On this week’s Just the Tip, we giving you 11 things to do BEFORE you leave for vacation to ensure you have a smooth, collected, and beautiful vacation. We always do these things to prepare for a trip in the days leading up to taking off to make our trips more enjoyable.

If you are taking an international trip, make sure to listen to our episode on how to plan your first international trip for more advice to make your vacation more enjoyable.

Things to do Before Your Vacation – Episode Transcript

0:35

And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hey squaddies, Travel Squad Podcast is back with Just the Tip, our Friday mini episode series where we give you quick travel stories, hacks and recommendations to set you off into the weekend.

Right.

Today we’re giving you a quick checklist of 11 things to do before you head out onto your vacation.

0:55

Yeah, a lot of times right before a trip, we could be really stressed with packing all sorts of miscellaneous things.

So a lot of these things are very common, but things that people sometimes forget to do.

So we’re just going to give you the rundown of that quick little checklist here to make things go a little bit more smoothly for you.

Tip #1 is to confirm your travel documents.

1:14

You know you put your passport away after your last vacation.

Make sure you pull that out and make sure that it’s still valid.

Usually, most countries want you to have it valid for at least six months before you return.

So make sure that it’s not going to expire anytime soon and that you don’t need to get it updated because it can take a few months to do that in advance.

1:33

I’ve heard this from somebody that I know by an acquaintance, and of course you could see this stuff online.

There are travel horror stories of people not realizing that this is kind of a general rule is that it needs to be valid at least six months before the expiration for you to actually land and be accepted into another country.

1:50

So do check that, confirm your travel docs.

Also really important with your travel docs is print or download your boarding pass tickets or confirmations.

I know it’s kind of an old school thing to do because a lot of people have it on their phone these days.

And if you want to go that route, by all means.

2:06

But a lot of the big trips that we take, more particularly international, I do like to print that stuff out because what what happens if I lose my phone, God forbid it gets stolen on me, Your battery dies and you don’t know your hotel confirmation or what hotel you’re actually staying at.

I like to print those things out and keep it with me on my personal item.

2:24

So that’s something to do beforehand.

I’m glad you’re saying this because I’m using this one.

I’m about to go solo on an international trip and I’m going to double check all of my bookings to make sure.

Like even just double check that nothing’s been cancelled since it was a couple of months since I booked and that everything I think I booked I actually did because sometimes I mix things up or like book it for the wrong day or something.

2:47

The other thing to keep in mind, 2025, the UK and Europe have implemented new rules about registering before you transfer through those regions.

It’s in the vein of a visa.

Not exactly the same thing, but those are things that you need to have an order before you go there.

3:03

That’s a really good tip, Kim, because we’ve talked about that in previous episode, kind of have forgotten about that till you reminded us right now.

So always again, just check everything before you go.

General theme of tip #1 here for you.

Tip #2 is to purchase travel insurance.

3:20

That could be medical insurance or trip cancellations, or a lost baggage, or even a Medjet membership.

But at the very least, we always buy travel medical insurance before an international trip.

We would rather spend the cheap amount of money it cost for a policy to save us if we get injured while we’re abroad.

3:40

And if you you travel often, they often have annual policies that you can buy.

So it may be worth purchasing an annual policy if you’re doing a lot of trips in the upcoming year.

I.

Never buy travel medical insurance anymore.

I’m just rolling the dice with life.

You’re wild, Kim.

3:55

That is a wild, wild thing to do.

But you know what, whatever floats anybody’s boat.

You can see here on the squad, we’re giving this tip.

One person on the squad doesn’t really want to adhere to it, but Brittany and I like to because I got the feeling the moment that we don’t do it, something’s going to happen.

4:12

But I am in the insurance industry, so I truly, genuinely believe it’s better to insure yourself.

But nevertheless, do purchase some travel medical insurance for that international trip or roll the dice as Kim says she likes to gamble.

Just last year, one of our squaddies was hiking in Switzerland and there was a cow on the path and the cow got spooked and she fell because the cow was spooked and it got close to her and she broke her ankle.

4:40

She couldn’t take it down the mountain, so they had to get an emergency flight out of there.

It was, Oh my gosh, $14,000 for that.

Oh my gosh.

To be transferred and that doesn’t include all of the medical bills she racked up while she was in that hospital.

There you go.

If I ever go hiking in Switzerland I might think twice. 3rd tip is to set up your phone plan.

5:02

So check with your cell phone provider to see what kind of data and coverage they give you in another country maybe you don’t have to purchase anything.

If you do, there are SIM card esim card options.

You can buy extra data for your phone carrier ahead of time, or even arrange a pocket Wi-Fi for when you’re going to be in destination before you get there.

5:21

Yeah, having that data on your phone is incredibly crucial.

Whatever method you get it, you absolutely need to do that and make sure you are set up accordingly.

Number 4 is going to be notify your banks and credit cards.

Now in fairness, a lot of travel credit cards these days and even a lot of credit cards that aren’t travel oriented, they have a lot of consumer protection in them where they say, yeah, you don’t need to notify us when you travel anymore.

5:45

So in fairness, I want to say that.

However, there are still credit cards especially if you don’t have a travel ones that do require you to notify them that you’re going to be traveling of course internationally.

That way they don’t deny your purchase and put it as fraud and then you’re stuck in another country having to figure it out with the bank.

6:04

So it’s always just good practice to go ahead and try to do that online.

And then through your online login with your credit card, it will tell you, oh, you don’t need to do this anymore or it will give you the option to put in that international travel notification.

But I find it to be more important specifically with your debit card, because debit cards, absolutely, yes.

6:23

So if you are the type of person who doesn’t exchange physical cash and you actually draw from an ATM to get the local currency, definitely your ATM card, you need to notify your personal bank, say that you’re going to be traveling.

What dates?

My bank specifically requires that I do that.

6:40

Otherwise, if I try to put in my debit card, it would absolutely deny the withdrawal of cash.

So again, just good caution, notify your banks and credit card companies.

Tip #5 is to secure your home.

When my dad and his girlfriend took a month long trip, they actually arranged for their mail to be held so that it didn’t get delivered and pile up at their home.

6:59

But you can also use use timers for lights and lock all of your windows and doors and then just keep in touch with a neighbor to keep some eyes on your house as well.

My pet sitter also will water my plants, which is really important if you’re going to be out of town in the summer for a week or more, especially in Texas, your plants will be dead when you come home.

7:19

Secure the plants.

Secure the plants.

They’re like children to us millennials these days.

There’s pets and plants.

That’s kind of really our thing.

So you do want to secure those.

Also, I will say this, you know some people who have rain or some other type of home system that monitors your interior.

7:34

Of course, that is a great way to secure your home so you can keep access to it.

But I even know even when I’m at home, sometimes you can mute those notifications because you get so many.

If people are walking by your door, of course, you can then go back and see what was previously recorded.

But if you mute notifications while you’re actually at home, be sure to unmute them when you are traveling.

7:55

Yeah, it could be an annoyance, but you never know and it’s a better time to keep an eye on it.

So just throwing that little tidbit out there for you guys too.

Before you go, share your itinerary with someone else that you trust so that someone knows where you are, someone that’s not on this trip with you.

Put emergency contact numbers in your phone so that you know when we’re in the US, we know call 911 if something goes wrong.

8:16

But if you’re in Italy, say they don’t use 911.

So you want to know what those are just in case.

Absolutely.

Or know where the closest embassy is to your country.

So of course, most of us listening to this podcast, we know are Americans.

Where’s the American embassy?

8:32

What’s the number?

You can actually register with them when you are traveling.

Not a lot of people know that you can register with your country’s embassy.

That way they can give you notifications if something’s going on in that country.

And of course that way they know you are actually there in case of emergencies too.

8:51

When we go to Egypt in January 2026, we should register just in case.

Why not, right?

Might as well.

Absolutely.

Check weather conditions.

This is one sometimes I listen to myself on, sometimes I don’t.

Weather can be hard to interpret when you’re used to like 60° you’re like what does 29 feel like?

9:11

Just check it and try to be as prepared as possible with your items.

But also know this, if you forget something like gloves or a beanie or a scarf or a jacket or upper shoes, you can typically buy that in your destination.

Yeah, it might be a little bit more, but it’s not the end of the world.

9:28

True.

But in general, to pack that way, you know accordingly what you’re going to wear, especially you girls.

Kim, Brittany, I know you guys like to really more accessorize than the guys, especially depending on where the trip actually is, what we’re particularly doing.

So I think knowing the weather is crucial.

9:45

And a lot of times too, people don’t realize this, right?

Kim, now that you live in Texas, you do know this, but California’s not used to summer rain or thunderstorms in Texas.

That’s very common.

Somebody may not know that.

If you check the weather, you may know, and then you could have an umbrella.

So, yeah, those gloves, all those other little miscellaneous things you’re saying you can buy, You don’t really want to buy an umbrella while you’re traveling.

10:07

If you have one, might as well bring it, especially a little travel size 1.

We always bring that with us if we’re going to someplace that’s rainy.

So just check the weather.

Helps pack and I always love to add the cities that we’re traveling to to the weather app so that like as I’m getting ready for a day or before packing, I can just scroll through and then when I’m at the destination I already have them downloaded to my phone.

10:26

I also do that I like to see what the weather is like day-to-day.

Leading up to it.

I’ve been watching Iceland and it was getting real scary.

It was like 17° and I was like, Oh my God, I I’m going to die.

You’re not because Jamal and I were once in 7° weather and we did not die, so you’ll be fine.

10:43

We were struggling.

Trekking around in it.

Yeah, we were in a National Park, actually in 7° weather.

It was quite cold, 17’s bad.

I know when you said you’re used to 6065, you don’t know what 29 feels like.

Kim, 29 is freezing.

10:58

So you know, there’s at least that, I think.

I think once you hit below freezing and it all kind of really feels the same until you get down into those single digits.

Of course, we’re talking Fahrenheit, not Celsius here for anybody who’s listening and is a Celsius person.

But yeah.

11:14

Absolutely well, what I was going to say is that I as I was looking at the weather currently, the high is 5048 is what it was I’m like OK, 48 no problem sign me up.

But I can’t see it fully past the 10 days just yet because my trip’s still a little bit too far out and it’s creeping back down into the 20s.

11:35

So we’ll see, but I’m watching it.

This is what I like to do leading up to a trip.

But I will say this, if you’re seeing the temperature that high, Kim right now and thinking it’s not too bad, keep in mind it’s mostly going to be dark and very little sun.

So that temperature with no sun will be cold.

11:51

May not be super super cold, but it’s going to feel a lot different.

I know, I know.

I’m packing appropriately this time.

We’ll.

See about that?

Next tip for you guys is to keep up to date with health requirements.

So what we mean by this is confirmed vaccines or medications needed in a specific destination.

12:11

Of course, everybody’s health is their own personal choice on what they want to do.

Are they going to really take the immunizations that are suggested?

But what we really mean by this is a lot of people don’t realize some places immunizations are required.

I know I’m not talking about the COVID vaccine.

12:27

When Brittany and I went to Uganda, you had to get a yellow fever vaccine.

That vaccine was dependent upon you actually being granted entry into the country, receiving a visa.

So if you were going to Uganda and didn’t have that, they would have kicked you right away.

12:42

So there are some countries that have certain requirements versus recommendations.

So good to be sure on that.

That way your trip doesn’t go bust so to speak.

But then of course the recommended ones personal choice on what you want to do.

So it’s always good to to realize what’s going on in the area, whether it be maybe malaria prone etcetera.

13:01

Should you have antibiotics because a lot of people get traveler sickness.

So just keep up to date.

And make sure that when you’re packing to keep all of your medications with you in your personal bag and don’t put them in your checked luggage or even your carry on because sometimes your carry on can get flagged to be checked instead if there’s not like overhead space.

13:21

So make sure you always have your medication in your personal bag while you’re traveling.

You’ll.

Want to of course, download your offline maps like Google Maps, trip it, Any things that you can make offline, go ahead and do it for the maps you have to go in and circle the map trajectory that you want to download, but do that for the destinations that you’ll be in and it’ll be super helpful.

13:40

And we say this tip all the time, pretty much in the tips portion of every full length episode that we have.

But for people who don’t know what offline Maps is with Google, it’s basically taking that area, like you said, Kim, circling it and then you download it.

That way you can utilize it without data.

13:57

So if you happen to be someplace where you lose service, your pocket Wi-Fi dies.

Doesn’t really matter if you download it.

It’s basically using maps as if you have service.

So it comes really in handy if you ever lose that data or anything like.

That another tip is to clean your house before you go on your vacation.

14:16

We always do a full house clean but one time we actually hired a cleaner to come and they cleaned our entire home and we arrived back home to a sparkling clean home.

Wash your bed sheets, set out new towels, stock the house with a few non perishable items so that you have some meals to make that are easy when you get home.

14:36

That’s the way to do it.

I mean, this is the OCD in US, right?

We’re talking about how leading up to a trip can be really, really stressful.

And so you could say, well, when am I going to have time to clean my house?

But I can assure you, if you are able to make it happen, even if it’s not super bright and sparkly, but some sort of just straightened up, you’re going to feel a lot better when you come home from that trip that the house is clean versus dirty.

14:56

Because when you come home from a trip and it’s dirty, yeah, you’re excited to be home, but it just doesn’t have that same feel of being home.

I couldn’t tell you that.

Yeah, if you come home to dishes in the sink or laundry still strewn about your bed or wherever you left it, like it is not a good feeling.

15:12

Even with my pets, sometimes when I come home and they’ve like got their toys everywhere, their food’s out because I leave it all on the counter for the sitter.

I’m like, this is it’s a mess.

So clean your house.

The last thing is beauty treatments.

This won’t apply to everyone but some things that I like to do before my trip.

15:29

I always self tan.

If I ever take a trip and I have not tanned, I regret it like crazy.

Just having a nice tan is going to make your trip so much more of a vibe.

I always get my nails done before a trip.

I try the time getting my hair done somewhere around it right.

15:46

I don’t want to be like on my last leg of my hair when I’m on an international trip, but I’m going to have these memories for whatever.

But sometimes it doesn’t always work out, right?

I also this year have been doing a lot of eyebrow laminating and tinting, which is amazing because you don’t have to spend the time fixing your eyebrows as part of your makeup routine.

16:05

So you save time while you’re on a trip.

And then like, if you go swimming, they’re there.

You’re just beautiful naturally.

I always try to eat healthier too, before I go on a trip because I know regardless of where you’re going, you’re not going to be eating as healthy as you would if you’re making everything at home.

So I try to do like green juices, just work out more often and just prep for that time.

16:25

I I really always get screwed on the way back from a trip.

So I would like to do an episode on how to assimilate back into your normal life because I sometimes have a hard time getting back to the swing of things.

I can feel you on that.

Like you’ll be on vacation vibing, come back, you have all this work piled up, You have a workout routine that you’re supposed to follow and it just kind of doesn’t happen the way you want it to.

16:50

You’re exhausted.

So like sometimes I take a day or two off of workouts and then it’s hard to get back in the swing.

So maybe we can bring an expert on that could tell us the optimal way to get back in the swing of things.

So stay tuned for that episode to come, Squatties.

And thank you so much for tuning in to Just the Tip.

17:07

Make sure to subscribe, leave, review, and follow us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast.

And have fun traveling this weekend.