Someone At Home Should Know Your Itinerary
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You do not need to tell everyone where you are going. But before heading overseas, it is sensible to make sure at least one person at home knows where you are supposed to be.
This is particularly useful for longer trips or holidays involving several hotels, flights, rental cars, or destinations. If something unexpected happens, your family or a close friend will have a much easier time working out where you are.
Put together a simple itinerary with your travel dates, flight details, accommodation addresses, and the best way to contact you. You can also include your travel insurance details and the phone number for your insurer. New Zealand’s SafeTravel service recommends giving someone you trust a copy of your itinerary, including accommodation details and travel insurance information.
You do not need to create a complicated spreadsheet. A straightforward document or printed page is enough. If your plans change while you are away, send the updated details rather than assuming the original itinerary is still accurate.
It is also worth giving your contact person a rough idea of when you expect to be unreachable. A long flight, remote road trip or cruise can mean several hours without normal phone or internet access. That way, a gap in communication is less likely to cause unnecessary concern.
Keep a copy of the same information yourself. SafeTravel also recommends carrying copies of important documents such as your passport, visas, prescriptions and insurance policy.
If you are travelling with a partner, make sure both of you know where the information is stored. It is surprisingly easy for one person to have all the booking emails while the other has no idea where to find them.
It may feel unnecessary when everything is going smoothly. That is precisely the point. Good travel preparation is mostly about organising information you hope you never need. If something does go wrong, however, having someone at home who knows where you are can make an already difficult situation considerably easier.
