Things to Bring with on Your International Trip

Going to another country is exciting. Not having the tools that you will need is a dismal situation. When I was in Russia, I forgot to bring adapters for my electrical items. The laptop did fine. It was the other electronics that I could not use for the time that I was in Russia. I knew better, but others don't. Learn from my mistakes.

• Learn what the electric current is, and what you need to make your electronics work. Adapter plugs are available all over the place. I bought a power strip for my European trip and then adapters for each item I was taking with me. That was wise because I was able to plug each device in at the same time, without having to wait for one device to charge before I could plug in another one.
• Mark all of your belongings that are not clothes with address labels. I put an address label on everything, from my laptop and camera to my memory card. (I wrote my email address on a small piece of tape for each memory card) This increases the chances of your lost item being returned to you. On the address label, I put my local phone number.
• Create an email address just for your vacation. You don't want to waste time wading through your regular email account if the only internet that you can access is the kind that you pay for by the minute. Make sure that all of the important people in your life have this email address. When you get home, close the account. No need to keep it. More clutter and junk is a waste of time.
• Pick three outfits that can mix and match with one another. Make sure that they can be washed or rinsed out in the sink if need be. I had to do this in China when the hotels' laundry center plumbing was damaged. Thank goodness I picked wash and wear, because otherwise, I would have had to send out my things. Others were paying a lot of money for laundry service. I washed and rinsed in the sink, everything was dry by morning.
• Bring all of your medications on board the airplane with you. If your luggage is lost, you will be without your medications.
• Bring a sweater. Europe during the summer is still very cool at night time, or if it rains. Having at least a sweater will keep you more comfortable.
• Don't go crazy finding everyone a special souvenir. Magnets are perfect. They are small, not costly, and you can get an incredible amount of them in a suitcase. Don't pack them near electronics.
• If you have special allergies or medical conditions, carry that information on your person. Look online to see if you medicine is called something else in the country that you are visiting. An example here would be Tylenol. It is called Paracetamol in England.
• Don't buy a phone over here for use in another country. Get Skype. You can call home for free, it does not cost anything to use to call anywhere in America, and the rates to other places are pretty cheap. I brought a phone that I connected to wifi and added Skype and Magic Jack to the phone. Worked flawlessly.
• Look online for unlimited plans in the country that you are going to that offer no contract. If you must have a cell phone over there, you can buy an unlocked phone over there for less than 65.00. They are sold all over the place, not just at the airport. Throw in the sim card and you are good to go. Service ran me about $30.00, so that was completely reasonable. I used it mainly for maps and navigation, and then texting secondly.
• Look through every discount program that you are signed up with and compare them to the rates for shopping online.
• If you collect points through air miles and more, look on the site of your provider to see if they have any special offers.

Where ever I went on a tour, I always had a bottle of water with me. It reduced the temptation to have filling drinks, kept me hydrated and my bowels regular. Being constipated or having diarrhea on a trip is no fun. It is always better to eat well, drink water and get plenty of rest. When I invested in a sturdy water bottle for my trip, it was an excellent investment. By the end of the trip, everyone else in our group had purchased a water bottle as well. I think that the main inspiration was the difference in energy levels that I had versus the people who were not hydrated.

Before I went go on any international trip, I back up my computer. If my computer is lost or stolen, the data I have at home is still safe. I make sure to back up things to a backup hard drive and then to a cloud drive.

Make sure that you have copies of all passports somewhere in a cloud so that if you need them, they are available to you.

I have photos stored on a hard drive as well as a cloud because I would be completely sad if all of my photos were lost forever.

When you are traveling, if you are taking a lot of photos, back them up online somewhere. If you are getting a lot of business contacts, take photos of the business cards and back them up as well. If you would be devastated to lose it, back it up. My trip to China one time did not allow me the luxury of backing everything up. What I did was buy several memory cards and a keyring thumb drive or 2. Every single night, I would move things from the camera to the laptop. Then I would move things from the camera to a larger thumb drive. I was glad I did that when my camera's memory card failed.

If you know that you left something behind, call the hotel that you left it at as soon as you know you left it. Be prepared to have a detailed description of the item as well as anything specifically identifying about it. Give them a way to contact you now and an email address to contact you when you are at home. Follow up with them if you don't hear in a day or so.

Certain types of batteries I have seen everywhere that I have ever traveled. AA and AAA would be those. Others that are specific to a certain item are best brought along as a backup. You will take more photos than what you thought you would take, you will use your smart phones and other electronic devices. It is better to bring a back up solution now than worry about it when you are on your trip.

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