Prepare to Travel

What's the first thing you do when you're planning to travel for over 2 weeks? Here's a few steps to help you get ready for your trip.

1. Decide on which country you'll be visiting. If you're an active traveller like me and would like to move from one city to another instead of staying in one city, make sure you take note of the cities you're interested in visiting and then use Google Maps to mark down the cities. This will show you your travel route and how long it will take to get from Destination A to Destination B.

2. After deciding on your destination, you'll be able to tell how long you'd like to stay abroad for. Time is everything when you're an active traveller - from how many days you'll be staying in City A to how long your transportation takes to arrive Destination B.

3. Once you'll need to make sure you have the necessary documents for your trip. Does the country you're visiting require you to have a visa? If yes, apply for one at the embassy and make sure your passport has been renewed.

4. After all 3 steps have been settled, you can finally begin what I believe to be the exciting bit - intricate planning details. You'll need to know the type of accommodation, the common transportation you'll be taking, the landmarks you would like to visit, the foods you would like to try and so much more. It all comes down to what you like. For my travels, I always stayed at hostels and slept on overnight trains or buses to save up on travel expenses. I made sure my hostels were in the middle of all the landmarks I was visiting and if that were not possible, I made sure I know if transportation was easily accessible from my hostel to my destination.

5. Calculate your expenses! A lot of people tend to miscalculate and end up struggling with very little cash when on their trip. I tend to be a little more organized when I'm planning my trips; I start by creating an excel sheet and opening up several tabs. I've named each tab : Transportation, Accommodation, Foods & Beverages and lastly, Activities and Miscellaneous. Make sure you calculate all the little things such as entrance fees and if you're a smoker, cigarette boxes. Once you've completed your calculations, you'll be able to adjust your expenses and finally know how much to accumulate before traveling.

This is just a rough guideline on what to expect when you're actively traveling. There's so much more on what to expect just before you travel, during your travels and after traveling.