Seeking a new adventure on your own can be a completely different experience than when travelling with friends and family. In truth, these solo trips require more planning and awareness of potential dangers that you’ve got to be prepared and considerate towards.
Whether you’re travelling for some much needed ‘me time’, work-related responsibilities or because you just love to travel… whatever the reason, you need to take some considerations into account before leaving the comfort of your home.
Organisation and preparation
It’s easier to make the statement of being prepared for every eventuality but in reality, it’s about being prepared to the fullest to the known problems you might encounter.
Firstly, check the validity of your passport. Does it expire prior to or during your travel and does the country you’re visiting accept passports with a specific time period left to use your passport.
Some countries expect a minimum period till expiration before granting access into the country. Ensure this is completed with plenty of time before you travel as renewing your passport can be a lengthy process.
Be prepared to experience travel issues. Even though no one enjoys travel problems, they are sometimes out of our control. We’d recommend packing your hand luggage with all your valuable belongings and necessities in case of missing or delayed luggage.
This way, if you’re without your main luggage, you’ll still be able to get support and be continuously responsible for your valuables.
Plan your financial security, whether you’re advised to have limited amounts of physical money on you or how you’re expected to tip and use your foreign currency. It’s also recommended to have booked accommodation, instead of searching for a place once you arrive seeking a last-minute bargain.
Language Barriers
If you’re expecting to travel to a foreign country that converses in a different language and you’re unaccustomed to the language, it’s recommended to learn some basic words or phrases. These phases are for your security in common situations when you want local assistance such as asking for help, a phone, shelter or directions. You might find the local as more accepting if you’ve taken the time to learn their language.
Get a travel reward credit card
While you’re abroad you might discover that you require more than the cash you decided to take or decided that card payments would be a safer option whilst travelling. Using a standard debit or credit card may come associated with large international fees or interest that you wouldn’t have been expecting.
It’s a worthwhile investment in your time to research the best travel credit card which offers low exchange rates, 0% or low-interest rates and additional benefits to help you against fraud. In addition, there are lots of different travel credit cards so it’s worth checking which will be the most suitable for your travels.
Be covered
The cost of travel can be high and sometimes unexpected events might happen meaning you need to pay for an expensive service, this might be hospital fees in countries which charge for healthcare or insurance against payment scams. It’s important to check you’re covered to most eventualities and the companies are just selling on extra services that aren’t helpful such as previously mis-sold payment protection.
Checking that each large cost of your travels is covered by some form of insurance will provide the peace of mind you need to enjoy the travel but also financial security if problems arise. An additional reason for a travel credit card for claiming back refunds for services which weren’t met such as flight cancellations.
It’s commonly reported that solo travelling is one of the most fulfilling experiences as you can learn a lot about yourself and how you react within certain situations. It’s also a great excuse to discover new experiences that you want to do rather than follow a group and not visit or do what you want to experience.
