Essential International Travel Planning Guide – Roaming Historian

When I’m not flitting around the globe visiting historical sites, I’m a history professor. Like many of you, work takes up most of my week and leaves little time for the fun things—like travel planning. Over the years, I’ve created a system that makes travel planning very organized and allows me to plan a vacation with relative ease. Here is a breakdown of my system for international travel (I tweak my system for domestic and cruise travel); I think you’ll find it useful whether you’re going on your first vacation abroad or whether you’re an experienced international traveler.

First Things To Do

• Decide where to go, when, and for how long. Are you flexible with dates? Consider stretching the dates as long as you can to maximize money spent on transportation.
• Make a budget. Let this guide your choices and record all expenses as you go along, so you can save/plan accordingly.
• Book your flight after comparing routes/prices on Google Flights or with a flight tracking site like Hopper. I don’t try to “time” buying the flight to get the best price. I’ve found that buying as soon as I know when and where I’m going is generally best. Plus, it’s worth my peace of mind to just have this “big” piece of the planning secured at a price I’m comfortable with.
• As soon as you reserve the first aspect of the trip, even if it’s making a hotel reservation that you later cancel, get travel insurance. I find travel insurance policies to be quite inexpensive but invaluable to cover any medical expenses or trip issues that I may have. If you get your travel insurance right away (usually within a week of making the first vacation deposit), then pre-existing conditions are generally covered. Invaluable. Use Travel Insurance dot com to compare multiple policies and buy through their site directly from insurers with no mark-up. You can always increase your coverage later, if necessary, and the preexisting waiver will still stand.
• Once you know the dates of your flight, you can book lodging. I like to use sites like Trip Advisor, Hotels.com, VRBO, and Expedia to compare various options and find the best place for me. I look for places that are highly rated and have free cancellation.
• When booking lodging, also figure out if you will need to book an airport hotel before or after the trip.
• Make an itinerary. I make a detailed itinerary that has all my confirmation/booking numbers, flight times, hotel information, contact…