Planning a big overseas trip, maybe even for the first or second time, and trying to decide exactly what you need to do before leaving?
We have you covered! After 4+ years of full-time travel, a stint as expats, and hundreds of trips to 50+ countries, preparing for international travel is an ingrained habit for us at this point.
We’ve put together this international travel checklist to make sure you leave for the airport stress-free and ready to enjoy a phenomenal vacation abroad.
This list is curated mostly for US citizens like us, as that’s our perspective, but hopefully non-US-based travelers can find some useful tips here as well!
Table of Contents
Things to Do for Booking Your International Trip
Calculate your travel budget and plan with your eyes open.
Before starting any of your trip planning, we recommend setting a budget for your travels.
Having a specific number in mind will not only keep you from overspending, it’ll also keep you from underspending in the early planning stages.
More than 10 years of travel and blogging later, we still stand by this simple formula for calculating your travel budget.
You don’t want to get to the end of your trip and realize you could have splurged on that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after all!
Sketch out your travel itinerary.
Once you have a budget in mind, go ahead and sketch out an itinerary for where you want to go once you arrive at your destination.
There is no limit to the variety of bucket-list worthy trips in the world, making narrowing down your options most of the challenge of this step!
This is one of our favorite things to do on this international travel checklist, and detailed itineraries are also my favorite blog posts to write.
If you’re headed to a destination we’ve covered on Our Escape Clause, use the search bar on the top right of the screen to find what suggested itineraries we have for your trip!
Not even sure which destination you want to prioritize? Consider letting flight prices help you decide!
Check visa requirements.
Depending on where you are coming from and where you are going, this step might vary from a cursory Google search all the way up to planning a year in advance so you have time to gather your documents and get to an interview.
For US citizens, we recommend checking visa requirements for your intended destination on the travel.state.gov website, which will always have the most up-to-date official information.
Even if you think you know, it’s definitely best to double-check! More than one country we’ve visited has changed their visa requirements since our trip(s) there.
Buy your plane tickets!
Personally, the moment that we finally purchase our plane tickets is virtually always the moment that a trip really, truly starts to feel real.
It’s exhilarating, and hopefully, a highlight for you as you work through this international travel checklist as well!
These days, we tend to use Google Flights as our starting point when shopping for plane tickets, and then book directly through whichever airline has the best deal. Skyscanner is also popular for comparing flights and destinations.
Book your hotels, some experiences, and maybe train tickets or rental car.
Once you have your travel itinerary ready to go, your plane tickets purchased, and your visa sorted (if applicable), it’s time for the next phase of preparing for international travel: booking your hotels for each destination and (maybe) your source of travel between each place.
We typically use Booking.com to find our hotels and apartments, Get Your Guide or Viator to book most tours and tickets, and use Discover Cars to find our rental cars.
In Europe, we frequently use Omio to plan train and/or bus routes.
Start learning phrases in the language of your destination.
For the vast majority of international trips, this is more out of politeness than an extreme necessity, but still: as your trip starts getting closer, start learning a few phrases in the language spoken in your destination!
A few to start with are: yes, no, please, thank you, hello, goodbye, I would like, where is the toilet, and excuse me.
Getting Your Documents in Order for International Travel
Check the expiration date on your passport.
For most countries, your passport will need to have an expiration date more than 6 months after you leave the country.
If yours is getting close to expired, get that taken care of ASAP, especially if your trip is coming up (like, start looking at the process of renewing your passport this second).
Book onward travel if needed.
Technically speaking, most countries around the world require you to have your exit plan firmly in place in order to enter their country.
Depending on where exactly you’re going and your level of passport privilege, this may be a very important step on your international travel checklist or more of a CYA move, but either way, it’s good to have it taken care of.
If you have a round-trip plane ticket booked, no worries, this doesn’t apply to you. If you have a one-way ticket booked, print out or download it to your phone proof of your plan to leave the country in question.
Don’t rely on having the internet to look something up in your email: we’ve learned that lesson the hard way!
If you don’t have a plane ticket, perhaps because you are planning to take a train or bus to your next stop, a hotel reservation or visa for your next destination may sometimes work, but it depends on the immigration officer or airline employee (as they often are de facto in charge of enforcing these rules) in question.
Buy travel insurance.
Given how inexpensive travel insurance is as compared to traveling in general, and how much money and headache it can save you in the face of something going wrong, it is absolutely worth buying when preparing for international travel.
We don’t ever recommend traveling without travel insurance. Anything can happen on the road, and traveling abroad is definitely a case of better safe than sorry.
For the majority of destinations, we recommend Safety Wing for travel insurance.
Regardless of which additional insurance you purchase, we recommend also reviewing any coverage that your credit card provides, including any destination exclusions or policy limits.
“Travel insurance” as a term can in reality refer to anything from providing funds to replace lost luggage to medical evacuation coverage, with lots of nuance in between. Be sure to know exactly what coverage you have access to!
Get an international driving permit if needed.
If you’re planning on driving on your trip abroad, be sure to check and see if you need to add an international driving permit to your checklist for international travel before you go!
These are essentially translations of your license into many languages.
Some countries require them, some technically do and rarely enforce it, some require it only if your license isn’t in one of several languages, and some don’t require it at all.
You can obtain a permit at home before you go by following these steps.
If necessary, get vaccinated.
Depending on where you’re going, what you’re doing, and how up-to-date your immunizations are, you may need anywhere from a slew of vaccines to prepare for your international trip, documentation of vaccines you’ve already received, or nothing at all.
The more prep time you have to get any vaccines that you do need, the easier your trip planning will go!
Email a copy of your itinerary to yourself and a trusted loved one.
The odds of a loved one needing to access your itinerary during your trip abroad are small, but even still, there’s no downside to making sure someone back home knows where you are!
On your side, it’s always handy to have a copy of all your hotel bookings, rental car bookings, plane tickets, etc, handy. You never know when you might need to refer back to something!
Generally, as part of planning a trip, we make an email folder specifically for that trip and put all relevant reservations and information in there to ensure we’re able to keep track of everything.
Preparing Your Home for International Travel
Stop your mail.
Don’t let mail pile up at your home while you’re away! Instead, make sure it is held at the post office for you for the duration of your trip.
For travelers from the USA like us, you can easily set up a mail hold here through USPS online.
It takes seconds to do, and is one less thing to worry about while you’re away.
Let family and friends know how to contact you.
Do you plan to stay in touch with family and friends through an international phone plan? Skype? Whatsapp? Email? Social media?
Whatever the plan, be sure to let your loved ones know, especially if you’re planning a longer trip.
If it makes sense for your situation, you might want to help them set up any necessary apps that they may not have yet.
Hire a house or pet sitter if needed.
If you have plants that need watering, a pup that needs walking, a pool that needs cleaning, or just a house that needs someone to come by and make sure everything is okay, get a house and/or pet sitter worked out as far in advance of your trip as possible.
The closer to your travel dates that you start making arrangements, the more stressful the process can be.
International Travel Packing Checklist
Make a packing list and buy anything you need.
Obviously, your packing list will vary dramatically based on your destination, but here are a few items that are on our own international travel checklist, typically regardless of destination:
Pacsafe
Apple Air Tags — We added Air Tags to our typical packing list a few years ago, and we’ve loved having the extra security when checking our luggage!
Our luggage actually got lost on the way home from one of the very first trips we used them on, and while it turned up quickly, it was very nice to have a clear picture of what was happening with our bags as they made their way to us.
Cell Phone eSIM or SIM Card — Back in our backpacking days, we spent more than a year traveling without working cell phones, just relying on wifi… and while that’s completely fine, we would never go back.
Consider buying an eSIM, purchasing an international plan for your cell phone (most carriers offer them), or, if you have an unlocked phone, you can just buy a local SIM card once you land.
Personally, these days we buy an eSIM and set it up before each trip, and marvel every time at how much easier using our phones abroad has gotten since we started traveling!
Reusable Water Bottle — Save both money and plastic during your trip abroad and add a reusable water bottle to your packing list!
I love this metal one and have had it for several years now.
Comfortable Day Bag — We currently use Pacsafe’s sleek anti-theft backpack and love it, but if you don’t want to shell out the cash for this trip, that’s totally understandable. Just aim for something comfortable to wear, not flashy, and medium-sized.
We used a Northface backpack leftover from my school days for years and loved it as well.
Portable Phone Charger
Hand Sanitizer
Travel Journal
I’ve been using it for more than 9 years now (!) and still absolutely love it.
Money Belt — This is up to you, but I’ll include it here due to its popularity. We no longer use a money belt, but if you’re more comfortable with using one it’s not a bad idea for peace of mind.
We used to use this one
Looking for a more detailed packing list?
We have more than a dozen of them on Our Escape Clause, including for summer in Europe, winter in Europe, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, and Ireland.
You can browse all of our packing lists here.
Check your prescription medications.
Do you have enough of a supply to last the length of your trip? Is it in original packaging that you can easily transport via your carry-on luggage?
And, in some cases, is it a medication that is legal and safe to carry in your destination?
I am not a doctor or giving medical advice, but I will say if you take certain ADHD medications, amongst others, it’s worth doing a quick internet search about this.
Let your banks and credit card companies know that you’re traveling abroad.
For most banks this either can be done online these days, but you can also choose to call to set a travel notification in a pinch.
Generally, they’ll want to know what countries you’re visiting and for how long, and will make a note in your file.
Some banks are phasing these notifications out, but it’s best to double-check, especially if you’re not a habitual international traveler.
Forget to set this up, and you risk your card being denied when you try to use it abroad!
… and check on any foreign transaction and ATM fees.
For US-based travelers like us, many cards no longer charge foreign transaction fees, but plenty of them definitely still do, so double-check which cards will be most advantageous to bring abroad.
The same goes for debit cards: if you have access to an account that refunds ATM fees, that’s the one you’re going to want to bring.
Generally speaking, Visa and Mastercard are the most widely accepted cards internationally, but it varies.
Be sure you have all your long-haul flight essentials.
We’ve dedicated an entire blog post to making sure you bring the right things with you for the endurance event that is getting through a long haul flight semi-comfortably, but here are a few things to get you started:
- An eye mask (I like this one)
- Lip balm and/or moisturizer
- Cozy socks or compression socks
- Hand sanitizer
- Offline entertainment
- Portable phone charger.
Weigh your luggage before you leave.
… and compare it to not only the airline you’re flying with to reach your initial destination, but also any other airlines you’re flying for different legs of your trip, as well.
For example, if you fly from New York to Paris with Delta but are flying from Paris to Rome with Ryanair, make sure your luggage meets Ryanair’s requirements as well to avoid a big headache later in your trip.
Personally, I like to always leave a little extra weight/room for souvenir shopping, especially now that we have a home again!
Preparing for Arriving Overseas
Keep a pen in your carry-on.
If you end up needing to fill out an arrival card before passing through immigration, either on the plane before landing or upon arrival before getting in line for processing, you’ll be so glad to have a pen with you!
This is less common every year, but it does still happen.
Have a plan in place to get from the airport to your hotel.
The final step of your international travel checklist is as simple as it is important: make an arrival plan.
When you arrive at your destination, you’re undoubtedly going to be exhausted, overwhelmed, and probably a bit jet-lagged, too!
No matter how many times we arrive in a new country, it never stops being a tiny bit stressful, simply because there are a lot of variables at play in the first few hours of arriving somewhere new.
Make life easier on yourself by thinking ahead: when planning your trip, figure out your exact steps of what will happen after the plane lands.
That means exactly how far away your hotel is, how you’ll get there from the airport (train, bus, rental car, taxi?), and if you’ll be traveling by taxi, what a reasonable price is and/or if there is set fare from the airport to the city center (there often is).
If you want to plan for maximum comfort, you can even book a private airport transfer in advance, which can make your arrival incredibly simple.
Read More About Traveling the World
Ready to turn your travel dreams into a reality?
If you found this checklist of things to do before an international trip helpful, we’d love to continue to be part of your travel planning here on Our Escape Clause!
You can read more about us here, browse our 90+ travel itinerary blog posts here, or check out these articles about how to plan the perfect trip:
- How to Budget for a Trip: The Easiest Budgeting Method (+ Tips!)
- 31+ Cool Travel Souvenir Collection Ideas
- Traveling to Europe for the First Time: Your 13-Step Trip Guide
- 13 Minimalist Traveling Tips for Living Out of a Backpack
- How Our 6 Month Round the World Trip Changed Our Lives (+ Tips!)
So glad I found your blog! I’ve traveled to multiple countries over the years, yet, you gave me new things to consider and since it’s been awhile since I’ve traveled it’s helpful to have all of this info in one place! I was wondering whether you recommend we use our cell phones in Europe and talk to our carrier about an international plan or purchase a temporary one at our destination? We are traveling to France this summer and Ireland two times next year.
Thank you so much!
Hi Marissa! If your phone is unlocked, purchasing a European SIM card will almost certainly be far cheaper than an international plan. 🙂 You can buy a SIM card once you arrive at the airport (there are virtually always stalls set up as you leave), or you can even buy one on Amazon before you go! I believe Orange sells theirs on Amazon.
Great, thanks Kate!
Very Helpful to Get My Task List Started! If you have something specific to the Holy Land regarding packing list and preparation tasks, I’d love to get my hands on it!
Thanks, Val! Nothing specific to that area at this time, but you never know in the future. 🙂