Essentials are the items which you will need to travel, if you don’t have them you will be in trouble. Whether that trouble is being rubbed, getting stuck somewhere or getting held by foreign authorities. We don’t like to think of this, of course we don’t, but we have to at the same time. We have to have fun but also keep our possessions safe. Below are a list of the essentials which we need to take with us and how you could think about making life easier for yourself, or safer for yourself. The safer you know your things are, the more you will be able to enjoy yourself.
- Passport
I always make sure I have my passport in my bag which will be on my person the whole time. If you have an inside pocket of the bag it may be worth keeping it in there, so if you were to pull something else out of your bag your passport doesn’t fly out with it without you noticing. When staying in accommodation make sure you put your passport in the safe provided, behind reception or in the depths of your large rucksack. Wherever you feel safe with. We all go out for nights out and this is one thing we don’t want to loose at the end of the night.
- Vaccination Documentation
As COVID-19 has hit in the past year, it is critical you are checking what documentation you need for a country you are travelling to, now more than ever. Do you need a PCR test result? Paper copy or digital? Do you need to have your vaccination of the virus? Again, paper or digital copy? Anything which you can take digital, do, to cut back on unnecessary forms and pieces of paper. Make sure you have any emails and documents downloaded and ready to be presented to authority if need be. Make sure you can access these offline as well.
- Travel Documentation
Same principle for travel documentation. Anything you can take and produce electronically, do. You will find that any airline tickets and vouchers are produced electronically now anyway.
- Money
Money and the security of this money is another very important thing to consider. Make sure you have enough money, in cash and on card to be able to access from anywhere and incase of an emergency. Have a look into Revolut and Monozo to be your number one top up travel cards, this way you won’t need to keep huge amount of money in your account at any one time. Keep all your funds in a current account which you can access via web or mobile and keep those cards at home. When you are registering for a travel card always opt for the virtual cards as an emergency one-time use, as well as a second card. Always keep the second card separate in the bottom of your large rucksack or in a sock deep within it, and the first main one on your person for easy access and use.
- Phone
A phone isn’t an essential for everyone. Some people even prefer travelling without one, so they aren’t tempted to look at it 24/7. It’s a good idea and if you can travel like that then fab. I don’t look at my phone 24/7 but I still like to have it on my person (closest bag) I feel safer with it than without it. I use it to find locations, contact people and take my travel photos which save to Google forever.
- Visa Documentation
Visas are always best to get in advance, unless the country does not allow you to do so. Make sure you are leaving plenty of time to complete the forms and wait for them to be returned back to you. Usually I would do this 6 weeks to a month before travel just incase the country you are going to, or getting the visa for, do any extra checks and take longer to process than normal. Travel digitally here if you can as well.
LEAH HANCOX 