#EuroTour 2014: Preparing for the Trip
January 16, 2014
This weekend, I finally get to complete a trip that’s been 13 years in the making. Thanks to a strategically-placed airfare in the ecosystem, I’ll finally be able to get back to London. Not a bad way to start off the New Year, right? This weekend starts one of two consecutive weekends of travel – first to London, followed by another weekend jaunt to Ireland.
This one isn’t just about taking a trip overseas because I can – personally, this gives me a chance to reconnect to my student traveler roots. And while I will enjoy the 14,000 miles that will come from this run (putting me two Columbus-Los Angeles runs away from making silver status), I’m more excited about getting back to Europe – a place I discovered many years ago and gave me my love of travel.
As much as I’m excited jumping on an airplane again, this trip is going to come with just a little bit more preparation than usual for me. I realize that I’m going to a country much more geographically north of me during the lowest point of winter. This creates an environment ripe for trip cancellation, trip delay, and a whole mess of other problems that I just don’t want to deal with. So for this trip, I’ve already primed and prepared for the worst case scenarios that can take place. Here’s how I prepared to make the best of my European Tour this winter:
- Packing warm for one extra day – just in case
I’ll only be in London two nights – which means I can easily get away with packing light for the weekend. So why am I packing an extra day’s worth of thin layers to stay warm? With the cold temperatures comes the possibility of trip delay and trip cancellation. And if I’m forced to stay in London an extra day (which, in of itself, wouldn’t be the worst fate in the world), I want to make sure that I stay warm with clean clothes. Packing an extra set gives me a little extra assurance in the event things get pear-shaped. - Adding Global Entry status
Remember about how I wrote about getting my NEXUS card last year, so I can get in and out of Canada a lot easier? One of the best things about NEXUS is that it comes with Global Entry, at half the price of just Global Entry alone. This allows me to use one of the kiosks when I re-enter the United States by air. This will make my run through Customs a whole lot easier at the end of the day. - Adding travel insurance to my adventures
I know that talking about travel insurance on a travel insurance company’s blog might be a little redundant, but this time travel insurance is a very important part of my planning. Traveling alone as a tourist to a foreign country makes me a target for a lot of bad things which could happen to me. Additionally, as I outlined above, winter is not known as the most contusive season to go traveling. Travel insurance gives me some flexibility when it comes to trip delay, and trip interruption in the worst of scenarios. For the next two trips, travel insurance is going to be imperative to my adventures.
I can’t wait to get back to Europe this month – and share some of the adventures that I found while I was there! Be sure to follow along with my adventures on Twitter with the hashtag #EuroTour14! How do you prepare for a major international trip? Let me know what tips you would add in the comments below!
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