8 ms·

The one thing you _need_ to pack, apart from visa docs required for travel, is a credit/debit card. Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location. Travel

by seer 2y ago

The one thing you _need_ to pack, apart from visa docs required for travel, is a credit/debit card. Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location. Traveling to rural Vietnam looked daunting and dangerous for people from the EU, but once there me and the friend realized all the worrying and excessive preparation was for naught. We still forgot some things, an hour or two spent at the local shops and the problem was resolved. All you need is an accepted way to pay and you could get out of almost any reasonable situation. Now would it be cost effective? Surprisingly sometimes yes, but even if not it could give you some more stories to tell. Part of the fun of traveling is the stories you tell afterwards, and no good story starts with “everything went according to plan”.

simonw 2y ago
My father once told me that as long as you have your passport, wallet and the name and address of where you're going everything else will work out fine. That advice has treated me well.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Which raises a point that is often lost today. Assume your phone breaks, gets lost/stolen, etc. How do you know where you're going? Having a printed agenda is a very good idea even if you resent the weight of the paper.
  - jonasdegendt 2y ago
    If that happens, aren’t you pretty much walking to the closest mobile phone store? A basic device that’ll give you access to the internet, mail and maps is basically a commodity the same way a toothbrush is.
    - harperlee 2y ago
      Problem: with 2FA, lost phone = lost access to your email and rest of digital life, when on a trip (I’ll assume no one travels with their recovery keys).
      - ghaff 2y ago
        I actually do have my Gmail recovery keys with my passport though I haven't tested in a while. But from reading other comments, I guess I'm pretty paranoid and maybe more prepared for a situation where I don't have a working phone. But, if you use a password manager for Google, not sure if that does you any good. Honestly, regaining access to your various accounts if you need to get a new phone--perhaps especially internationally--may be pretty hard. I do sometimes travel with an older spare phone but it's getting out of support.
        jorvi 2y ago
        1Password handles this problem pretty elegantly because of their secret key system. You can just print out your secret key and stuff it in your suitcase / backpack. Its useless for a thief unless they know your password too. You could set an emergency / recovery contact too, but I don't know how the recovery flow would go. Also, an eSIM will vastly complicate your bootstrapping.
        ghaff 2y ago
        And an eSIM is all my current phone has. Not sure how much confidence I would put in getting back up and running in an international trip with 2FA vs. having paper copies of important info.
      - jonasdegendt 2y ago
        Yubikeys with a passkey for every major service. One on the keychain, a nano one permanently in the laptop. This lets you access anything with the key and a password.
    - qkeast 2y ago
      The thing I haven't figured out (mostly because I haven't sat down and done so) is how I'd access mail and such—without my password manager on my own phone, I don't have access to anything.
      - jonasdegendt 2y ago
        I have a Yubikey (well, two actually) on my keychain for 2FA, gets rid of those pesky apps.
        ghaff 2y ago
        I don’t universally travel with a laptop.
        dotancohen 2y ago
        Why would we assume that the Yubikey or even the entire keychain survived whatever befell the telephone that is being replaced?
      - red369 2y ago
        I've sat down and tried to figure this out, and never been happy with the solution. I carry an old phone as a spare, which also has my password manager and 2 factor codes. I asked HN about this recently because I couldn't believe everyone, especially people who aren't interested in designing backups, i.e. the type to come to HN, were all thinking this through enough to have good solutions. HN consensus seemed to be for hardware keys like Yubikey, and paper backup codes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42427443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42427443
      - youainti 2y ago
        this is where i'd use the keepassxc password manager. Put a password archive at a URL you can remember, and download it somewhere if you need it. Or have a 2nd email without 2fa and use it to contact a friend to help you get your keepassxc archive.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      What "closest mobile phone store" in many places? I've been on a ton of trips where I probably haven't seen a closest mobile phone store for a week or more. My point is that you should try not to be absolutely screwed if you're cut off from the Internet. I carry physical maps, itinerary, guidebook, etc. You can actually travel without Internet access. Of course, you can't mitigate any eventuality but I'd certainly argue that you should generally be able to move forward without Internet, email, or GPS.
      - AlotOfReading 2y ago
        You'll find stores selling that stuff in even the most rural parts of central Asia and Africa these days. As long as there's a reasonably sized human settlement, someone's probably selling mobile devices even if there's no local network to use it with.
    - netsharc 2y ago
      I remember standing up to board my flight home, putting the phone into my pants pocket, except I was putting it into air, and it landed on the tile floor of the boarding area. The outside screen wasn't cracked, but the LC-Display cracked all across the bottom, making the display totally black. I usually don't bother having physical boarding passes, but luckily I did have it in paper format at that point. Interestingly the phone was still working, it just can't show anything. Double-clicking the power button still opened the camera app, and I could take pictures by pressing the volume down button. And alarms would still go off, but holding the power button opened Google Assistant and it understood the command "Delete all alarms", no unlocking required.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        I reluctantly use mobile boarding passes when traveling because I don't have a convenient printer when I'm not leaving from home. But presumably the counter could still look me up via my passport or other relevant ID.
- raywu 2y ago
  I once flew with just those plus a toothbrush. Border control was very suspicious of me and was confused why I had no luggage or backpack.
- Ferret7446 2y ago
  Nowadays, you should probably add a smartphone to that list.
ghaff 2y ago
My counter to that is that, once you get out of major cities, even in the UK, there may be very few opportunities to pick up things including pretty routine first aid supplies. You probably also don't want to spend the first half-day of your vacation doing routine shopping. So, yes, you can often pick things up but don't count on it. If you're adaptable, you can probably manage (perhaps outside of some things like medicines) but you're not necessarily just walking into a store and laying down your credit card.
- zeroq 2y ago
  My counter is if you can't produce it within a day it's most likely not a necessity.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    There's a ton of medical and medical-adjacent stuff (both prescription and not) that isn't going to be easy to come up with in a typical village or small town. Good to have some basic things you can use to rig a backpack strap or hole repair. There are fairly essential clothing items you may not easily replace on foot in small towns; it's raining hard and you left your rain jacket at home. Sure. If you have wheels, it's probably easier.
    - Retric 2y ago
      I’ve gone decades without using a raincoat. If you’re going someplace cold you’ll want warm clothing and if it’s sunny then sunblock is a big deal, but in general you don’t need much stuff on a trip.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        My guess is you're not hiking for 10 miles in possibly chilly rain in England or wherever. (Or needing a shell because of wind.) An umbrella doesn't really work and you're probably not wanting to just walk all day drenched. In a city, yes, umbrellas are often a reasonable alternative.
zeroq 2y ago
This! Only other thing I would like to add is CASH. Not a lot, just enough to keep you afloat when your credit card is not cooperating. You may end up in a place that only accepts cash and there's no atm nearby or these that are available won't accept your card for some reason. And it doesn't have to a remote place like Laos or Bali. This happens in places like Berlin.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Yeah, some cash, debit card, and a backup credit card that is hopefully as independent of the card you normally use traveling as possible. (i.e. not two Chase cards.) Also, be careful that your backup isn't a card you normally never use--especially internationally. The card companies seem to have gotten better about random fraud alerts but they still happen.
  - jdeibele 2y ago
    If you're traveling with a SO and have joint accounts, check the account numbers. My wife was pickpocketed in Madrid and 2 of our 3 joint cards had the same number, meaning that even though I had the physical card, it was cancelled until we got the new cards. We weren't aware of the issue before this happened.
AnotherGoodName 2y ago
Agreed in general although do your homework first. Some countries don't use the VISA/Mastercard payment system. China is an absolute unbelievable pain due to being largely WeChat payment based now and there's a lot of restrictions on who can set this up. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/16u03k4/how_the_hell_do_i_use_wechat_pay/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/16u03k4/how_the_hell...
- decimalenough 2y ago
  WeChat Pay is still a no-go, but you can now set up Alipay with any foreign credit/debit card, no need for the former rigmarole of account verification with Chinese phone number/bank account. And Alipay is accepted basically everywhere. (Cash is not.)
KineticLensman 2y ago
> Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location. Good luck buying a head torch when you find yourself arriving at a deserted campsite in the middle of nowhere just as it is getting dark. Or your prescription meds in a country where things aren't available over the counter.
crazygringo 2y ago
> Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location. I really don't want to lose hours of my vacation shopping for stuff I forgot. Vacation hours are precious. It's not about the cost of the goods you're buying, it's about the unique experiences you could have been having instead. Shopping is not what I go to foreign countries to do. Well, except for supermarkets -- discovering new fruits and veggies is fun.

by seer 2y ago

simonw 2y ago

My father once told me that as long as you have your passport, wallet and the name and address of where you're going everything else will work out fine. That advice has treated me well.

ghaff 2y ago
Which raises a point that is often lost today. Assume your phone breaks, gets lost/stolen, etc. How do you know where you're going? Having a printed agenda is a very good idea even if you resent the weight of the paper.
- jonasdegendt 2y ago
  If that happens, aren’t you pretty much walking to the closest mobile phone store? A basic device that’ll give you access to the internet, mail and maps is basically a commodity the same way a toothbrush is.
  - harperlee 2y ago
    Problem: with 2FA, lost phone = lost access to your email and rest of digital life, when on a trip (I’ll assume no one travels with their recovery keys).
    - ghaff 2y ago
      I actually do have my Gmail recovery keys with my passport though I haven't tested in a while. But from reading other comments, I guess I'm pretty paranoid and maybe more prepared for a situation where I don't have a working phone. But, if you use a password manager for Google, not sure if that does you any good. Honestly, regaining access to your various accounts if you need to get a new phone--perhaps especially internationally--may be pretty hard. I do sometimes travel with an older spare phone but it's getting out of support.
      - jorvi 2y ago
        1Password handles this problem pretty elegantly because of their secret key system. You can just print out your secret key and stuff it in your suitcase / backpack. Its useless for a thief unless they know your password too. You could set an emergency / recovery contact too, but I don't know how the recovery flow would go. Also, an eSIM will vastly complicate your bootstrapping.
        ghaff 2y ago
        And an eSIM is all my current phone has. Not sure how much confidence I would put in getting back up and running in an international trip with 2FA vs. having paper copies of important info.
    - jonasdegendt 2y ago
      Yubikeys with a passkey for every major service. One on the keychain, a nano one permanently in the laptop. This lets you access anything with the key and a password.
  - qkeast 2y ago
    The thing I haven't figured out (mostly because I haven't sat down and done so) is how I'd access mail and such—without my password manager on my own phone, I don't have access to anything.
    - jonasdegendt 2y ago
      I have a Yubikey (well, two actually) on my keychain for 2FA, gets rid of those pesky apps.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        I don’t universally travel with a laptop.
      - dotancohen 2y ago
        Why would we assume that the Yubikey or even the entire keychain survived whatever befell the telephone that is being replaced?
    - red369 2y ago
      I've sat down and tried to figure this out, and never been happy with the solution. I carry an old phone as a spare, which also has my password manager and 2 factor codes. I asked HN about this recently because I couldn't believe everyone, especially people who aren't interested in designing backups, i.e. the type to come to HN, were all thinking this through enough to have good solutions. HN consensus seemed to be for hardware keys like Yubikey, and paper backup codes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42427443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42427443
    - youainti 2y ago
      this is where i'd use the keepassxc password manager. Put a password archive at a URL you can remember, and download it somewhere if you need it. Or have a 2nd email without 2fa and use it to contact a friend to help you get your keepassxc archive.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    What "closest mobile phone store" in many places? I've been on a ton of trips where I probably haven't seen a closest mobile phone store for a week or more. My point is that you should try not to be absolutely screwed if you're cut off from the Internet. I carry physical maps, itinerary, guidebook, etc. You can actually travel without Internet access. Of course, you can't mitigate any eventuality but I'd certainly argue that you should generally be able to move forward without Internet, email, or GPS.
    - AlotOfReading 2y ago
      You'll find stores selling that stuff in even the most rural parts of central Asia and Africa these days. As long as there's a reasonably sized human settlement, someone's probably selling mobile devices even if there's no local network to use it with.
  - netsharc 2y ago
    I remember standing up to board my flight home, putting the phone into my pants pocket, except I was putting it into air, and it landed on the tile floor of the boarding area. The outside screen wasn't cracked, but the LC-Display cracked all across the bottom, making the display totally black. I usually don't bother having physical boarding passes, but luckily I did have it in paper format at that point. Interestingly the phone was still working, it just can't show anything. Double-clicking the power button still opened the camera app, and I could take pictures by pressing the volume down button. And alarms would still go off, but holding the power button opened Google Assistant and it understood the command "Delete all alarms", no unlocking required.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      I reluctantly use mobile boarding passes when traveling because I don't have a convenient printer when I'm not leaving from home. But presumably the counter could still look me up via my passport or other relevant ID.
raywu 2y ago
I once flew with just those plus a toothbrush. Border control was very suspicious of me and was confused why I had no luggage or backpack.
Ferret7446 2y ago
Nowadays, you should probably add a smartphone to that list.

ghaff 2y ago

My counter to that is that, once you get out of major cities, even in the UK, there may be very few opportunities to pick up things including pretty routine first aid supplies. You probably also don't want to spend the first half-day of your vacation doing routine shopping. So, yes, you can often pick things up but don't count on it. If you're adaptable, you can probably manage (perhaps outside of some things like medicines) but you're not necessarily just walking into a store and laying down your credit card.

zeroq 2y ago
My counter is if you can't produce it within a day it's most likely not a necessity.
- ghaff 2y ago
  There's a ton of medical and medical-adjacent stuff (both prescription and not) that isn't going to be easy to come up with in a typical village or small town. Good to have some basic things you can use to rig a backpack strap or hole repair. There are fairly essential clothing items you may not easily replace on foot in small towns; it's raining hard and you left your rain jacket at home. Sure. If you have wheels, it's probably easier.
  - Retric 2y ago
    I’ve gone decades without using a raincoat. If you’re going someplace cold you’ll want warm clothing and if it’s sunny then sunblock is a big deal, but in general you don’t need much stuff on a trip.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      My guess is you're not hiking for 10 miles in possibly chilly rain in England or wherever. (Or needing a shell because of wind.) An umbrella doesn't really work and you're probably not wanting to just walk all day drenched. In a city, yes, umbrellas are often a reasonable alternative.

zeroq 2y ago

This! Only other thing I would like to add is CASH. Not a lot, just enough to keep you afloat when your credit card is not cooperating. You may end up in a place that only accepts cash and there's no atm nearby or these that are available won't accept your card for some reason. And it doesn't have to a remote place like Laos or Bali. This happens in places like Berlin.

ghaff 2y ago
Yeah, some cash, debit card, and a backup credit card that is hopefully as independent of the card you normally use traveling as possible. (i.e. not two Chase cards.) Also, be careful that your backup isn't a card you normally never use--especially internationally. The card companies seem to have gotten better about random fraud alerts but they still happen.
- jdeibele 2y ago
  If you're traveling with a SO and have joint accounts, check the account numbers. My wife was pickpocketed in Madrid and 2 of our 3 joint cards had the same number, meaning that even though I had the physical card, it was cancelled until we got the new cards. We weren't aware of the issue before this happened.

AnotherGoodName 2y ago

Agreed in general although do your homework first. Some countries don't use the VISA/Mastercard payment system. China is an absolute unbelievable pain due to being largely WeChat payment based now and there's a lot of restrictions on who can set this up. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/16u03k4/how_the_hell_do_i_use_wechat_pay/ https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/16u03k4/how_the_hell...

decimalenough 2y ago
WeChat Pay is still a no-go, but you can now set up Alipay with any foreign credit/debit card, no need for the former rigmarole of account verification with Chinese phone number/bank account. And Alipay is accepted basically everywhere. (Cash is not.)

KineticLensman 2y ago

> Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location. Good luck buying a head torch when you find yourself arriving at a deserted campsite in the middle of nowhere just as it is getting dark. Or your prescription meds in a country where things aren't available over the counter.

crazygringo 2y ago

> Anything you’ve missed can be purchased on location. I really don't want to lose hours of my vacation shopping for stuff I forgot. Vacation hours are precious. It's not about the cost of the goods you're buying, it's about the unique experiences you could have been having instead. Shopping is not what I go to foreign countries to do. Well, except for supermarkets -- discovering new fruits and veggies is fun.