Before we set off to travel long term we poured over blog posts and articles of tips and tricks from people that had already done it. So we thought we’d share our insights into what we wished we had known before we left. We will include lots of tips for travelling long-term to help ease any nerves and try to make you as prepared as you can be.
Not everyone needs to read tips like this. Some people will set off into the world as free as a bird with little planning and deal with any obstacles as they occur. We are not those people. We wanted to be as prepared as we could be. If you’re reading this post, we’re guessing you’re the same so hopefully we can help by sharing our long-term travel tips.
Even with these tips you’re bound to still have some curveballs thrown your way, but hopefully these will make life a little easier.
Top Tips For Travelling Long-Term
Buy A Pay As You Go Sim Card In Your Home Country
This is something we didn’t do and it caused us quite a few headaches on the road. In hindsight we should have bought a pay as you go sim card before we left so we could always receive text messages. These days online security is getting more secure than ever and most banks, credit card companies and even email accounts and Airbnb will want to text you when you login. This is even more probable when you’re abroad as it’s likely to flag on their system. We have lost count of the amount of phone calls we’ve needed to make while away trying to prove we are who we are.
Even if you know all your login information, if you are logging in on a different device or from a foreign country a flag may go up on your account. The company will want to send a one time code to your mobile phone number so they can verify it is definitely you logging in.
We got rid of our phone numbers when we left as we were on contracts and those numbers were linked to all of our accounts. It meant every time we couldn’t receive a text and therefore login we had to call the company. This happened on several occasions with the same companies as the flags are always computer based and don’t care if you have called before. We bought various sim cards along the way, but it was pointless updating them every time as once we moved country they wouldn’t work anyway.
So to save yourself the headache, before you leave buy a sim card that you just put into your phone when you are logging into accounts that need to be able to text you to verify you. Ensure it is a sim card that can receive text messages world wide so you never come unstuck.
Buy Travel Insurance
We know, it’s an extra expense you could really do without when you have been saving to travel long term, but this is not something you want to skip. To be honest we find the insurance coverage for electronics and belongings not to be worth it, but do not skip medical cover. There are only a few companies that offer insurance to people travelling long term so ensure you check the terms and conditions before purchasing. Sometimes you can buy travel insurance for a year, but you can only take 30 day trips at a time.
World Nomads is probably the most popular insurer for long term travel. We went with them for our first year, but in the 2nd year we went with True Traveller. They offered a cheaper coverage that was for medical cover only. We can definitely recommend them, but they only ensure people from the UK.
You may think it’s expensive for insurance, but it is nothing compared to how much a medical bill may be if you need to go to hospital for any reason. We had to go to a hospital in China and the bill for just a consultation and a small check up procedure was the same as our insurance policy for the whole year (around £550). We had to pay the excess, but the rest was covered by the insurance. If we had needed something more severe the costs would have racked up into the several thousands.
If you’re going to be away long term there is more chance that something medical will come up while your away or worse case you have an accident. So make sure you are at the very least covered for a substantial amount of medical costs.
Take Photos Of Your Passport On Your Phone
This came in so handy while we were away and it’s so easy to do. You’ll be filling in your passport details a lot on immigration forms and at hotels so having the information on your phone is nice and easy to access.
In countries like China you also need to show your passport at certain places, especially in Beijing. As we know it can be strict in China we would normally carry our actual passports, but a couple of times we forgot and they allowed us to use the photo instead. We also took a photo of our visa page for China.
It’s also good to have a copy on your phone in case your passport is lost or stolen. It will make it extremely easy to show the police or embassy who you are and proof of your passport details.
We also printed a copy of our passport off, which we kept in our hand luggage bags just in case the worst happened. We would also recommend taking a few passport sized photos with you too as certain places still need these for visas or sim cards.
Buy A Lifestraw Water Bottle
This is something we didn’t do and really regret it. Not only did we use way too many plastic water bottles, we also spent a small fortune on water. A Lifestraw water bottle and some spare filters (for certain bottles) will allow you to drink water from almost anywhere without risk of getting ill. It is an extra expense before your trip and the filters aren’t that cheap, but it will be worth it. Even though individual bottles of water aren’t that expensive in some parts of the world when you are buying them everyday the cost soon mounts up. You will save way more in the long run by having a Lifestraw water bottle.
It is obviously also much better for the environment to reuse the same bottle for your trip rather than keep buying plastic bottles. We met several travelers who used the bottles and said they would definitely recommend them. We will be buying one before our next trip.
Know Your Budget
Before you leave you need to be honest with yourself about your budget and how you travel. We kept costs low where we could, but we didn’t travel on an extreme budget as we knew we wouldn’t enjoy that. We didn’t stay in a single dorm during our trip so that meant our accommodations costs were more than what they could have been. For us the extra cost was worth it though as we value our own space and knew we wouldn’t sleep in a dorm room. We did still try to stay in cheap double rooms and sometimes had a shared bathroom, but generally we opted for a private room and bathroom.
The other major cost you’ll have is food and drink and what you spend on these items can make a huge difference to your budget. A huge part of travelling for us is eating in different restaurants so we ensured our budget allowed for this. In many countries, we would eat from convenience stores for breakfast and lunch and then eat out for dinner. This allowed us to keep costs down, but also enjoy going out to eat. Many people will try and eat less to save costs, but if limiting your food affects your mood then make sure your budget allows for you to eat properly. Andy is 6 ft 5 and I get cranky when hungry so we always made sure we didn’t skimp on our food.
Drinking alcohol is a sure fire way to quickly increase your budget so we didn’t drink loads, but we still allowed ourselves a drink when we wanted one. We also drank a bit more in countries where alcohol was cheaper and would occasionally buy drinks from a convenience store where it is considerably cheaper for a drink!
The other important part of travel in terms of budget is visiting attractions. Luckily in many countries there is a lot still to see that is free, but there are also many places that you will need to pay to visit. You don’t want to visit loads of amazing places and then miss out of famous attractions or activities because you don’t have the budget.
We recommend carefully picking what you want to visit so the costs don’t add up as quickly, but if there is something you really want to do, then do it. You never know if you will ever visit a certain place again so sometimes you have to cease the moment. We would sometimes check out a few Tripadvisor reviews if we weren’t sure about whether to visit somewhere and that would help us decide whether it was a must or if we were happy to skip it.
Budget Extra For ATM & Foreign Conversion Fees
This is something we hadn’t really accounted for and hadn’t seen many people mention. We actually dread to think how much we have spent on ATM fees and exchanging money. These are 2 costs there is no getting away from so ensure you budget them in.
We did all we could to reduce our costs before we left too. We each got a credit card that allowed for unlimited transactions with no foreign transaction fees – this saved us a lot of money so is highly recommended. We also both ordered Transferwise cards. These allow for withdrawals with no ATM fees up to a certain amount each month and great conversion rates. Even though Transferwise gives pretty much the exact exchange rate though, they do still charge a fee to add money to your account (unless you do it via bank transfer) and to exchange money. This will save you money, but there is no way to exchange currency with no cost involved. The amount is only small each time, but when you’re on a long-term trip this soon adds up.
The other cost is ATM fees. Transferwise allows up to £200 a month with no ATM fee so we would each ensure we made the most of this every month. However, most ATMs in foreign countries will charge an ATM fee even if your card or bank doesn’t. We tried researching the best ATMs to use but in almost every country we went to, trying all different banks, we always got charged. Sometimes it would be a small amount, but other times it could be as much as £5 and you aren’t always told the amount at the time of the transaction.
We tried to pay on card as much as we could, but in countries like Myanmar and Bali we found we always needed to have cash. We would also try to take the max we could out of an ATM every time, but in some places like Bali the max withdrawal was relativity low at around £100-£130 a time, which doesn’t last long when there are two of you.
Another way to avoid some of these fees is to pay in advance for your hotels on a booking website. Some of the companies give you the option and we often found if we didn’t pay in advance the hotel would then want cash as they didn’t accept card.
Ultimately, we have listed various ways to reduce costs in this area, but there is no way to avoid them altogether so you need to budget for them.
Choose Good Quality Luggage That Is Easy To Carry
Whenever we used to go on holiday we never worried about what bags to take as it was likely we would just jump in a taxi to get to our hotel. When travelling long-term it’s highly unlikely you’ll be taking many taxis unless you’re in places like Bali where taxis are cheaper. Most of the time you’ll need to use public transport like metros, especially in major cities, in order to keep costs down. You may also need to walk from metro stops or bus stops to your accommodation so it’s important you can do this as comfortably as possible. One of our best buys for long term travel was our hand luggage and one checked bag.
After a lot of research we went with Osprey, which are an extremely high quality brand and one you will see many other long-term travelers using. We bought the Osprey 40L Farpoint backpacks and one Osprey 80L Sojourn wheeled, convertible luggage bag. All the bags are still in excellent condition despite being on hundreds of flights, buses, trains, tuk tuks and metros. These were the most expensive pieces of luggage we had ever bought, but they were worth every penny. If we had gone with cheaper bags, we almost certainly would have had to replace them at least once during our trip.
In our backpacks we carried a lot of heavy, valuable gear like cameras, lenses and drones. We always felt like our belongings were safe and secure in the bags and even when they were really heavy they felt comfortable to carry when we had to walk to our accommodation.
With the wheeled bag we were able to fit a huge amount into it and even when it seemed like it was bursting at the seams (which was all the time) we never worried about it breaking. It does have the option to turn it into a huge backpack, but as it was over 25 kg we never actually used it like that. The wheels and 2 quality handles were great when maneuvering through airports and metro stations and it was the perfect size for our one checked bag. Don’t scrimp on your luggage for long-term travel and you won’t regret the money you spent.
Don’t Over-Pack
You’ve probably read this a hundred times and it may be something you don’t really learn until you’re away, but we’ll say it anyway. Don’t over-pack. Be as ruthless as you have ever been when packing for a long-term trip and remember you can buy most things while you’re away anyway.
We know from experience it’s tempting to buy everything you see on packing lists, but before you buy it all think about what you really need to take. We took a huge bag of medication (pain killers etc) and plasters that took up quite a bit of room and although we did need some of those items, we could have bought them along the way. Just pack a small amount so you have some to hand and then replace them as and when you use them.
Make sure you like the clothes you’re taking and that they are good quality. You’re going to be wearing the same things over and over again so you want them to last as long as possible.
Use Packing Cubes
Before travelling long-term we had never used packing cubes, but I am so glad we did for our big trip. If you want to get the most out of the space you have and keep organised then packing cubes are the way to go. When you are constantly packing and re-packing you don’t want to keep having to take loads of single items out and then put them all back in again. With a packing cube you can put different categories into different cubes and then it’s easier to know where to look and to pack and re-pack.
How you pack them is up to you, but we had a couple of different coloured large cubes for each of our clothes and then smaller ones for underwear, swimwear, socks etc. We also had one specifically for laundry. Don’t forget about this as you will never have time to do all your laundry all the time. Always having a spare bag to separate your dirty clothes away from clean ones is a must.
Screenshot Flight Details & Hotel Names Before Take Off
You never know when you will be asked to show your flight details. In some places, like India, you have to show the details of the flight your about to take before they will even let you into the airport. In other countries they will want to see a copy of your next outbound flight to make sure you’re not going to overstay your visa. I always took screenshots of the flight I was about to take and our next out-going flight before arriving at the airport so I had them to hand. There is no guarantee you will have wifi in the airport to retrieve these details and it also saves time at check-in if they are required.
I would also screen shot the name and address of our first hotel (in English and the local language) at a new place and a couple of details about the location. I preferred to know what metro we would need to get or how best to get to the hotel before we landed. Again, you don’t know if you will have wifi, we found some airports only let you use wifi if you have a local number. I found it a lot less stressful knowing what we needed to do when we landed rather than trying to figure it out once we were there. It meant we could just get our bags and go. I would also do this when moving between places by train or bus as when you’re moving around a lot it makes life so much easier.
Plan In Free Days
When we go on holiday we want to be busy all the time and see as much as possible and that’s fine when you’re on a shorter trip. When travelling long-term you will be moving around a lot and seeing new places all the time. It’s exciting, but it can also be exhausting if you don’t plan in a bit of free time.
Having an extra day or two in a place than you need allows you to have a spare day to relax, have a lazy breakfast, catch up with family and friends or plan more of your trip. You may feel like you don’t want to ‘waste’ any time while you’re travelling, but allowing yourself some time off sight-seeing every so often is definitely needed. You may even feel like having a few days like this in a row sometimes to rest and recharge and it is something we highly recommend. It sounds crazy to think you would need a ‘break’ from travelling, but once in a while you do.
Decide How Fast You Want To Travel
How fast you travel can make a huge difference to your trip and it really depends on what you want out of it. Do you want to visit as many places as possible by moving around countries quickly or would you prefer to travel to fewer countries and really get to know them? We did a bit of both, but generally preferred it when we spent longer in countries and took things slower. This allowed us to have some free days like we mentioned above and meant we felt a real connection with a country.
How fast you travel can also link into your budget as the quicker you travel the more money you are likely to spend on transport as you will be moving between places and countries more often.
Research What Visas & Vaccines You Will Need
We are very lucky to have a British passport, which means we are able to travel visa free to many countries up to 30 days, with some even allowing up to 90 days. Before we left we checked the visa restrictions for every country we were going to or even planned to go to so we knew the visa requirements. Every country has different rules for how to apply, the cost and how long the visa is valid for.
We had to apply for our visa for China before we left and it was the most expensive, but it did last for 2 years with 90 day visits allowed each time. For India and Myanmar we had to apply and pay online, for Nepal we had to apply and pay on arrival and to extend our Indonesian visa we had to visit the immigration office 3 separate times.
Before leaving it is also worthwhile checking you’re vaccines are up to date. It will give you a greater piece of mind knowing you have had these as they may be hard to come by or very expensive in some parts of the world.
Take More Memory Cards Than You Think You Will Need
When you’re travelling long-term you will see so many amazing places along the way that by the time you’re several months in, the beginning of the trip will seem like a distance memory. To keep you’re memories fresh you will want to have lots of photos and videos. At the beginning of our trip I took loads of photos, but not many videos as they take up more room. I wish I had bought a large memory card for my phone so that wouldn’t have even crossed my mind.
You will never get the time and experiences back so ensure you have enough memory cards for your phone and cameras to capture your memories. When your trip is over these will become your most prized possessions and you can never have too many!
If you’ll be planning any road trips on your long-term travels be sure to check out our ultimate guide to planning a road trip.
