How to Prepare for Unexpected Disasters Before Traveling Overseas
Travel is a wild adventure, and part of what makes it an adventure is the possibility of total disaster. Here are some tips on how to prepare for the worst so you can relax and enjoy the best of your trip while minimizing the risk of the worst.
When you leave the US as a US citizen traveling overseas, you have multiple safety nets, and Reddit user u / baccgirl pointed out to LifeProTips that you should know what they are before your flight takes off. Huge – the embassy of your country; Before arriving, make sure you know where this embassy is located at your destination and what hours they are open. Commentator u / doublestitch added that it might be better for you to get this information from your country’s consulate, since the embassies general handle diplomatic matters. But hey, why not both?
And this is just the beginning:
Save your information
The embassy can help you obtain an emergency passport if yours is lost or stolen, but the process is greatly accelerated if you have certain details at your fingertips. U / Baccgirl writes:
Get secure email that you can access while abroad with scans of important documents. Birth certificate, passport scan, emergency contacts. After completing your international travel, delete your email address.
This is pretty good advice for any details you might need to access overseas that you don’t want to just keep in your Gmail account forever.
But you don’t have to be digital. After all, if you’ve lost everything, this could include email access. U / madi154 wrote about his own harrowing experience, captured in pen and paper:
Also write down important phone numbers of your family members and the number of the hotel or people you are staying with and the address. Take some papers with you and hang it all over the place! Put it in every luggage, wallet and bag you travel with. You never know when you need it. For example, my luggage was lost and luckily I had a paper with the phone numbers and addresses of the people I was staying with so the luggage could be delivered there.
Check the validity of your passport
You need a valid passport to leave the US, but u / baccgirl writes that many countries “require you to have at least 6 months of your passport validity AFTER your departure date from that country”. Even if your vacation is only for a few weeks, you need this passport to be valid much longer. Just check the rooms ahead of time so you don’t get sent home from the airport extremely disappointed.
Register your emergency trip
There was also a recommendation from u / swild89 who commented, “I’ll add to that – register your travel itinerary with the government. You can plan whatever you want, but if an emergency happens, you are ready. “
In the US, this is called the STEP program, and it helps the embassy of the country you are visiting know that you are there in the event of an emergency. If there is a danger in the area, you will receive a notification, and in the event of a natural disaster, you will be taken into account.
Get ready to hit
Some commenters have complained that all of these tips are really just telling people to overdo it and ruin their vacation with worry. As u / RunninADorito wrote :
To be completely and completely prepared is both impossible and foolish. The idea that traveling to another country requires insane preparation is wrong.
If you are going to France, you may want to do an X. If you are going to Cambodia, do a Y. Understand your circumstances and solve possible problems. Do not be afraid of life and the world.
An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of hassle, but it’s also important to put things in perspective and not let fear get in the way of your view of the world.