“Organising is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”
Winnie The Pooh (A.A.Milne)
We landed in the middle of a thunderstorm at 11pm. Having missed our connecting flight due to enormous queues at border control, we found ourselves in a strange city with an hour’s drive to our destination – including having to get used to driving on the other side of the road! As the designated driver, I was feeling decidedly nervous. Staying at a hotel close to the airport felt like the best course of action.
show moreThis was the first emergency hotel stop of the trip. We were attending an event with Hurricane Florence threatening to derail everything.
As it happened, although there were some cancellations, we had one day of watching the hurricane whistle round our Airbnb. As we travelled the last six hours, we thought we were home free. That was until we hit six mini-tornadoes five miles from our final destination and had to pull off the road and take shelter again!
It’s not always possible to plan for extreme events such as a hurricane but, thankfully, we had the resources to be able to deal with the situation.
I love travelling. From the moment I decide to take a trip, I start the planning (it’s part of the joy of going away). Even when things don’t go wrong, there are still some ‘just in case’ scenarios that we can have on our radar and be prepared for. The more things you have in place, the higher the likelihood you can confidently cope with the ultimate ‘just in case’ event: the ‘spur of the moment’ trip.
Here are the things I have ready to go:
- Travel documentation ready and in-date documentation such as passports, visas and visa waiver programmes, and international driving licences.
- Annual travel insurance covering the countries I visit most often. I update any medical changes and I also check I am covered for any activities I might be doing before I travel.
- My vaccination record and any medical documentation that might be required, such as prescription lists and Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). In some countries, your prescriptions might be deemed illegal. Being without the proper paperwork and packaging can land you in a lot of trouble.
- Good luggage solutions to cover different types of trips. A word of caution… When packing, minimise your ‘just in case’ urges and think capsule and minimalist!
- Logins for rewards with different airline and hotel reward schemes I have signed up to over the years ‘just in case’ I can take advantage of any offers for a trip and in emergencies on the road.
- A credit card which I can use fee-free abroad. I only use this for travel and international work transactions. I prefer prepaid travel cards so I can withdraw cash from ATMs free of charge too, but there are now lots of bank accounts which will give you the same service (check their charges, as they do differ).
- Technology – including spare leads for my phone, iPad, laptop, Fitbit and international conversion plug – all ready to go.
Having these things in place makes it much easier for planning the specifics. If you have a family, it will save you a whole lot of time, grief and stress!
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