Vacations are about relaxation, you escape from everyday life and leave all worries behind. To ensure that the trip actually corresponds to your expectations, you need to take a few precautions in advance. This includes planning, medical coverage and insurance as well as securing the apartment or house before departure.
The right preparation: Obtain information and documents
Travel is always a special event for both frequent vacationers and the average traveler that requires a certain amount of preparation. Depending on the destination and the duration of the vacation, the necessary measures vary. However, there are some basic rules that must be observed for all trips.
Extensive research should be carried out right at the start of preparing for your vacation. Aspects such as the climate, language, politics and culture should, if possible, be known before booking to avoid unwanted surprises. For travel outside the EU and countries with a visa requirement, a valid passport is required for entry. A valid ID card is sufficient for EU travel, but carrying photo ID can also be recommended for non-European travel.
Payment options such as credit and debit cards are almost equally significant, allowing you to easily get cash or conveniently pay electronically.
If these aspects are met, the trip can be booked. In order to avoid stress or uncertainty, it is recommended to book arrival and departure, accommodation and transfers before the trip.
Insurance and medical coverage
For many vacationers, travel cancellation insurance is a sensible investment, especially for particularly expensive trips and larger travel groups. Travel cancellation insurance can save high costs.
While international health insurance is a must for every traveler, it is irrelevant whether the vacation takes place in Europe or outside of it. International health insurance usually only costs a few euros per year, but still protects against high costs in an emergency.
In the course of this, travelers should obtain information about additional vaccinations. In addition to conventional vaccinations, vacationers traveling to the tropics should primarily consider vaccinations against rabies, hepatitis A & B, yellow fever, cholera, typhus, etc.
In such cases, the family doctor should be contacted in order to prescribe vaccination advice as well as possibly important medication. The costs for this are often covered by health insurance, although you should check your own insurance in advance.
Securing the house
Last but not least, it is advisable to take a few security measures on the house or apartment before departure. All windows and doors should be tightly closed, and roller shutters should, if possible, be moved electronically or manually by neighbors/friends on a regular basis. In addition, the mailbox should ideally be emptied daily.
Ladders and other devices that could help burglars get into the house or apartment should be removed from the garden and stowed away. This also applies to the power supply in the garden, so potential burglars are deprived of the opportunity to use electronic aids.
Time switches on lamps and television sets make the home appear to be inhabited; random periods are recommended here, which means that burglars can no longer recognize a special pattern.
Once all the precautions have been taken, you can start your holiday trip worry-free and relaxed.
Henry Ely / editorial team finanzen.net