Preparing to leave the country

I just think you should always have a passport. I have written about this before, but it's been a while, and it's worth revisiting.

It started when an exchange student from Oregon turned up missing in South America, and one news item I read about was a senator helping her parents expedite their passports so they could go down there. That's right, to get out of the country, you need a passport, and it takes time to get one. That time can be shortened with the help of someone in Congress, and honestly, you don't have to know them personally, because in the case of a high profile story like that, pathways will open up. However, that's still a delay.

Think how much easier it is to just have your passports on hand! Passports are an excellent form of picture ID that are good for ten years. Not having a driver's license, I use mine for everything, but it will also let me leave the country, which your driver's license would not.

What the exchange student's case teaches us (and she turned up fine, so that was okay) is that sometimes you need to leave suddenly, for someone you care about. You could have children as exchange students, siblings in the military, parents on a mission, or good friends on vacation, and something suddenly comes up where you want to be there. That is going to be stressful no matter what, but this is one hurdle you can easily remove in advance.

And then, once you have the passport ready in case of emergency, you can also leave just for fun. Seriously, sometimes there are great travel deals, and you can go to Iceland for $400 or something ridiculous like that, and you are ready, because you have the passport. Those really good prices are often time dependent, and it can take a few months to get a passport, or you will have to expedite, which is expensive. Just get it now and be ready.


So having your passport ready is sound advice, and the key point I wanted to make. It is certainly not the only thing that is valuable for traveling overseas, but then once you open up the broader topic, there are a lot of variations. Traveling to Canada has some differences from traveling to Cambodia or Cameroon. However, you can look up all of those at http://www.state.gov/.

The State Department web site lists travel advisories, embassy locations, visa and immunization requirements, and this will give you a good starting place for wherever you want to go.

There is something to be said for being a ready-for-anything kind of traveler too, even in Canada, and so I have a few book recommendations there. And really, these books are good for non-travelers too, but I think it's fair to say that any survival abilities that are good for everyday life are doubly valuable for you when you are abroad and out of your comfort zone, so here we go.

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence, by Gavin De Becker
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why, by Amanda Ripley
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (they do have a travel-specific version, but there are travel tips in the original)

Bon Voyage!