If you have found this site and are not sure where to begin, this page explains how the site is organised and points you toward the right section depending on where you are in the planning process. Advice for Travel is structured around the sequence in which trip planning actually happens, not around content types.
How the Site Is Organised
The site has six main sections, each covering a distinct stage of trip planning.
Destinations is where to start when you have a destination in mind and want to understand what it is actually like to travel there: what the place is like on the ground, the best time to go, how to get there, where to stay, what things cost, and what the genuine safety and practical picture looks like. The destinations section covers four regions (Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East), each with country and city guides written from direct personal experience.
Trip Planning covers the logistical preparation before departure: visa requirements (the most time-sensitive element of planning), travel insurance (the most consequential element to get right), budgeting (the most commonly under-estimated), and packing (the area where most travellers make the same mistake of bringing too much). If the destination is decided, this is your next stop.
Accommodation covers where to stay and how to book it well. The comparison between hotels, Airbnb, and hostels is more nuanced than most travellers initially assume; the loyalty programmes worth joining are fewer than the ones that exist; and the booking strategies that produce consistently lower prices are specific and learnable.
Getting There covers transport: finding flights at the best available prices, understanding airline rules before they surprise you, rail travel and when it beats flying, and how to access airport lounges without business class tickets.
Safety covers health, personal security, and emergency planning. Health preparation (vaccinations, malaria prophylaxis, food and water safety) is the most commonly under-invested element of travel planning for destinations outside Western Europe and North America. This section is written by Luciana Murillo.
Gear covers the physical tools of travel: bags, luggage, tech, clothing, and accessories, reviewed by Jan Marek, who tests products on actual trips where possible. The gear section includes both category guides and contextual recommendations for different trip types.
The Planning Sequence
Most trips go through roughly the same sequence of decisions, and planning is easiest when you follow that sequence rather than trying to resolve everything simultaneously.
Step 1: Decide where you are going. The destinations section covers what different countries and cities are actually like to visit, the best times to go, and the honest trade-offs between destinations that seem similar on paper but are genuinely different in practice.
Step 2: Check the visa situation immediately. Once the destination is decided, check visa requirements before anything else, because the visa process is the element with the longest lead time. Many visas require appointments, supporting documents, and processing periods of weeks or months. The visa guide hub is in the Trip Planning section.
Step 3: Buy travel insurance before anything else is non-refundable. Travel insurance is most valuable from the day you purchase it, since it covers trip cancellation from that point. Buying it when you first book flights or accommodation, rather than immediately before departure, provides significantly better protection.
Step 4: Budget realistically. Most first-time travellers underestimate trip costs by 20 to 40 percent, primarily because they omit several cost categories (airport transfers, activities and entrance fees, baggage fees, tips). The budgeting guide provides a framework for building a realistic budget by destination type.
Step 5: Sort accommodation. The accommodation decision involves which type suits your trip, which neighbourhood or area to base in, and which booking approach produces the best combination of quality and price.
Step 6: Sort getting there. Flights or other transport should be researched using the strategies in the Getting There section.
Step 7: Health preparation. For travel outside Western Europe and North America, pre-travel health preparation should be started two to three months before departure, since some vaccine courses require multiple doses over weeks.
Step 8: Pack. Packing is the last step for a reason. Everything else needs to be resolved before packing makes sense, since accommodation and transport decisions determine storage and baggage constraints.
If You Are Planning Your First International Trip
A few things worth emphasising for first-time international travellers:
Passport validity matters more than you think. Most countries require your passport to be valid for at least six months beyond your intended departure from the country, not just for your travel dates.
Visas are not always obvious. The visa situation for your specific passport to a specific country is not always what you would assume. Always check the specific requirements for your passport nationality at the destination country’s immigration authority website.
Budget for more than you estimate. Adding 20 percent to whatever your initial trip budget is, before you leave, is a reliable approach.
Something will go wrong. Not catastrophically, usually, but some component of every trip does not go as planned. Planning for this (emergency fund, travel insurance, flexibility in the itinerary) is what separates a manageable setback from a serious problem.
A Note on Our Content
Everything on this site is written by a named member of our team with direct personal experience of the subject matter. We may use AI tools to help with drafting or editing, but every guide is written and reviewed by a named team member before publication. We do not publish guides for places we have not visited, and we do not accept commercial payments for editorial coverage.
We do accept affiliate commissions on some product and service recommendations. We disclose these arrangements and only affiliate with services and products we would recommend independently of the commission.
The About page has full information on our writers and editorial approach.