Not So Obvious Things To Consider Before Traveling Abroad!
“6-12 months is the longest I’ll be gone for I promise!” I told my family and friends before heading on a plane across the world. Little did I know I would still be exploring the sights, sounds and cultures of the world as I’m writing this almost 2 years later.
Leaving your career of 7 years, your family, friends and home of 27 years to travel the unknown was a completely thrilling, yet terrifying thought. There were so many times where I second guessed the idea and pushed off traveling for months and months. It wasn’t until one cold Canadian winters night where I realized if we didn’t buy those plane tickets soon, there would be no world travels, no big lifetime adventure. Within the week an amazing flight deal had popped up to Tokyo and we jumped on it. Our travel plans were officially in motion.
The first thing that crossed my mind after purchasing that flight was how little amount of time I had to save for this one way ticket across the world. I was completely oblivious to the actual amount of money I needed to budget, especially considering I had no specific return flight home. I would 100% recommend to anyone who has decided they want to travel to do some research of costs associated with the destination they are going, ie. accommodation (hotels, hostels, airbnb, couchsurfing, workaway), travel costs (flights, buses, car rental/hire, trains), food, tours/excursions, and any extra cost’s (if you like to go out for dinners, have some drinks, etc.). I looked into blogs, like this one, and found it to be EXTREMELY helpful! These people have actually been to these places, and are posting these blogs to help make your lives easier while traveling, so let them. Take full advantage! I will also be breaking down costs for Tokyo, S.E. Asia and Australia in my later blog posts so stay tuned.
The next thing to look into is your bank and credit cards. Find out if they have foreign transaction fees for purchases or withdrawals, costs for exchange rates, any rewards or cashback programs and any annual or monthly fees they have. I ended up going with Tangerine Bank as it is part of the Global ATM Alliance network. This gives you access to over 50,000 ATM’s in 40 countries with no ATM fees. If you are traveling in SE Asia I found that there were quite a few HSBC banks, which is another good option. Having access to a physical bank across the world is much more convenient if you have any issues withdrawing money or accessing funds while abroad (especially with the time difference).
Depending on how long you’re heading off for you will want to look into your phone accounts, insurance on your car, home, or any other monthly payments you may have. If you can get rid of or decrease the amount of any monthly payments you have, then I recommend you do that! Most people won't have any source of income when on the road. I ended up switching my car insurance over to fire and theft as it wouldn’t be in use while I was abroad. I called my phone company and switched my plan over to keep my number and voicemail, but put my actual account in suspension. With this I paid roughly $15-20 CAD/month vs. $80-100/month. You can also look into completely freezing your account but still keep your number, which would be much cheaper (I think it was $7/month), or completely canceling your phone plan all together if you can. Keep in mind this was only with my cell phone provider and will be different for others.
Don’t forget about travel insurance! You want to make sure you have coverage while you’re abroad. I went with World Nomads. They seemed to have the best coverage and was cheaper than a lot of the other companies out there. If you are only planning a short trip a lot of credit card companies will offer insurance through the cards you already have so make sure to look into that as well. You can check out their website here.
Traveling to certain areas of the world comes with certain health risks. Make sure you head to your local travel clinic to find out what specifically you will need before you depart. There are different diseases all over the world so PLEASE make sure you do this, or your trip could be cut extremely short if something were to happen.
If you’ve made the decision of long term travel but already own a house, then consider renting it out by finding a property manager or reputable management company to take the stress off of you. Another option would be to sell it all together (the profit from your sale may actually pay for your travels all together!!).
Once you’ve looked into your costs, dealt with your finances back home, purchased health/travel insurance, got all relevant medications and shots for your travels it’s time to start actually saving (if you haven’t already), and thinking about what to bring/pack on your journey!
Are you planning your next big trip? Maybe the trip of YOUR lifetime? Any other recommendations? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!
