Some countries insist that you show some means of support (credit cards or cash), or have evidence of an . . . → Read More: Tickets, Money, Credit Cards]]>

Some countries insist that you show some means of support (credit cards or cash), or have evidence of an address where you will be staying (hotel, friends, etc.) while visiting. You may also need to show return or onward air tickets.

This is mainly to show that you don’t intend to stay for an extended time in the country (illegally), and you won’t become a burden to the state (and won’t need to be flown home at their expense, for example).

This is known as the ‘sufficent funds’ requirement. New Zealand, for example, requires that you have about $15 per day of intended stay. Canada will turn you away if you can’t show you have ‘enough’ money.

Any credit card (regardless if it has a low limit or is ‘maxed out’) should be OK to show you have sufficient funds at most borders.

It helps if you look OK when crossing the border, too, (i.e. not poor or dishevelled). Being clean shaven and wearing clean clothes just for this purpose is a good idea.

You can find more about taking money and credit cards with you in the ‘Money‘ section of this website.

Taking large amounts of your own currency for changing when you arrive is probably one of the worst options . . . → Read More: Taking Cash]]>

Taking large amounts of your own currency for changing when you arrive is probably one of the worst options for carrying money.

Your exchange rate will be retail, which is always going to be more expensive that wholesale.

Also, in most places, the person doing the exchanging will always want their little “cut” from the transaction.

Banks and hotels are the best places to change money but you can still get ripped off by the unscrupulous. Keep an eye on the daily rates to avoid this.

Remember, there may also be a fee for currency conversion so always ask about this before handing over your money.

Also, cash is the least secure way of carrying money, once it is lost or stolen that is usually it.



If you do bring cash from home, make sure any bills you bring are clean and brand new (you will have less trouble changing them).

Similarly, don’t accept torn or worn money in developing countries because you will have trouble getting rid of it.

And never exchange money with anyone you don’t know (people off the street, for example), even if they appear to be giving you a great rate.

The black market for foreign currencies in some countries is driven by restrictions on foreign currency ownership and artificially high exchange rates.

As well as being illegal in most countries, changing money on the street puts you at risk of getting counterfeit notes, being short-changed, or even robbed (handing over cash to people you meet on the street is never a good idea).

All that said, some people advise changing and bringing a little local currency with you, if only to avoid the possible hassle of doing it when you arrive at the airport and you need some loose change for buses or snacks.

However, foreign currency can be expensive to buy at home, and for the small amounts involved it usually isn’t much of of a problem to buy it when you arrive.

If you do get it at home, though, try to find a commission-free provider. In the UK this would be someone like Marks & Spencer, Lloyds TSB, the Post Office or Thomas Cook. But check exchange rates before choosing as they can vary somewhat between each of them.

Ultimately, when choosing between the methods above of getting to your money, remember that there are usually only a few percentage points difference between each of them. But it is worth knowing about them, nevertheless, so you can make an informed choice at the appropriate time.

Once upon a time, everyone who travelled carried traveller’s cheques, but not anymore. Nowadays, credit cards are the norm.

Once, whilst returning from a trip to Italy, I met a man on a train who was travelling dressed . . . → Read More: Document Security]]>

Once, whilst returning from a trip to Italy, I met a man on a train who was travelling dressed only in a swim suit and a towel. He had left his bag on the beach for just a few moments to paddle in the sea. When he returned it was gone, along with his passport, money, tickets and all of his clothes (apart from his towel).

As well as a lesson on the importance of looking after your possessions as you travel, strangely enough this story also shows how little you really need to take with you. People (including myself) made small contributions to his funds and food supplies (although none had donated any clothes when I saw him), and sympathetic train porters and guards had let him on the train without many questions.

A number of people each year have everything stolen from them as they travel around the world. Most just go to the local shop and buy what they need and go on with their trip. This is made more difficult if you have no access to money, and you definitely will have trouble crossing international borders without your passport.

Of course, the best thing is to avoid getting into situations such as this in the first place. Some ways of doing this, such as physical security (money belts, etc.), are covered in the ‘Packing’ section under ‘Security‘. The following gives some basic tips and ideas for protecting and gaining easy access to your essential travel documents.

Making Copies of Everything

With the exception of cash, there is almost no paper or document that cannot eventually be replaced while travelling if you keep a copy or a record of it. You will probably not lose any of the items below but if you do and have taken elementary precautions, you will be able to get them replaced with the least amount of trouble.



The way I usually do this is to gather together all the documents listed in the ‘Papers‘ section of this website. Then I empty out my travel wallet / money belt and make photocopies of everything.

You can use the photocopier’s zoom function to make everything really small (but readable) to fit two or three documents onto one page. You can also copy on both sides of the paper.

It is not necessary to photocopy every page of your passport, just the photo page and current visas, perhaps. This should make it a lot easier to replace them if lost or stolen. Also, take a copy of your birth certificate to help you get a new passport.

At the same time I make photocopies of all the financial information listed in the ‘Money‘ section of this website, such as credit cards, traveller’s cheque serial numbers, insurance policy numbers, bank accounts, social security number, the serial number on your camera. and so on.

Another, more high-tech, way of duplicating important information is to use a scanner to make electronic copies and then store them on a computer or removable storage. Once a document is scanned it can then be stored using an online file storage service, or even emailed to yourself for retrieval from anywhere in the world (even if you are only left with your swim suit).

If you don’t have a scanner then the local copy shop should be able to help out. As a last resort you can use a digital camera to take pictures of credit cards, passport pages, etc.

Another good idea is to give the photcopies/scans to a trusted friend at home whom you can call on the phone from anywhere in the world to retrieve the information (well, the text and numbers parts, that is, not pictures, obviously). Or if you are travelling with a companion then you can also swap documents with each other.

Encryption

If most of this sounds quite insecure (i.e. having multiple copies of everything, including credit card and bank account numbers thereby multiplying opportunities for loss or theft), then don’t worry! There are some tricks to make the copies more secure.

The safest ways to do this are usually electronic. Scanned documents saved as text files or pictures (jpg’s, gif’s etc.), can be encrypted and compressed (using, for example, Winzip with a password). Email and server storage are quite secure, too. However, bear in mind that this is completely dependent on how strong your passwords are. Also, be careful when retrieving your data from a computer that isn’t yours (for example, in an Internet cafe) as key-stroke logging software may be installed.

A good way to avoid this, and also for securing paper copies, is not to write down the real numbers at all, but simply to alter them in some manner known only to yourself. One method I used to use was to alter one digit (the last number of a credit card number, for example) by, say, adding a 1 to it. Reversing the number can work too, as well as complicated things like multiplying the whole thing by, say, 2 or 6, and so on (and remembering which!).

Portable Storage

Recently, I have been using various portable methods of storing encrypted documents. Most small electronic devices around these days can be used for this, some more obvious than others.

For example, I have encrypted zip files with scans of my passport(s), financial data (credit cards, traveller’s cheque numbers, etc.), licenses, guide books, and so on, copied to a small flash drive which fits quite nicely in my Eagle Creek all terrain money belt (shown here).

Just as a test to see what is possible, I have also made copies of the same zip file onto my camera (copied via USB from my hard drive to the camera’s memory stick folder), my phone’s memory (using Bluetooth to connect) and my iPod (enabling disk use and copying it to the Notes folder), plus I have emailed it to myself as an attachment. And, of course, the original file stays on my laptop.

(If anyone wants any help doing things like the above then email me and I can explain further. If there is enough demand I will write a separate page on it on this website).

There are a number of ways of carrying money, or at least getting access to it, as you travel.

Whichever way you choose to finance your trip, how far your money goes will depend on which countries . . . → Read More: Budgeting]]>

Whichever way you choose to finance your trip, how far your money goes will depend on which countries you intend to visit, how (well) you intend to live, and the activities which you undertake whilst there.

If you are on a modest budget then don’t spend all your money on expensive gear. You will be constantly worrying about having it lost or stolen, and you probably won’t have enough left for food and accommodation. In many cases you can just take what your already have. See the ‘Packing’ section for hints on what to take and what to leave behind.

To make your money last longer you can (obviously) sleep and travel by the cheapest means possible, do lots of hiking, and limit yourself to free activities (for example, looking at the outside of famous buildings and monuments but not paying to go inside).

But bear in mind, if you do choose to live on a shoestring, you will always come across unexpected situations where you will want (or need) to pay for things.

For example, you would expect that something like the famous Meteor Crater, a 4,000 ft diameter hole in the middle of the Arizona desert, would be easily accessible for viewing (as it was in the movie ‘Starman’), and therefore, free.

However, when I arrived there I found it was completely fenced off and run as a privately owned and managed “attraction”, and inaccessible if you didn’t pay the $15 admission fee.

So keep a small emergency fund for these unknowns so you don’t miss out on things you always wanted to see, or return from your trip owing money.



Work out a rough budget for travel, accommodation and food. Include your air tickets, rail passes or tickets, local transportation, lodging, passports and visas, immunizations and health supplies, clothing, luggage, food, restaurant meals, tours and general daily expenses, by day and by country if you can.

Doing this should help you avoid the usual budget traveller’s mistake of spending a lot at the beginning of a trip, less in the middle, and next to nothing near the end.

However, avoid trying to live too cheaply all of the time as it is almost always a false economy. You may save money by staying in the the cheapest hotel and eating at the cheapest restaurant, but you may also end up living in the worst part of town in a terrible place, and you may get food poisoning or even mugged.

And hotels can be a lot cheaper than you think, especially if you book them at the last minute. I regularly use priceline.com to book hotels and I save up to 50% on regular room rates and have stayed in some very nice hotels for very little (sometimes for not much more than at a hostel).

In general, try to play it by ear and be a little flexible. Pay only a little extra and you might get great accommodation with nice views and excellent food.

After all, one of the best things about places like France, Spain and (more so nowadays), the UK, is that you can eat at some of the world’s finest restaurants.

Remember, this may be the only time you visit the places to which you are travelling, so don’t spoil it when a small amount of money could make a big difference.

It is actually possible to travel extensively without money, or at least, with very little.

Every year there are . . . → Read More: Financing Your Trip]]>

It is actually possible to travel extensively without money, or at least, with very little.

Every year there are a few people that start out on long trips with no money at all, whilst others do so with seemingly unlimited budgets. Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes.

How ever much you have, it has been said that is it better to travel with very little money than to not travel at all.

Plenty of travel websites and blogs exist on the Internet, many of them document the experiences of budget travellers. For example, this one, which makes fascinating reading (check out the FAQ section).

There are two things to think about where travel money is concerned, getting hold of some, and spending it wisely once you have it. Getting access to it while you are away is covered in the ‘Money’ section of this website under ‘Carrying‘, and keeping it safe is convered in the ‘Packing’ section under ‘ Security‘.

Saving, Working, Winging it

There are quite a few options for financing a trip. One is to work for a while in your home country, saving enough to cover all the foreseeable expenses and then taking a credit card as a back-up for the unforseeable ones.

Another option (and the one I usually choose), is to accumulate the bulk of your likely expenditure before you leave, but to supplement it by working whilst travelling.

Or you can take very little money and rely on the kindness of strangers you meet on the road. I once read of someone who started out with $400, travelled around the world for two years by hitchhiking, crossing oceans on freighters, and continents by jumping trains, sleeping rough or staying at people’s houses (people he met on the way), yet still returned with a couple of hundred dollars to spare.