Planning a trip? Why not! Traveling, whether vacation or business, is something that the majority of us want to do, will do, or have done in our lifetime.  When you first begin traveling to places in the world, there are a lot of differences from where you live, a number of things are different. At each travel, we still make mistakes, forget items, and continue to learn from each travel destination.  This is even if it is traveling around your own state or country with the typical assumption that all “things” (laws, safety, healthcare, etc.), but face it, we all love seeing what other states or countries are like and should be a wonderful experience. We see throughout pictures on social media, or in movies and TV shows how beautiful a place can be, and it also can inspire us to go there one day. Whether you’re at the dream stage or planning stage, there are always things to learn before you go. Some of those things consist of the following: Safety, Healthcare, Money, and Transportation to and from and around destinations, Culture, and Politics are just a few of items to plan for but for some lately the International travel seems to be a big safety issue.

So, let’s venture on to traveling to another country.  Knowing that we will have lots of requirements before we travel, we will take each requirement, break it down, see what works and what doesn’t, work around some and try to solve any challenges presented.   How we plan and learn about other countries that we are looking to visit will certainly help us prepare and overcome any obstacles that we may be presented with.

When looking to travel to different countries, it is important to make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into. Which is why research comes into play before you should decide to go anywhere. Look up the culture, the people and how they act. There is also a possibility that certain events could be happening around the time that you want to go, maybe you don’t want to be there for that. Traveling is a beautiful thing; our world is beautiful. But, holding yourself back from going isn’t the answer, do your research so you can know about these places and so you will feel safer traveling around the world. As always, being prepared to travel is essential, but being prepared to travel internationally, can always present problems.

Everyone loves to travel, right?  Well, it can be the most wonderful time with memories or it can be the worst of times all depending on how you chose to handle obstructions that may prevent otherwise.  For example, losing your luggage, lost in directions, missing passport or money, and fear of terrorist in other countries.

First, let’s face it, we can pack our day and the days ahead in our luggage.  Lost luggage could be the beginning of a disaster while on travel. This would hold true for you and all other travelers, national and international.   Sometimes lost luggage can’t be prevented, but you can be prepared by having a few simple things with you at all times.  Never check important identity cards, credit cards, or money.  Additionally, always carry a change of clothes, medicines, and any other personal items that you can in a check on the bag as needed. The other thing to do is to always make sure that your luggage has proper name tags on it.  This is important for the airlines, baggage claims, and any other officials can contact you if needed.  All things better and the travel vacation can get on to having fun.

Secondly, ever been lost?  It’s not fun but being lost in a foreign country can be terrifying. Taking steps to avoid getting lost when you are traveling to different countries again requires you to be prepared to prevent obstacles and preventing fear.  Keeping maps of all the locations and destinations or GPS, which they are about to travel or even memorizing the names of the streets can put you in bad pity situation, which is when the person feels lost. Remember to stay calm enough and don’t panic at all. Yes! Most people would freak out at this very situation and it is very normal, but you would be needing to be confident enough as they will get over it; all it requires is patience level. When wanting to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, visit What to do when you get lost in a foreign country for more detailed information on how to not get lost.

Another challenge would be a loss of funding or important documents. Ever lost or misplaced your money or driving licenses even at home?  It is a terrible feeling and it can be the worst problem through which a person has to deal with when it comes to traveling to a new and different country.  Losing up your wallet or the passport can be a huge loss for the owner. Identity cards are something with the help of which a person gets identified when they are in a foreign country, and this problem would make a person stranded in a new country. To cope with it, one must keep photocopies separately in their side bags. When the money is lost, one cannot do anything as everything would pause for that very person. While traveling to foreign countries, one should never ever keep all the money at one specific place. Try and divide money into small parts and put that in different bags or pockets. To make sure you have all the correct documents and that you go through the process correctly, visit Getting Your Travel Documents Together for more information on it.

Lastly, terrorism, the past few years have underscored that we’re living in a world where anything can happen anywhere at any time—at hotels in Sri Lanka, at a country music festival in Las Vegas, on a bridge in London, at a celebration on the French Riviera, at a Christmas market in Berlin, in a theater in Paris, at the airport in Istanbul, at a shrine in Bangkok, in a hotel in Mumbai, at a nightclub in Orlando, at a marathon in Boston, in a skyscraper in Manhattan. All of these were wide open places that had lots of people that a terrorist knew that would kill hundreds if not thousands of people. The biggest one, of course, the attack of 9/11.  If you sit back and look, this attack occurred while middle-class folks were working, people were on airplanes traveling, and some just on the streets during a normal day.  As unpredictable as those attacks mentioned above were, making sure you read the news, stay up on an active shooter, terrorist threats, and security precautions and enjoy your travel experience at its best. Additional.  The answer is to keep traveling, to make friends around the world, and to be a thoughtful ambassador for your country.

Of course, while you may agree with me, your gut may be apprehensive. You may be making travel plans—or trying to—and you can’t help but wonder: If I go, what is the risk that I will get caught in a terror incident? How do I minimize that risk? If I can’t minimize it, how do I get over my fear?

With having a fear of terrorism for an example, you should Overcoming Fear of Terrorism visit. When reading this article, you can see different facts on how more violence can come from Americans and gun violence than anything from terrorist. There are many places that you can go and usually not worry about terrorist, but you should always do your research to make sure you know what is going on in that country at the time. When reading In The Name of Terrorism By Carol Winkler, you can see how she describes terrorist and terrorism and reading what someone wrote about this subject may help you have a better understanding and hopefully not be as anxious or scared to travel.

When you have arrived in your country, or even before, then you need to know where you are going so getting lost in an area you aren’t familiar with isn’t an issue. Which is why you need to again, do lots of research to make sure you know where you are going, and also so you know the different laws a country may have that are different from the laws that you are used to. After watching a movie called, Babel, you can see the way that many people handle the law in the countries that are mentioned throughout the movie. Making sure these certain situations don’t happen to you is crucial when traveling so you know what to avoid and also how to stay out of trouble.

The goal of “the today’s traveler” is to cover the destinations as impartially as possible — “without fear or favor,” — and to treat the locals fair, try to adapt to their customs, attempt to say hello in their language, have dinner on the economy to name a few.  These type engagements will prove to be beneficial and in the end, provide a wonderful travel experience.   Some news sources, advertisers and other forms of social media provide lots of information on how to survive while on travel, basically “cliff notes” for dummies. This information will provide open endings to successful travel.

Not to beat a dead horse, but doing research and following the laws of the countries you visit is something that is needed. To make sure you can stay safe in these countries, visit How to Stay Safe Traveling in Risky Countries. Yes, get up and go travel to where ever you can afford to go, but making sure you know what is going on and the surroundings of the place you are going to are something that you need to make sure of. You wouldn’t want to go to a place where a lot of crime is happening right now, or where you hear about bombings or different things going on around the world. Not everyone is going to know that you are from somewhere different, so you need to be prepared for what that country may throw at you when you get there, which is why you come prepared.

After reading about all of these issues that could come with traveling abroad, I hope that people can learn to not over plan trips, and to be spontaneous! There are things that can happen all over the world, not just in foreign countries. Just because they are considered a foreign country, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go and visit and explore over there, just be careful and do lots of research and make sure you have all the correct documents and money when you get there. The world is amazing and there are so many things out there that people still haven’t seen yet.