Gap Year Travel Essentials
Before you embark on a year out there are all kinds of gap year travel essentials you need to think about. Most gap year travel essentials are purely common sense, but it's important you don't leave everything so last minute that you end up forgetting or neglecting something that's important.
My Online Safe - My Online Safe has been created to help solve the problem of dealing with lost valuables whilst you are travelling. Before you leave you record details of credit cards, passports, travel documents etc, so that you can print off a list to present to the police and insurance companies if needed.
Gap year travel essentials - Passport and visas!Having a passport and any necessary visas are two gap year travel essentials you definitely won't get very far without. It's not unheard of for gap year travellers to arrive at their departure airport having either forgotten their passport or presented one which is due to expire in a couple of months. Either way, you can't get on a plane. Visas are a gap year travel essential that Real Gap has loads of experience in helping to arrange - we aim to take as much as of the hassle out of the process as possible.
An absolutely vital gap year travel essential is taking out some adequate travel insurance before you depart. There's no debate about this one - taking out travel insurance is absolutely imperative. It's highly unlikely anything untoward or harmful will occur to you on your gap year but the potential benefits and peace of mind this gap year travel essential provides far outweighs the relatively small amount of money you save if you are tempted not to bother.
Make sure your insurance cover is adequate for where you're going and what you are doing (you might need to take out additional cover for scuba diving or winter sports for example) and again, as with visas, this is another gap year travel essential Real Gap's team of expert travel advisers can help you out with. It's a good idea to take two sets of photocopies of your travel insurance documents, passport and plane tickets before you go - leave one set with a friend or relative at home and take the other set with you, keeping them in a separate place from the originals. Or for real piece of mind you can now create your own 'online safe' where you can upload importnat travel documents to a secure web page and download them at any time in any place should you need them. Real Gap has co-ordinated this service with 'My Online Safe', click for more information.
Gap year travel essentials - Gap year safety course
An excellent idea, especially if you are embarking on a round the world trip, is to check out Real Gap's fun and informative ‘Gap Year Safety Course'. This is the same course Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman attended prior to their ‘Long Way Round' round-the world motorbike journey. Aside from more traditional gap year travel essentials such as basic first aid knowledge the course will teach you all kind of potentially life-saving tips and advice you would probably never have thought of.
Gap year travel essentials - Health
As long as you are sensible it's unlikely you will experience anything more serious while you're away than an upset stomach. However there are some gap year travel essentials you need to bare in mind regarding health while you are away. A couple of months or so before you travel visit your GP or a dedicated travel clinic in order to find out what vaccinations or medication you require (if any) for the regions you are travelling to. This is one gap year travel essential Real Gap can't help with - it's always better to speak to a GP as they have the most up-to-date information and can arrange any necessary jabs or medication for you.
One emergency gap year travel essential you should take away with you is a decent travel medical kit and (which should always include at least one sterilised needle, particularly if you are going to be travelling in the Third World). Please don't be alarmed by all these gap year travel essentials! Once you're away - as long as you follow all the usual common sense rules (wash your hands before eating, protect yourself from the sun, practice safe sex, etc) - you shouldn't experience any significant problems.
Gap year travel essentials - Equipment
If you are going backpacking the most obvious gap year travel essential you will need is a good quality backpack. Other gap year travel essentials are decent footwear (a combination of hiking boots, lightweight trainers and a pair of flip flops pretty much cover all eventualities), a fleece top (places like Africa can be scorching in the day and surprisingly cold at night), water purification tablets (if you're visiting areas where the water may not be safe to drink) and a smaller day pack (you don't want to be lugging your backpack around the whole time). Other than these basic gap year travel essentials it's generally better to pack as little as possible - things like T-shirt, etc, can be picked up incredibly cheaply when you are away.
Gap year travel essentials - Safety First
Another gap year travel essential is to use the same common sense with regards to your personal safety as you would at home:
Try not to flaunt money or expensive looking items such as i-pods, keep friends and relatives up-to-date with where you are and what you are up to (Internet cafes are easy to find throughout the world), try not to arrive in to places late at night without any pre-booked accommodation, if a situation doesn't feel ‘right' then trust your initial instincts, always keep an eye on your luggage and never leave it unattended or with a stranger, remember that you're a guest of the country you are in and respect its traditions - even if you don't agree with them yourself (for example removing footwear and not wearing shorts or sleeveless tops when visiting temples).
Before you travel visit the FCO website for the latest advice on where you are travelling (www.fco.gov.uk). An innovative new gap year safety device you could consider signing up for before you set off is the ‘Safetytext' system for mobile phones - see www.safetytext.com.
The above list of gap year travel essentials is by no means exhaustive but following them should definitely stand you in good stead once you are away. Another excellent source of advice and information regarding gap year travel essentials are Real Gap's team of travel advisers, (all of whom have taken a gap year themselves).
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