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At first this sounds like a silly topic. When you travel it's critical that you have certain documentation with you. In most cases you need a passport. Then a drivers license and various forms of identification. And your bank cards and passwords and the contents of wallets and purses. When you think about it you need to carry a fair amount of documentation to prove who you are and maintain access to your funds and friends and family.
We suggest that you do a pre trip cull of your wallet or purse. Take ALL the documentation out and slap them on top of a photocopier and copy or scan them all. You could place the scans on a flash drive and take them with you. Now thin out the cards etc to just what you need on your trip. If you are like me you will end up with half your wallet contents and a much easier to carry wallet.
Be sure that you have an itinerary and that at least two people back home have a copy of it. That way if something happens you have a link back home where they can take some action to find you. Imagine how difficult you would be to find if your contacts only knew you were "on vacation" or "in Europe". Being a sailor I am familiar with the concept of filing a passage plan and advising your contacts what to do if you are overdue at your destination. The same sort of thing applies when you travel.
Travelers have wrestled with the problem of pick pockets and theft for hundreds of years. You can purchase inexpensive money belts or wallets that fit under your clothing. You can also carry two wallets. One with bait in in and the other your real one. How far do you go in protecting your property during a robbery? That depends but common sense tells you to just had over the wallet instead of getting shot or knifed over a few dollars. The best idea is to not get into that situation but that's fine to say and not always possible. Even a big, strong, agile person is not much of an advantage over a mean spirited little wimp with a gun or knife.
Personally, I think that technology has come to the rescue of the traveler in the form of easy to obtain and use thumb sized computer flash drives which can hold huge amounts of information. You can copy your passport and all your wallet contents and place them on the drive. You can include pictures, business information, information about the products you make or sell, your phone directory, addresses, whatever you want access to. This is not generally appreciated by the modern traveler or by modern guide books. You can also use a flash memory device from your camera and download images from a scanner to it. That way you can actually use your digital camera to view the documents and information. We offer a link here to a fantastic deal for an 8 gig sd memory card. If your camera takes this size card there is enough storage here to store a huge amount of data, images, etc. If less capacity is required we also have a 2 gig size card.
Digital Cameras. Here is a good one to take. Cannon has consistently scored amongst the highest and this camera is the right size too.
International Driver's Permit IDP a permit allowing you to drive internationally with your existing home driver's license. Available via the Canadian Automobile Club in Canada. or the American Auto Club in the USA. A good article on the IDP with a warning about other scams which claim to offer you an "international drivers license is located on this wikipedia page. The cost is $15 and a photo must be provided.
Passport Canada how to apply for a passport. US Department of State to apply for a US passport. Home Office UK passport application.
Traveler.com free space for your pictures and also provides a free travel blog. Allow friends and family to follow your journey.
Free Travel Blog free space for blog and photos with maps to chart your progress. How come its free? Well as we all know nothing is free because ultimately somebody needs to pay the expenses. How they do it is via affiliate programs so if you click on one of the links they make some revenue from it. But fair enough they do provide services at no cost to you too so its a two way street!
Travellers Point free online travel diary to keep friends and family in touch with your travels free photos maps etc
Fuzzy Travel free travel diary with maps and unlimited photos.
Travel Journal entry for Wikipedia -backgrounder on keeping travel diary's with the growth of online free travel diaries and the reduction of post card usage.
Checklist for the Traveler
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