Traveling to another country requires you to bring tons of supporting documents such as a passport, plane ticket, hotel reservations, paper visa, and the like. Sorting through all of the needed documents when you are at the airport checking in or showing your reservation at the front desk agent may take long enough if you are not prepared. These important documents can be easily mixed with other files or can get buried quickly if not planned well.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix the mess the papers have brought into your life: by doing a paperwork organizing system and going fully digital. Keeping track of all your travel documents these days has made it seamless by making it fully digitalized. There are now apps that can sort all your documents for you and replace piles of papers and printouts. However, there is a downside to every beautiful innovation. Since it is run by technology, there is a chance that your app may not work if your battery is dead or if you have no internet access. They can all wreak serious damage to your travel plans if you don’t secure an alternative. Here is how you keep your documents organized when you are traveling:
Gather All Documents
As you prepare for departure, print out all necessary documents that need to be presented to certain people while you travel. Collate them and put them away in your attache case. If you want to keep organized and stylish at the same time, there are some amazing attache cases that you can purchase at your local department store or shop online. By doing so, you are sure that all documents required when you travel are stored in one area.
However, if you are not a fan of papers and want to operate digitally, there are some airports and hotels that do accept mobile boarding passes and reservations straight to your phone. Store all these documents in one folder to give you easy access to your file when it’s time for you to show them at the counter. They can scan the barcode, and you are good to go. Enabling your techy side eliminates the use of too much paper, reducing your carbon footprint and changing your way of being organized.
Make a Backup Copy
Yes, it is essential to print all your documents. However, you must also ensure that you make a copy and convert all confirmation emails and letters to PDF. This way, if you accidentally delete your email, you have an extra copy to show around. Ensure that you also back them up to all your devices to give you a variety of ways to access your file. You may store them in cloud storage services, create a folder, and market it with the name of your travel destination for you to see it right away.
If you are not into tech, perhaps you can take a photo of your documents if it is from email, take a screenshot and save it to your gallery. If needed, access your information using the zoom function to see whatever you need.
Arrange Important Documents
One great thing you can do before flying out or going to another place is to arrange your documents in the order in which you will need to access them. These are the list that you will need to have access to easily. You never know when you might lose your luggage.
● Airline Tickets and Boarding Passes
● Air Travel Documents (Visa)
● Redress Number
● Hotel, Train reservation/Confirmation tickets
● Pen, Paper, and Notepads
It is essential when you have tons of documents to bring with you. Instead of scanning through all your documents, you will easily find the file that you need if you arrange them based on the sequence of events.
However, according to organizing experts, you must separate your travel items such as passport and airport parking ticket and secure them in a safe place. It is to avoid confusion and reduce the chance of losing them as to how easy you can lose a printed paper. They also suggest that you purchase RFID wallets and phone cases to protect you from hackers that can steal your information by scanning the barcode from each of your documents.
It is also vital that you arrange non-essential documents, in case you may need to access them. There are instances some airport security, immigration, and hotel staff ask for extra documents for security purposes. These are the example documents these people may get from you:
● Travel Itinerary
● Contact Information of your Travel Agency
● Statement of Account
● Alternative flight options
● Emergency Contact
Always Bring a Pen
This tip may be the simplest of them all but easily forgotten. With our dependence on technology, it’s easy to miss something so simple. If you are traveling, whether locally or abroad, you will almost always need to fill up some form. It can be an arrival card on the plane, a departure card from the airport, and some last-minute documents that need to be signed. Some of the personnel on the ground and in the sky do not seem to hand over pens for you to actually finish the forms. You never know when you’ll be needing a pen. That’s why it is better to always bring one with you.
With the help of a pen, you can easily mark a check for the things you brought with you, so you know that you did not miss out on something. It can also be a source of entertainment when you are on the road. You can write all the things you want to do once you arrive at your destination or simply chat down notes about your experiences in your paper or diary.
Send Your Documents to Your Companion
If you are traveling with someone, it is always best if you give them a copy of what you have. This works perfectly for couples and family members. It’s just another layer of preparedness to ensure that when something went wrong, you have a backup plan. When traveling it is always about being ready.
These are some tips on how to stay organized with your documents while traveling. Some of these may be pretty simple, but sometimes it can be a cause of something unexpected.
So always be ready and have a joyful trip.
