Paperwork

One of the toughest aspects of world travel as I see it is trying to anticipate what paperwork might be required of you on the best days as well as the worst. In other words, having the confirmation of your flights, your various hotels, and your rental car is just common sense. But the need for paperwork doesn't stop there. For instance, you'll need an international driver's license if you intend to drive a car. They're only good for a year, so you will need a new one nearly every time you go abroad. And if you were to lose it, what would you do? Well, I make a digital image of mine and store it on the web so it can be accessed from any computer worldwide. I'll explain what I mean by, "on the web." I have signed up with a company called "Filesanywhere.com." If you don't exceed one gigabyte of information, you can securely store anything you like on their site and they make it accessible only to you -- FOR FREE. So, not only is a copy of my international driver's license stored there, but digital images of just about any piece of paper I think might be useful while on vacation is stored there as well. Things like passports, medical prescriptions, and credit card emergency numbers are up there as well. I also have proof of purchase documents for my laptop and my camera equipment. And how about birth certificates? I bet you can think of a need for one of those should you have to replace your lost passport while vacationing. So, there you have it. Think about establishing your own secure file storage for use in emergencies. Filesanywhere is not the only game in town. I've heard that "Dropbox" is good, too. Happy traveling, as Rick Steves would say.