International Travel Tips for the Most Hassle-Free Trip in 2025

Hey there. In today's video, you are going to learn international travel tips for every passenger. I'm going to show you the best international travel tips for your vacation to another country. When I'm traveling to a foreign country, the first travel tip is to check the weather so that I can then compare my travel outfits with my shoes that are based on the excursions in that weather for that particular day during my international vacation. Another travel tip is to pack adapters or a converter. And here's a quick travel tip for whether or not you need to pack a converter. If you are traveling to another country and you want to pack your curling iron or your hairdryer, you will need a converter. And then to plug everything into their hotels in that country, you need adapters because all of our plugs have a different shape. My main tip is to pack multiple adapters because some of the hotels are older electronic wise and they only have one or two outlets in the entire hotel room. And if you're traveling with somebody else, you may need them. Because of that, I also recommend that you pack a great power bank or a portable charger that will charge your phone after you've been using videos all day and you haven't gotten back to the hotel room to recharge everything. They easily fit inside your crossbody bag too. You also need to pack one pair of water repellent shoes based on the weather or just in case the weatherman was wrong. My tip is to have that water repellent shoe blend with multiple outfits just in case you need it for a few days. Do not miss my waterproof shoes video. It lists like nine different shoes that are for all different seasons that are also supportive and comfortable for you. For a long flight to an international destination, my tip is to pack multiple layers. I would start with a base t-shirt that is short sleeved because at night for all night flights, sometimes the airplane is a lot warmer or it could be freezing cold. Do not forget to wear compression socks for that long flight. My favorite ones are really old Dr. Scholl's compression socks. I believe they are available from Walmart. Amazon does not let us put their products in the shopping tab, but everything else I should be able to make pop up there or in the first comment for you. Another tip is to have your cords for your electronics organized or in some type of travel case. One travel hack, do not forget the hack to put a little piece of tape, fingernail polish on the plug or the block that goes into the wall as well as your device and the cord. It just helps you not be stressed. My travel tip is to pack a short sleeve shirt for your pajamas because a lot of hotels in different countries do not have the force of airflow, maybe no ceiling fans. It's a little stagnant at night. When I was in Belgium for my Christmas market trip, I was so hot at night because they had turned off the air conditioning function since it was December, but inside the room it was really warm. So I wore my short sleeve exercise shirt every night for pajamas. Another travel tip is to pack light layers for being out and about while touring because there is stagnant airflow in a lot of the train stations, the Metro buses, and you want to take those outer layers off. If you're traveling in the winter, remember that you're going to be warm underneath your coat so you do not need super bulky sweaters and long sleeve shirts to be out and about or in the restaurant when you take off that coat. One travel tip to save space if you're like me and only pack in carry-on suitcases. As a pilot's wife, we have flown standby most of the time and we have always packed in carry-on suitcases and here's what I do. I try not to pack an outer layer like a sweatshirt or a jacket that has a hood for inside the airplane because it's bulky. So I like the wide collar, the half pullover, zip up pullovers, or even a hoodie that does not have a hood attached. Another travel tip is to make sure you know that country's rules for bringing medicine into that country. One travel tip is to ask your doctor, not the pharmacist, to prescribe you a smaller amount in a plasti form, that foil-lined individual peel form, so that you can take fewer and you have less bulk that you need to pack. I have a video that goes through prescription medicine, over-the-counter pills, and over-the-counter liquid medicine, but then after about four minutes, I give you all these other scenarios. So if you watch that video, make sure you look at all the different scenarios so that you are not confused by the end of the video. I thought of some other travel tips that may help you, so I'm going to insert these now and then the rest will be a little later. If you do not have global entry, it's worth it to me. You get pre-check for all of your domestic flights for free. If you do that, I have a whole video that explains how to get it easily, and it really was easy. A travel hack that not many Americans know about is the CBP app, Customs Border Patrol. To me, it's hard to use. I'll put a link in the description paragraph below this video for you to research. It's clunky to me because in most airports, you cannot get the 5G because of the towers interfering with the airplane radar anymore. It's a shorter line other than regular customs if you're entering America after a trip. If you are going to Japan or some other countries, your passport cannot expire within six months of you visiting that country. So check it right now. If you have not put your email address and name into the STEP program, it's a way that the federal government can contact you if there is civil unrest or worse, and they can also send you updates. I'll put a link to that below too. There are certain agricultural items that you cannot bring back into our country, but my main travel tip is just declare it either on a form or tell the officer like I did with my cheese leaving Amsterdam and entering the U.S. with a humongous block of cheese. I'll put a link for you. This is a travel tip that can change everything for your trip. If there's an emergency and you need to call the 9-1-1 of that country, I will list that all of the numbers below for you. Find your country you're visiting and put in that emergency number in your contacts. Losing your passport in another country is one of the worst case scenarios I can think of, but I have a link for you that will tell you the U.S. embassy for that country, okay? Do what I said and make a picture of the barcode, but here is the information for that country's embassy. Another travel tip is going to help you feel less stressed because you have packed a cross-body bag that has slash-resistant straps and body panels, and that way it will very much slow down a pickpocket thief, for instance, from stealing your purse. I do have a video that I'll make pop up that has all kinds of tips and tricks that you as a traveler can do besides having slash-resistant cross-body strap. Let me know if it would be helpful to you for a video of what I packed for my river cruise. I don't know if all of you have already gone on river cruise bucket list trips and you're done with that. Let me know. Here's a cross-body bag. This is big to me, but I needed it the times I was in Europe for my river cruise trip because I had to pack a little umbrella, which I highly recommend. It's fantastic, and it does fit in here with a glasses case and a wallet, but I have two different bigger ones that I tried probably about four or five years ago that I will also link in the first comment. Another travel tip is to embrace the culture. My recommendation is to go on a tour, a food tour on your first full day there. One reason is you get to see the safe areas from a local guide. I recommend get your guide. I'll put one of their food tours for Spain that we used and in Italy, Rome, and you also get real culture. You learn the history of that food while you're eating all these different locations. It's our first thing that we research when we know we're going somewhere. Always pack eyedrops. One thing that I do for international travel is I add a little vial or a little bottle of eyedrops because the air is so dry and it helps with jet lag. If you cannot get into your hotel room after that long all night flight, having eye refreshness with eyedrops is going to be so helpful. Especially midway through the day. And here's what I do. After airport security, I will take out my eyedrop vial for the flight, but take it out of the liquids bag along with your hand lotion that is super thick. My favorite is Gold Bond for diabetics. No smell and it's super thick. And put them in this little flight pouch. Another travel tip for international destinations is to have one or two outfits that are monochromatic because if you are traveling during the day in that casual outfit with black on black or navy blue, navy blue, and the shoes kind of match or blend, then it will be easy to go into a dressier restaurant and look pulled together enough for a dressier restaurant without having to go back to your hotel and change clothes. Okay, before your international trip, you're going to research excursions. Know what excursions are going to need you to be able to do so that you know the shoes that you can pack after you've checked the weather and you know the outfits for that excursion as well. Those outfits will then mix and match with all of your travel wardrobe as well as the water repellent shoes I mentioned. Okay, another travel tip is to pack those tide sink packets. They are liquids. Okay, you can wash four shirts in one sink or your bathtub with that one sink packet or a travel hack is to just use your hotel shampoo to wash clothes. One travel hack that I shared on Instagram is that I like to pack in compression cubes. While you're on vacation, you are going to have your dirty laundry in a certain location and when it's time to pack to come all the way back to your home, you are going to put your dirty laundry in like the two large compression cubes. And then when you get home, you just take those to your laundry basket and dump them out and you're done. They're not sitting on a sofa or the corner of your room for weeks. If you are traveling with a CPAP machine to another country, here is the travel tip. Ask your doctor if you can get away with only using tap water for that vacation. My mom's doctor told her she could do that so she never has to worry about it. When we were in Italy, it was so hard trying to find the first time we went years ago before she knew this travel tip. It was so hard to find lots of like a whole gallon, since they don't sell gallons really there, of distilled water. And it was, we would only find maybe a liter at every other pharmacy that we tried. And a CPAP machine does not count as liquid. One tip is when we were coming back from Banff, Canada, their airport security officers wanted her to take out the CPAP machine motor and put it in the bin to go through airport security. So just be prepared to know how to find that if you're taking it. When you do land in another country, one tip is to make sure you have packed or that you buy that day just some snacks, maybe some cheese and bread to eat when you do wake up at midnight or at 2am in the middle of the night from jet lag. That might help you fall back asleep. And then here's an important tip to help you beat jet lag that first day when your hotel room's not ready yet and you're trying to stay awake because you've heard from everybody that you have to stay awake the entire day. As we age, we are finding that that does not help. So we're going to take a nap this next time when we go to Lake Como. Here's the tip. You're going to pack the little hydration packets. And then during your day, like late afternoon, you're going to pour half of the hydration packet mainly because they have a lot of sodium, but it's true sodium. It's not just like table salt or whatever. It's the nutrient that our body needs, sodium, if that makes sense. Use half the packet in one bottle of water. And then like an hour later, use the other half of the packet in another entire bottle of water and just chug them both hours. Because it gives you the boost from real nutrients and it has B12 in it as well. And then you're also hydrating with more water. So you're going to feel more alert, which also helps you defend yourself or be prepared for pickpocketing thieves that are targeting tired, lazy, non-observant Americans. I have a fantastic video I'll put near the end for ways that you can outsmart pickpockets. One other tip that I found out after my second trip to Europe, and that is to get cash as soon as possible from an ATM, preferably for safety, an indoor ATM in a bank. You can ask your hotel where one is. And here's why. Both times I got large bills. I could not pay for a one glass of hot chocolate or mulled wine at the Christmas market with a $100 cash Euro bill. They want coins. Okay, so your first day you would pay for a sit down restaurant with that large bill so that you have smaller coins, especially to use public toilets. Another travel tip is to read the fine print of your credit card for all of the travel benefits that you receive for free or for your $500 yearly payment for that travel card. I have lost out on so many benefits because I do not read the fine print. I forget so many times. All right, do not forget to watch this video that pops up for the pickpocketing tips and tricks that you as a traveler can be prepared to do. All right, thanks for your time and have such a wonderful trip. It's going to be wonderful. You'll never see the people in airport security ever again. So just do your best and just rest and have fun making memories.