Everything You Need to Know Before Your First Overseas Trip

With great excitement comes great planning.

This post is presented in partnership with Optus. Students can go in the running to win a VIP NYE experience in New York City for you and three BFFs via the Optus Student Hub. Enter here!

Travelling the world is an exciting prospect for any young person in this increasingly interconnected globe. The chance to experience how people outside of your neighbourhood, state and country live and play is not only fun but pretty downright educational. So, that makes it necessary, right?

However, once you decide to embark on a great adventure to unknown lands (especially if you and your travel buddies haven't done it before), it can be a steep learning curve.

To help settle those butterflies, we're sharing some important facts and tips to help you navigate the choppy waters of first-time overseas travel.

Visas and passports? Huh?

First up, you'll need a passport to a) leave Australia, b) enter another country and c) be let back into Australia. In other words, no passport equals no travel.

To grab your passport, head to the Australian Passport Office site and follow all the steps. Remember, it takes at least three weeks to get yours, so that's one thing you definitely can't leave until the last minute.

If you already have one, check the expiry date, as most countries won't grant you entry if it's due to expire within six months. This one's especially important to triple check if you're still using your children's passport, as they only last five years compared to adults' 10-year passports.

Once you've sorted out your passport, you'll need to research whether or not a visa is required. Thankfully, most places won't require a visa for short-term travel plans, but your Australian passport won't get you into every country visa-free.

To help you out, the government provides the Smartraveller service, which allows you to search each country's visa requirements, and to alert you of any political unrest or environmental issues, as well as required vaccines.

... which reminds us, get your vaccines sorted.

Just because you can probably get away with avoiding vaccinations for most places, it doesn't mean you should. To be safe, head to your local GP and tell them about your trip.

Certain areas are prone to yellow fever outbreaks and you'll need to get a vaccination against it if you hope to visit the country and get allowed back into Australia.

Have the basics of the local language down.

Nobody's expecting you to be fluent in every foreign language but learning a few key words and phrases can be extremely helpful in countries where English is less commonly spoken. 

Not only is it respectful to demonstrate your attempt to learn some words and phrases, it's also just really practical.

If it's an English-speaking country, it's still handy to look up slang and dialects just to avoid any awkward encounters (like if you end up trying to purchase "thongs" in the United States).

Figure out how you're going to pay for things.

Obviously, you're going to pay for things with money. It's the method we're talking here. See, there are numerous travel cards and then there's good old-fashioned cash.

In some places around the world, your credit/debit cards will be mostly useless if the place favours a cash economy. In these cases, it's best to withdraw a larger sum of cash before going, rather than smaller sums as you need them, to avoid paying more in the inevitable transaction and currency conversion fees.

Pro-tip: Also, make sure to alert your bank that you're going overseas to avoid the prickly process of unlocking your account. And check your bank card's policy to make sure it won't be swallowed whole for entering a foreign ATM!

Research where you're going to visit.

Most people research a bit about the place they've just spent a lot of money to visit. But are you researching the right things, rather than simply the tourist hot spots or the cheapest accommodation?

While you might be able to score a hostel room for an absolute steal, if it's two hours away from the city centre where all the attractions are, you might end up spending more on public transport than if you had just stayed somewhere closer for a little bit more money. These are the sort of realisations you might get if you do a quick—and necessary—Google.

Look into the food, the lesser-known attractions, the anti-attractions, the best neighbourhoods and the worst, not to mention what the locals like to do for fun as well as what they don't like. It'll help make any interactions a whole lot less awkward if the language is going to be a barrier too.

Of course, leaving a little bit as a surprise is also nice as long as it isn't cultural etiquette or related to safety (for instance, the process of crossing roads in Vietnam might be a shock if you haven't learned about them beforehand).

Sort out transport to your accommodation.

Maybe you booked the cheapest flight available and didn't realise the arrival time was after midnight. (It's okay, we've all done it.) After getting off a flight, which, let's face it, was probably too long, the last thing you want to do is stress about connecting to Wi-Fi to figure out the most affordable, convenient and safe way to get to your accommodation so you can shed your bags.

Before jumping on your flight out of Australia, look up where your accommodation is and how far it is from the airport. If public transport is out of the question, make sure you check which taxi companies are safe and reliable, and make a note of it somewhere. Getting directions in the country's official language (especially, if it doesn't use the Latin alphabet) helps too.

Budget, budget, budget!

Set aside enough money for accommodation, food and emergencies (those things are vital) and whatever's left over can be your spending money. A good method is writing down how much you're budgeting per meal, per day, and factoring a reasonable amount for accommodation (which really depends on where and how you stay).

Now, just keep to your estimates and you're on your way to making good, budget-appropriate memories.

This last piece of advice is perhaps the most important of all.

TAKE. PICTURES. OF. EVERYTHING.

Yes, you should live in the moment, and that means sometimes avoiding distractions on your phone. But, your memory of those moments is usually (sadly) finite. Photos of you doing dumb (or model-esque, you've got two choices) poses will help you relive all those great, carefree times in the years to follow. Videos are even better to give you a more wholesome memento.

Bon voyage, travel bugs.

Students can go in the running to win a VIP NYE experience in New York City for you and three BFFs via the Optus Student Hub. Enter here!

Header Image: iStock.com/Eloi_Omella