By Shankar Prasad Gupta

Travelling to a foreign land is not as easy as it seems. You need to put a lot of planning and foresight to get it right each time, every time. There may be times when you have to find cheap flights and tickets and pack your bags at a moment’s notice and for that you have to be keep yourself ready for any exigency. As a rule of thumb, try and avoid going to destinations that are ridden with drought, flood, civil strife or war, even it means skipping a few exotic destinations.

One of the first things that you should do is to scan all your important identity documents like passports, driving license and save them in your email account. These would prove to be very helpful in case of theft or loss of luggage. Take extra care of your luggage and your personal belongings. It would be wise if you keep your wallet and other personal documents in your hand luggage and not in your check in luggage lest it might get misplaced.

Carrying too much cash in person may not be a good idea. It would be much better to carry internationally valid credit cards and debit cards for purchases abroad as most of them come with a purchase protection warranty. Traveller’s cheques are also prove to be quite convenient for tourists. Convert and keep a substantial amount of local currency in your wallet as it will save you from the hassle of carrying wads full of cash.

Rising fuel costs have forced international air carriers to place restrictions on the amount of luggage passengers can carry. And therefore it is advisable not to carry too much luggage. Keep a lot of silk clothing as you can pack more in limited space.

Avoid taking jeans as they take too much time to dry or if you have some old clothes that you want to discard, you can take them along. This will ensure that you have more space in your suitcase for carrying return gifts and souvenirs back home. You can reward local people for the help they extend to you by gifting them the clothes that you don’t want to wear anymore. They might love to have a few clothes in their wardrobe made of fabrics produced in a foreign land.

Once you land in your destination city, you should find out where the taxi stand is or better still arrange for a hotel pick up that will ensure that you don’t get lost in an unknown city. Staying in a reputed guest house or star class hotels would help as that would ensure that you are not only secure but also get the best of food and comforts in an unfamiliar land.

Keep coming back to this page as we will give you more such handy tips in our next article. And you have some sexy travel tips that you would like to share with us, feel free to share them with us.

By Michael F Flynn