Consulting a travel advisor makes planning a trip pretty much stress-free; they’ll take care of booking the most convenient flights, nailing a room in the most exclusive hotels, designing your ideal itinerary, and tying up all the loose ends involved with international travel. But there are some things that even a travel advisor isn’t going to do for you… like remembering to pack your toothbrush or calling your mom to say “bye”. Luckily we’ve put together the ultimate travel checklist, exhausting the important to-do’s to spare you from a pre-flight morning that looks like that scene from Home Alone where nobody’s alarm clocks go off. Relax—with this handy pre-travel timeline you won’t forget a thing.
At least one month before:
Double-check the visa situation for your destination and get moving on the process. Some countries (Russia) have notoriously tedious visa processes, some will require you to send away your passport if you don’t live close to an embassy (Vietnam), and some can be done simply online (India).
Find out if you need any travel immunizations and schedule an appointment to get them ASAP, since some take time to become effective.
Make sure your passport is ready to go—is it going to expire soon? Do you have enough blank pages left to cover all your destinations?
Sort out home and pet care for while you’re away.
Order some local currency from your bank so you don’t have to spend your first jet-lagged hours broke and looking for a money-changer that doesn’t have extortionate fees.
Find out whether your credit and ATM cards charge
murderous foreign transaction fees—if they do, look into switching to a more travel-friendly program.
Buy or download a guidebook, talk to your travel advisor, and start building a detailed itinerary.
Two weeks before:
Refill any prescriptions you’ll want to take with you, and consider getting a prescription for a strong antibiotic like ciprofloxacin if you’re planning on doing some adventurous eating in a country where traveler’s diarrhea is a big problem.
Memorize a few key phrases in your destination’s language. “How much?” Thank you,” and “Where is the bathroom?” are indispensable.
Depending on the length of your trip, cancel trash, newspaper, or mail services.
If you’ll be gone for more than a month, set up autopay for bills.
Find out which type of outlets your destination uses, and
order adapters online, and make sure you get enough to charge all of you devices.
One week before:
Look up the luggage restrictions for the airline you’re flying on, check out the weather forecast for your destination, and then make a packing list based on your findings.
Decide whether you’ll need to use your smartphone while abroad; will you have easy access to wi-fi? Does your carrier offer a special roaming package? If not, consider renting a pocket wi-fi or picking up a pay-as-you-go phone when you land.
If you plan on renting a car, get an international driver’s license at your local AAA or NAC office. It’s super easy, cheap, and usually good for a year.
If you have special dietary needs, call the airline and order an appropriate meal.
Take care of any other health care precautions specific to your destination—do you need water purification tablets? Bug spray? High SPF sunscreen?
Two days before:
Confirm your flight and transportation to/from the airport.
Put a travel notification on your credit/ATM cards. (You can usually do this online, but you may have to call your bank.)
Share your itinerary and contact information with someone who’s staying home.
Back up any priceless data if you’re going to be taking your laptop along.
Set up an “out of office” auto-reply for your e-mails.
Get packing!
Day before:
Prepare your home: take out the trash, unplug appliances and power strips, water your plants, do laundry, whip up some kind of eclectic stew with all the perishable foods left in the fridge.
We rely on our phones so much that we forget what it’s like to not be able to instantly access information stored in your e-mail; print all the necessary info, like copies of your reservations, addresses, directions, and contact numbers, or download it to somewhere you’ll be able to access offline.
Download these 9 life-saving travel apps we wouldn’t leave without.
Download fresh e-books for the plane.
Make sure you have enough storage space on your phone or laptop for all the photos you’re going to be taking.
Make copies of your passport.
Take care of any personal grooming that you don’t want to deal with on your trip (haircut, brows, nails, waxing, etc.)
Downsize your wallet—leave all those punch cards and
membership IDs at home.
Night before:
Charge all your electronic devices.
Jot down a reminder list of any last-minute things you need to throw in your bag—how many times have you forgotten your toothbrush because you wanted to brush your teeth right before leaving for the airport?—and stick it somewhere you’re sure to see it, like the front door or toilet.
Day of:
Hug your cat, hang a “Gone Fishin’” sign on your door, and get outta here!
