Practical Tips for Travel in Europe: Elliott's Checklist by James Elliott
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There are many checklists in many guidebooks, and seasoned travellers will have checklists of their own. The following selection of practical tips for travel in Europe has grown organically over many years through the efforts of a number of contributors, and existed as a scrappy typewritten sheet to be shared around. Here it is published for the first time...
Admin Tips for Travel in Europe
• Cancel the milk, the newspapers and anything else that regularly arrives, unless you want a backlog of it when you return.
• Adjust the heating or air-conditioning controls, and set security arrangements - timer lights etc. Is everything else switched off?
• Leave keys or access details with a neighbour, also a copy of your itinerary and contact details.
• Organise someone to water your plants.
• Set up an email account you can access abroad
• Warn your credit card company you are travelling. It is comforting, but intensely irritating, when it refuses a sudden unaccustomed request for 500 euros to an Amsterdam massage parlour.
• Have you made an up-to-date will?
Documentation Tips for Travel in Europe
• Up-to-date passport (with at least 6 months to run), with a photocopy in your suitcase.
• Spare passport photos, min. 2.
• Check your visas are correct for the countries you are visiting.
• Travel insurance documents - and identify a contact number/notification procedure (don’t leave it to try and decipher them in a panic abroad).
• A list of all your important numbers - passport, social security, health, insurance, credit cards etc, as well as another copy of your itinerary/contact details, left with your family/next of kin.
• Travellers cheques, SIGNED ONCE, with a list of the numbers and amounts kept separately in your suitcase.
• Credit cards and phone cards, again with the numbers written down and stored separately in your luggage. It is advisable to sign on with a service that holds all the details and can cancel all your cards if you lose your wallet. However, always keep an emergency spare, separate from the others and well hidden.
• Tour/cruise documents and airline tickets, with a photocopy of the airline tickets in your suitcase. List of hotels.
• Maps and guide books. Don’t take too much - a generic Europe guide like Fodors or Frommers will probably suffice if you are travelling widely, but a map of Europe or the country you are going to will be useful, even on tour, as many tour company maps are fairly basic.
• List of (email) addresses back home, pre-printed on sticky labels if you are REALLY efficient.
• Reading material. Don’t leave it to the airport. Try and take books relevant to the country/ries you are travelling in.
Gadget Tips for Travel in Europe
• Voltage adaptor, plug converter(s), travel iron, alarm clock with spare battery, hair dryer, small torch/flashlight, compass, pocket calculator/currency converter, swiss army knife, modem connectors (if you have a computer), small fan (for when the air-conditioning breaks down), shaver, loaded camera, spare film, more spare batteries…
• Good pair of sturdy walking shoes, with spare laces, as well as a pair of sneakers or comfortable casual shoes.
• Sweater.
• Short sleeved shirt and cotton trousers for churches (knees and shoulders must be covered in many southern European churches).
• Jacket (light in summer) and tie for men, dress/slacks for women.
• Belt(s)
• Light poncho /small collapsible umbrella.
• A hat.
Other Tips for Travel in Europe
• Pens (more than one) and notebook/journal
• Small stash of emergency cash, well hidden.
• Prescription medication in YOUR HAND LUGGAGE, and copies of your prescriptions.
• Sunglasses, and spare pair of prescription glasses (with prescription copy), & neck strings.
• Basic medical kit, aspirin, immodium, zantac, ant-acid, bug cream etc (see Health and Personal Security)
• Basic laundry kit - sewing, wash tablets, blow up hangers, Downy Wrinkle Releaser etc - see above.
• Plastic basin plug - some hotel rooms, especially in Eastern Europe, may be missing one or be leaky.
• Toiletries: toothbrush, paste, dental floss, mouthwash, shampoo, chapstick, make-up bag, handy/wet-wipes (small, individual packets are best for your handbag), light disposable washclothes, suncream.
• Empty boxes/bubblewrap for souvenirs, roll of tape.
• Swimsuit
• Moneybelt/pouch
• Inflatable pillow (for neck AND feet), eyemask, earplugs
• Small stash of coins from the country you are travelling to first (if you can), for bathroom stops on the road.
• Airline carry-on, with valuables, documents, reading matter and medication (other than in your moneybelt).
• And maybe a small pair of binoculars for checking out those frescoes on the ceiling or that Italian on the far shore - you will be the envy of your travelling companions...