and store them in the hidden part of the Photos app on your phone. 

4. Get Local Currency To Bring With You

Get the currency of your destination. Anywhere you go, you’ll be able to find currency conversion centers and ATM’s. However, if you do it at the airport, you will pay more for that conversion. And likely other places too (including ATM’s). It’s good to have a little cash on arrival, at a minimum. Contact your bank to pre-order what you need. Then pick it up by making a withdrawal and exchanging it for foreign currency. Not all bank locations will have this ability, but they can tell you which of your bank’s branches do.

In addition to cash, you may want to use your cards. Find out what it will cost you to use the cards you have. What are your bank and credit card foreign transaction fees, ATM fees, and will they do the currency conversion? You will likely get the best conversion rate through your bank rather than a point of sale or ATM conversion. 

[stock photo of different currencies]

Notes about currency conversions

Our favorite conversion app: We use the Currency Converter app to get close to real-time conversion rates, as we are getting used to what the actual cost will be. Euros seem similar to USD; you see an item on a menu that is €15, and it makes sense. The number is close to what you would expect in the United States. As of writing this, €15 would be $17.44. If you are somewhere like Poland, where they use the Polish zloty, the numbers will feel much different.  Not only will it look different, but the price of a similar item would be lower.  A similar menu item that is $17 USD would probably cost a fraction of that, for example, 35 Polish złoty, which is $4.14. So the number looks higher, but the cost is actually much lower.

Pro-Tip: Say NO to conversion at the ATM, and registers, and always pay in the local currency, even when using your cards from home.  These fees can add up, and if the middleman does the conversion, it will cost more. Most foreign ATMs will give you the option to accept their conversion rate (and fee), or decline it. If you decline it, then you will get the conversion rate and fee that your bank offers, so it’s a good idea to know what it is.

5. Get Your Phone Travel Ready

Determine your international phone plan. If you are traveling abroad, you will probably want to be connected. Most things are digital these days: QR menus, electronic tickets, and highly beneficial travel apps. Some get E-SIMs for their destination, but that’s another thing to do when you arrive. We have always used the plans our carrier offers, and they work for us. We have heard good things about Airalo for E-SIMs, but we have not tried them. 

In addition to securing an international phone plan for your travels, you will also want to download some helpful apps and create your login information, as well as input payment information (for transportation-type apps). The top apps we recommend downloading are WhatsApp, Currency Conversion, and Google Translate. For more of our favorite resources and apps for planning and taking a trip, go to our Travel Resources page.

[stock photo of smartphone with apps]

6. Hire a House Sitter

If you are going on a long trip, will you need someone to watch your house while you are gone? This could be a live-in in-house sitter, or someone who checks on your place. Try setting a schedule so they come daily or every few days. Having someone physically there to check on things provides peace of mind. This can also be helpful if any issues with your home arise. We’ll never forget the time our air conditioner broke in triple-digit weather days before we were leaving. Luckily, we had already asked our brother to check on our place, and he met a repair guy there while we were gone. Try scheduling someone as soon as you have your dates; otherwise, everyone you know may be busy.

7. Make a Plan For Your Pets

If you have a fur, feathered, scaly, or aquatic baby, you will want to make sure they are taken care of when you’re away. We don’t have pets, but most of our relatives do, and this is the advice they have. Make sure to set this up in advance. If you plan to kennel or board them, you’ll want to be sure to reserve a spot. If a family member or friend will be watching them, maybe you can get a twofer. Have them stay at your place with your loved pet.

8. Shop, Do Laundry, and Pack

Before you physically begin trying to force every favorite outfit into your suitcase, you should mentally pack. This is the timeline we use to plan our packing:

• 4-8 weeks before your trip, list what you want to bring and what you need to buy before you go. 
• Purchase/order what you need in advance so that it arrives before your trip. Again, this helps you to spread out your expenses.
• Do laundry and pack 7-10 days before your trip. You’ll avoid the last-minute stress of fitting everything into your luggage. 

Setting your best outfits and all toiletries in your luggage will help you avoid forgetting anything you need.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but:

REFILL ALL YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS IN ADVANCE!!!

Packing Tips

We all have different wardrobe needs and desires, so it’s hard to tell you specifically what to pack. A tip regarding clothes: choose a color palette that will allow you to mix and match (versus packing by outfit). You may need a variety of shoe types. Choose lower-profile ones and pairs that work for multiple outfits. 

If you are able to do laundry on your trip, you can pack less. Consider the weather; will you need layers? If you need a jacket, pick one that works with everything. If it’s hot, will you really want boots? Functionality and comfort will make you happier in the long run. Check out our review of the best luggage for travel and know what to look for when shopping for luggage.

What you pack to wear is just as important as what creature comforts you pack for your flight. You want to be comfortable and entertained. Make sure your phone is charged, and you have a way to charge it again. And don’t forget your favorite earbuds. Our Awesome Gift Ideas include great gadgets for in-flight as well as on your trip.

These are the things you should do in the last 48-72 hours before you leave

9. Set Travel Alerts

The TripIt app & your airline’s app will alert you if anything changes with your flights. You can also set travel alerts with Travel.State.Gov, which will alert you if there are any travel advisories in your destination.

10. Reconfirm Confirmations and Documents

Triple-check that you have all the documents (passport), confirmations, and tickets, etc. Print & save them. Pack them or place them in the right place so you don’t forget them. We always put these items in our carry-on bag at the point we know the bag won’t leave the house again until the trip.

11. Pause Your Mail Delivery

Unless you have something being delivered to or for your housesitter while you are gone, you should pause your mail delivery. This will alleviate the need for your house sitter to check the mail, and it will prevent your mail from building up. An overflowing mailbox is a sign that no one is home. If you live in the USA, you can do this on the USPS website. You will set a date range. Then you can have them deliver it to you the day you come home or the day after. Or you can opt to pick it up at the post office.

12. Clean Your House

Not a lot to say, but coming home to a clean house is the best. After a long travel day home, vacation depression, and a strong desire for your own bed, it will feel that much better if the house is clean around you. This will also make it easier to unpack and get back into your routine. Try to do it all, but at the very least, wipe surfaces, tidy things up, and sweep.

13. Get Your Beauty Rest

Enjoy a relaxing evening and a good night’s sleep before your flight. If you do everything on this list ahead of time, you won’t be awake mentally going through your checklist; you will know everything is done. Getting a good night’s sleep will allow you to be alert and attentive as you navigate the airport the next day. 

Try to get some rest on your flight if it is long. And if you are traveling several time zones away, try to stay awake when you arrive and go to sleep on local time. Sleeping on local time from the beginning will help you get through jet lag faster.

[stock photo of a person dreaming about their travels]

Conclusion

We hope that these 13 things we always do before taking a trip have helped you map out your pre-trip checklist and provided you with all the tips you need. As you prepare for your trip, get our most recommended resources here. Utilize our Awesome Gifts For Travelers gift guide to find travel items to gift yourself.  If you have any questions, send us an email. We are happy to help. AND if you decide the planning part isn’t for you, we still have you covered. Head over to our custom travel planning page to see what we can do for you.

Your Next Read:

Useful Things To Do Before Planning An International Trip

How to Plan an International Trip in 5 Steps

Essential Guide to Flight Booking Like a Pro

-XO, The Twins

How can we help? We would love to hear your questions!

Contact us by email at thetwins@twicethetraveler.com

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