travel task

23 Essential Tasks to Complete Before You Travel

All your bags are packed; you’re ready to go! Hold on a minute there Mr. Denver – hopefully, you’ve remembered to take care of these easily overlooked tasks prior to takeoff. Below we’ve compiled a list of tasks to complete prior to departure. We’ve broken it into sections based on how far in advance you should complete each task so you’re not overwhelmed last-minute.

Some posts on this site contain affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase through one of these links, we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Read the full  disclosure policy here . 

Table of Contents

Don’t Forget to Do These Tasks Before Your Next Trip!

One month or more prior.

• Purchase travel insurance and insure your expensive gear.
• Arrange for a house-sitter if you need one.
• If you have pets, arrange care either with a house sitter or a kennel service.
• Inform your bank and credit card companies of your travel dates and destinations. Sometimes, unexpected travel can trigger their fraud department to put a hold on your accounts if they believe your information might be compromised.
• If you have a house alarm, notify the monitoring company of your travel dates as well as who to contact while you are away.
• Activate your cell phone travel plan, if necessary. Or, purchase a Skyroam Solis which gives you 4G coverage in over 130 countries.

Less Than One Month Prior

• Put a hold on your mail and/or newspaper delivery service (does anyone even get the paper anymore?).
• Schedule your bill payments.
• Refill your prescriptions if you’ll run out during your trip.
• Schedule shuttle to and from the airport. ( Uber  and Lyft now have a scheduling service!)

One Week Prior

• Leave itinerary with family in the event of an emergency.
• Have the address of your lodging readily available if you’re traveling internationally; you’ll need it to complete the customs form before entry to the country you’ll be visiting.
• Make a copy of your passport to keep in your purse/wallet in case it’s lost or stolen. A digital photo on your phone is also good.
• Take a picture of luggage you’re checking with the airline in case it’s lost.

One Day Prior

• Check-in to your flight 24-hours prior to take-off.
• Set timers for lights so your house doesn’t appear vacant. Or, install a Bluetooth light switch that you can control with your phone and set timers.
• Tidy-up your house, do the dishes, and clean your bathrooms – nothing beats coming home to a clean house.
• Empty your refrigerator of perishables.
• Take out the garbage.
• Charge your electronics’ batteries so they’re ready for use on your trip.

Minutes Prior

• Close and lock all doors and windows.
• Turn off your air conditioner and heater. The Nest Thermostat is great for this so you can turn the AC/heater back on the day you’re headed home from the destination you are still in that way your home is at the temperature you want when you get home.
• Most importantly, check that you have your passport in one of your travel bags – without it you aren’t going ANYWHERE!

As you can see, there’s an exhaustive number of essential tasks to consider in preparation for travel. For this reason, we suggest setting notifications in your phone’s calendar and create a checklist, so you don’t forget. Knowing you have these things taken care of will bring you peace-of-mind, so you can focus on enjoying your trip to the fullest.

So what things do you do to prep for travel? Feel free to let us know if you think we missed something by commenting below or sending us an email .

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Travel Better, Cheaper, Longer

16 Easy Steps for Planning Your Next Trip

I remember when I started planning my first trip around the world. I had no idea what I was doing.

When I decided to quit my job and travel the world , I walked into a bookstore and bought Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on Shoestring . Buying that guidebook was my first step toward long-term travel. It made the trip seem more real, more tangible. It made it all seem possible.

While helpful, the book didn’t exactly prepare me for planning a trip around the world. Back then, there weren’t really travel blogs, sharing economy websites, and apps like there are today. I was excited and determined — but I was lost. I had to figure it out as I went, hoping I didn’t miss anything important.

Trip planning can be a daunting task. Where do you begin? What’s step one? What’s step two? What’s step three?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially when you haven’t done something like this before — and especially considering just how much information there is out there these days. Blogs, social media, and guidebooks have never been more plentiful. There’s a firehose of information out there that can sometimes make the task of planning a trip even more challenging and overwhelming.

After a decade of traveling the world , I’ve planned countless trips and vacations for myself, friends, family, and even group tours. In the beginning, it was trial by fire and I learned a lot of lessons the hard way . However, that helped me develop an efficient checklist that ensures I don’t miss anything important during the trip planning process.

After all, I don’t want to get to my next destination and then realize I forgot something. And neither do you!

There is a lot of information on this website ( and even more information packed into my book ), but one question that comes up frequently is, “Matt, how do I put this all together? How do I plan a trip?”

In a continuing effort to help you get out the door and into the world, I’ve created this step-by-step guide on how to plan a trip. It works for any kind of trip — no matter how long you’re going for! Just follow this checklist and you’ll be off in no time!

Table of Contents

Step 1: Decide Where You Want To Go

Step 2: decide the length of your trip, step 3: research your costs, step 4: start saving money, step 5: get a travels rewards credit card, step 6: switch to no-fee atm cards, step 7: stay focused and inspired, step 8: check for last-minute deals, step 9: book your flight, step 10: book your accommodation, step 11: plan your activities, step 12: sell your stuff, step 13: automate your bills, step 14: pack, step 15: buy travel insurance, step 16: enjoy your trip.

If you want to jump ahead, simply click on any of the links above.  

It’s a lot easier to mentally get behind “I am going to Paris in the summer” than “I’m going to Europe” or “I’m going somewhere.” Not only will your trip become more concrete for you and easier to commit to, but it will make planning easier as well…because you know what to work towards. Get specific with your plans. Get detailed. The more focused and concrete your goal, the easier it will be to actually reach it.

Resources for picking your travel destination:

• 200+ In-Depth Destination Guides
• 10 Destinations Under $50 Per Day
• The 10 Best Places to Visit as a Budget Traveler
• The 20 Best Tropical Islands in the World

How much does it cost to travel? That depends!

Without knowing how long you’re going away for, I can’t answer that question. And it’s a question you need to answer so you can start planning!

In order to figure out how much you need to save you’ll need to know how long your trip will be.

Are you going away for a week? A month? A year?

The length of your trip is a huge factor in determining how much money you need. Spend some time mulling that over until you have your answer.

For example, after you say “I’m going to Paris this summer,” add “for X days.” That way you can start to narrow down just how much money you’re going to need to save. “I am going to Paris for 10 days” is a trip that you can plan for. It’s an attainable goal.  

So you know where you’re going and how long you’ll be there, but to really nail down how much money you need, your next task is to research the costs in your destination at the style of travel you want.

Do you want to backpack, or would you rather stay in luxury hotels?

How much are hostels, hotels, restaurants, and attractions?

Knowing will allow you to estimate how much money you’ll need for your trip. Here is how to research costs:

• Buy a guidebook.
• Check out my travel guide section .
• Google prices for specific things you want to do, such as scuba diving, bungy jumping, winery tours, etc. ( Get Your Guide is a good place to start for that)

You don’t need to do more than that. There’s so much information on the web that if you go down the rabbit hole of overplanning, you’ll get lost and confused by the firehose of information. Stick to those three things and you’ll be set!

In our example, if you are going to Paris for 10 days and need at least $75 USD a day (not including your flight), you know you need to save $750 USD (though round up to $800-900 USD since it’s good to have extra) for your trip.

If you were to travel around the world for a year, you’d need $50 USD a day .

Here are some other insightful posts that will help you better estimate your costs:

• 5 Ways to Make Your Money Last When You Travel
• How to Know the Travel Info You Find is Legit
• How I Research My Solo Travel Destinations

People bleed a lot of money every day through small purchases: a coffee here, a snack there. All of that adds up. In order to make changes to your spending habits, you first need to understand them. Making a list will do just that. It will also put your financial needs into a better perspective.

For example, if you need $2,000 USD for the trip you’re taking in eight months, that means you only have to save $8.33 USD per day. Couldn’t you find a way to save $8 USD per day? Heck, your daily coffee is most of that!

If you’re struggling to save money, here are 23 ways to cut your expenses and save money for travel . This will help you get started and on the road to saving money in no time!  

These days, most cards have welcome offers of up to 100,000 points when you meet their minimum spending requirement. That’s enough miles for a free flight almost anywhere in the world!

If you want a free flight, sign up for the cards that help with that. If you want free hotel rooms, get a hotel card. Either way, sign up for a travel credit card and start earning points today. As long as you can pay off your monthly balance, you’ll get free travel credit.

You don’t need to sign up for very many cards either; pick one or two and focus on those. Do this the moment you decide you want to travel. Don’t wait — waiting equals lost miles, which means less free travel.

Collecting points and miles is what all the experts do to cut their costs and travel longer. It’s what has kept my costs down and me on the road for so many years. While the best cards are only available in the US, there are still plenty of options for Canadians as well as folks from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

For more information on travel credit cards and using points and miles, check out these posts:

• Points and Miles 101: A Beginner’s Guide
• How to Pick the Best Travel Credit Card
• The Best Travel Credit Cards
• How to Earn Points by Paying Your Rent
• The Ultimate Guide to Points and Miles
• How to Use Points and Miles in Canada

Once you’re abroad, you’re going to need money. While many countries accept credit cards, in the majority of countries cash is still king. That means you’ll need to use ATMs to withdraw the local currency.

And that also means you’re going to get dinged by ATM fees.

If you’re just away for a week or two, paying a few dollars in ATM fees isn’t the end of the world. But if you’re away for a longer period, those fees add up and chew into your travel budget — a budget you’ve worked hard to grow. Don’t give banks any of your hard-earned money.

How? By using a no-fee ATM card.

I use Charles Schwab , but there are lots of other banks (don’t forget to check your local banks) that don’t charge ATM fees. Additionally, you can join a bank in the Global ATM Alliance .

By using a no-fee ATM card you can avoid those pesky ATM fees, leaving you more money for what it was intended for: travel.

Here’s exactly how you can avoid ATM fees while traveling .  

While you get closer to your goal, make sure that you keep feeding your desire to travel. Travel planning can be exhausting and overwhelming — especially if you don’t have support from your friends and family (and especially if your trip is still months away). It can often get discouraging and feel out of reach at times.

Luckily, there are tons of ways to stay focused and keep your spirits high thanks to the amazing community we have on this website. Here are some inspiring travel stories to help keep you inspired to travel:

• Why It’s Never the Perfect Time to Travel
• 13 Travel Books That Will Give You Serious Wanderlust
• How to Change the “I’m Too Poor to Travel” Mindset and Say Yes to Travel
• 8 Ways to Stay Motivated to Travel

Additionally, be sure to join our online travel community The Nomadic Network . Not only will you find support (and tons of tips) online, but we also host regular in-person and virtual events all around the world. These are a great way to get inspired, meet other awesome travelers in your area, and get travel advice.  

Okay, you’re inspired, prepared, and on your way to saving money for your trip. But before you go buy that flight or book that hotel, check for deals you might have missed. You may dream of Paris but maybe there are great deals to Berlin right now. Or maybe you can get a seven-day cruise for 70% off, a package deal to Hawaii for the price of your flight to Paris, or 50% off sailing trips around Greece.

These days, there is always a deal to be found — especially if you’re flexible with your dates and/or destinations. Some deal websites worth checking out are:

• Going (Formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights)
• The Flight Deal
• Holiday Pirates

Fortunately, there are still many ways to avoid being the person on the flight who paid the most for their ticket. My two favorite sites for finding cheap airfare are:

• Skyscanner – Skyscanner is the best website for searching multiple destinations at the same time.
• Google Flights – Like Skyscanner, Google Flights is great for open searches to multiple destinations.

For the best deals, book your flight about two-three months in advance. Here are two articles on how to score a cheap flight:

• How to Find Cheap Flights
• Booking Flights: Everything You Need to Know

For trips longer than two weeks (or if you are going to be traveling long-term) just book your first few days. That will ensure you have a place to go on arrival. Once there, you can get insider advice from your hotel/hostel staff as well as other travelers. You can then use that info to plan your next steps.

While you can book more than your first few nights, you might end up wanting to change your plans once you land. I prefer having flexibility, which is why I always just book my first few nights and go from there.

Here are my go-to sites when it comes to finding the best deals on accommodation:

• Hostelworld – Hostelworld has the largest selection of hostels and is my go-to site for finding affordable hostels.
• Agoda – Agoda has the best results if you’re heading to Asia (though they sometimes have good US deals too).
• Booking.com – Booking.com is the best overall platform for finding budget hotels and guesthouses.

If you’re on a tight budget or you want to connect with more locals during your travels, consider joining platforms like Couchsurfing or BeWelcome . These communities allow travelers to stay with locals for free as a sort of cultural exchange.

Long-term travelers can also try housesitting or WWOOFing as well as they both offer free accommodation (in exchange for pet sitting or farm work respectively).  

Search online for discounts as well. While some countries offer cheaper prices in person, others give discounts to those who book early/online. Research which is which for your itinerary so you can save money.

For shorter trips, you can also book your activities in advance to ensure you get tickets. For longer trips, book as you go.

Additionally, before you leave home, have a rough idea of what activities are priorities for you. That way, if you run out of time or money, you can focus on your top activities so you don’t miss out. Also, make sure to double-check that there are no holidays or other obstacles that will prevent you from certain activities as well.  

If you are going on a long-term trip (six months or more), consider selling your stuff in order to earn extra money for your trip. Start doing this about 60 days before you leave. Some sites to use are:

• Gumtree – An online classified site with a focus in the UK and Australia.
• Amazon – The biggest online store in the world.
• Craigslist – Online global classifieds that have both local and global reach.
• eBay – Another global online classified site.
• Facebook Marketplace – Great for finding people near you (so you don’t need to ship your items).

If you aren’t going to be gone that long, skip this step. If you are going away long-term but want to keep your stuff, move it to a friend’s house or keep it in storage. A good storage company in the US is Public Storage . It’s one of the most affordable options out there.  

Get rid of your mail, go paperless, and set up online bill payment for your recurring bills to ensure you won’t miss any while overseas. If you are still going to get paper mail, use a service like Earth Class Mail , which will collect and scan your mail for you. (If you are going on a two-week trip, you don’t really need to worry about this, so you can skip this step, too.)

If you have the option (and don’t want to pay for a mail service), you can also have all your mail sent to a friend or family member.

Additionally, you’ll want to make sure you cancel any phone plans you have or switch your plan to one that is more travel-friendly. T-Mobile is great for travelers going on trips under 3 months. For any trips longer than that, you’ll want to cancel your plan and just buy SIM cards abroad as that will be much cheaper.  

I travel with a 45L REI bag and then a smaller day bag.

Unless you’re heading to multiple climates and need bulky winter gear, you don’t need a massive 70L bag stuffed to the top. Here’s my suggested packing list to help you take just the right amount of stuff and avoid overpacking ( here’s a list for female travelers as well ).

While what you pack will depend on where you are going, remember that you don’t need to pack everything you own. You can buy things you need on the road. You can do laundry overseas. At the end of the day, you have to carry everything you bring. So bring less!

There are a few extra items you might want to pack beyond your everyday clothes, though. Some things I like to bring with me are:

• First aid kit
• LifeStraw bottle with built-in filter
• Packing cubes (to stay organized)
• Travel lock (for hostel lockers)
• Travel adapter
• Quick-dry towel

Additionally, make sure you bring any prescriptions with you so you have enough for the duration of your trip. If that’s not feasible, bring a doctor’s note and prescription with you so you can fill it abroad.  

While a lot of people think, “I’m healthy, I don’t need travel insurance . I won’t get sick,” travel insurance is much more than just medical protection. It covers you when your camera breaks, your flight is canceled, a family member dies and you have to come home, or if something gets stolen.

Yes, it’s an added expense. But it’s always better to be safe than sorry. I never leave home without it because I’ve seen first-hand just what can happen on the road.

I never thought I would pop my eardrum while I was scuba diving in Thailand or break my camera in Italy .

I didn’t know I would get knifed in Colombia .

My friend never thought he would break his leg hiking.

Another friend didn’t expect her father would die and she would have to fly back home.

Unfortunately, bad things can happen when you’re traveling. True, these events are few and far between. But they can cost tens of thousands of dollars to handle on your own. If you’re not prepared to pay out of pocket, buy travel insurance.

To help you figure out the best plan for you and your trip, here’s my ultimate guide to picking a good insurance company . It will show you how to pick a good plan that covers you for when you get sick, your flights get canceled, if you get injured, something gets stolen, or your trip is delayed.

Here’s a breakdown of my recommended travel insurance companies so you can see what company offers the best plans for your needs and budget:

• SafetyWing – Super affordable plans for budget travelers.
• Insure My Trip – Best for senior travelers.
• Medjet – Provides additional evacuation coverage to ensure you get home should an emergency occur.
• Insured Nomads – In-depth emergency and non-emergency coverage for long-term travelers and digital nomads.

For more information on travel insurance, you can check out these posts:

• What Does Travel Insurance Actually Cover?
• Is Travel Insurance Worth It?
• Do You Need Medical Evacuation Insurance?

Additionally, make sure you know your rights as an airline passenger. For example, delayed flights to/from Europe often mean you’re entitled to compensation (beyond anything insurance-related).

Learn how to ensure you are compensated if your travels are delayed or your flight is canceled .  

If you’re feeling nervous, don’t worry — that’s perfectly normal. You’re about to embark on an amazing adventure — and that’s a huge change. Feeling anxious or nervous or unsure is something every traveler experiences. But you’ve made it this far. Trust your planning, follow your instincts, and you’ll have the trip of a lifetime. I guarantee it.

By using this post as a guideline for your trip planning, you can better organize and prepare for your trip. You’ll check all the boxes, not miss anything, and have plenty of money for your vacation. It can be as simple as booking a flight and packing or as complex as rearranging your entire life to go backpack the world forever.

But, no matter how long your trip may be, this list will help you stay organized and motivated as you plan your trip and step out into the world.

P.S.  – Yes, I did leave out visas and vaccinations, because needing those isn’t as universal as the other stuff on this list, but don’t forget to check if you need those, too!  

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

• SafetyWing (best for everyone)
• Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
• Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

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Ultimate Pre-Travel Checklist: 25+ Things To Do Before You Travel

Last Updated on 23/01/2024

Preparing for travel can be stressful. There is often a lot to remember and sometimes the most obvious of tasks will slip your mind. Here is the ultimate pre-travel checklist to make sure you don’t forget any of those important tasks before you travel.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Find out more  here .

25+ Things To Do Before You Travel

Make prepping for your next trip a breeze with this ultimate pre-travel checklist. Here are 25+ things you don’t want to forget to do before you travel.

1 Month Before You Travel

There are some parts of travel prep that you can start early. The earlier you start, the less stressful your travel preparations will be before you leave. Here are a couple of things you can do a month or more before you travel to get ready.

Check Insurance

Travel insurance is super important. If you haven’t already got travel insurance, now is the time to get it sorted. If you got insurance months ago when you booked your trip, now is the time to check it to make sure you know what is covered and amend the policy if necessary.

Check Home Security

As a homeowner, there are always jobs on your to-do list. Often, getting round to changing that lock or replacing the bulb in your security light is a low priority. Before you travel, it is important to check your home security and make any updates you’ve been putting off!

1 Week Before You Travel

A week or more before you travel, there a few more tasks you can complete to get ready. Here are some jobs you can get ticked off the list in anticipation of your vacation.

Put Mail On Hold

No one wants to come home from a trip and have to fight their way inside through a mountain of mail. Or here in the UK, a stack of ‘red cards of doom’ from missed parcel deliveries. Putting a hold on your mail means your deliveries and held securely until you get home, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

Notify Your Bank

Another task that is well worth doing, is informing your bank of your travels. You don’t want to try and call them from abroad when they have blocked your card! Most banks can be informed online or via a quick phone call without much hassle so it is a worthwhile task!

Many bills are now automated, but if you have any pesky ones hanging around that need paying manually, now is the time to do it. Make sure you check which bills are due and ensure they are all paid before you travel.

Make Copies Of Important Documents

When you travel, you want to make sure you have copies of your important documents such as passport and driver’s license. Make these copies in advance so you’re not scrambling to do it the morning of your travels.

Create (Or Download!) Your Packing Checklist

While you’re thinking about your travel essentials, write a list of everything you need to pack in advance. This will save the last-minute scramble to find everything you need and avoid the risk of missing anything. Alternatively, you can sign up for the Get Lost newsletter and we’ve done all of the hard work for you with our downloadable packing checklist!

If you’re travelling for a couple of weeks or more, make sure you find time to mow the lawn the week before you travel. It’s likely it will need doing again by the time you return, but at least you won’t be coming home to a jungle in your yard!

1 Day Before You Travel

If you have the luxury of time, there are a number of tasks you want to get done the day before you travel. If you’re working right down to the wire, you can spread these over the last few days before your trip to make them easier to manage.

Update Calendar And Set Out Of Office

On your last working day before the trip, update your calendar and set your out of office. To make things easier, these can be prepped a few days in advance in anticipation. Make sure people know you’re taking a break and you won’t be picking up emails!

When you get back from your trip, you’ll have a suitcase full of laundry. Get anything that is hanging around out of the way before you leave, including washing your bedding. Make sure you empty the washer and dryer and put everything away!

Set Lights On A Timer

If you have internal or external lights that can be set on a timer, now is the time to do it. It will give you added peace of mind that your home doesn’t appear empty while you are away.

Empty The Fridge

There is nothing worse than returning home after two weeks to discover a half-used bottle of milk in the fridge! Clear out your perishables before you go and give the fridge a quick clean while you’re at it. You’ll be glad you did when you return from your trip!

Empty The Trash

Now you’ve discarded those perishables, be sure to empty the trash. Moving the items from the fridge to the bin doesn’t really solve the problem so make sure you take the bag out! It’s a good opportunity to empty all of the bins in the house to make sure there’s nothing in them that will smell by the time you get back!

Unplug Electronics

Save on your electricity bill while you’re out of the house by unplugging those electrical items you won’t be using. It’s not like you’re going to be using the TV anyway, so unplug it until you get home.

No one wants to spend the last day before their holiday cleaning, but honestly, future you will thank you! When you get home from your vacation there is no better feeling than coming home to a spotless house. Even if it only lasts a couple of hours until you empty the suitcase!

Do The Dishes

On the note of cleaning, do the dishes. You won’t have to wash up when you get home before you can eat. Plus, they won’t have turned into a science experiment in your absence!

Give Contact Details To A Neighbour

Before you head out, find a neighbour you can trust to keep an eye on things and notify you in the event of an emergency. If you’re lucky, you might be able to convince them to do the bins for you too while you’re away! Be sure to bring them back a small gift to say thanks!

Prepare House/Pet Sitter Instructions

If you’ve got someone coming to look after your house or pets, leave them any instructions they will need. Our cats are divas and will only eat in a certain place, so to save arguments, we need to let the cat sitter know. It just makes life easier for everyone…

Charge Electronics

Use this opportunity before you travel to charge all of the electronic items you’re traveling with. Camera, tablet, phone…you name it! Your house might look like Blackpool Illuminations with all of the flashing lights, but at least your entertainment won’t die on you mid-flight.

Water House Plants

Make sure to water those house plants before you leave. If you’re leaving for a few weeks (or you’re just really bad at remembering to water the plants like me) you might want to invest in a plant waterer . These genius inventions do the hard work for you while you’re away. They also come in some pretty cute varieties too!

Weigh Luggage

This is your last opportunity to weigh in your case before the airport. To avoid that awkward unpacking at the airport, double-check your case weight and allowance while you’re at home. If you need to lighten the load, now is the time to do it!

In need of suitcase scales? These ones are my favourite!

Set An Alarm…

…or two. I have a paranoia about missing flights. The more alarms set the better in my opinion!

Get A Frozen Meal In

When you get home from the airport after hours on a cramped flight, jetlagged and starving, this is a lifesaver. Trust me.

Day Of Travel

If you’ve prepared everything in advance, the morning of your travel should be a breeze. There are, however, a couple of last-minute tasks you’ll want to do as you head out.

Turn Off Water

Typically, I don’t turn off the water before a trip because our petsitter needs access to it. If you’re away for a while though and are concerned about a plumbing emergency, there’s no harm in turning off the water at the main valve.

Pet/House Sitter Access

If you have a pet or house sitter calling while you are away, make sure they have the access they require. If you do this using a key safe , make sure to put a key in as you head out the door. We use this one from Masterlock .

Check Locks

As you’re leaving the house, be sure to check all of the locks to make sure they’re secure. If you checked they were all working a few weeks ago it’s just a case of making sure everything is locked up. Make sure to check all windows and doors before you leave.

Adjust Thermostat

On your way out, turn the thermostat down. There’s no point heating the house (and paying for it) if you’re not going to be in. Likewise, if you have airconditioning, turn this off while you’re on your travels.

So these are my top 25+ things to do before you travel. If you’ve got a trip coming up, be sure to bookmark this page or pin it so you can revisit these tips!

Which of these is your lifesaver? Let’s connect on  Instagram  and send me a DM with your number one pre-travel chore that you simply don’t want to forget!

Until our next adventure,

Love it? Pin it!

If you like these 25+ things to do before you travel, be sure to follow  Get Lost on Pinterest . That’s where I’ll be sharing all my great  travel tips !

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Hello, I’m Hannah! I’m a writer and photographer who loves experiencing the wonders of Yorkshire. My guides will help you escape from your daily routine by showing you that you don’t have to go far to find an adventure.

13 thoughts on “Ultimate Pre-Travel Checklist: 25+ Things To Do Before You Travel”

Great tips. Emptying the fridge or garbage are always the ones I forget as I’m rushing out of the door. That can be very bad to come back to. We often have someone staying at our place now though to pet sit so I’m always happy that the house is looked after.

I hate it when I forget to empty the fridge! I always use travel as a good excuse to have a thorough sort out of what’s in there before I go. We have a cat sitter so she’s on hand to keep an eye on things fortunately which is always reassuring!

Great tips. With all the excitement and stress preparing our trip sometimes we tend to forget these things😁 Thanks for sharing

I’m glad you find the list useful. It’s so easy to forget some of these jobs when we’re rushing around getting ready! I got home from a trip yesterday and I was so pleased to come home to a clean and tidy house so I don’t have to spend my weekend doing chores!

Such a helpful list! I definitely feel safer when I have copies of all my documents saved. And I love the idea of cleaning and doing laundry before you leave, I need to start doing that!

I’m glad you like the list! My house is more clean when I’m about to leave it for 2 weeks than any other time! It always feels good to come home to everything clean and tidy though, even if it never lasts long!

This is such a great list! I always forget to charge things before a trip! I have half a dozen power banks because I always forget them or they’re dead so I buy new ones 🙃🙃

I’m so pleased you like the list! I’m really paranoid about charging things! I’ll have them on charge right until the last minute! The one I always forget is to have some food in the freezer for when we return. Thank goodness for fast food delivery!

These are great tips – I’m uber paranoid about forgetting to do something before I leave. Once my brother was away and I was looking after his home for 2 weeks. They forgot to empty the fridge and they had fish in there…ugh. Now I remind them every time haha. Smart list!

Oh no! Fish is not a good one to forget about! Eugh! It often feels like everything is super busy in the run up to travel so I find having a list is a great way to make sure I don’t forget any of those odd jobs that often get missed!

These are alll so important, epseically checking the lights and locks! I love now that I have smart lights because I can check them from my phone while I am gone.

There are so many smart gadgets available now that are great for when we’re travelling to put our minds at ease! We haven’t installed any yet as we have quite a bit of cosmetic work to do on our house first but when they’re in they’ll be life-changing!

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21 International Travel Checklist Items To Make Your Life Easier

Planning a big overseas trip–maybe even for the first or second time–and trying to put together the perfect international travel checklist to ensure you don’t forget anything before you leave?

We have you covered: as full-time travelers for more than 4 years across nearly 50 countries, we are well accustomed to preparing for international travel.

We’ve put together this international travel checklist to make sure you leave for the airport stress-free and ready to enjoy a phenomenal vacation abroad!

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more detail.

International Travel Checklist: Booking Your Trip

Calculate your travel budget and plan with your eyes open..

Before starting any of your trip planning, we recommend setting a budget for your travels.

Having a number in mind (though this is a very, very old post, we still stand by this formula for calculating your travel budget) will not only keep you from overspending, it’ll also keep you from underspending in the early planning stages.

You don’t want to get to the end of your trip and realize you could have splurged on that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after all!

Sketch out your travel itinerary.

Once you have a budget in mind, go ahead and sketch out an itinerary for where you want to go once you arrive at your destination.

There is no limit to the variety of bucket list-worthy trips in the world, making narrowing down your options most of the challenge of this step!

This is one of our favorite things to do on this international travel checklist, and detailed itineraries are also my favorite blog posts to write.

If you’re headed to a destination we’ve covered on Our Escape Clause, use the search bar on the top right of the screen to find what suggested itineraries we have for your trip!

Check visa requirements.

Depending on where you are coming from and where you are going, this step might vary from a cursory Google search all the way up to planning a year in advance so you have time to gather your documents and get to an interview.

For US citizens, we recommend checking visa requirements for your intended destination on the travel.state.gov website , which will always have the most up-to-date official information.

Check COVID-19 documentation requirements.

In 2021 (and let’s be real: probably in 2022 and quite possibly beyond that), it’s a whole new world as far as traveling abroad goes, and this checklist would not be complete without mentioning COVID-19 documentation.

Whether you need to show your vaccination card, a negative test, or both, odds are you’ll need to square away some documentation to travel internationally.

Don’t forget to check any requirements for coming home, too!

Buy your plane tickets!

Personally, the moment that we finally purchase our plane tickets is virtually always the moment that a trip really, truly starts to feel real.

It’s exhilarating, and hopefully, a highlight for you as you work through this international travel checklist as well!

Book your hotels & rental car.

Once you have your travel itinerary ready to go, your plane tickets purchased, and your visa sorted (if applicable), it’s time for the next phase of preparing for international travel: booking your hotels for each destination and your rental car.

We typically use Booking.com (and occasionally Airbnb ) to find our hotels and apartments, Get Your Guide to book most tours and tickets,  and use Discover Cars to find our rental cars.

Start learning phrases in the language of your destination.

For the vast majority of international trips, this is more out of politeness than an extreme necessity, but still: as your trip starts getting closer, start learning a few phrases in the language spoken in your destination!

A few to start with are: yes, no, please, thank you, hello, goodbye, I would like, where is the toilet, and excuse me.

International Travel Checklist: Getting Your Documents in Order

Check the expiration date on your passport..

For most countries, your passport will need to have an expiration date more than 6 months after you leave the country.

If yours is getting close to expired, get that taken care of ASAP, especially if your trip is coming up (like, start looking at the process of renewing your passport this second ).

Book onward travel if needed.

Technically speaking, most countries around the world require you to have your exit plan firmly in place in order to enter their country.

Depending on where exactly you’re going and your level of passport privilege, this may be a very important step on your international travel checklist or more of a CYA move, but either way, it’s good to have it taken care of.

If you have a round-trip plane ticket booked, no worries, this doesn’t apply to you.

If you have a one-way ticket booked, print out or download it to your phone (don’t rely on having the internet to look something up in your email–we’ve learned that one the hard way) proof of your plan to leave the country in question.

If you don’t have a plane ticket, perhaps because you are planning to take a train or bus to your next stop, a hotel reservation or visa for your next destination may sometimes work, but it depends on the immigration officer or airline employee (as they often are de facto in charge of enforcing these rules) in question.

Buy travel insurance.

Given how inexpensive travel insurance is as compared to traveling in general, and how much money and headache it can save you in the face of something going wrong, it is absolutely worth buying when preparing for international travel.

We don’t ever suggest traveling without travel insurance–anything can happen on the road, and traveling abroad is definitely a case of better safe than sorry.

For the vast majority of destinations, we use and recommend Safety Wing for travel insurance.

Get an international driving permit if needed.

If you’re planning on driving on your trip abroad, be sure to check and see if you need to add an international driving permit to your checklist for international travel before you go!

These are essentially translations of your license into many languages–some countries require them, some technically do and rarely enforce it, some require it only if your license isn’t in one of several languages, and some don’t require it at all.

You can obtain a permit at home before you go by following these steps .

If necessary, get vaccinated.

Depending on where you’re going, what you’re doing, and how up-to-date your immunizations are, you may need anywhere from a slew of vaccines to prepare for your international trip, documentation of vaccines you’ve already received (especially in 2021), or nothing at all.

The more prep time you have to get any vaccines that you do need, the easier your trip planning will go!

Email a copy of your itinerary to yourself and a trusted loved one.

The odds of a loved one needing to access your itinerary during your trip abroad are small, but even still, there’s no downside to making sure someone back home knows where you are!

On your side, it’s always handy to have a copy of all your hotel bookings, rental car bookings, plane tickets, etc, handy–you never know when you might need to refer back to something.

Generally, as part of planning a trip, we make an email folder specifically for that trip and put all relevant reservations and information in there to ensure we’re able to keep track of everything.

International Travel Checklist: Taking Care of Your Home

Stop your mail..

Don’t let mail pile up at your home while you’re away–make sure it is held at the post office for you for the duration of your trip.

For travelers from the USA like us, you can easily set up a mail hold here through USPS online .

Let family and friends know how to contact you.

Do you plan to stay in touch with family and friends through an international phone plan? Skype? Whatsapp? Email? Social media?

Whatever the plan, be sure to let your loved ones know–especially if you’re planning a longer trip–and if it makes sense for your situation, help them set up any necessary apps that they may not have yet.

Hire a house or pet sitter if needed.

If you have plants that need watering, a pup that needs walking, a pool that needs cleaning, or just a house that needs someone to come by and make sure everything is okay, get a house and/or pet sitter worked out as far in advance of your trip as possible.

The closer to your travel dates that you start making arrangements, the more stressful the process can be.

International Travel Checklist: Getting Everything Packed

Make a packing list and buy anything you need..

Obviously, your packing list will vary dramatically based on your destination, but here are a few items that are on our own international travel checklist, typically regardless of destination.

Comfortable Day Bag  — We currently use  Pacsafe’s sleek anti-theft backpack  and love it, but if you don’t want to shell out the cash for this trip, that’s totally understandable. Just aim for something comfortable to wear, not flashy, and medium-sized–we used a  Northface Jester backpack  for years and loved it as well.

Money Belt  — This is up to you, but I’ll include it here due to its popularity. We no longer use a money belt, but if you’re more comfortable having your passports on your person while exploring you can consider bringing one.

If you’re looking for a detailed packing list, we have dozens of them on Our Escape Clause including for summer in Europe , winter in Europe , Italy , Mexico , Colombia , and Ireland .

Check your prescription medications.

Do you have enough of a supply to last the length of your trip?

If you need to bring it with you in your carry-on luggage, is it in original packaging?

Let your banks and credit card companies know that you’re traveling abroad.

For most banks, this can be done online these days, but you can also choose to call to set a travel notification in a pinch.

Generally, they’ll want to know what countries you’re visiting and for how long, and simply make a note in your file.

Forget to do this, though, and you risk your card being denied when you try to use it abroad!

Be sure you have all your long-haul flight essentials.

We’ve dedicated an entire post to making sure you bring the right things with you for the endurance event that is getting through a long haul flight semi-comfortably, but here are a few things to get you started: an eye mask , lip balm, cozy socks, hand sanitizer, offline entertainment, and a portable USB charger .

If you like to download things to watch or listen to for flights, consider picking out one of the best travel shows to watch along the way!

Weigh your luggage before you leave.

… and compare it to not only the airline you’re flying with to reach your initial destination, but also any other airlines you’re flying for different legs of your trip, as well.

For example, if you fly from New York to Paris with Delta but are flying from Paris to Rome with Ryanair, make sure your luggage meets Ryanair’s requirements as well to avoid a headache later in your trip.

International Travel Checklist: Streamlining Your Arrival

Keep a pen in your carry-on..

If you end up needing to fill out an arrival card before passing through immigration, either on the plane before landing or upon arrival before getting in line for processing, you’ll be so glad to have a pen with you!

Have a plan in place to get from the airport to your hotel.

The final step of your international travel checklist is as simple as it is important: make an arrival plan.

When you arrive at your destination, you’re undoubtedly going to be exhausted, overwhelmed, and probably a bit jet-lagged, too!

No matter how many times we arrive in a new country, it never stops being a tiny bit stressful, simply because there are a lot of variables at play in the first few hours of arriving somewhere new.

Make life easier on yourself by thinking ahead: when planning your trip , figure out your exact steps of what will happen after the plane lands.

That means exactly how far away your hotel is, how you’ll get there from the airport (train, bus, rental car, taxi?), and if you’ll be traveling by taxi, what a reasonable price is and/or if there is set fare from the airport to the city center (there often is)

Planning a trip?

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About Kate Storm

In May 2016, I left my suburban life in the USA and became a full-time traveler. Since then, I have visited 50+ countries on 5 continents and lived in Portugal, developing a special love of traveling in Europe (especially Italy) along the way. Today, along with my husband Jeremy and dog Ranger, I’m working toward my eventual goal of splitting my life between Europe and the USA.

5 thoughts on “21 International Travel Checklist Items To Make Your Life Easier”

Very Helpful to Get My Task List Started! If you have something specific to the Holy Land regarding packing list and preparation tasks, I’d love to get my hands on it!

Thanks, Val! Nothing specific to that area at this time, but you never know in the future. 🙂

So glad I found your blog! I’ve traveled to multiple countries over the years, yet, you gave me new things to consider and since it’s been awhile since I’ve traveled it’s helpful to have all of this info in one place! I was wondering whether you recommend we use our cell phones in Europe and talk to our carrier about an international plan or purchase a temporary one at our destination? We are traveling to France this summer and Ireland two times next year. Thank you so much!

Hi Marissa! If your phone is unlocked, purchasing a European SIM card will almost certainly be far cheaper than an international plan. 🙂 You can buy a SIM card once you arrive at the airport (there are virtually always stalls set up as you leave), or you can even buy one on Amazon before you go! I believe Orange sells theirs on Amazon.

Great, thanks Kate!

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Issue: September / October 2019

Processes & Procedures

The Assistant’s 8-Step Guide to Effective Travel Planning

By Stephanie Naznitsky / September 25, 2019

Planning travel for someone else can be a complicated task explains Stephanie Naznitsky

Organization is the cornerstone of an administrative assistant’s role. But when it comes to travel planning, things kick into a higher gear. Travel needs are often complex and arranging a trip can be especially tricky when you’re handling the details for someone else.

Whether it’s an out-of-state meeting or a major conference in another country, the following eight steps can help you plan a successful business trip for your boss.

1. Meet with your executive

Learn exactly what they’ll be doing, where and when they’re going, and what items and support they need. Are their travel dates flexible or set in stone? Do they want you to plan leisure activities too? Find out their preferences, such as where they like to sit on the plane and gather information about any loyalty programs or priority providers. It’s a good idea to check company travel policies as well.

2. Make a checklist

Write down everything you need to handle and check each task off as it’s completed. This is an important safeguard to ensure nothing gets overlooked, as just one mistake could torpedo an entire trip.

This list might include:

• Ensuring your executive has a valid passport
• Checking visa requirements
• Arranging vaccinations
• Booking conference tickets
• Purchasing travel insurance
• Making hotel and dinner reservations
• Setting up rideshare, public transport or parking apps on their company phone

3. Research every aspect

This task can be the bulk of the work when planning corporate travel. Put yourself in your executive’s shoes and think about what they’ll require on their trip.

Some questions to consider are:

• Flights – What are their preferred travel times or airlines? Will they check any bags?
• Transportation – Will they use rideshare services, a limo, a taxi, a rental car or public transport?
• Accommodation – Does their hotel need to be near a conference center or office building? Is on-site parking a must? Does your executive have preferences regarding room and bed size? Will they require in-house dining options or business facilities?
• Technology – Is the hotel Wi-Fi free and secure? Do you need to establish international calling or data plans? Are travel adapters required for electronics?
• Dining – What restaurants are within reach, and which would be ideal for lunch or dinner meetings?
• Leisure – Are there any points of interest they may want to see while there?
• Language – Does your executive need to download a translation app or have a list of go-to phrases in another dialect?

4. Be mindful of cost

Discuss a clear budget with your executive so you can make cost-effective choices when organizing the trip. Know your spending limits, but don’t be so thrifty you sacrifice your executive’s convenience or comfort. For example, booking accommodations outside a major city may save a few dollars, but it could cost your boss in wasted travel time.

5. Consider personal preferences

There’s no rule saying business trips can’t be enjoyable. If your executive is big on health and wellness, choose a hotel with a fitness center or spa facilities. Look into access to airport lounges, as well as potential ticket upgrades with added in-flight benefits. Is your executive a foodie? Reach out to your administrative network and gather recommendations for popular restaurants nearby.

6. Draft an itinerary

Put together a broad overview as well as a detailed daily rundown. Make sure to account for travel time, including a buffer in case of unexpected delays. It may also be helpful to list a few backup options, such as alternative hotels or flight times. At this point, check in again with your executive and make any necessary tweaks before booking travel and accommodations.

7. Create a travel pack

Compile all information, reservation confirmations, tickets and corporate credit cards into a travel bundle. You’ll want to provide your executive with both digital and physical versions of important documents. Reliable Wi-Fi is never a guarantee, so it’s a smart idea to have printed copies on hand in case they’re needed.

8. Finalize plans

Before your executive’s departure date, confirm all travel details to make sure everything is in order. Give yourself plenty of leeway, so you have time to sort out any last-minute mishaps and ensure a smooth trip for your boss.

Planning travel for someone else can be a complicated task. By dividing the process into manageable steps, administrative assistants can save themselves – and their executives – a lot of time and hassle.

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Very insightful

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What is TASK ™ ?

Tammy is the creator of a multitude of training programs aimed at helping new or struggling travel agents across the globe learn the business strategies needed to make them successful travel experts with million dollar revenues. Her trainings to date include the TASK ™ Kit Video Series which are over 15 hours of secrets on becoming a travel agent entrepreneur with masterminds Tammy Levent and her hand-selected experts. Her latest addition, TASK ™ Prep, is a program for new agents who are just getting started or for those who are looking to leave their host agencies. TASK ™ Live has a college-level curriculum aimed at training travel entrepreneurs how to grow their current businesses into multimillion-dollar organizations. TASK ™ Elite is an exclusive celebration program for those who have completed TASK ™ Live and are looking to change their business strategy for life. Participants are given exclusive offers and bonus commissions. Tammy also offers TASK ™ Consulting, a personal one-on-one business training for those who want private consulting. Throughout all the trainings, Tammy shares her secrets, tricks of the trade, and most sought after knowledge on the travel industry.

TASK ™ Kit Video Series

The TASK ™ Kit is a do it yourself video series teaching you how to start and grow your travel business.  You will be given over 15 hours of secrets on becoming a travel agent entrepreneur with masterminds Tammy Levent and her hand-selected experts Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, Barbara Glanz an International Customer Service & Employee Engagement Expert, and Nick Nanton the Emmy Award Winning Director and Producer. Together they share information that is guaranteed to transform your business and increase your revenues.

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TASK ™ Prep is the only live, hands-on training program in the industry that delivers aspiring new travel agents or those that have an interest in breaking away from their host agency, an entry level training program on how to become a successful, independent travel agent. The one-of-a-kind program gives participants the hands-on experience they need to start up their own travel business.

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TASK ™ Live is a travel agent mastermind event teaching already seasoned professionals specifically how to grow their business to enormous profits. With college-level curriculum, TASK ™ is a 4-day jam-packed event filled with intensive seminars, guest speakers, and hands-on training, unlike any other travel training program that exists. At TASK ™ Live, you are truly learning secrets to success and you will walk away from with the tools and knowledge necessary not only to expand your business but your mind as well.

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You’ve purchased the TASK ™ Kit and watched every video taking copious notes, perhaps you have even attended a TASK ™ Live event, now it’s time to dive even deeper into your business. When you sign on for one-on-one TASK ™ Consulting you are getting exclusive access not just to Tammy Levent but also to her rolodex of contacts and strategic partners. She jumps in to practically run your business for you sky-rocketing it to success levels you may have never even dreamed possible! Not only will she help create and cement vendor relationships for you, she even negotiates marketing possibilities such as no cost bridal shows and trade shows to advertise your business and get access leads to keep those crucial travel dollars coming in. MORE INFO

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10 Best Travel TRIP PLANNER APPs To Have in 2024

In a fast-paced world where the stress of work and school is overwhelming, we all need a break to de-stress our minds. Traveling is one good way to take your mind off of stressful things – a breather. And a scheduled vacation gives you something to look forward to.

Whether it’s a local trip alone, a family holiday, or a getaway with your best friends, it just excites you to wish the day would come faster. 

10 Best Trip Planner Apps in 2024

The freeform app.

• TripIt: Travel Planner

Hopper – Flight & Hotel Deals

• Sygic Travel Maps Trip Planner

Roadtrippers: Trip Planner

Tripadvisor, travelspend: track travel expense & trip budget, tripcase – travel organizer app, travel planning apps for your next trip.

The Freeform app is an endless whiteboard that lets users add information from a variety of websites, photos, videos and files.

Because the boards are kept in iCloud, they can be accessed from any device anytime inspiration hits. While you and your travel companions plan your dream trip, the specifics can be shared with several individuals working together on the same whiteboard, making them an ongoing work in progress.

The Freeform app is free to iPhone users on iOS 16.2, iPad users on 16.2, and Mac users on Ventura MacOS Venture 13.1. 

Download the brand-new app here .

Read our full post: Apple Launches New Travel App Freeform – What to Know

Wanderlog Trip Planner App

Wanderlog is your all-in-one destination for planning future trips, sharing travel guides, and blogging past trips.

Its trip planning features are incredibly flexible: you can research destinations and activities, organize reservations by connecting your email, and map out a day itinerary with start/end times. You can also add notes and links all throughout.

Everything is stored offline so you can access your itinerary when traveling abroad. For road trips, it calculates the time and distance between places and exports them to Google Maps (and there are no limits to the number of stops you have on a trip!).

Plus, there’s a fun social component: collaborate with friends on itineraries, write your own travel guide, and blog about past trips. Wanderlog is available on the web and on your smartphone, so you can seamlessly plan while at home and on-the-go.

iOS  /  Android

TripIt: Trip Planner App

If you need any help organizing the dozens of itineraries, TripIt is the app for you. Users simply need to forward your flight, hotel, restaurant, and car rental confirmation emails to [email protected] and the app will create a free master doc for each of your trips. The best thing about this app is that you can get access to your itinerary anywhere, even without an internet connection. 

In addition, the Pro version will find you alternative routes for canceled flights and send out notifications for delayed flights, cancellations, and more from the airlines. 

iOS / Android

Rome2rio is a versatile travel planning app that simplifies the process of finding and booking travel options. It’s a handy tool for travelers seeking to explore various transportation choices between destinations. Rome2rio offers users a comprehensive view of travel options, including flights, trains, buses, ferries, and even driving directions.

Key features of Rome2rio include:

• Route Information: The app provides detailed information on different routes, including estimated travel times, costs, and the number of transfers required.
• Booking Integration: Users can book flights, train tickets, and other transportation options directly through the app, streamlining the booking process.
• Map Integration: Rome2rio integrates with maps, allowing users to visualize their travel routes and explore nearby attractions.
• Multi-Modal Travel: It offers options for combining various modes of transportation, making it easy to plan complex journeys.
• Accurate Pricing: The app provides real-time pricing information, helping users make informed decisions based on their budget.
• Offline Access: Rome2rio offers offline access to previously searched routes, which can be handy when traveling without a data connection.

Hopper is an amazing trip planner app to have on your phone. The app predicts airfares up to 1 year in advance, with 95% accuracy. It analyzes over billions of flight prices and hotels within the day – telling you whether to book your trip now or wait for just a little longer.

Here’s how it works: Key in your destination and a color-coded calendar will display the cheapest and most expensive date to fly. The app will then recommend you to either book the flight now or sit it out and wait for airfare to get cheaper. Also, you can filter predictions to custom-fit your trip – remove long layovers, extra fees, restrictions, and more. 

And if you worry about missing out the cheap flight bookings, don’t be! Hopper will send you a notification when fares have dropped to its lowest point.

SYGIC Travel Maps Trip Planner

Sygic Travel Maps , the new version of Sygic Trip Planner, is the first travel app to display all of the attractions and places a traveler needs to see and visit on a single map.

Sync your trips with the Sygic Travel app and find hidden gems in all cities you visit. The app boast a large database that allows you to find the best hotels, tourist attractions, museums, restaurants, bars, and stores wherever you go.

This mobile app also let you download offline maps and guides, which come in helpful when traveling to remote locations with poor or non-existing Wi-Fi.

It also has a dedicated section to worldwide places of interest for travel business. Get location information for individual cities, countries, continents, or the entire planet.

The app is available in 18 languages.

iOS / Android iOS

Planning on a cross-country road trip ? Roadtrippers is the app for you! Not everyone is fond of waiting long hours at the airport while sitting through your red-eye flight. Hit the road with your friends instead.

Roadtrippers provides everything you need to know on your road trip. Just enter your starting point, destination, and let the app do its work for you! From camping sites to rest stops, outdoor activities, exciting adventures along the way that you didn’t know existed. This app is the perfect buddy for your road trip regardless of your mode of transportation – a sedan, a rental car, or a huge family RV.

Most of us dream of going to places! But planning an amazing trip to places we have not been to is pretty hard as you don’t know where to stay, what to do, places to eat, and adventures to try. We mostly rely on recommendations, most of which are not even right, that we find online. 

TripAdvisor has over millions of travel recommendations on hotels, top dining spots, must-do experiences, and treasured gems to over 8 million destinations at your perusal. It is an all-in-one app that lets you book tables at restaurants and compares low prices on hotels and flights.

You can also follow friends and travel experts for advice that match your interests, watch videos, and read articles. In return, you can share your experiences, reviews, and helpful guides for other users too!

Setting up a budget for your trip is easy, however, sticking to it is hard. TravelSpend will help you with that. It starts with entering your budget and expenses over multiple days so you don’t go overboard. The app helps you in sticking to your budget effectively.

Being in another country is not a problem at all: enter your expenses in any currency and the app will automatically convert it to your home currency.

Track your travel expenses whether going on a solo around-the-world trip or backpacking holiday with your best friends. The app allows you to share your trip with your friends and track your expenses together. Pay debts, split bills, and check your balances – all in the app!

TripCase, a comprehensive travel organizer app, has emerged as a popular choice among travelers seeking a streamlined and efficient way to manage their journey details.

Here’s a breakdown of its key features and functionalities:

Centralized Itinerary Management : TripCase allows users to consolidate all their travel details, including flights, hotels, and car rentals, into a single, easily accessible itinerary.

Real-time Flight Alerts : The app keeps travelers informed with up-to-the-minute notifications on flight statuses, including delays, cancellations, and gate changes.

Itinerary Sharing : TripCase offers a sharing option that enables users to send their travel plans to friends, family, or colleagues.

Travel Directions and Maps : To aid navigation in unfamiliar locations, the app provides directions and maps.

Nearby Recommendations : TripCase offers recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and other services close to the traveler’s location.

Document Storage : For added convenience, the app allows users to store essential travel documents digitally, ensuring that important information like passport details, visas, and insurance policies are readily available.

Customizable Notifications : Users can customize their notification preferences, choosing what types of alerts they receive and how they are notified, tailoring the app to suit individual needs and preferences.

iOS / Android 

Hi, great List. I couldn’t travel without my Apps! I have one App you could check out =) Its called ” ATM Fee Saver” and it gives a list with all ATMs and their fees and limit. I found it super helpful and it really helped me to save some money. Best regards, Charlotte

Thank you for your suggestions! Those apps are very useful and various

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Travel and Expense Management: Definition, Significance, Benefits, Key Features & Best Practices

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Travel and expense (T&E) management is a crucial task for any business. It is, however, a complex process to accurately gather and record all travel-related expenses. This article explains how to optimize business travel spending, stay compliant, reduce policy violations, and enhance the efficiency of your T&E process.  

Whether you have 50 or 5,000 employees traveling for business, travel and expense (T&E) management is an important task. It was, until recently, a cumbersome and long-drawn process.  

Fortunately, things have improved in recent years. The necessity for physical expenditure reports, human reimbursement systems, and back-and-forth approvals has been eliminated by cutting-edge technologies. Several organizations have a travel and expense management policy as well, to ensure efficiency and prevent misuse or fraud. This is, however, an expensive process now. Studies reveal that despite economic uncertainty, over 1 in 3 companies will spend upwards of $250,000 on business travel this year.  

Read on to know why spending on T&E management is worth the money, why it is critical at organizations, how to optimize this spending, stay compliant, and reduce policy violations.  

What is Travel and Expense Management?  

Travel and expense (T&E) management is the documentation and processing of organizational business costs for tax deduction, budget compliance, business intelligence, and employee experience management.   

How Does Travel and Expense Management Work?  

The T&E process has six key steps:  

The employee places a travel request

In a manual system, the individual must first submit a trip request and obtain permission before commencing the booking process. In contrast, requests and approvals happen instantly within an automated travel and cost management system. HR departments would benefit from having a platform where individuals can submit requests for business travel. This may be a pre-populated form with the bulk of employee information, like identity, title, and reporting authority. Employees only need to submit information pertinent to the upcoming trip.  

The manager and/or HR partner approve the request

Once individuals complete their applications, they are forwarded to one or more individuals for approval. This is where having a well-defined travel management strategy for the organization comes in handy. In accordance with the policy, the manager may manually approve, seek clarifications on, or reject the request using a web-based travel and expense management software.  

The travel team makes the booking

The first two stages enable the travel department or team to gather all necessary itinerary information in a centralized location. After that, employees are given various ticket options to choose from and reservations are made. Employees are sometimes also given the option to select their dining and seating preferences, as well as their lodging and rental vehicle requirements. Some businesses may choose to employ a third-party travel agency to complete this task on their behalf.  

Employees submit expense reports

Employees are able to collect and submit expenditure receipts in real-time. This saves them a great deal of effort when they return to their base of operations. There are also financial management applications available in the market that can extract data from a digital receipt and classify the spending.  

Some T&E tools enable workers to scan and record actual receipts via a mobile app, and then submit the expense report. The remainder of the report can be compiled based on real costs incurred at the time of the business trip.The expenses are simultaneously communicated to appropriate departments or supervisors for approval.  

Managers and/or HR approves the expenses

Multiple approvals are permissible – even required – if they are planned well. By establishing an approvals hierarchy, you can guarantee that relevant information reaches the right individual at the right time. You may also choose to automatically accept cost requests in specific circumstances, such as for food purchases under $10. Prior to taking the next step, finance teams may need to re-check expense claims amongst employees and approvers.  

Finance teams or T&E accountants reimburse the business travel costs

The reimbursement of travel expenses is the last step in the travel and expense management process. Following approvals from the finance team, one may set up an automated trip reimbursement system in which the funds are sent straight into the individuals' bank accounts.  

Corporate credit cards could also save time, monitor spending, and automatically reconcile card balances. Consider obtaining employee feedback on the procedure at the conclusion of each trip. Regular feedback and frequent process improvements can further simplify your procedures.  

Learn More: Make Your Business Go Places With Darwinbox’s Brand New Travel Module!    

Formulating a Travel and Expense Management Policy  

A travel and expense policy seeks to address all potential concerns, pertaining to policy guidelines and budgets. If these questions are unanswered, it could lead to damaging outcomes such as policy violations, out-of-policy expenditures, false expense claims, and a sharp decline in compliance.   

T&E expenses represent the most frequently incurred form of business expenses. In addition, it's the second-largest expenditure that is hardest to manage for a company, after remuneration. Therefore, a robust policy is required to regulate it.  

The goal of a travel and expenditure policy is to remove or minimize the risk factors associated with expense reporting. It does this by outlining the principles and guidelines that finance teams and individuals must adhere to while handling business travel costs.  

Listed below are some of the spending categories that should be included in any travel and expense management framework.  

• Airfare and ground transportation costs  
• Hotel reservations and other accommodation  
• Travel advances and cash expenses  
• Corporate credit card charges   
• Healthcare and insurance costs  
• Per diem allowances  

Learn More: How To Automate Travel Expense Reporting in Enterprises    

Importance of Travel and Expense Management: 10 Key Benefits  

A robust T&E capability is essential for businesses because it offers the following benefits:  

Maintain a data trail for audits

In the eventuality of an audit, the benefits of travel and expense control become abundantly clear. Being capable of accounting for every trip and business expense makes working with auditors much easier.  

Certain software solutions alert employees when they could be incorrectly reporting an item as a legitimate cost. Depending on the business's travel expense regulations, the company may additionally configure T&E software to determine which charges are permissible and which are not.  

The solution will maintain complete records of expenses incurred, along with per employee, per team, and per expense category analytics.  

Prevent expense fraud

One could assume that only large corporations are affected by travel expense fraud. Now, this is not even close to the truth!  Frequently, small businesses must deal with individuals who file fraudulent expense reports supported by fake documents. With modern technology, it is quite simple to forge a receipt. By clearly articulating everything in the travel and expense policy, there's really minimal possibility that an employee would misinterpret which charges are permitted and which are not.  

Save employee time and effort

Maintaining receipts, ensuring expense compliance with policies, and completing expense reports on time can be tedious and repetitive for your employees who travel frequently. This might be particularly challenging in the event of abrupt scheduling changes.  

A travel and expense system facilitates the tracking, scanning, and storage of receipts for business expenses. Your employees may file their travel expense statements with a single click after the trip has ended. This saves them considerable time, effort, and productive hours.  

Build customer relationships

Business travel is frequently a wonderful opportunity to interact with new people and cultivate new partnerships. This not only helps you develop ties with individuals in your area of business, but it also enables you to form new relationships with suppliers, prospects, and customers, among others. In fact, travel and expense management are essential for business development and sales, with a direct impact on your annual revenues.  

Improve productivity for finance

If you ask financial experts about the most time-consuming aspects of managing expenses, they will undoubtedly include analyzing expense reports and pursuing employees for reimbursements. A well-designed T&E system can now simply automate the aforementioned tasks and much more. By automating travel and expenditure management, one may boost the finance department's productivity and performance.  

Accountants can instead use the saved time to focus on spending forecasts, planning, and long-term cost savings.  

React better to crises

During the early months of the pandemic, the greatest challenge was the lack of a transition period. Many governments enacted lockdowns relatively quickly, while others began by restricting travel to affected areas.  

Having a clear travel and expense policy enables businesses to respond to unexpected events without losing financial control.  

As an organization, you want to convince your workers that you would do whatever it takes to ensure their safety, while also being able to determine the cost of these activities promptly. A method that is automated may expedite the repayment of emergency expenditures and provide finance teams with real-time insights into the underlying reasons behind spending.  

Enhance employee experience

Paper-based expense tracking isn’t a great option  in today's business environment. Keeping track of tangible receipts, recalling the policy, and submitting reports on time may impose an enormous burden on individuals.  In contrast, a robust, digitally-empowered T&E system can make the employee experience much smoother. For instance, systems that use OCR technologies to scan receipts and input personal or corporate card transactions straight into the system expedite submissions and, ultimately, reimbursement.  

Drive organizational health and business stability

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the terms 'pivot' and 'unprecedented' have become popular terms. Managing cash flow is always a crucial problem for organizations in difficult times. Inadequate cash flow might result in a delay in employee payments and increased uncertainty about the company's survival.A travel and expense management system provides organizations with greater visibility. Without having to go through paperwork, you can clearly ascertain where income is flowing in  — and where it is going outs – as well as filter results by business unit.  

Stay compliant with internal, state, federal, and industry laws

T&E management systems help organizations maintain compliance with local, state, and federal tax authorities. Companies may classify expenses, such as office, travel, and mileage, and appropriately tag them. In the event of an audit, the software may also provide easily accessible digital copies of documents and receipts, which are invaluable.  

Reduce delays and errors

With old-school, unstructured expenditure reports, employees could make data-entry errors. A reliable T&E management system can indicate inaccuracies and duplicate entries, avoid overpayment, and raise alarms if something seems excessive and expensive. Additionally, the software may send warnings when a statement or reimbursement is overdue for payment.  

Some solutions draw information straight from savings/checking accounts and credit card transactions and are interoperable with enterprise travel management solutions. Employees can access receipts on their portable devices and upload them to reports, thereby minimizing the possibility of typographical errors.All of this, together with a strict travel and expense policy, ensures that employees are reimbursed correctly and on time.  

Learn More: Rethinking Your Travel & Expense Management With Smarter Technology    

10 Features You Need in a Travel and Expense System  

An ideal travel and expense management system has the following features:  

Role-based user experience and access

The software should offer unique functions for each user. The administrator must be able to add multiple users and designate roles depending on their respective permission levels. For instance, although the head of the sales department must supervise the authorization process for the whole division, the sales engineer assigned to them must only submit his/her trip cost report.  

Programmable expense limits

Using this function, users may configure the system in accordance with your organization's travel policies, such as expense amount caps, per diems, mileage charges, and approval protocols. Different departments may have different spending demands and expenditure restrictions (e.g., sales vs. product); consequently, a robust travel and expense system will enable you to establish customized policies for each.  

AI-powered paper document scanning

Employees no longer need to manually record each cost or be concerned about losing receipts. They could simply click a picture of the receipt using a smartphone application. The optical character recognition (OCR) engine will extract the vendor name, dates, and amounts to generate an expense report. The digital versions of the receipts are then retained until the transaction is fully processed.  

Credit card integration

Providing employees with corporate credit cards increases spending transparency, avoids overspending, and decreases fraudulent charges. The travel manager may establish spending limitations for the cards so that each employee receives a card with a predetermined budget. The T&E system should have a dashboard where you can monitor card activity in real time. Along with credit cards, you may also need support for prepaid corporate cards.  

Expense reporting automation

Preparing and filing expense reports manually is laborious and time consuming. You should therefore look for a solution that automates this process. The unreported costs from a certain time period are automatically combined into a report, which also includes any additional expenses presented by the employee. The report will be forwarded automatically to the designated approver.  

Tight-knit integrations

It is a good idea to choose a T&E system that is truly automated with core, payroll , attendance, and finance. Integrations will also ensure that travel and expense reside within the same human resource management system (HRMS) app with custom reminders, tasks, and self-service. Integration with customer relationship management (CRM) is another feature to look for in case of expense management in sales.  

Web-based and centralized

Employees need to be able to file and monitor expense reports via mobile devices or web browsers. A cloud-hosted web-based expense management solution enables administrators to monitor and approve claims from any location. Moreover, information such as expenses, gifts, taxes, and vendor data must be available and extractable from a single source.  

Multi-currency support

When employees travel for business, they incur a range of expenditures that are paid in the local currency. Documenting these charges requires manually converting every purchase into your domestic currency, which can burden administrators during the filing process. Look for corporate travel expense software that enables multi-currency capabilities to address this problem.  

Approval workflow automation

Rule-based automated processes decrease the need for manual intervention and accelerate the approval procedure. For instance, you may establish approval criteria for expense reports that exceed a specific threshold and must be reported to the finance director. Additionally, you should be able to establish parameters for automatically rejecting expense reports.  

Travel and expense analytics

T&E systems provide a variety of real-time analytics reports on spending, financial statements, reimbursements, policy breaches, and other areas. With this data, it is possible to track every dollar invested and gain insights into travel costs. You can view reports grouped by location, division, employee, or spending categories for a breakdown of the top policy abusers, programs where the bulk of your funds are being spent, policies being violated, etc.  

Learn More: SAP Concur vs. Darwinbox T&E: Detailed Feature and ROI Comparison    

Travel and Expense Management Pitfalls to Avoid  

Without the appropriate policy and digital systems to support it, T&E management is vulnerable to the following challenges:  

• Lack of visibility : When your expense procedures are slow-moving, data gathering will also be sluggish. Managers and budget controllers who lack immediate visibility into spending cannot make intelligent decisions for the time period in question. Instead, their budgetary adjustments will be entirely reactionary.  
• Inaccurate expense submissions : Processing expense reports is a cumbersome undertaking, particularly when it must be performed several times over, due to erroneous and/or late expenditure form submissions. Outdated, manual systems have tedious and time-consuming submission processes, and are open to several loopholes.  
• No sense of empowerment for employees : The conventional method of T&E management focuses solely on control. A travel manager or office manager will ensure that all trips are booked within budget. However, this could trouble travelers who would prefer to arrange their own trips instead of having to depend on their managers for all bookings.  
• Unauthorized expenses : WIthout a robust, secure T&E management system, it is easy for unauthorized travel reservations to sneak in between the cracks. Even if you have pre-approval procedures, it might be difficult to determine whether reservations adhere to your company's travel expense regulations.  
• Dent in personal finances : Slow processes result in delayed reimbursement for travelers. Especially if they were to make a significant purchase, this might make managing their personal finances difficult.  
• Lost receipts and tickets : The disappearance of paper receipts is a major problem for individuals in charge of expense management processes in small businesses. When workers lose their receipts, the organization cannot compensate them for resources consumed on business travel, as there is no evidence that the expense was incurred.  
• Overly complicated record management : Ineffective T&E management makes it challenging to determine whether costs qualify as permissible. When certain staff purchases qualify, while others do not, the process of separating them becomes muddled and labor-intensive, making the closing of the fiscal year even more stressful than it ought to be.  
• Limited fund access : Without travel and expense management, several businesses continue to use a singular corporate card for the entire workforce. When shared cards are physically passed from employee to employee, there’s a possibility that they will be   misplaced.  

To address and eliminate these challenges, most organizations are now turning to travel and expense management software solutions. These are easy-to-use apps with clients for employees as well as approvers and finance teams to manage the end-to-end T&E workflow. Some apps come with pre-programmed compliance rules and expense thresholds. This, and other key features mentioned above, make T&E software an invaluable tool for organizations.  

Travel and Expense Best Practices to Remember  

Given the complicated yet mission-critical nature of travel and expense processes, HR and finance teams must pay close attention to all its elements. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to simplify T&E management:  

• Define your business travel budget

After resuming hybrid or full-time office work  following the pandemic, the first thing a company should do is establish a separate travel budget. If there is no historical data available, the finance team should consult with the heads of other departments to estimate the volume of business travel that will be necessary for the year.  

• Be bold with automation

The way travel expenses are handled requires a lot of manual work. From paper receipts to typing numbers into a spreadsheet, there are many ways to make a system more automated. You can make things run more smoothly by automating approvals for a certain amount or making entries right away through OCR. Identify the inefficiencies, and automate any task that’s mundane and/or high-volume.  

• Try to centralize bookings on a single platform

You can make life easier for your whole financial team if you only use one booking platform. When all employees book their travel in the same place, it's easier for them to keep track of their receipts and emails and lessen the chaos. Even better, a single booking platform makes it easy to see all of these costs at once in one place, giving you visibility.  

• Remove known bottlenecks

Set up your workflows so that you can easily auto-approve spending that is important and unavoidable. This could mean that business class tickets are automatically turned down, or that food costs under a certain limit are automatically approved. In the same way, you need to set up an approval hierarchy that makes your reimbursement processes quick and easy, by looping in the right people who are aware of employees’ travel plans.  

• Go paperless

If you haven’t done so already, replace paper-based travel and expense management with cloud-based tools. Travelers should be able to use your T&E management system to record expenditures, scan bills, and submit digital requests and reports, rather than filling out paper expense forms.  

• Be objective with expense policies

When setting expenditure standards, it is ideal to set common, standard conditions for the entire workforce. For instance, if you provide managers with much greater corporate spending allocation and flexibility for business trip reservations than other team members, it can cause discontent and conflict among the workforce. However, you can tailor policies for different projects or departments. For instance, recruiting and sales may have a greater average expenditure than the company's general average.  

• Make sure to provide a mobile app

Most corporate business travel costs occur on the road, and it is not always possible for an employee to check the balance of their digital expense wallet on their laptop. That's why it is essential that you select expense management software with a mobile app. Also, employees now regularly use their mobile phones for work purposes, after prolonged periods of remote/hybrid work. A mobile travel and expense app will elevate their work experience.  

• Integrate travel and expense management with HR

There are a lot of different SaaS tools that companies use to manage their travel and expense processes. But it's common to waste time by switching between dashboards and apps that do the same thing in order to finish a single task. Choose solutions with a wide range of features and integrations that work well together. For example, Darwinbox offers T&E management in sync with the HRMS and payroll, so you have zero effort or data duplication.  

• Ensure your travel and expense policy is simple and uncomplicated

The policies should be easy for employees to understand and  all employees must be aware of all the expenses they are allowed to make. This way, they can be sure about what they spend for and during business travel. Ensure you distill your multi-page handbook into a short policy document that employees will actually peruse and understand.  

• Update your policy every year

Employees' habits about business travel and out-of-pocket costs will inevitably evolve as your company matures and develops. You need to revise your spending policy to reflect the current demands of your business. By maintaining an up-to-date T&E policy, you will ease your staff's concerns about booking travel with the incorrect vendors or going over budget. Don’t forget to notify employees of the major changes they need to remember.  

Learn More: 3 Pillars Of Digitizing Your Travel & Expense Management Strategy    

Conclusion   

Today, business travel is more important than ever before. A 2022 survey by the Global Business Travel Association found that internal travel is back to 50% of pre-pandemic levels. Moreover, nearly 8 in 10 travel managers expect the number of trips to increase dramatically in 2023. A well-defined travel and expense strategy aided by a powerful, easy-to-use T&E tool can help you track expenses and stay compliant.  

Request a Darwinbox Travel and Expense demo to learn more!  

Recommended Reading

How does travel and expense management improve employee experience, establishing a travel and expenses process: strategy, steps & best practices, how to detect and prevent expense fraud, speak your mind.

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Travel Management SOP Template

• Great for beginners
• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Doc
• Get started in seconds

Planning and managing travel can be a daunting task, especially when you have multiple team members and destinations to coordinate. But fear not, because ClickUp's Travel Management SOP Template is here to save the day!

With this template, you can streamline your travel planning process and ensure smooth operations from start to finish. Here's how it helps:

• Create a standardized travel policy and procedure document to ensure consistency and compliance.
• Easily track and manage travel requests, approvals, and expenses in one central location.
• Collaborate with team members in real-time, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Whether you're planning a business trip or a team retreat, ClickUp's Travel Management SOP Template has got you covered. So why wait? Start organizing your travel plans today and make your next trip a breeze!

Benefits of Travel Management SOP Template

Traveling for work can be a logistical nightmare, but with the Travel Management SOP Template, you can streamline the process and ensure smooth journeys for your team. Here are some of the benefits:

• Standardize travel procedures across your organization, reducing confusion and saving time
• Improve compliance with company travel policies and regulations
• Enhance cost control by setting clear guidelines for travel expenses
• Increase efficiency by providing a step-by-step guide for booking, reimbursement, and travel arrangements
• Simplify communication by centralizing all travel-related information in one place

Main Elements of Travel Management SOP Template

ClickUp's Travel Management SOP Template is designed to help you streamline and standardize your travel management processes.

This Doc template contains all the necessary sections and content to create a comprehensive standard operating procedure for travel management. It also includes ClickUp features such as:

• Custom Statuses: Create tasks with custom statuses to track the progress of each step in your travel management process, such as "Planning," "Booking," "Approval," and "Completion."
• Custom Fields: Categorize and add attributes to your travel tasks, such as destination, budget, duration, and traveler information, to effectively manage and organize your travel management workflow.
• Custom Views: Utilize different views in ClickUp, such as List, Board, or Calendar, to visualize and manage your travel tasks in a way that suits your team's needs.
• Project Management: Enhance your travel management process with ClickApps like Automations, Dashboards, and Integrations to automate repetitive tasks, monitor travel expenses, and integrate with other travel management tools.

How to Use SOP for Travel Management

Planning and managing travel can be a complex process, but with the help of the Travel Management SOP Template in ClickUp, you can streamline your travel operations. Follow these 5 steps to effectively use the template and ensure smooth travel experiences for your team:

1. Define your travel policies and procedures

Before you start using the Travel Management SOP Template, take the time to define your organization's travel policies and procedures. Determine the approval process, travel budgets, preferred vendors, and any other guidelines that need to be followed.

Use Docs in ClickUp to create a comprehensive document outlining your travel policies and procedures.

2. Create a travel request form

To ensure that all travel requests are properly documented and approved, create a travel request form using the template. Include fields for important information such as travel dates, destination, purpose of travel, estimated expenses, and any additional requirements.

Customize the form using custom fields in ClickUp to capture all the necessary information.

3. Submit and review travel requests

Once the travel request form is completed, team members can submit their requests through ClickUp. The responsible manager or travel coordinator can then review the requests, ensuring they align with the organization's policies and budgets.

Use the Table view in ClickUp to easily track and manage travel requests.

4. Book travel arrangements

Once the travel request is approved, it's time to book the necessary travel arrangements. This can include flights, accommodations, transportation, and any other requirements specific to the trip. Ensure that all bookings are made in accordance with the approved travel request and within the allocated budget.

Utilize integrations in ClickUp, such as the Email integration, to seamlessly communicate with travel vendors and make bookings.

5. Track and manage expenses

Throughout the travel process, it's important to track and manage expenses to ensure they stay within the approved budget. Encourage team members to submit expense reports promptly, including receipts and any necessary documentation. Review and approve expense reports in a timely manner, and address any discrepancies or issues that may arise.

Use the Dashboards in ClickUp to gain a visual overview of travel expenses and monitor spending against the budget.

By following these 5 steps and utilizing the Travel Management SOP Template in ClickUp, you can simplify and streamline your travel management process, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for your team.

Get Started with ClickUp's Travel Management SOP Template

Travel managers can use this Travel Management SOP Template to streamline and standardize their travel processes.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to manage your travel processes:

• Create a checklist for pre-travel preparations, including booking flights, accommodations, and transportation
• Assign tasks to team members responsible for each step of the travel process
• Utilize the Gantt chart view to visualize and track the timeline of each travel project
• Use the Board view to organize tasks based on different stages of the travel process, such as planning, booking, and post-travel activities
• Set up recurring tasks for regular travel-related tasks, such as visa renewals or travel insurance updates
• Collaborate with team members and stakeholders using Comments to discuss travel arrangements and share important information
• Use the Calendar view to keep track of travel dates and deadlines
• Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure compliance with company travel policies and maximize efficiency

Related Templates

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IELTS Speaking Part 2 Topics: Travel

In IELTS Speaking Part 2 , one of the common topics is travel. In this section, you are expected to describe places you have visited or holidays you have spent. It is essential to be well-prepared to impress the examiners with your language proficiency and storytelling abilities.

We have provided sample answers to popular travel-related cue cards, such as describing a special place you have visited, recommending a must-see destination, and sharing a memorable trip with your family.

Travel: IELTS Speaking Part 2 Questions & Sample Answers

Describe a place you have visited that is special to you..

You should say:

• where the place is located
• what you did there
• how you felt when you were there

and explain how this place holds a special meaning for you

Sample Answer:

One of the most memorable places that I have visited is The Eiffel Tower in Paris. It is an iconic landmark located in the heart of the city. During my visit, I took an elevator to the top of the tower during the day and at night, and it was an incredible experience. The view of Paris from above was beautiful during the day, and at night the tower was lit up, creating a magical sight. I felt a sense of awe and wonder as I stood there taking in the beauty of Paris. This place holds a special meaning for me as it taught me the importance of exploring new places and experiencing different cultures.

Describe a place to visit that you believe everyone should see.

• what the highlight of your trip was

and explain why you would recommend this place to others

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A travel guide

Read a travel guide about Bangkok to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Matching_MjIzNjU=

Whether you're travelling to the islands or the mountains of Thailand, you're likely to spend at least one night in its capital city on the way. Bangkok might be noisy and polluted but it's also an exciting city with plenty of things to see and do. Why not make it a longer stay?

Where to stay

The Khao San Road was a famous traveller spot even before Leonardo di Caprio's character in the film The Beach stayed there. But it's noisy, not very pretty and not very Thai. For something more authentic, Phra Kanong offers an alternative place to stay, with its fantastic street markets where everyday Bangkok people eat, work and live. It's not as convenient for the main tourist sites, but it has a Skytrain station so you can be at the Grand Palace in 20 minutes.

How to get around

Bangkok's traffic can be a nightmare. Sure, you can easily take a taxi – if you want to spend hours stuck in traffic jams – but there are two much better ways to get around the city. To explore the temples and historical sites, catch an express boat river taxi or a longtail boat along the Chao Phraya river and the canals. For the modern part of the city, the Skytrain is a fast, cheap way to travel from the river to the shopping malls and nightlife of Sukhumvit, and the famous Chatuchak street market.

Where to eat

The simple answer is: everywhere! Thai street food is among the best in the world, and for around $5 you can eat a filling and delicious meal. Some food stands have little plastic seats where you can sit and eat and they cook the same dish over and over, like fried chicken on rice or Pad Thai noodles. Head for Chinatown – Yaowarat Street – and choose whatever looks most interesting from the many excellent Chinese and Thai restaurants and food stands.  

After you've seen the main sites like the Giant Buddha at the temple of Wat Pho and the spectacular Grand Palace, and shopped at Chatuchak market, check out the snake farm and watch the live snake show. You can even touch a snake yourself if you want to!

Would you like to visit Bangkok? Why or why not?

Language level

Traveling is a beautiful thing, especially for an active and crazy city like Bangkok, I watched The Hangover Part 2 and I found that the city is much fun.

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Of Course! I would like to visit Bangkok because I would know the city culture and the traditions. Furthermore, I'm very curious about the local food.

I would like to visit Bangkok,because this city has plenty excellent place,for example temples.I want to try noodles and fall in love in this city.

Actually I'm a big traveller and I have been in many countries but never in Thailand, by reading this text I'm eager to visit this wonderful country. I hope to taste those delicious foods on a wooden stand of a local market as soon as possible

Actually I live in Bangkok. So I would not answer whether I would like to visit Bangkok or not.

There are many good activities and good stuff in Bangkok. Delicious food, modern shopping place, good transportation, fast internet etc.

Welcome and Enjoy!

I would like to visit Bangkok, Thailand, once in my life. Because I enjoy the cuisine, which is famous for being spicy and tasty. And the culture here is also rich and diverse.

I like Bankcock and all the streets in China but there is a little too much traffic

I would like to visit Bangkok, because I like to travel. I like to see new places, make photos and meet new people. The culture of Thailand is completely different, I hope one day I'll have oportunity to go to Thailand.

Of course, only if the opportunity were given because the place I have wanted to know since I was little is Spain, exactly Ibiza.

Smartly said! I really like visiting this place due to its amazement! There’re a lot of restaurants, clubs.. so it is the dream of any party animal to say:)

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8 campervanning essentials you must have

From a portable generator to convenient cookware, products that multi-task or pack away easily are the key to making the most of limited space.

1.   höfats Cube Fire Basket

Bring warmth to evenings by your campervan with this multipurpose fire basket. Add the grill grid to use it as a barbecue, and when the flames go out, simply turn it upside down — the ashes will get stored in its inner tray without spilling. It also comes with a fitted wooden board, so it can be used as a stool or table, too. £379.

2. Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Portable Power Station And Solar Saga Panels

Weighing just over 3.5kg but still durable for outdoor use, this portable power station can charge up to four devices at once. Power it up through the AC adaptor in two hours, via solar panels in four or using the vehicle adaptor in five and a half. £319.

3. Outwell Skyros Organisation Unit

Keep your campervan tidy with this four-shelf cupboard unit. Holding up to 30kg, it has an aluminium frame, a laminated top, a zippable door and mesh for ventilation, plus side pockets. It’s straightforward to assemble and comes with a bag so you can tuck it away when not in use. £119.99.

4. Beachbum Brobe

From days by the sea to evenings around the fire, stay warm and dry outdoors with this robe made entirely from recycled materials. The thick fleece lining provides immediate warmth while the nylon outer layer is designed to be 100% water- and windproof. The oversized fit also means you can change underneath. £130.  

5. RidgeMonkey Connect Deep Pan and Griddle

This durable yet lightweight kitchen multitasker makes the most of limited space. A detachable hinge system converts one pan into a saucepan or a separate griddle pan, which can also act as a lid on the first, deeper pan. The cool-touch handles are removable to fit into cabinets. £31.99.

6. Stanley Quencher H2.0 Flowstate Tumbler

Made of 90% recycled stainless steel, this 1.2L tumbler is ideal for long road trips, keeping drinks cold for 11 hours, or 48 hours when iced, and hot for seven. It’s designed with a carry handle and narrow base to fit in most car cup holders, and the straw opening is constructed to prevent splashes. £44.99.

7. Duvalay Comfort Sleeping Bag

Cosier than a traditional sleeping bag, this two-in-one duvet and mattress topper will ensure a good night’s sleep no matter how cramped the space. The memory foam base adds comfort to a hard mattress, or you can use it on its own as a bed. It’s quick to roll up, with straps to secure it in place. £169.95.

8. Outdoor Revolution Capri Table and Stools

Great for al fresco dining while you’re on the road, this set has stools that fold away into the table, which then folds into itself for transport and storage. Made from durable aluminium to withstand the weather, the table surface is heat-resistant. £79.99.

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April 15, 2024

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

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The airline industry's biggest climate challenge: A lack of clean fuel

by Ben Elgin, Bloomberg News

In a glimmer of progress for the daunting task of reducing air travel's climate impact, a newly built plant in rural Georgia is expected to begin pumping out the world's first commercial quantities of a new type of cleaner jet fuel this month.

The $200 million plant from LanzaJet Inc. will be the first to turn ethanol into a fuel compatible with jet engines. The facility is one of many efforts around the globe attempting to crack one of the biggest problems facing greener air travel: finding and developing cleaner feedstocks that can generate enormous quantities of fuel without triggering ripple effects that end up worsening the climate and biodiversity crises.

Progress thus far has been very limited. Efforts to produce new types of cleaner fuels require hundreds of millions of dollars. But investors have remained wary with would-be plants routinely suffering lengthy delays and struggling to become operational.

"We need to scale-up by 1,000-fold," says Hemant Mistry, director of net zero transition for the International Air Transport Association, which has pledged that the aviation industry will erase its carbon emissions by 2050, mostly by using huge quantities of cleaner jet fuel.

At its new facility dubbed Freedom Pines Fuels, LanzaJet plans to produce 9 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year. In one sense, that's just a tiny step forward: It would take 100 of these plants to fulfill just 1% of the ravenous appetite of the world's commercial air carriers, which consumed 90 billion gallons of jet fuel last year.

But it provides a glimpse of one direction the clean fuel industry wants to go. Most SAF today is derived from animal fats and waste oils, which are relatively scarce. Used cooking oil is already widely collected for road transportation with only modest room for growth, while a robust market has long converted animal fats into ingredients for pet food and detergents. Strong demand from aviation could push these other industries to switch to climate-harming ingredients, like palm oil, warn environmental groups.

This has left aviation giants scouring the world for alternatives to meet their climate commitments. IAG SA, the parent company of British Airways, has pledged to up its SAF usage to 10% by 2030. Last year, it gobbled up 17.6 million gallons, or 0.66%, of its total fuel. While that's a tiny amount, it eclipses US airlines.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. has led US carriers, but got less than 0.1% of its fuel from clean sources last year. All of IAG's cleaner fuel last year came from traditional feedstocks like waste oils, according to Aaron Robinson, the company's vice president for sustainable aviation fuel in the US.

But that could soon change. Three years ago, British Airways partnered with LanzaJet, investing in Freedom Pines' construction and teaming up on a clean fuels facility in the UK, which they hope will come online by 2028. Both plants will deploy technology known as alcohol-to-jet, which uses chemical reactions to upgrade ethanol into a potent fuel capable of powering jet turbines. IAG hopes to consume its first SAF from the Georgia plant later this year.

"Diversification matters," says IAG's Robinson. "That's why alcohol-to-jet is an area that is quite attractive to us."

It could sidestep a thorny issue facing some of the industry's other clean fuel efforts. In the US, airlines are advocating for rules that could allow corn ethanol to qualify for SAF tax credits. It's contentious because renewable fuels policies enacted in the US nearly two decades ago have led to about 40% of the country's crop being turned into fuel.

This spiked demand for corn and other crops, spurring land-use changes not just in the US but globally. Those changes included clearing carbon-rich grasslands and forests to plant more crops, which negated most of the climate benefits of corn-based ethanol. Airlines are convinced this can be done with far fewer climate impacts, but doubters abound.

"This industry needs an absolutely huge amount of fuel," says Alethea Warrington, a senior campaigner at Possible, a UK-based climate charity that is skeptical of SAF and encourages less air travel. "Wherever you try to get this from, it throws up huge systemic problems."

Freedom Pines will initially deliver scant climate benefits because it will use corn ethanol from the US Midwest to "work the kinks out," says Jimmy Samartzis, chief executive officer of LanzaJet. As it becomes operational over three to six months, it will transition to using sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, which has fewer land-use impacts. Doing so would reduce heat-trapping emissions by at least half compared to fossil jet fuel, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Samartzis says they'll also soon use ethanol derived from waste products, like corn stalks and other agricultural residues. That should deliver even bigger carbon savings because they do little to spur land-use changes that could harm the climate.

L.E.K. Consulting, in a report on the SAF market last year, predicted alcohol-to-jet will surpass today's clean fuels to become the world's biggest source of SAF by the middle of next decade. "It's a proven technology and there are abundant agricultural and forestry residues, which work very well with it," says John Goddard, L.E.K.'s senior partner and vice chair of sustainability.

It's not the only path forward, though. Several outfits, like Nuseed and CoverCress Inc., which is majority-owned by Bayer AG, are beginning to enlist farmers to plant between their normal rotations of corn and soybeans. This includes carinata and pennycress, which can be converted into biofuels and animal feed. Because these are planted as cover crops when fields would otherwise lay fallow, they don't trigger land-use changes. But these businesses face a range of hurdles from reluctant farmers to regulatory approvals.

"It's not for the faint of heart to introduce a new crop," says Mike DeCamp, chief executive officer of CoverCress, who adds that it could be a decade before the company reaches its full scale. His firm was named a BloombergNEF Pioneer this week owing to the promise of its technology to breed and edit the genes of pennycress to make growing the crop more profitable.

By the 2040s, Goddard and other experts believe a nascent technology called power-to-liquids or e-kerosene will likely eclipse the rest of the market and reduce the risk of land-use change altogether. That fuel is produced by combining a stream of captured CO 2 with hydrogen molecules using vast quantities of renewable energy. The output is a liquid fuel with almost no climate footprint.

But the barriers are immense. Capturing CO 2 is extremely difficult, and there is little extra renewable energy as governments around the world race to decarbonize. All told, power-to-liquids would cost nearly seven times more than traditional jet fuel, according to L.E.K.

The difficulties are showcased by Transport & Environment, a nonprofit in Brussels, which has tracked proposed power-to-liquids plants across much of Europe. Although the number of announced facilities climbed to 45 as of January—part of a "largely positive" trend, it noted—all of the major projects remain "hypothetical" as they've yet to clear the crucial final investment decision, where money begins to flow and the construction truly commences.

Governments have been throwing a mishmash of requirements and incentives at the industry in an attempt to build momentum. The EU has been at the forefront, with lawmakers there mandating that airlines use SAF in increasing quantities through 2050, when it should account for at least 70% of all fuel. This includes a sub-mandate for pricey e-kerosene, which must go from 1.2% of fuels in 2030 to 35% by 2050.

SAF requirements in the US have gained little traction amid forceful opposition from the airlines. Instead, the Inflation Reduction Act created an incentive for SAF worth up to $1.75 per gallon. That expires in 2027, though, well before most proposed plants will be operating.

"That's not long enough to get projects built and constructed," says LanzaJet's Samartzis.

In the case of Freedom Pines, it took a little help to get it over the finish line. Breakthrough Energy supplied a $50 million grant in 2022 to help keep the project on track.

But if Freedom Pines can ramp up successfully and churn out millions of gallons of SAF, it could do a lot to rev up investor appetite, according to Susan van Dyk, a biofuels consultant and researcher at the University of British Columbia.

Nonetheless, she adds, the industry has a long way to go to catch up to its SAF promises, which requires a 50- or 100-fold increase in production by the end of this decade. "I can't see that happening by 2030," says van Dyk. "We just need more of these technologies to be commercial and ramping up."

2024 Bloomberg News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Trump to Meet an Embattled Johnson, Putting Their Tortured Ties on Display

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee and the G.O.P. speaker, at odds over many issues, are making common cause on “election integrity.”

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By Annie Karni

Reporting from the Capitol

Speaker Mike Johnson may not have a functional majority in Congress, but his job is similar to the Republicans who preceded him in at least one respect: The duties include the difficult task of managing Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Johnson on Friday will travel to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida estate, to join him for what the speaker has billed as a “major announcement on election integrity.” No further details have been forthcoming.

The two men had been planning to get together for a political meeting, but Mr. Johnson’s team suggested a joint public appearance on a topic Mr. Trump cares deeply about, according to two people familiar with the planning.

It will afford Mr. Johnson the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Trump at a precarious moment in his speakership, as he works to corral a minuscule and deeply divided majority around a legislative agenda many of them oppose — all while facing the threat of an ouster from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican and ride-or-die Trump ally. Making matters even trickier, Mr. Trump, the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is helping to undermine that agenda.

Even so, Republicans generally consider it good and politically helpful to be physically near Mr. Trump.

“It’s about Trump embracing Johnson,” former Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Friday’s joint appearance. “This is Trump saying, ‘He is the speaker, I am his friend, we are together.’ That’s a pretty important thing for him. He just has to endure.”

Mr. Trump does think of Mr. Johnson, who defended him in two impeachment trials and played a key role in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election , as something like a friend, people close to him said. He likes the Louisiana Republican, and likes his loyalty even more. (He especially appreciated that Mr. Johnson quickly endorsed him after becoming speaker, a move that his predecessor Kevin McCarthy always resisted). The two speak regularly, and Mr. Trump has even come around on some of the congressional endorsements Mr. Johnson has lobbied him on.

Still, if this is what an embrace looks like, it’s not clear that it’s so much better than the alternative.

Mr. Trump earlier this week weighed in against legislation that Mr. Johnson put forward to extend an expiring warrantless surveillance law that national security officials say is crucial to fighting terrorism and gathering intelligence. Mr. Trump urged lawmakers to “kill” the law undergirding the program, and ultraconservatives in the House banded together to block it from coming to the House floor in an embarrassing defeat for Mr. Johnson.

The speaker managed on Friday to get the measure back on track in the House by shortening the extension to two years from five, placating far-right Republicans who believe Mr. Trump would be president again once it expired.

The former president has also said it is “stupid” for the United States to send aid to Ukraine and railed against doing so, even as Mr. Johnson has made it clear that it is a top priority of his to bring up a bill to provide an infusion of American military assistance to Kyiv.

The dynamic means that even as they present a united front at Mar-a-Lago, the pair will be at odds on many issues they could be asked about. Such is life with Mr. Trump. And for Republican speakers, it always has been.

For a short time after Mr. Trump first arrived in the White House in 2017, he deferred to Republican leaders on Capitol Hill on their legislative efforts, which included trying to repeal Obamacare and seeking tax cuts. Former Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who had refused to campaign for Mr. Trump, benefited from the fact that the new president had a personal interest in the success of a shared Republican agenda.

Even so, managing the relationship required both hand-holding and hand-wringing about who was going to be the last person in Mr. Trump’s ear. In 2018, for instance, Mr. Trump threatened to veto a big spending bill that had been approved by Congress. Mr. Ryan had to work to convince him to sign it.

“It would be these fire drills where you had to send five or six people to walk him back,” recalled Brendan Buck, who served as a top adviser to Mr. Ryan. “You’re always going to be fighting the last person who talked to him, emotional whims, the thing he read. It’s a constant battle you always have to be fighting.”

That same year, Mr. Trump almost scuttled a version of the surveillance legislation he tanked this week when he tweeted criticism of it — breaking with his administration — apparently after watching a segment on Fox News. “Everyone was calling him, the national security adviser rushed over, people were rushing over to the White House,” Mr. Buck recalled. Mr. Trump eventually walked back his post 90 minutes later.

But Mr. Trump now has less of a stake in the Republican agenda in Congress — it’s not his. And he is not surrounded by a national security apparatus that can weigh in and help keep him on a track that is more in line with that of party leaders in Congress.

As he settled into the White House, Mr. Trump also started keeping his own counsel more and relying less on congressional leaders for direction. He was not interested in taking Mr. Ryan’s advice, for instance, about trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of 2018.

Mr. McCarthy spent years nurturing his relationship with Mr. Trump, going so far as to sort out his favorite flavors of Starburst to curry favor. He visited the former president at Mar-a-Lago after the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the Capitol in an attempt to smooth over any divisions.

Mr. McCarthy had an up-and-down relationship with Mr. Trump during his short tenure as speaker. He succeeded in steering some of Mr. Trump’s endorsements during the 2022 midterm campaigns, and his biggest win might have been keeping the former president silent during his negotiations with the White House over the debt ceiling — Mr. Trump waited until after the deal was signed to criticize it.

Mostly, Mr. McCarthy benefited from timing: The former president was not yet the presumed Republican nominee during his tenure and was less involved in the agenda in Washington.

Mr. Johnson may have the worst of both worlds: Mr. Trump is not the president, so he does not have a shared interest in the Republican speaker’s legislative success, but at this stage of the presidential campaign, he is attuned enough to potentially complicate anything he tries to do. Mr. Trump continues to carry enough influence with Republicans on Capitol Hill that his opposition can be enough to sink a bill outright, and Mr. Johnson has not had as long to cement their relationship.

“Johnson has the hardest speakership of anyone since maybe the beginning of the Civil War,” Mr. Gingrich said. “His major goal has to be to hold the system together to get to an election in which Trump increases Republican turnout.”

People close to Mr. Trump said he values Mr. Johnson’s political insights and has deferred to him at times on endorsements. Mr. Johnson lobbied him hard to back Representative Mike Bost, Republican of Illinois, over Darren Bailey, a competitive challenger running a spirited MAGA campaign. It was a difficult endorsement for Mr. Trump to come around to, people familiar with it said, but he ultimately did so at Mr. Johnson’s urging.

Ms. Greene, for her part, said she would not back down on her criticism of Mr. Johnson or drop the threat to try to oust him, even if Mr. Trump gives the speaker a public boost.

“Things like that don’t bother me,” she said of Mr. Trump hosting an event with Mr. Johnson. Of the speaker, she added: “Right now, he does not have my support.”

Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times. She writes features and profiles, with a recent focus on House Republican leadership. More about Annie Karni

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

The start of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan  drew intense security, smothering media coverage and loud demonstrations to a dingy courthouse that will be the unlikely center of American politics for the next six weeks.

President Biden will kick off a three-day tour of Pennsylvania , a crucial battleground state, with a speech that focuses on taxes and aims to contrast his policies with those of Trump.

Trump leaned heavily on major Republican donors  in March as he sought to close the financial gap separating him from Biden, new federal filings showed.

Vice-Presidential Calculations: As Trump sifts through potential running mates, he has peppered some advisers and associates with a direct question: Which Republican could best help him raise money ?

Embracing the Jan. 6 Rioters:  Trump initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his campaign .

Mobilizing the Left: Amid the war in Gaza, the pro-Palestinian movement has grown into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States. Democrats are feeling the pressure .

On a Collision Course:  As president, Trump never trusted the intelligence community. His antipathy has only grown since he left office, with potentially serious implications should he return to power .

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Ejection seats on fighter jets save pilots' lives by ejecting them right before the jet is damaged or explodes. How do they work?

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