The Barefoot Investor: 5 ways to prepare for travel

On my around-the-world adventure I went to to Japan, China, India, Europe, and finally the US before heading home.There was a lot to get ready, but the internet made planning an overseas trip ridiculously easy.

Here's how it went down....

Happy travelling
In many cases, I feel like I’ve already been to my destinations simply by reading travellers’ reviews on websites such as Tripadvisor.com and Lonely Planet’s The Thorn Tree.  And to add another degree of difficulty to the trip I’ve decided to travel light. Given the journey will see out the best part of this year, only a (barefoot) bloke could travel the world with just hand luggage.

My rationale is simple: the amount of luggage you lug around is inversely proportional to the amount of enjoyment you get from your trip. Besides, with the Aussie dollar running high, it’s easier to buy stuff on the road than it is to carry a caravan on your back.

Safe to insure
Top of my pre-departure to-do list is ensuring I have adequate travel insurance. I’m all for cutting the cost of travel, but not when it comes to insuring my valuables (like my kidneys).

Some people believe that the insurance attached to their credit card is enough, but the ones I’ve reviewed simply don’t cut the mustard. Spending a day in a US hospital can set you back $10,000, while the cost of a medical evacuation from Bali can exceed $60,000 – so spending a couple of hundred bucks is a smart move.

For this trip I chose to get my insurance through webjet.com.au, which offers a cut-price product that includes unlimited overseas emergency medical cover, cancellation cover and luggage replacement and repair, with no policy excess.

Regardless of the insurance you choose, take a few minutes to read through the product disclosure statement (PDS) so you know exactly what’s covered.
 

Dollar danger
Next on my list is sorting out the money. Having once arrived in Hong Kong with $15 in my pocket, and a credit card that wasn’t working, I’ve experienced first hand the dangers of not having multiple sources of cash.

So on this trip I’ll be taking a small portion of US dollars that can be exchanged into local currency once I arrive at the airport – although I only ever exchange enough to pay for a kebab and taxi.
Airports dream up their own pricing structure for most things – $5 coffees, $12 ham sandwiches – and the same rules apply when changing money.

Forget the “fee-free” advertising – dealing with a currency kiosk will generally be the most expensive place to get your cash (usually because of the rate they offer). My main source of money will be the credit card.
 

All credit to you
While I’ve long escaped the cult of credit, I uncovered a deal that was too good to pass up. Wizard’s Clear Advantage MasterCard has no cash advance or foreign ATM fees, and most importantly has no currency conversion fee (usually anywhere between 2 and 5 per cent).

While the card has no annual fee, it does charge 13.99 per cent on outstanding balances – but smart barefooters understand that not paying off your balance is only for suckers.

I’ll also keep my everyday Citibank Visa debit card in the bottom of my bag as a back-up, in the unlikely event that the MasterCard network goes down for a period of time, or the much more likely event that I get robbed, or leave my wallet in a Tokyo toilet.
Before I go, I’ll also put a call in to my caring local bank manager and alert them to the fact that I’ll be travelling overseas and don’t need the bank fraud squad to shut down my cards on arriving in Delhi.
 

Talk ain’t cheap
The final piece of the puzzle involves keeping in touch while abroad. You can activate global roaming on your mobile phone but, unless you communicate with your thumbs, talk is definitely not cheap.
A cheaper alternative is to take your phone and purchase a new SIM card when you arrive at your destination.

An even cheaper option is to get a phone card, which can be purchased from most newsagents.
While you’ll need to use a standard fixed line, a phone card can cut your talk time to cents per minute.
But the option I’ll be using is to download Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) leader Skype’s software on to my laptop and then make free phone calls to other SKYPE users – which include most of my family and friends.
 

Got any other tips for preparing to travel? Leave them in the comments section below or head to twitter and Facebook to share them with other Gecko's travellers.

If you're ready to head off on your own adventure, take a look through all our trips to find the destination that inspires you.

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