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12 – 18 months
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- Contact your Booking Agent or Outfitter
- Decide on your destination
- What time of year do you want to go?
- What budget are you working with?
- What type of traveler are you: Luxury, Moderate, Rustic
- Who will be in your party: will you be with a small group or independent
- Establish travel insurance carrier
- Check personal documents (Make sure passport and visas are current)
- Contact Travel Doctor and establish immunization schedule
- Begin your Journal - you will not want to forget all the details of your trip that happened before you left!
- Get active – you will enjoy your adventure more the more fit you are
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9 - 12 months
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Work with Booking Agent for airline tickets
- Decide on and book any tourist travel, excursions, and car rentals
- Apply for visas if they will be needed
- Check kennel information if you have animals
- Stay on track with your vaccinations – are they current and what you need for the area you’ll be travelling to?
- Get organized: Set aside a drawer or basket to store items as you accrue them for this trip – this way you’ll know where everything is when it is time to pack
- Put a file folder in your “trip basket” to hold the paperwork for your safari
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6 - 9 months
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- Check with your Booking Agent on travel insurance
- Check cameras to be sure they are working
- Read the Empty Carousel for advice on travelling
- Check luggage (zippers / locks, etc.)
- Check with carriers to learn the proper routine for following-up on lost luggage
- Continue your fitness plan
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4 -6 months
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- Check with your financial institution and make sure your bank card will work abroad
- Complete and return any travel paperwork that is still outstanding (permits, shipment details, etc.)
- Be sure to get written confirmation from your Booking Agent or Outfitter
- If you need new shoes, buy them now and begin breaking them in
- Find out how many miles you will be walking every day on average and what the terrain is like - then prepare yourself physically for this mileage wearing the shoes and socks you intend to wear on your trip.
- If hunting: practice shooting
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2-4 months
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- Arrange for someone to watch your home / care for your pets / plants
- Create or revise your will
- Apply for Proof of Ownership for each weapon you intend to take with you
- Consider taking probiotics for stomach health while travelling
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1 month
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- Register your trip with the State Department
- Order foreign currencies, traveler's checks
- Pay any bills that will come due while you are gone
- Make copies of all of your documents; itineraries, packing lists, confirmations
- Set up general e-mail account (yahoo, hotmail, gmail)
- E-mail copies of travel documents to your general e-mail so that you can access this account while abroad
- Get trophy tags from the taxidermist you plan to use clearly labeled with all delivery information
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2 weeks
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- Take photos of your luggage
- Provide a family member or friend with contact information and copies of your documents
- Call your credit card companies and alert them you are traveling abroad
- Refill any prescriptions that are running low
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1 week
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- Suspend mail delivery with the Postal Service
- Confirm plane reservations
- Clean the house, toilets and other places mildew might grow - you will feel better coming home to a clean house!
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1-3 days
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- Take pets to kennel
- Change voicemail at work
- Activate “Out of Office” message on work e-mail
- Charge Cell phone, cameras, etc.
- Clean out your refrigerator of any items that will spoil while you are away
- Water your plants
- Set home lights on a timer
- Take out your trash
- Unplug appliances
- Lock all doors and windows
- Charge batteries for electronic devices you will be taking with you
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Last minute
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- Turn off water
- Take a last tour of the house
- Add final toiletries to bag
- Pack chargers
- Pack your trip journal
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