22 Oct Travel Checklist – Tasks to do before we go Travelling
Posted at 18:26h in
Travel Planning by Amy You may not realise just how much work is involved in planning a round the world trip – we certainly didn’t. Now, with only 19 weeks left until we leave, our pre-travel checklist seems to be growing, rather than shrinking. I like to think I’m an organised person but somehow I’ve got multiple travel lists scrawled in notebooks, typed up on spreadsheets and scribbled on random bits of paper and yes, I am starting to panic.
Copyright: Koalazymonkey on Flickr
Firstly, there’s the proper travel list – that is, sorting out all our visas and travel documents as well as booking flights, buying our gear and planning where we want to go. It doesn’t stop there though, since we’re leaving for an undetermined amount of time we need to sort, store or get rid of all our stuff and cancel all the trappings of our current lives.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to publish our checklist for travelling, not only to help organise ourselves, but to hopefully help other aspiring travellers and show just how much hard work is going into this trip – here goes…
Our Travel Checklist
- Travel Gear checklist
- Travel Bookings
- Travel Documents
- Finances
- Medical
- Sorting our Stuff
- Travel Planning Tasks
| Travel Documents | Completed? | Notes |
| Get new passports | Yes | |
| Get Indonesian visas | Yes | |
| Get Australia e-visa | Yes | |
| Get travel and gadget insurance | Yes | Find out which long-term travel insurance we chose |
| Scan all important documents and save on computer/dropbox | Yes | Includes passports, visas, bank contact info, eye prescriptions |
| Create a paper copy of important documents | Yes | To keep separate from the originals |
| Upload CVs, qualification certificates to Computer/ update LinkedIn profile | Yes | For taking on freelance work abroad and if Andrew needs proof of his teaching qualifications |
| Order business cards | Yes | For Amy’s freelance work |
| Get International Drivers Licence | Yes | |
| Apply for new driving licence (Amy) | Yes | |
| Finances | Completed? | Notes |
| Get a credit card | Yes | Find out how we chose the best travel credit card here |
| Get new debit cards (so we pay zero fees for withdrawing money and using our current accounts abroad) | Yes | Here’s how we found the best travel debit card |
| Sort out where to keep our savings | Yes | Check out our savings account comparison |
| Cancel bills/direct debits (phone, internet, council tax, water, car insurance) | Yes | |
| Unlock phones to use abroad | No | We’re going to get this done in Asia |
| Purchase blog domain and hosting for Our Big Fat Travel Adventure | Yes | |
| Tell tax office we’re leaving | Yes | |
| Tell student loan company we’re leaving | Yes | |
| Medical | Completed? | Notes |
| Dentist appointment | Yes | Our gnashers are fine! |
| Get contact lenses – six month supply | Yes | |
| Get malaria tablets (or get abroad?) | Get abroad | Find out why we’re getting our malaria tablets abroad |
| Find out our blood types | No | |
| Get travel vaccinations | Yes | Find out what travel vaccinations we needed to get for our trip |
| Sorting our Stuff | Completed? | Notes |
| Sell CDs and DVDs | Yes | We’ve sold as many as possible through Music Magpie and We Buy DVDs |
| Sell as much of our stuff as possible on eBay/Gumtree | Yes | Check out how much money we made by selling our stuff. |
| Decide which books to keep and give the rest away | Yes | |
| Sell car | Yes | |
| Sell bike | Yes | |
| Shred all our old documents (bank statements, etc) | Yes | |
| Back up all our music and electronic files | Yes | |
| Hand notice in at work | Yes | |
| Hand notice to landlord | Yes | |
| Sort out what will go into storage with our parents | Yes | |
| Get rid of all our furniture | Yes | Our landlord will keep the furniture when we move out. |
| Travel planning tasks | Completed? | Notes |
| Plan a rough list of things we want to see/do in the first few countries | Yes | Planned for New Zealand |
| Join house sitting websites | No | |
| Check volunteering opportunities / organise before we go | No | |
| look into home stays | No | |
| Collate all research on travel organisations / publications | Yes | |
Patti
Posted at 19:22h, 22 OctoberThis is a great list and very helpful to those in need!
Amy
Posted at 20:35h, 22 OctoberThanks Patti – I’m looking forward to ticking a few things off the list, that’ll help me sleep better!
Camping Gear
Posted at 07:13h, 12 MarchI visited several blogs and I find your site wonderful. Keep up the good work.
Craig
Posted at 23:33h, 08 MarchHi guys, hope you’re safe and well. Another list lover here! What platform / hosting site do you use for your blog and is it easy to maintain?
Amy
Posted at 03:20h, 09 MarchHi Craig, glad you enjoyed! We use Bluehost, which has been pretty good for our needs – let me know if you have any other questions, we’re happy to help 🙂
Rachel
Posted at 20:35h, 18 JanuaryI am so glad I found your website! I’m just starting to plan for a long trip and this is just what I needed to get organized. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Amy
Posted at 03:28h, 19 JanuaryHi Rachel, glad you found our website useful! It sounds like you have an exciting trip ahead of you 🙂 Let me know if you have any planning questions.
Anne Betts
Posted at 21:26h, 04 JanuaryHi Amy. I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your chart. I like the column approach allowing for notes to help keep a person on track. I liked it so much I made reference to it in my recent post on how to create a pre-travel checklist. Keep up the great work. It’s very useful.
Andrew
Posted at 23:26h, 04 JanuaryHi Anne, thanks for reading and commenting, I’m glad you found our post useful.
Brandon
Posted at 22:52h, 11 MarchWow I love how organized this is!
Amy
Posted at 12:18h, 13 MarchThanks Brandon 🙂