The worst part of any vacation or travel are the hours just before departure when you find yourself asking "Is it worth leaving when it causes so much stress?". Hopefully, you end up having a great trip anyway - at least if you manage to forgive and forget the classic stress argument you had with your spouse as you were pulling out of the driveway (okay, I'm personalizing here).
Here are a few tips to make your next trip a little easier:
Create a "Vacation" folder in your computer - Keep a vacation checklist here you can paste into your calendar when you start planning your trip. Add to it as ideas come to you. It's also good to have a document where you can transcribe your vacation phone and email messages; when you're in a hurry, you'll appreciate being able to read a pre-written message into your voice mail, and be able to simply paste a vacation message into your autoresponder.
Use a packing list - Download a great packing checklist (and read some wonderful tips on "The Art and Science of Travelling Light") from http://www.onebag.com/ . Put the packing list in your suitcase or nightstand.
Label a manila folder with your destination - Collect all the paper (tickets, boarding passes, maps, conference agendas, sightseeing ideas, etc) here as it arrives. When you're ready to leave, just take the folder with you. No need to be collecting paper from multiple locations at the last minute. [I love to hike, so I often include a print out of a local hike near my destination from localhikes.com; runners might be interested in mapmyrun.com] .
Be creative with your cell phone camera - Take a picture of your bags to show claims personnel in case they are lost. How about a picture of the location of your car? The room number on the door of your hotel room - it's not on your key.
Print your boarding pass before you leave - almost all airlines allow you to print your boarding pass from their website 24 hours in advance of your departure time.
What's your best tip? Please share it by adding a comment below.
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