RESOURCES FOR DOING

PREP WORK

How much you will prepare for a trip will depend on whether you are taking a domestic or international trip (foreign languages, jet lag) as well as your trip’s length (number of days), depth (culture vs. leisure), and activity level (training and gear required).   Admit it, all of the prep work before a trip can be part of the fun!

A.  Language

If you are going abroad, good manners and even safety concerns dictate that you learn a few basic phrases in the local language.  One of these days when your phone battery dies or you lose cell coverage, you might get lost and need directions in a small village.  Gesturing will only get you so far.  At a minimum, have one person in your travel party know the following words/phrases in the local language:

please/thank you/excuse me/sorry/help
hello/goodbye
numbers (1-10)
right/left
north/south/east/west
entrance/exit
plane/train/metro/bus/taxi
basic food and drink/menu items
restaurant bill/credit card
restroom
where is?
do you sell?

For tips on how to get up to speed quickly, see the articles under the LANGUAGE tab on the right side of this page.  

B.  Safety

If you are going abroad, save in-country emergency number(s) to your phone, and consult the U.S. State Department’s checklist for older travelers before packing your bags.

C.  Accessibility

Travelers with disabilities can consult the following resources:

• • accessibleGO
  • AccessNow
  • AccessOutdoors
  • Handiscover
  • National Park Service:  Accessibility
  • Society for Accessible Travel & Hospitality
  • TravelAbility
  • U.S. Department of State’s Travelers with Disabilities Resources
  • U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s Resources for Disabilities and Medical Conditions (note that there are also special rules for travelers over age 75)
  • Wheel the World

D.  Homework

If you will be doing a cultural tour, it can be helpful to go over the historical timeline for your location so that you will have context for all of the dates, events, people, and important places that you learn more about on your trip.  Look for the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides if you are interested in a guide that includes a short history of a particular location. 

It can also be fun to do a little reading ahead of your trip to get a sense of the place and its people.  On Goodreads’ Listopia, you can do country, city, town, or area-specific searches and generate a book list (with user ratings) for whatever genre you’re in the mood for.  Guidebooks frequently include handy lists of fiction/nonfiction books, films, and television shows set in your travel destination.  Here are some other book suggestions:

• 22 Ambassadors Recommend the One Book to Read Before Visiting Their Country
• Around the World in 80 Books: A Global Reading List
• 15 experts on the books you should read before visiting their country
• The 15 Best Airplane Books for Long Flights

For more ideas, check out (1) the WEBSITES, ETC. tab and related articles on the AWAY-DREAM page, or (2) our webpage with over 200 of the best travel memoirs and travelogues published between 1800 and 2020 grouped by continent and/or country, depending on where you want to go.

PACKING + COUNTDOWN

A.  Packing Lists

There are many generic packing lists online to consult to create your own list.  Here are a few to get you started:

• SmarterTravel’s The Ultimate Packing List
• Eagle Creek’s The Ultimate Travel Packing Checklist
• Rick Steves’ Packing List

Note that SmarterTravel and Eagle Creek’s websites also have different packing lists by location and activity.

Whatever list you use, try packing your bags in the following order: 

1. 1. read the airlines’ policies on checked and carry-on luggage for all of your flights;
   2. look at the weather forecast;
   3. pick your luggage/bag(s);
   4. pick your outerwear (coat/jacket/sweater);
   5. pick your footwear (max. 3 – pack 2 and wear 1);
   6. pick mix and match outfits that work with the footwear/outwear; and then
   7. pick socks/belts/ties/scarfs/hat/jewelry.  

B.  Luggage/Bags

Checked Luggage:  Because there can be fees for checked luggage, you need to determine how many bags and what sizes you will be bringing as well as the luggage allowances for your airline.  We prefer a 25″ suitcase for flights and a 21″ suitcase if you need to haul it up and down stairs (see our discussion of taking your suitcase on a Tube ride), but we are also not known for packing light so please do “you.”   

Carry-ons:  Check the carry-on allowances/dimensions for your airline, and do not assume that you can bring two carryons when traveling internationally.  After years of lugging a heavy tote bag over my shoulder through airline terminals, I now whiz down concourses with a wheeled carry-on that is small enough to fit under the seat in front of me but large enough to hold my crossbody handbag in sapphire (affiliate link), tablet or laptop, camera, books/magazines, medications, jewelry, snacks, and water.

Backpacks:   We take Howie’s daypack (in navy) with us when we are touring for the day because it is lightweight, water repellant, and fits our raingear and two large water bottles.

C.  Packing Cubes

Packing cubes are not just for long haul trips.  They can transform your road trips, too.  I used to think that packing cubes were about saving space in your suitcase, but it’s really about saving time.  With packing cubes, you can find your clothes faster and keep them wrinkle-free longer.  We both have a set of these packing cubes (in different colors) along with an Eagle Creek Pack-It Folder for shirts.

D.  Dirty Clothes Bag

We keep a reusable, resealable space bag in the outer pocket of our luggage for our dirtiest laundry.

E.  The Countdown

Do you store and share all of your travel pictures and videos on your phone?  Have your family and friends seen the pictures from the last trip that you took?  Do you only use your Amazon Prime subscription to get two-day shipping? 

If this sounds like you, we have a few tips that might help you enjoy your trip for weeks/months/years after you’re home by organizing, editing, and sharing your pictures and videos.

ORGANIZE

A.  Download and Sort Your Photos

This part is a little tedious, but it will help you sort through the hundreds or thousands of photos that you have and identify the best ones to share or print.  I start this process right after we get home from a trip while I’m doing the laundry.

• Create a New Trip Folder:  After your trip, create a new folder (e.g., Switzerland – June 6-16, 2018) on your hard drive or wherever you store your photos.

• Create a Favorites Folder:  In that trip folder, create a folder called “Favorites” where you can copy all of the best shots from your trip after you edit them.  You can also create subfolders based on how you’d like to group your photos to find them later (“Howie,” “Amy,” “Group Shots,” “Landscape,” “Architecture,” etc.).

• Download:  Download pictures from your cellphones and cameras to the trip folder.

• Sort:  Use the “Date” or “Date Taken” button to automatically sort them by date:

• Group by Place/Event:  Create subfolders for each place or event on your trip (e.g., Zurich – June 10-12, 2018), and move all of your photos by the date taken to the relevant subfolder (in the example below, Zurich, St. Moritz, or the Glacier Express).

Switzerland – June 6-16, 2018

Favorites
       Howie
       Amy
       Group Shots
       Landscape
       Architecture
       Other
Zurich – June 10-12, 2018
       Edited
St. Moritz – June 13-15, 2018
       Edited
Glacier Express – June 15, 2018
       Edited

B.  Label and Edit Your Photos

If you have the patience, future generations will applaud the effort taken to rename your photo files with name/place/event labels, especially those with important people in them.  

For each place or event, create a subfolder to store your edited photos.  Your computer probably comes with photo editing software, like Microsoft Photos.  Other free tools include Google Photos, Pixlr, Gimp, and Snapseed (for Android) or (for iPhone or iPad).  If you want even more control, you can subscribe to PicMonkey or Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.  See the articles under the PICTURES + VIDEOS tab on the right side of the page for tips on how to start editing your photos. 

C.  Backup

We download all of our pictures taken with a camera or a smartphone to a computer hard drive, which is automatically backed up to a cloud drive on a daily basis.  Because we are Amazon Prime members, we have unlimited full-resolution photo storage, but there are many other free and paid options.  See the articles under the PICTURES + VIDEOS section below for other ideas.

SHARE

A.  Pictures

After you get home, post your favorite shots on your social media for family and friends to enjoy or ignore as they see fit.  Instagram is really ideal for sharing photos because it is primarily a picture-sharing site.  If you want to keep your photos even more private, however, your cloud drive will probably let you share pictures and albums.  

Entire corporate empires have been built on the foundational principle that people like to gift their photos to friends and family.  The internet is full of ideas on how you can do more than just create photo albums, prints, or holiday cards.  Be that as it may, a well-done scrapbook or photo album will be treasured long after the tea towel has bit the dust.  Amy has made a yearbook and a cookbook using Shutterfly’s software.  Carve out some time this year to make a gift with all of the digital tools that are easy and fun to use.

You can also use your photos to decorate your home.  We made a budget gallery wall in our living room and have a digital photo frame that scrolls through our latest pictures in the family room.

Finally, you could donate or sell your best photos online and brighten someone else’s day.

B.  Videos

OK, this topic is a little sensitive because I (Amy) have a full-blown video addition, but in a good way.  🙂  I began creating home movies in 2015 to celebrate a graduation.  When my old computer crashed multiple times in the process, I bought a Dell XPS 15 9560 and some CyberLink PowerDirector software to create hour-long videos to celebrate special occasions or memorialize our trips.

So, after I’ve edited our travel photos, I use my computer software to create a travel video to share with family and friends.  Yes, it can be time-consuming.  After doing it sporadically for a few years, it takes me about 2 days to produce a 5-minute video, and 2 weeks to produce a 60-minute video.  But, it is worth the time and effort because I watch them frequently, and they always bring back such good memories.