Travel safety measures mean no stress
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So you’ve been approved for your PTO request and booked your vacation. You’ve gotten the flight deals, the hotel/resort that offers great amenities, the car rental is sorted out, and you’ve paid deposits on your tours. You have your out-of-office floppy sun hat and ready to go. Forgotten anything? If you’re most people, that’s it. You’re ready to go on vacation. Here I am drinking my coffee, and I just have to share my EXTRAness with you. I would like to share the following travel safety measures I take before and during traveling, in the hopes that it would at least give you a bit of peace of mind. My hope is for you to truly immerse yourself in the stressed-free vacation mode that traveling and wanderlust are intended to be.
Sign up for Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)
The STEP is a free service provided by the U.S. Government to U.S. citizens who are traveling to or living in a foreign country. It allows you to record information about your upcoming trip abroad that the Department of State, via our embassies and consulates, can use to assist you in case of emergency. So basically, if it comes to the point of necessary evacuation, the consular officer will know where to find you. https://step.state.gov/step/ Per their website: 24 Hour Consular Emergency Line: U.S. 1.888.407.4747 / Outside the U.S. 1.202.501.4444 TIP: I add information of folks that I usually travel with, in advance so that when it’s time to travel with them, I’ll just choose their name and won’t have to fill out any more of their info.
Nearest embassies and consulates
The above states that they’ll know where to find you, but what if you need to find them first for any reason? I usually research the closest embassies and consulates near my destination and copy and paste their address, phone, and email into my google keep, and pin it for easy access. TIP: I don’t delete these from google keep. I just archived them. I’ll keep them just in case I return to the place, or I could share them with family and friends who are going there. I use google keep to save this as you don’t need wifi to access this info.
Nearest hospital/clinic
Same as above, research, and copy/paste full contact info to google keep.
TIP: same as above. Look out for my other post on Apps to download before traveling. SIDE NOTE: When traveling with Pets, I also research for the nearest veterinarian and/or 24-hour emergency clinic.
Nearest police station
What can i say about this one? I hope that we never have a reason to use this but, better safe than sorry, right? Like hospitals, find out the address, phone number, full contact info and save it in your google keep.
Give my itinerary to my choice of family and/or friends
Yes, we are adults but letting our loved ones know where we are going to be during our travels is not juvenile, it is responsible.
Share my phone location with my choice of family and/or friends
On your phone, go to settings, privacy, toggle location services to “ON”, click on share my location, make sure “find my phone” is on, and as well as share my location.
Send at least one text message with your picture, to family and/or friends each day.
This one, I admit that I could do better. Doing this lets them know that you are okay, safe, and having a grand time. I post pictures on Instagram, and hence sometimes, I don’t send text messages every day.
RECAP:
- Sign up for STEP
- Save info of nearest embassies and consulates in google keep
- Save info of nearest hospital/clinic
- Save info of police station
- Email itinerary to family/friends
- Share phone location with family/friends
- Send a text with your picture every day
Do you also do these things before traveling? Does it give you a bit of peace of mind? What else would you add to this list? I hope doing any or all of these steps will help ease your mind during your vacation.
Have a ridiculously good time! Enjoy the people, the place, the food, the culture! Enjoy that Coffee And Do…