So in this video I talk about seven things you should consider doing before embarking
on long-term travel.
Greetings from New York City, YouTube.
My name is Kevin, I make these weekly videos documenting my full-time travel adventure.
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So I mentioned in a previous video that I had basal cell skin cancer on my forehead
here and that I was gonna get it removed.
That's what this scar is right here.
I'm very fortunate they were able to remove all the cancer and all I have is this cool
scar on my forehead.
so hopefully that's not too distracting.
This will be my last video from New York City.
Next week, I hop on a plane and I fly to Phoenix, Arizona to be interviewed by Amber from the
popular YouTube travel channel, Story Chasing.
After that interview, I hop on a plane to St. Louis, Missouri so I can visit my parents
and my siblings.
And then after that, I hop on a plane to Lima, Peru for my 12 month trip around the world.
In this video, I figured I'd share with you the things I did to prepare for this long
trip.
I've narrowed it down to seven things.
The first thing is you need to figure out where your home address is going to be.
In my situation, I'm getting out of my apartment, so I needed to have an address so I had a
domicile.
I considered a couple different options.
Using my parents address, using friend's addresses, or using an online service.
My mother was gracious enough to allow me to use her address so that's what I'm doing.
But if that's not an option for you, there are many online services you can use.
The RV community has really figured this out.
There's an RV group called the Escapers that'll help you set up a domicile in Texas, Florida,
and another state.
And I'll link to a video up here somewhere to an RVer that explains how to establish
a domicile while traveling full-time.
The second thing to consider are vaccines for international travel.
We're really fortunate to live in a country where most diseases have been eradicated,
and we really don't have to worry about it.
But some of the places that you can travel to aren't so fortunate and you need to make
sure you're protected.
So the first thing you should do is you should go talk to your primary care physician and
see what's covered under your normal insurance program.
The next thing you can do is go to the CDC website and see what vaccinations they recommend
for the places you're going to visit.
And lastly, you can find clinics that specialize in giving vaccinations to travelers.
I used Passport Health, and it was a great experience.
One of the vaccines I received from Passport Health is this Typhoid vaccine.
It's the oral kind.
The reason I went with the oral vaccination over the normal shot in the arm is because
the oral vaccination lasts for five years vice two years with the shot in the arm.
The third thing to consider is the visa requirements for the countries you're going to be visiting.
I'm gonna be visiting 12 countries over a 12 month period, and I'm really fortunate
only one of them requires a visa.
The best place to go to figure out what visas you need is the Travel.State.Gov website.
That website will tell you what's required, and then they'll have a link to the individual
Embassy of the country that you're going to.
In my case, I needed a visa for Vietnam, and it was a really easy process.
It was an EV set, it was completely online.
I submitted the information they required and I got my visa four days later in the mail.
If you're an American, you're really lucky 'cause your visa's pretty powerful.
Most countries will give you a visa upon arrival and you don't really have to worry about that.
But make sure you check, because there are some countries, like Vietnam, that require
U.S. citizens to have a visa.
The fourth thing you should consider is letting your bank know that you're traveling.
Actually, you shouldn't consider that, you better do it or when you go to use your credit
card, they might not allow you to do the transaction.
Most banks allow you to do that online now, and so it's really easy and convenient.
For my credit cards, I use Chase.
And Chase allows you to set up notifications when there are any international charges on
your credit card.
I personally set that up so I'd be able to catch fraud myself really quickly.
The fifth thing to consider before you travel is related and that's get a backup bank account
and back up debit and credit cards.
You wanna make sure you're prepared just in case your stuff gets stolen or your bank decides
to shut down access to your account because it thinks some transaction you did is suspicious.
Make sure you keep your backup cards and bank information separate from the cards you'll
normally use.
The sixth thing to consider is get some cash.
When I say get some cash, I mean get some U.S. dollar, and get some money for the countries
that you're going to.
I know that the exchange rate can be a little bit expensive when you're going to places
to get foreign currency, but I think it's still a good idea to have a little bit of
the currency of the country you're going to initially.
I also recommend a stash of U.S. currency just in case you're in some kind of emergency,
and also keep that separate from the normal bank cards and money that you carry.
That money is strictly for an emergency.
The U.S. dollar can get you out of a lot of situations overseas.
And the last thing is travel insurance.
I'm not gonna touch on this too heavily, because each individual person's circumstance is different,
but you should make sure you have some kind of coverage, especially for medical emergencies.
The last thing you want to happen on this amazing trip you're taking is some catastrophic
medical emergency happens, and you can't afford to get good medical care.
So make sure you get covered so you have peace of mind.
Okay so those are the seven things I recommend.
If you have any other ideas of things people should do before they travel, please comment
below with your suggestions and if you enjoyed this video, please hit the Like button.
And please subscribe if you'd like to follow my journey.
Like I said, I'm about to embark on an amazing 12 month journey around the world, and I think
it'll be some pretty fun stuff to watch.
Thanks for watching.