Setting aside a couple of hours prior to traveling
can save you a heck of a lot of stress, time and money.
In today's video, I'll be covering 20 things that you should research
about your destination prior to traveling.
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Vaccinations.
This is not only important to make sure you're keeping yourself healthy,
but there are many countries that require you to show proof
of specific vaccinations prior to entering.
For example, when I traveled to Uganda,
I had to show proof of my yellow fever vaccine
when I arrived at the airport.
Check the requirements for onward travel.
If you're flying on a round trip going into the country
and then flying back out of the country, you're fine.
But, if you're entering the country on a one-way,
you often need to show proof that you will be exiting the country.
It doesn't need to be a flight, you can usually just book a bus.
Often, the airline will ask you for proof of your exit of the country
prior to letting you even board the plane
because, if you arrive at that airport and they turn you away,
that airline is responsible for flying you back home.
If you don't want to book your flight out or your bus out far in advance
you can also use a service like Best Onward Ticket.
It's going to give you a temporary airline ticket
that will expire within 20 to 48 hours
and this will work for you as proof of onward travel.
Check your visa requiremets and the visa processing times.
Do this early.
I booked all of my flights to Vietnam
and then found out that my visa was going to take five days to process
and I had to re-book all of my flights.
I also encourage you to look into the details of each visa.
When I was in this predicament, they gave and alternative option:
Instead of applying for a three-month visa that was going to take five days,
they would give me a one-month visa in a 24-hour turnaround.
What they didn't tell me is that, once I arrived in Vietnam,
I'd be paying over USD 100 to get an extension
and that the extension process is a total pain in the butt.
I'm glad I looked this up, because it ended up being cheaper for me
to cancel and re-book all of my flights to arrive in Vietnam later
than it would've been to get a one month visa and to extend while I was there.
Research any travel warnings or alerts.
Warnings are generally long, ongoing, say if there's confilct or war
in a specific country,
when alerts are going to be for one-off specific events,
say a terrorism attack in London.
It's not only important to keeping yourself safe
but also may affect your travel insurance coverage.
I trust Safety Wing for my travel medical insurance;
when I was looking on their website I noticed some exclusions.
Where there's countries with ongoing confilct,
the coverage is limited.
So, check with whatever insurance you use to make sure your country is covered,
regardless of any alerts or warnings that happen to be going on at the time.
And before you buy any travel insurance,
check with your credit card, because you may already be covered.
My credit card gives me 21 days of free coverage.
Entry and exit fees.
Many countries around the world will require you to pay an entry fee
when you arrive at the ariport.
For Vietnam, I believe it was USD 25.
They wouldn't accept any other currency.
So, if you're not a US citizen, you need to find a way to get US cash
prior to boarding your flight.
Speaking of money... Conversion rates.
This could completely change where you decide to travel to.
Say I'm going to London. As a Canadian, my money is now worth half as much.
But, on the other hand, if you're coming from London,
and you're traveling to Canada, or even New Zealand,
your money is worth a lot and you can do a heck of a lot more with it.
I highly recommend you download a free app, XE Currency,
so you can help keep tabs on the conversion rate
and what you're spending while you're actually in the country.
Also, how will you be accessing your money while abroad?
Are credit cards widely accepted? What are the ATM fees?
I prefer to use my debit card
and withdraw cash from an ATM when I arrive
However, many times I'll find the ATM fees are between $5 and $10,
which is going to change how much I'm taking out each time.
So, do your research and be informed
so you can make a decision that's going to save you
from additional fees that you may not need to be paying.
Scams. You can find them in any country in the world,
particularly if it's a tourist destination.
Look up online, use google.
You can find all the information on what common scams are...
I also have a whole video on scams across Southeast Asia
which I'll link below.
Scams may also affect how you choose to withdraw and access your money.
When I was in Canggu, Bali last month, credit cards were widely accepted.
but credit card theft was a huge problem.
Myself, along with three other friends, had our credit card scammed.
I also use the ATM with my debit card, and my debit card was copied.
If credit card theft is a problem in the destination that you are traveling to,
it may be worth seeing if you can get the foreign currency
from a bank at home prior to your trip.
You can look into getting a prepaid credit card,
Stack is one of the best in Canada.
There's no foreign transaction fees
and then it also comes with an app that allows you to freeze the card.
So, it you lose it, you can freeze it on demand
and then unfreeze it anytime.
You can also have push notifications enabled,
so anytime anything is spent on the card
you will get a notification sent directly to your app
so, you will know right away if someone who is not you is using your card.
Check out the SIM card and data plans available.
You will likely be leaving your phone on airplane mode
unless you want to have hundreds, potentially even thousands,
of dollars in roaming charges.
So, you will likely be looking if you can get an affordable data plan.
Not only should you be looking at how much you should typically pay
for these plans so you don't get scammed, also look if there's any restrictions.
Again, when I was in Bali, I signed up for a data plan
and I didn't realize that it was only specific
to the one area in Bali that I was staying in.
This information was not disclosed to me when I was purchasing the plan
and I didn't think to ask because, in every other country I travel to,
the data plan was applicable to the entire country.
Research the outlets and the voltage that's used.
Yes, you can get an adapter,
a universal one or one specific to the country when you arrive.
But I think it's always nice to have one with you
so you're not stuck in a sticky situation at the airport with a dead phone.
If you do forget or lose your adapter, before you go out and buy a new one,
check with your hotel or hostal front desk.
Us, travelers, are notorious for leaving these adapters behind
and they probably have a spare one that you can borrow.
Research popular apps for your phone and then download them before you go.
An example would be, say you use Uber and Lyft in your home country,
but, in the destination country, they use Grab as the ridesharing option.
When you sign up with Grab, you need to verify your account
by getting a text message to your phone number.
If your phone is on airplane mode and you can't reach your phone number,
you won't be able to verify your account and,
while there are ways to get around this, it's just much less of a pain
to do it and have it ready before you leave home.
Tipping culture.
Look up what is expected in the country you're going to
and then please abide by that -
even if it's different from what you're used to - while you are there.
For example, if you travel to Canada,
our servers are paid less than minimum wage
because it's expected that they will be also receiving tips.
Tipping is becoming expected in many countries
that have not traditionally tipped,
so look up the most up-to-date information you can,
check out forums on TripAdvisor - that's a great starting point -
and see how much it's expected that you should be tipping,
whether it's 5% or 20%.
If you traveled to a destination 10 years ago that had no tipping,
they may be tipping now.
Double, triple, quadruple check...
what is legal and what is illegal, as well as the penalties associated.
We just had marihuana legalized here in Canada,
but say, if you were in Thailand,
the still allow the death penalty for any drug use.
Look this stuff up, it's kind of scary.
Can you safely drink the water from the taps?
From my experience, in most countries you can't,
so I'd say: assume no.
You may want to consider getting one of these nifty little gadgets
that are coming out on Amazon that will sterilize the water for you.
One is called LifeStraw and the other is SteriPen.
It's pretty cool.
Road conditions.
Particularly if you plan to be driving,
say you have an international driver's license
and you will be driving in the country that you are going to,
check what side of the road they drive on.
I know personally I wouldn't be comfortable driving on the left.
Check the up-to-date weather forecast...
one, two days before you leave and adjust as necessary.
Don't assume that because it's summertime it's going to be warm.
In Ottawa, in June, we had snow!
So, you want to look up for any anomalies and then be able to pack accordingly.
And, regardless of what the temperature or the weather is,
see if there's any dress restrictions that you should know about.
On the same notes, review any local customs,
you could be disrespecting someone without even realizing it.
But you can easily avoid this
by just doing a little bit of research in advance,
like, how do you greet people? Is it a handshake? A hug? A kiss?
Where do you sit at the dinner table? Do you talk at the dinner table?
Is eye contact considered rude or appropriate?
Check out the description below
for a checklist that's going to include all 20 of these tips
as well as my favorite websites to research,
so you know you can get quality and up-to-date information.
The goal is to have you check all of these off the list
in one afternoon.
And next week I'll be covering the essential things that you need to do
before you leave the house.
So, hit my face over here so you can subscribe
and stay tuned for that video next week
on what you need to do prior to leaving your house for a travel.
Hope to see you next week. Bye!