[caption id=“attachment_692” align=“alignleft” width=“500”] By: Frontierofficial[/caption]

Traveling in a foreign country can be filled with wonder and excitement. It can also turn into a nightmare without the right preparation.

Travel Tips

• Bring currency (US / UK / Euro) in decent quantities in small bills ($500+). This is emergency money for towns without ATMs.
• Carry that currency distributed among various hiding places on your person and in your luggage. Consider getting extra hidden pockets sewn into some of your pants.
• Wear easily washed clothing. Quick dry fabric is very convenient when forced to wash clothing in a hostel’s sink.
• Bring all purpose liquid soap. I’m talking about hippie soap here like ‘Dr. Bronner’s’. It can be used for washing your body, your hair, and your clothing.
• Keep only enough currency for a day or two in your wallet or purse. If someone pickpockets you, you’ve lost very little and have a story to tell.
• Be skeptical of people who approach you. Some are great awesome people, others are hustlers. Learn the difference.
• Be more trusting when you approach people. I made a habit of choosing my taxi drivers rather than choosing the ones who were overly interested in me.
• Avoid the heavily touristed areas and densely populated areas. Pickpockets and scams will be more prevalent where a higher density of marks exists.
• Withdraw currency from ATMs in well lit areas.
• Use ATMs instead of currency exchangers. You’ll tend to get better rates.
• Bring a good little flashlight and headlamp, especially when visiting areas without much infrastructure.
• Shoot plenty of photos, especially of people and local vibrancy. Landscape photos won’t have the same staying power.
• Write a journal or blog while traveling to share your experiences with those back home.
• Contact your banks and credit card companies before leaving. Let them know the locations of your visit and the duration. This minimizes the risk that the cards will trigger fraud alerts while traveling.
• Leave a photocopy of passport, credit cards and any other travel paperwork with a trusted friend or family member. Keep a second photocopy set in your luggage.
• If you want or need connectivity while away, bring a GSM unlocked phone. In the US, a phone from AT&T that’s unlocked would be a decent choice.
• Learn basic internet safety and use a VPN or SSH Tunnel for routing your data when on unknown internet connections. Better safe than hacked.
• Consider using 2 Factor Authentication if you must use an Internet Cafe to log into your email. Even with this protection, try to avoid it.

What other travel tips have you used to make foreign travel a smoother process?

If you want to engage in Extreme Retirement Planning, living abroad on $600 - $1000 / mo and retiring early wouldn’t be too horrible ;) Especially with a remote job!