Are you getting ready for a holiday?
Whether you’re heading off for a weekend or travelling abroad for a month, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to preparing for your trip. To help maintain your holiday vibes & alleviate stress, we’ve put together a few basic tips to help you prepare for your well-earned getaway.
Passport
Preparing for an overseas holiday can sometimes begin months in advance &you want to make sure that everything is ready to go so you can set off on your holiday with ease. One of the most important things to consider is whether your passport is valid to allow you out of the country. You need 6 months validity from the date that you return to Australia, not the date you leave. Keep in mind, the renewal & application process can take up to 4 weeks, so it is extremely important that you’re aware of your passport’s expiration date. Before you leave Australia, take a photo of your passport to keep on your phone. This way, if you happen to misplace your passport, you can contact the embassy and obtain a temporary as you have all of the details easily accessible. It’s also a good idea to leave a copy with a trusted person at home.
Luggage
Taking a photo of your suitcase and its contents is another important safeguard that will assist should your luggage be lost in transit. A photo can be shown to the airline of what your case looks like and a photo of the contents is helpful in the event of making a travel insurance claim. It is also important to keep your baggage ticket so that you do have some identification if your luggage did happen to go astray. If you’re travelling with medication, make sure that this does not go into your checked baggage as if you were to lose your luggage, you will be without your medication for a period. It is also very important to research the medication that you’re taking with you and check the country that you are entering. Some countries have very strict rules where you could find yourself in trouble.
Travel Insurance
Expenses of a holiday begin to build up from the moment you first book & the safest way to protect your cash flow is to take out a travel insurance policy as soon as you pay your first deposit. A good travel insurance policy will cover you for flight cancellations, luggage misplacement & medical expenses with the option to add on extra covers depending on your type of trip. It is very important to read the policy wordings of your travel policy to understand what you are and are not covered for. Be careful relying on the travel insurance that is automatic with your credit card, as these are often very minimal coverage.
Pre-existing Medical Conditions- Another thing to be very careful of is pre-existing medical conditions as these can be excluded automatically unless they are disclosed. What that means is IF you were to have a medical emergency arise that is the result of your pre-existing illness you might not be covered. Usually this just means completing an extra form when you take out your insurance
The best way to make sure that you will be covered in the event of an incident is to contact your insurer or broker and ask questions.
Travel Documents
Whilst you may have copies of your boarding pass and hotel bookings in your emails or on your phone – consider what happens if the airport wifi is down or connection unavailable.
Take a screenshot of important documents such as boarding passes, travel tickets, emails with confirmation numbers for hotels, address and phone numbers of people/places you need to contact for your trip. You could also take a snapshot of your luggage tag in case you misplace it.
If you have the basics covered you can then just concentrate on the fun stuff like getting a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower. Happy Travels
