Foreign Perspectives

After you book your holiday, there are a number of things that you need to do in advance of the vacation itself. This is a fairly comprehensive list so not all items will be required for every country you visit.

Visas. Check with the embassies in your own country if you need a visa to visit the countries you are going to (this information is usually available online). It’s best to do this well ahead of your vacation as visas can take months to issue.

Vaccinations. Ask your doctor which vaccinations that you should have for the countries that you are visiting. For the most part, you don’t need vaccinations to visit mainstream countries but there are some surprising exceptions to this eg Tetanus for Hawaii, Typhoid for New Zealand so it pays to ask. You need to have some injections months ahead of your travel date.

Passport. You obviously need a passport but check that it will have at least six months remaining on it by the time you are coming home. A number of countries require this.

Insurance. Whilst you might think you only need insurance for the trip, you actually require this insurance as soon as you make the booking in case something comes up requiring you to cancel. If you already have health insurance, you may be able to extend this to cover you abroad. House insurance may cover your belongings whilst on holiday too (check this with your insurance company).

Debit/Credit cards. Change to a four digit numeric PIN. Not all countries accept more than four digits. Check the cost of using your cards abroad both in shops and in ATMs. If you don’t have both Visa and Mastercard, get the one you don’t have as not all countries accept both in equal measure. See our holiday money article for more information on this. Make a list of the numbers and cancellation phone numbers for the cards that you plan on taking. It’s best to limit the number of cards you take to about three or four in case of theft. Don’t forget to check the expiry dates!

Driving license. Check if you need an International Driving Permit (IDP) for the countries you will be visiting. Even if you aren’t planning on driving, it’s best to be able to drive. You can get an IDP from the motoring organisation in your own country. Check the expiry date on your driving license.

Guidebooks. Whilst the Internet is wonderful, it’s not practical to carry it around in your pocket so buy a good guidebook for the areas that you will be visiting. Buy the guidebook covering the area closest to that which you’ll be visiting. So, if you are visiting Paris, buy a guidebook for Paris, not one for all of France. Excellent series are Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. Fodors and Michelin aren’t really as useable or as useful.

Tickets. Check exactly when you are travelling. Remember that you need to be at the airport a minimum of two hours before the flight leaves. Be wary of the actual date of flights departing at 00.00.

Is it safe to go? Check the travel advice sections in the American State Department and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Are you allowed to visit those countries at all? America forbids its citizens to visit both Cuba and Vietnam all the time and sometimes adds other countries to that list.

This article is part of our series on holiday planning which covers things like how to book your holiday, how to take your holiday money, what to pack, etc.

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