Before you go
The prep that actually
changes outcomes.
Most travel problems are not dramatic. They are a frozen card, an expired passport page, a hospital that will not take your insurance, or nobody knowing which city you are in. Almost all of it is solved in advance, in about an hour spread over a month.
30 days outThe paperwork window
- ✓Check passport validity. Many countries refuse entry inside six months of expiry, and airlines enforce it at check-in, not the border.
- ✓Confirm visa and entry requirements for your passport specifically — they differ by nationality even for the same destination.
- ✓Book travel insurance that covers medical evacuation. Ordinary policies cover a cancelled flight; evacuation from a remote area is the line item that actually bankrupts people.
- ✓Check routine and travel vaccines. Some need multiple doses weeks apart, so this is genuinely a 30-day task.
- ✓Tell your bank and card issuers where you are going, or expect a frozen card on day two.
7 days outDocuments and comms
- ✓Photograph passport, visas, insurance and cards — store them in encrypted cloud storage and offline on your phone. Offline matters; you will need them when you have no signal.
- ✓Share your itinerary with two people, not one. One person can be unreachable. Two rarely both are.
- ✓Set up an eSIM so you land with working data instead of hunting for wifi in an airport at midnight.
- ✓Register with your embassy if the region warrants it. For US citizens that is STEP — it is how the embassy reaches you if something happens locally.
- ✓Save the local emergency number. It is not 911 everywhere. Save the embassy and nearest hospital too.
- ✓Write down your blood type, allergies and medications on paper, in your wallet, in the local language if you can.
24 hours outMoney and the bag
- ✓Split your money. Two cards from different networks, in two different places, plus a small cash reserve. One pickpocket should not end your trip.
- ✓Charge everything, including the power bank. A dead phone is a safety problem, not an inconvenience.
- ✓Screenshot your accommodation address in the local language — and the route from the airport. Show, do not pronounce.
- ✓Pack medication in original labelled packaging with the prescription. Some common medicines are controlled substances elsewhere.
- ✓Learn five phrases: help, police, hospital, no, stop. Five. That is the whole assignment.
Arrival dayThe first six hours
- ✓Pre-arrange the airport transfer or know exactly which official taxi rank to use. Arrival is the single most targeted moment of most trips.
- ✓Message your two people that you landed. Set the expectation now so silence later means something.
- ✓Walk the block around your accommodation in daylight. You are building a baseline, and it takes ten minutes.
- ✓Locate the nearest hospital and pharmacy before you need them. Note whether the hospital takes your insurance.
- ✓Ask the front desk which areas to avoid at night. Local staff give better answers than any website, and they are usually pleased to be asked.
One honest caveat
Entry rules, vaccine requirements and advisory levels change constantly and vary by your nationality. Treat this page as the shape of the task, not the final word — confirm every requirement with your own government's travel service and the destination's embassy before you book anything non-refundable.
Want this as a printable checklist?
The full version is organised by region and includes embassy and hospital contact details for the country you are actually going to.