Traveling overseas can be exciting, whether for business or pleasure. Regardless if it’s your first trip abroad, or your fourth trip across the ocean, it’s important to make a list of the essential to-dos and check them off before you leave.
Here is my Top 10 list of things to double-check, even triple-check, before you embark on an international business trip.
- Make sure you have a valid passport and VISA, and have them with you!
- Call your credit card company to make sure your credit cards will not be declined overseas.
- Check airline tickets, connection schedules, lodging reservations, and connecting flight information before you leave for your trip.
- Be sure you have any needed medication in its original packaging and have had the appropriate vaccinations for the destination country, if required. Some vaccinations need to be done well in advance, so check on this several weeks before your trip.
- Check on the weather at the destination to make sure you’ve packed appropriate clothes.
- Enable international service on your cell phone (if required).
- Make sure you have electronic chargers with correct adapters to fit outlets at the destination country. Also check voltage of appliances and devices to make sure they’re acceptable overseas.
- Check that you have packed appropriate clothes for the location. Do not travel with an excessive amount of money or jewelry.
- Be sure to have at least a minimal amount of local currency.
- Above all, leave a copy of your itinerary and passport with someone you trust. Make sure it includes contact numbers for hotels where you are staying, as well as for co-workers you might be traveling with.
3 Comments
Great tips, Bill! I always carry tons of alcohol swabs . Cheap, light, small and great for sanitation. Nothing ruins a trip quicker than sickness. Use for cleaning hands, airplane meal trays and touch screens, and also for wound care to prevent infection.
A great list, and only one addition, if you travel to an area where you have little experience with the culture, research in advance. For example, are credit cards accepted as payments readily, or is it a cash culture? Do you tip and if so, for what and how much? Body language can have very different meanings that what we are used to, make sure you understand the differences; for example, thumbs up means something very good here in US, but means something very negative in other cultures. Small details like how you present a business card and how you treat the business card you receive can be the difference between a good or bad first impression.
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