The key to a holiday gone right is usually the planning. Most of the issues you will face with airports, hotels and border crossings will become a tedious reality with insufficient planning. These problems can generally be prevented with some time and effort.

You can start planning with your passport and visa research. Make sure you check your passport expiration significantly before the planned trip because many countries require there to be at least six months before travel to your passport’s expiration date. In the case of visas, some countries require them to be arranged months before your trip. So try not to leave it to the last possible minute.

Put some thought into how you are going to pack, and plan both what the likely weather will be as well as the activities you will do when you are there. There are also luggage restrictions that may limit what you can pack and plan for the last minute too. Be sure to plan the travel insurance, currency, transfers, meds and travel vaccinations too. These won’t become issues on their own, but leave them to the last minute and you will ruin your travel plans. The guides here show the main planning considerations so you can work through them at your own pace.