When you get prepared to travel, there are a lot of things to organise and consider. For me at least, anyway. Probably why I find it hard to plan anything last minute. But once the flights and accommodation are booked, what else do you need to arrange? Here are the top things that to sort before you travel. Then everything can run as smoothly as possible.

Check Your Passport

Have you ever had it that you go to check your passport a week before your intended trip and you can’t find them? Yup, thats happened. After a frantic search around the house and an appointment at the passport office in London, we got our passports sorted. But if we’d checked them earlier, we wouldn’t have had such a mad panic. So when you are booking flights or other transport, check your passports. Check the expiry and time left on the passport too. They might be in date, but if they don’t have enough time left on them, certain countries might not let you in.

Check Travel Insurance

Pretty much as soon as you book your flights you need to look to get travel insurance. It is a life saver when abroad in case of a disaster or illness. It can even help when flights get cancelled and you need to stay in a hotel for an extra night, for example, too. But you need to read the fine print closely. For instance, if you’re going skiing is it valid for winter sports? You don’t want to head off to the slopes, break a leg, and then realise you forgot to update your policy. This is especially true if you have an annual policy. Check it before each trip to see what it covers. Better to be safe than sorry!

Check Transport and Car Rental Fine Print

However you are choosing to travel to your destination, as well as once you get there, you need to check the fine print. What was the baggage allowance? Does the car need to come back with a tank that is full or empty of petrol? All these kinds of things can make a trip a little more stressful if you don’t pre-check the details.

You could also think about getting something like excess insurance before you travel. We do this each time, as it means that we don’t need to get any extra when we are out there. Car companies can add on quite a bit of extras once you’re at the rental desk, especially in the US, from my experience. So could be worth looking into.

Check Emergency Numbers and Medications

Everywhere that you travel abroad to can have different rules and regulations. So making a note of what they are beforehand can help a lot. When you are actually in an emergency situation, we don’t often think of ‘oh, let’s check online for emergency number.’ We all know 911 for the US, but what about other countries?

Second of all, other countries might require certain vaccinations or visiting the country could put you at risk of catching something like malaria. So looking online before you go, at online doctor LloydsPharmacy, for instance, could be a good way to check what you need to do beforehand. Is it advised to get a jab before travel to Africa or the Caribbean? If so, what is best?

One thing you can check when you are at your destination (as long as there is wifi), is any ailments or illnesses that you might get when you travel, for example. Are you a bit of a ‘Google doctor’ when it comes to your illnesses or ailments?

Have you got any holidays planned this year? Hope this is helpful to you as you start to plan.*collaborative post