5 Things To Do ~ 5 Months Before Travelling

Vittoria
Oct 3, 2017
5 min read

Only 5 months till our adventure begins, and we have still a lot to do! If you read our first post on this series "6 Things To Do ~ 6 Months Before Travelling" you already know about passports, tickets, important documents, downsizing, starting on your backpacking list, and social media. However that was only the tip of the iceberg, here are 5 more things Adam and I have to tackle this month to get a step closer to leaving our lives behind to go travelling indefinitely.

1. Vaccination

Since I am not a doctor and I haven't been vaccinated since I was a 12, I am going to quote the NHS (UK health system) recommendation on this matter:

They advise that you don't always need vaccinations to travel abroad, because it depends on:

which country you're visiting and, in some cases, which part of the country
the season or time of year when you'll be travelling (for example, the rainy season)
whether you'll be staying in a rural area, or an urban or developed area
what you'll be doing during your stay, such as working in or visiting rural area
how long you'll be staying
your age and health

So go and see your GP and get advice about vaccinations at least eight weeks before you're due to travel because some jabs need to be given well in advance so that they can work properly. I would personally advise to inform your office because vaccines can cause a fever reactions, and you might have to take some days off for sickness.

Also, it can't hurt you to do a full medical, dental and sight check, and maybe a blood test before leaving and carrying around a copy of the results so you can show your most recent records in the event you fall ill abroad.

2. Credit or Debit Card

Cards can be the cheapest way to pay for things and withdraw money from cash machines abroad, but only if you use the right one. Using your usual credit or debit card might result in expensive overseas fees, so you could save a lot by getting a special ‘travel-friendly’ credit, debit or prepaid card before you go.

Debit Card

There are two main charges for withdrawing money and making purchases abroad:

Foreign usage fee: When withdrawing money or making a purchase, the money is converted from the local currency to pounds using the day's exchange rate.

Cash withdrawal fees: Most debit cards charge you for using a cash machine overseas.

Credit Card

Along with the foreign usage fee you might also be charged interest, even if you pay off the bill in full at the end of the month. Usually with a credit card, you only pay interest if you don’t pay off the bill in full at the end of the month, but when you spend overseas some cards will always charge you interest.

How to Choose The Best Card For Your Trip?

There are lots of cards to choose from, several comparison sites cover cards for use overseas, and you can get expert recommendations from Which?, Money Saving Expert and Money Supermarket.

3. Technology

Nowadays it is impossible to escape technology, it helps us get to places, buy things, speak to people, organize documents. So for better or for worse you will probably have to bring with you some pieces of equipment that will keep you connected to the matrix. However if you want to completely strip yourself from your link to society you can leave all your gadgets at home and figure things out the old-fashion way: asking people and interacting with others!

Susan Shain said: "The abundance of information, of choice, has us terrified of making the wrong decision, of choosing the restaurant with the slightly inferior noodles, the hotel with the less-than-perfect view, or the route that takes a few minutes longer. [...] Most of the time, travel isn't Instagrammable. It's messy, frustrating and, sometimes, downright hard. Those moments might not be pretty, but they do help us grow, and that's what makes travel so valuable."

Even though I am planning to shorten my cord to technology and be more involved in my surroundings, I will have to rely on some pieces of equipment because if you want to travel for a long time and earn some money on the road, it is undoubted that having some technology with you facilitates the whole process. My advise is to bring the bare minimum (and the least weight) and maximize your technology to the best of their abilities. So this is a good time to ask yourself what equipment is invaluable to sustain your travelling and your job, and leave at home (or sell) the rest.

Always ask around your friends, they might have just what you need and can give it to you for free or little money.

Otherwise look into buying second-hand as it's cheaper, greener and you won't cry if someone steals it.

4) Mobile & WiFi

Since our livelihood will depend on working online, we had to find a reliable source of WiFi that will allow us to be able to connect whenever needed, even if we might be stranded in a location with low signal. We looked into different options: International SIM cards, International WiFi deals, Pay-As-You-Go, etc. However they all turned out to be very expensive and they always asked for a contact of some sort, which we want to avoid. Instead we settled for a WiFi device from Huawei that works with any sim card worldwide. It connect up to 10 WiFi devices, it has a super fast download speed, and it's incredibly lightweight. This will allow us to buy a local SIM card, which comes free most of the time, and monthly data for little money. Our phones can connect to the device, so we can have internet access all the time, and we can change our data requirements as we go.

5) Logs & Spreadsheets Whoever knows me knows that I am a passionate advocate of logging, using spreadsheets, folders, lists and what not. I love being organised, track my progress, check things off the list and feel like I am accomplishing my goal bit by bit. Especially during this project, which is revolutionising our lives, I am so grateful to have Excel and One Drive and be able to access my logs at all times.

~ Backpacking List Log: Listing everything we are bringing with us and what we still have to buy

~ Itinerary Log: Listing the destinations in probable order, attractions we can see in each location, etc. ~ Expenses Log: Listing what we have saves so far, how much we think we can save each month, the cost of what we still have to buy, etc. ~ General To Do List: I have a digital record online on my One Drive which I can access at all times and update when I remember something to do