Hey y’all,

Traveling on your own for the first time can be a daunting and overwhelming experience. There’s a lot to take into consideration and a lot to plan before you go. There are some parts of travel which can be overlooked because they are parts of your everyday life and not something you might be consciously thinking about. Below are a few things that I wish I had known about before embarking on my first trip abroad.

First and foremost, make sure you have digital copies of your important documents. Make photos/copies of your passport, other ID, and credit/debit card(s) and send them to yourself as well as a trusted relative/friend to keep safe. There is nothing worse than trying to recall a credit card number or passport detail from memory when you’ve been pick pocketed or robbed and you’re trying to get it replaced. Also, leaving the details stateside can make it easier for your trusted person to help you deal with getting replacements while you’re overseas.

Also, keep your documents and credit cards organized. I bought a similar passport holder to this one for Jeff to use on our trip and he said it was really nice having everything he needed in one place. There’s nothing worse than having to dig through your bag just to find your passport or boarding pass. Plus, it fit in the zippered front chest pocket of his jacket, so he knew everything was secure when we were traveling through areas known for pickpocketing.

I would recommend that you avoid checking your luggage on your flights over, particularly if you’re switching airlines. When traveling to London to study abroad a few years ago, I had taken a flight on one carrier to JFK and transferred to another carrier to fly to London. I checked two bags with the first carrier, which they mislabeled and nearly lost in the process. So I’m standing down at baggage claim for over an hour (when I only had a two and a half hour layover) looking for my bags to come off the plane only to find out they’d been offloaded with another flight’s luggage under someone else’s name! By the time I’d found the lost luggage terminal, retrieved my luggage and got back to the check in desk, I’d nearly missed my flight. Thank goodness I had a super wonderful gate agent that day that called for TSA to reopen for me to go through security and gate checked my luggage. Otherwise, I would’ve been stranded overnight in New York and had to have paid an exorbitant amount to fly out the next day.

Before you head off, I really suggest you do some background research on the places you plan to visit. Beyond just opening hours and dos and don’ts photography-wise, also find out if you can make reservations for tickets online, if there are discounts available to you based on age, student status or family size. Keep an eye out once you’re at your location for the things you researched and be wary of folks outside and around your destination. Usually they’re either working for a company not affiliated with the site trying to drum up business, or worst case scenario, they’re scamming tourists by either charging a higher fee than the actual agencies or by not taking you there at all.

My last piece of advice is to go one of two ways to save money on Foreign Transaction Fees and currency exchange comission fees. Option one is for those of you relying on cash for most of your transactions (definitely check to make sure that’s best in the destination you’re traveling to, would not recommend in India right now). Set a daily budget and withdraw enough cash to get you through the day. By doing this, you’ll reduce the amount of foreign transaction fees (FTFs) your bank may charge as well as ATM fees both the issuing bank and your bank may charge. For those of you planning to charge the majority of your transactions to a credit card, you may want to look into FTF-free cards like the CapitalOne Venture Card or the chase Sapphire Preferred Card. 

Alright, lovelies, now get out there and get your travel on!