Summer Travel Organizing Tips
These summer travel organizing tips will help you have the best experience possible with your summer travel plans. After two years of pandemic disruption to travel, families are finally making up for those canceled trips with a huge surge in travel. The more prepared you are for your travel, the better.
International Travel Planning
Most countries have reopened their borders for international travel from the United States, but there are still several steps you need to take to have a successful trip. And returning after the trip can present its own set of challenges, since the U.S. still requires a negative COVID test within 24 hours of travel (these cannot be home tests either, as they must be in person or video supervised tests).
To be as organized as possible for your international travel plans this summer, be sure to review country-specific travel information. For example, to travel to Canada (by car or by air) you must register your travel using Canada’s ArriveCAN mobile app, to which you will upload your proof of vaccination and travel information. You must be vaccinated to enter Canada, and you can still be prevented from crossing the border if you have any COVID symptoms. The UK, on the other hand, has removed all of their travel restrictions. You don’t have to quarantine, complete a passenger locator form, or take COVID-19 tests before or after arriving.
Each country has its own guidance; to minimize interruptions to your trip, be sure to review each country’s government pages on traveling to their country for the most up to date guidance.
Summer Travel Organizing: What to Pack
Whether you’re traveling abroad or staying closer to home, there’s a bit of magic involved in packing well. Pack too much, and you’ll pay for the weight at the airport. Most airlines restrict luggage to one checked back per person of no more than 50 pounds. Go even slightly over those 50 pounds and it can cost you as much as $200. Knowing that, it can often be better to leave some of the items you might want to pack at home and buy them at your destination instead.
Packing Liquids
If you’re bringing things like hand sanitizer, lotion, nose spray, or other liquids in your carry on, remember these rules:
You can only take what will fit in a one-quart size clear resealable bag
Each individual bottle or tube can only have 100 milliliters of content (3.4 ounces)
In most airports, this bag of liquids must be removed from your carry-on
You can bring a water bottle, but it must be empty. If you get to security with a water bottle that has liquid in it, it will most likely be confiscated.
Packing Medications
Be sure to pack any medication you will need. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you need extra medication before you travel. Some insurances will pay for up to three months of your medication. It is advisable to carry the medications in your carryon in case your luggage is lost. However, you should also carry a copy of your prescription, in case there is any question about why you’re traveling with the medication.
Domestic Travel
Not everyone is planning to leave the country this summer, but that doesn’t mean a summer trip isn’t in order. Whether you’re flying somewhere else or just getting on the road, there are ways to make your summer travel more organized. The one good thing about traveling domestically is that there are no masking or vaccination requirements. However, if you are immunocompromised or worried about COVID risk when traveling this year, you can get information about infection rates and vaccination rates on government websites for each state and most counties.
Because fuel prices remain so high, flying might be more cost-effective than a road trip! Car rentals have also become more expensive, in part because fleets are shrinking with the supply chain issues affecting the availability of new cars.
We thought we’d arrived at this point last year, and even wrote “5 Tips for More Organized Travel” offering travel tips to help you have more fun on your next trip, only to have everything shut down again.
This time, it seems we’re really here. Allianz expects a 600% increase in international travel this summer and AirBnb reported more than double the number of bookings for the first quarter of 2022 than 2019.
While some people may still need to take precautions, summer travel season is here. Our summer travel organizing tips can help you make the most of your summer vacation plans.