If you are planning a trip to Peru or another country in South America, you are bound to have a hefty to-do list – and rightly so. It is likely that you are traveling from another continent and will be away from home for at least a few months! Very often, people commencing with long-term travel in South America forget to bring certain items and do certain tasks before leaving – causing problems during their trip. If you want your upcoming trip to be a “trip of a lifetime”, then ensure to follow this checklist so that you do not encounter any easily avoidable problems whilst traveling.
9 things to do before your trip to Peru
- Make a physical copy of all your important documents (passport, insurance, driver’s license, airline tickets, vaccination book, etc. – preferably in color), and store them separately to your originals.
- Take a photo/scan of all your important documents (passport, insurance, driver’s license, airline tickets, vaccination book, etc.) and save them to your email or cloud storage. By doing so, in the case of loss or theft to your original documents, you will have easily accessible back-ups which will accelerate the process of getting new original copies of your documents. Additionally, you are still likely to be able to pass through any checkpoints by showing copies of your documents.
- If you do not have an international driver’s license, get one. It can be very useful when traveling long term.
- Take the recommended vaccinations.
- Have a routine medical check-up and consult your family doctor about situations such as altitude sickness.
- Read about altitude sickness and how to prevent it.
- Record the addresses of your friends and family, so that you can send postcards from your trip.
- Register with portals such as Couchsurfing or HelpX – which can help you to travel. Thanks to such platforms, you can not only save a lot of money by not paying for accommodation and/or food, but you can also meet wonderful people; get priceless knowledge about culture and traditions; and gain a more authentic understanding of what it is like to live and/or work in a different environment. You can find out more about Couchsurfing and HelpX in this article about travelling almost for free with HelpX and Couchsurfing.
- Purchase all the items that you require for your trip, in advance! Do not leave your packing and shopping to the last minute. Try to have everything packed at least 2 days before your departure. Also be sure to weigh your backpack before going to the airport, to avoid having to pay excess baggage fees. To know what you need to pack, read this article about what to pack for Peru.
The last thing to remember: don’t miss your flight!