Venturing to a foreign country on your own for the very first time can be daunting. Here are more these travel tips that you must know to get the best of your solo journey.

1. Prepare A Medical Alert Bracelet

Contrary to popular belief, medical alert bracelets are not only for people with chronic medical ailments or specific food allergies. Imagine if you are caught in a life-or-death situation in a foreign land and you happen to be unconscious at that time.

The bracelet will provide your rescuers an insight into your medical history which will be very useful in diagnosing your ailments and administrating your treatment. A regular plastic bracelet with your medical information printed and laminated on it would be good enough. The details should include the basics such as your name, blood type, medical ailments and medication that you are allergic to.

2. Pack A Water Bottle

Not only do you get to save the environment, you can also save cold hard cash by doing so. You can fill your bottle with drinking water from water dispensers or in some countries, tap water is good enough for oral consumption. For instance, let’s say you are traveling to Japan and you decided to drop by the convenience store to grab a drink. A 500 ml bottle of mineral water, priced at 150 yen, is RM5.60 after conversion compared to a bottle filled with tap water which costs you zero Ringgit.

3. Install a Language Translation Application

Have you ever been in a situation that requires you to communicate with someone with nothing but hand gestures and facial expressions while praying deep inside that they are able to fathom what it is that you are trying to convey? If that sounds familiar to you, then you will need a language translation app.

Apps like Google Translate and Microsoft Translator voice come with cool features such as speech-to-speech translation, handwriting translation and even image translation which is definitely handy when you need to place an order in an eating establishment that doesn’t come with an illustrated menu.

Read Also : Ways to Stretch Your Ringgit When Travelling Solo

4. Carry A Dummy Wallet

As much as we dislike thinking of the worst-case scenarios, stories of people getting robbed at knifepoint as they travel alone in a foreign land do happen. Be proactive and prepare a fake wallet that you can use to fend off potential muggers. To make your fake wallet a lot more convincing, you can include things like receipts, loose change, an old membership card that’s not in use anymore or photos of family members.

5. Scan/Take Photos of Your Personal Identification Documents and Cards

As much as we like to think that we are careful and conscientious people when it comes to traveling, unfortunate situations (like misplacing your passport as you rush to catch your commuting flight!) are a lot more common than we give credit for.

Thus, you may want to take photos of your passport, identification card, credit card and ATM card and store it somewhere that only you have access to like a cloud storage service (DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, etc) or use a basic file management application that allows you to hide documents from prying eyes.

Having a digital photograph/scan of your passport and other important travel documents will help greatly when you are lodging a report to replace the missing documents that you do not possess.

6. Know Which Number to Contact in Cases of Emergency

With no access to the internet and nobody understanding the language that you speak, the only way for you to get help in cases of emergency is to look for the nearest police station. But what if there isn’t one nearby, or you don’t know how to find one?

Having an address book or small business card containing all the numbers (and people) that you can contact the situation of an emergency will help immensely. Ensure that you have the number of your embassy and consulate of the country that you’re planning to visit, as well as other numbers such as the bank that you have applied for your debit/credit card with.

7. Keep Travel Insurance in Mind

Sure, personal and medical insurance can cover for you in instances such as medical ailments that require hospitalisation and such. But, it doesn’t cover situations like lost baggage, trip cancellations/delays, medical emergencies and rental car damage, which is just the tip of the iceberg of things that are covered under travel insurance.

If cost is a concern, no worries as you can always look and compare the best travel insurance policy that caters to your budget and needs over at our website. Don’t let common inconveniences mar your overall holiday experience, after all, it’s a small price to pay for your peace of mind.

Can’t wait to embark on your next getaway and create more memorable experiences? Head to our Travel Getaway Campaign to find out more and head over to Agoda to check out some great hotel deals for your trip.

Are there any other solo travel tips that you would like to add to our list? Just let us know what are your thoughts and comments in the comment box below.

 

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• Agoda
• Solo Travel
• Travelling Tips