As you know, we love to travel.  For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.

These are some great tips from Samantha Brown to do before you leave for that great vacation.  This way you will come back to a relaxed home (and maybe have a few more hours of vacation) before you jump back into your life.

As you know, we love to travel.  For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.

There is so much to do in the days before you leave on vacation.  Here is a check list of what has to be done before we leave:

1. Place a mail hold with the Post Office – we stop it one day before we leave just to make sure it’s done correctly. This typically can be done up to 30 days in advance.
2. Stop the newspaper while you are away – we can automate a vacation stop with one call.
3. Notify your neighbors and police – one quick call to each, so that your home can be watched.  Our local police department will take your information and keep an eye out.
4. Pay your bills ahead or schedule them to be paid from your account while you are traveling.  You don’t want a missed payment or worse a late fee.  Start the month before and make a note of the due date of each bill, keep a list so that a bill doesn’t get forgotten.
5. Contact your debit and credit card companies and notify them that you are traveling to …. and on what dates.  They will approve your charges especially if you are traveling internationally.  Note this is not a prefect process.  Have a back up plan just in case.
6. For international travel, make sure to have some foreign currency with you ahead of time.  We will have three separate currencies to deal with, so we typically get some of each before we leave.  Make sure to get some small bills and coins as you will need these.
7. For international travel, you can notify the State Department’s STEP program (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program).  This service for US Citizens notifies the nearest embassies of your travel plans and contact information.  They will contact you if necessary about events you need to know about.

Happy Travels!

As you know, we love to travel.  For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.

Should you buy travel insurance for your upcoming trip?  That’s not an easy question to answer, there are many questions to answer so that you can decide for yourself.

According to Wallet Hub, 1 in 6 Americans have an illness or natural disaster happen to them. Are you covered so that you don’t lose you hard earned money? Of these 1 in 6, only 22% have insurance to cover their travel costs and expenses.

Some credit cards offer you coverage for lost or delayed luggage, missed connections, trip cancellations and even death sometimes. All credit cards are different and you need to check your individual card for what your offers you. If you are covered, they offer you reimbursements. That means that you pay upfront. Do you have that money? And they come with restrictions. Remember my Microsoft Surface Pro experience from last fall?

We have one credit card that we always use to rent a car. It gives us coverage so that we can decline the optional rental car company insurances and feel comfortable. We have another credit card that gives us the travel protection of lost or delayed luggage, missed connections, etc. We have done the research for us and you should too.

You should think about what you may need and find out if you are covered with the credit card you already have. Typically, if you don’t charge the trip to that specific credit card, you don’t have the coverage. Then check with your personal insurance, such as auto insurance for rental car coverage, home owners / renter’s for loss of property, etc. Then look into travel insurance, if you need or want more or additional coverage.

You should do this process for your health insurance as well. Most insurance policies don’t cover you when you travel outside the US. All of this pre-planning could offer you the needed assistance in your time of need. So do your research and make the choices that are right for you.

As you know, we love to travel.  For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.

You need to pack what you need for the vacation and stay within the limits of your airline.

First find out the dimension and weight of allowable luggage – both checked and carry on.  You don’t want any surprise fees when you arrive at the airport.  We are always allowed one free checked bag each because that is one of the benefits of the airline credit card.

Next, we use a packing list so we don’t forget anything.  There are different things to pack in addition to clothing – such as towel clips for a beach vacation, lanyards for a cruise, umbrella / windbreaker for unexpected weather and more.  Create a master packing list and stick to it.

I select three colors for clothing – that way I know that I can mix and match to create more outfits and pack less.  Packing cubes help keep everything organized.

A few extras that we do:

1. Take a photo on our phone of our luggage.  If it’s lost or delayed, it helps with the claims process.
2. Make copies of what’s in your wallet (including credit cards).  If yours in lost or stolen you have the information needed to cancel everything.  Also, leave a copy with a trusted person back home.  You may have to ask them to do this for you.
3. We take different credit cards.  If one person’s cards are lost or stolen, you still have the other’s perspn’s top use.
4. Just in case, have a copy of your passport with you.  If will be easier to have it replaced if the need arises.

Have a safe trip.

As you know, we love to travel.  For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.

Yes, we are arriving a few days early for this cruise.  We try never to arrive the morning of the cruise.  You never know if you run into a delay and miss the ship.

In my opinion it all comes down to planning ahead.  I spend time online and reading travel books to determine what we want to do, see and experience.  With this in mind, we plan out our time, research admissions, tickets, etc – sometimes there is a discount to purchasing in advance / online vs buying (it definitely saves you the time of waiting on line to purchase entry).

For our upcoming cruise, we determined what things we wanted to do and have been making the advanced purchases as our budget allows – that way much is pre-paid and we’ll have minimal expenses on the trip.

Because it’s peak flower season, we needed to make a reservation in advance.  This will probably sell out if we didn’t. We also have let our friends know our travel plans as we try to meet up with them when we are in town.