It’s all
happening.
The pre-trip checklist, from the day you enroll to the morning you fly. Documents, planning, safety, tech, money — five chapters, in the order they actually matter.
- T-minus-90 timeline: what to do, when
- Travel documents — the ones nobody tells you about
- Safety & security — five-minute habits that change everything
- Technology abroad — adapters, eSIMs, apps that work
- Money & budgeting — cash vs. card, the smart strategy
Four phases. Each one short. Each one matters.
Most pre-trip mistakes happen because everything got crammed into the final week. Spread it out — paperwork early, hardware late — and the week before you fly is actually fun.
- T−90Phase 1 of 4
Documents & medical
Sort the boring stuff first. A trip stops being abstract the moment your passport's in your hand and your doctor has signed off.
- Apply for or renew your passport — must be valid 6+ months past your return.
- Check if your destination requires a visa; non-U.S. citizens, call your consulate.
- See your doctor about routine vaccinations and any travel-specific shots.
- If you take prescriptions, fill them with enough supply for the full trip.
- T−60Phase 2 of 4
Plan & soft-prep
Light reading, light walking. Look at where you're going. Add a daily mile to your routine. Get a feel for the place before you land in it.
- Read three things about each city — Wikipedia, a blog post, a YouTube short.
- Try the language with Duolingo or Babbel; even five words goes a long way.
- Start walking 1–2 miles a day in the shoes you plan to bring.
- Photograph your passport photo page; email a copy to yourself + a parent.
- T−30Phase 3 of 4
Pack, charge, sync
Down to the wire. Hardware, money, devices. Walk your packed bag around the block before you commit.
- Buy a universal travel adapter + a portable battery (10,000mAh is plenty).
- Get an international plan or eSIM (Airalo, Ubigi) so you're online at landing.
- Tell your bank you're traveling. Withdraw $20 of starter cash.
- Pack the carry-on. Walk around with it. If it's heavy, take stuff out.
- T−7Phase 4 of 4
Confirm & breathe
The week before, your group leader and your Tour Director have already done most of the work. Your job is to confirm a few things and rest.
- Confirm your flight in PassportsGo and download your boarding pass.
- Save your hotel list, group leader's number, and the 24/7 Worcester line offline.
- Charge everything the night before; pack your power brick in the carry-on.
- Sleep. Hydrate. Get to the airport three hours before international departure.
Five photocopies of your passport.
Five places they live.
A lost passport is a fixable annoyance, not a trip-ender — if you have a copy somewhere reachable. Tour Directors carry a copy of every passport in their bag. So should you, in five places.
Your passport must be valid for at least six months past your return date. This is a hard rule — many countries deny entry inside that window without warning.
- 01On your phonePhotograph the photo page. Save offline. Email yourself a copy.
- 02In your carry-onTucked behind something — a passport's last lifeline.
- 03In your checked bag (if you have one)Belt-and-suspenders if your phone dies.
- 04With your group leaderThey keep a master file for the whole group.
- 05With a parent at homeDifferent person from the one who travels with you.
Five-minute habits that change everything.
You’re traveling with a group, with a Tour Director, in safe cities — and the vast majority of issues come from leaving a wallet on a cafe chair, not from anything dramatic. These habits prevent ninety percent of them.
Itinerary sharing
PassportsGo already does this — your day is visible to your group, your group leader, and our 24/7 Worcester line. Make sure your parents have the app or the share link.
Travel wallet
A neck pouch or money belt under your shirt for your passport, card, and a backup $20. Day-bag pickpockets get the day-bag. Day-bag is empty.
Buddy system
Free time = parties of three or four, no exceptions. Tell your group leader where you're going and when you're back. Do that, and free time is the best part of the trip.
Vigilance in crowds
Trains, train stations, tourist queues, gelato shops at sunset. Hand on your bag's zipper, bag in front of you. Five seconds of attention saves an afternoon at the police station.
PassportsGo on the homescreen
The 24/7 emergency line, your group leader's number, and the day's meeting points are one tap deep. No app, and you're hunting for a number with one bar of signal.
Trust your gut
If a street feels off, it is. If a person seems sketchy, they probably are. Cross to the other sidewalk, walk into a hotel lobby, find your group. There's no prize for staying.
Adapters, eSIMs, and the apps that actually help.
You don’t need every gadget. You need the four below working before you fly.
Power & charging
One universal adapter with built-in USB-A and USB-C. One 10,000mAh battery bank. Anker, Mophie, or Belkin. Skip the convertor for hair tools — most modern dual- voltage devices work without one, and hotel hair dryers are nearly universal.
Connectivity
Three options: an international roaming pass from your carrier (easiest, most expensive), a local SIM picked up on arrival (cheap, requires an unlocked phone), or an eSIM you activate before you fly (Airalo, Ubigi — the modern default).
The PassportsGo app
Download it before you fly. It’s where your itinerary, hotels, group chat, meeting-point pins, dietary cards, and 24/7 emergency line live. The single most important app on your phone for the duration of the trip.
Maps & language
Google Maps offline maps for every city. Google Translate offline languages for every country. Citymapper if you’re in Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, or Rome — its public transit routing is genuinely better than Apple or Google.
Cash or card? Both. Here’s the split.
Most things go on a card. The small things — public bathrooms, espresso, scoops of gelato, a tip for your bus driver — go on cash. A few hundred euros / pounds is plenty for a ten-day trip; your card handles the rest.
A travel debit + a backup credit card.
- Travel debit: Revolut or Wise. No foreign-transaction fees, mid-market exchange rate, contactless tap-to-pay.
- Credit: stash in the hotel safe; emergency only.
- Always pay in the local currency at checkout — “dynamic currency conversion” is a 4–7% mark-up.
- Tell both card providers you’re traveling so neither gets locked.
$20 starter, then ATMs on arrival.
- Withdraw from a bank-branded ATM, never an airport currency exchange.
- Pull amounts that match your week — €100 stretches further than you think.
- Public restrooms in train stations: 50¢–€1, exact change preferred.
- A coin pouch in your daypack is the small infrastructure upgrade nobody plans for and everybody needs.
The rest of the handbook.
Trip preparation is one chapter. The others — packing, flights, arrival day, code of conduct, and what life is like on tour — are right here.
Packing
One carry-on, broken-in shoes, layers. The whole list.
Flights
How group air travel works, lost-luggage protocol, in-flight survival.
Arrival day
What happens the moment you land — and how to crush jet lag.
Code of conduct
Two-way promises that keep the trip safe and the group sane.
Travel protection
PassportsCare — built into every tour, plus optional cancel-for-any-reason.
Full FAQ
Thirty-seven questions, organized. The one you have is in here.
Everything else lives in the app.
Your itinerary, hotels, flights, dietary cards, group chat, meeting-point pins, and our 24/7 Worcester line — all one tap away in PassportsGo.