5 Things to Do Before Planning Your Next Trip

When I'm not traveling, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about traveling. Even with all that thinking a lot of the lead up to a trip, especially if I've taken a long break in between, I still get anxious before hitting the road again or even being ready to hit the road at a moments notice. Here are some of the things that I do between trips to make sure that I'm ready as soon as the mood, or the deal, strikes.

Make sure your Passport is up to date

Your passport is that one thing that you don't realize you need a new one often until it's too late. Like when my family was planning a roadtrip to Montreal only to find out that my brother's passport had expired (so we ending up having an amazing time in Maine instead). I knew mine was going to expire soon, just in time for my #travellingfoolturnsten celebration. Finding out how to renew it was a huge pain though since there are so many search results pointing to non-government services that will help you for a hefty fee.  The upside is that the official US government website (found here) makes it super easy to get it done and the turn around can be quite quick. I got mine 4 days after the check was cashed.

Sign up for Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check (Get Mobile Passport too!)

This is something I've put off for years, mostly because of the high fee and the long wait time for appointments. Paying the yearly fee on my Chase Sapphire Reserve (which I'm still not sure it's worth it (review here) but I'm giving it a second year to decide) though has really given me the extra push to finally get this done. I have used Mobile Passport for the last couple of years and it's an absolute gem when you've spent the last 20+ hours trying to get back home after a trip and the thought of standing in line to get through US Customs for an hour or more makes you want to claw your eyes out. I've never spent more then 5 minutes exiting customs with the Mobile Passport app. Now waiting for my bags is another story!

Refill your toiletry bag and first aid kit

Often I'm traveling so much that I rarely have time to go through and make sure that everything is ready to go for the next trip. I have a TSA-approved clear plastic bag for all my toiletries (this one which is part of my Travel Must Haves list). There have been plenty of times when I get to my hotel or hostel, open my bag and go to use my lotion or toothpaste or deodorant or a Bandaid or hair gel only to find that it's missing because I ran out on my last trip but never replaced it. Getting everything settled, refilled, and ready for the next trip is so much better then trying to use context clues to figure out if the Norwegian version of toothpaste your holding is actually toothpaste at all.

Back up the photos from your last trip

I also often forget between trips to remove the photos from my SD card. Every night I back up my DSLR or digital camera photos to my iPhone, which can take forever if it's been an eventful day, but saves me the trouble of backing them up to Google Photos and Dropbox when I get home. The problem is that I will often leave all my photos on the SD card until I get home anyway because I like to save a copy to my local harddrive in addition to the copies in the cloud, just in case. You can never be too careful and how many times can you hope to capture the perfect sunset while on safari in South Africa or the last photo you have hugging your grandmother?

Make a copy of your passport and travel documents

I started doing this on the recommendation of my diplomatic tour group organizers on my first trip to Europe. In my carry-on I carry a photo copy of my passport, travel immunizations, AAA card, and medical insurance cards. Before a trip I'll also print out a copy of my TripIt itinerary. They all get shoved into the back of my backpack's hydration bladder pocket and hopefully I'll never need to look at them again. I've only ever needed to use the photocopy of my passport once, to get back into New York after getting home from Germany on that first trip to Europe when I dropped my passport getting off the airplane. I guess things were a little different back then but I still feel better knowing that a backup is on my person when traveling.