Travel Rants are partners of the Know Before You Go campaign which is run by the Foreign, and Commonwealth Office, who are a UK government department that provide vital travel advice and warnings about dangerous countries.

Many of us leave for the airport without a care in the world, but preparing for your holiday before you go can save you so much time, effort and money. Below are a number of tips for travellers to think about before you travel.

Notify Family, Friends and Relatives

Before leaving on holiday, make sure that you give all travel information to your family and close friends. If anything should happen while travelling, multiple people know where you are and have a better chance of getting a hold of you and others who might need to reach you.

Prepare photocopies of your passport, airline tickets, accommodation booking form. It might also help if you leave telephone numbers of where you are stopping just in case anyone needs to get in touch with you urgently.

Check your passport validity and visa’s

Always check your passport and ensure that you renew your visa or apply for one before departing. Make sure your passport does not expire within 6 months of your date of travel. A large majority of countries insist that your passport be valid for at least that time period or a year. Make a copy, in case you lose it while on holiday, you can send the copy to your Embassy.

European Health Insurance Card

Still thousands of UK holidaymakers go on holiday without getting a European Health Insurance Card. This card is free and means that whilst you are in a country which is a member of the European community you will receive free or subsidised medical treatment.

Travel Insurance

Millions of holidaymakers worldwide go on holiday without travel insurance. How crazy can you people be, for the sake of completing a quick form, or telephone conversation you can be covered for any event whilst on holiday.

It is so important that people get back in to the habit of buying travel insurance. The decline in holidaymakers taking out insurance is due to the increase in independent travelling, many UK travel agents insisted that you took out travel insurance as part of your booking.

Luggage Advice

A good idea is to get some masking, insulation tape or stickers and put it all over the suitcase, the worst start to a holiday would be to loose your luggage or get it taken by accident because its identical to another holidaymakers.

Use your own padlocks instead of the padlocks supplied with suitcases. It is usually safer. Remember to keep the key(s) in your carry-on luggage., don’t do what I did and leave the keys in the suitcase which wasted valuable time on arrival at the destination.

Photocopy your Identifying Documents

Photocopy all documents and cards and store it in a secret place in your suitcase. If your wallet is ever stolen, you will know exactly what you have lost and will have all the telephone numbers to call to cancel credit cards and the credit card numbers, etc. at your fingertips.

Instead of photocopying all your important documents and carrying them with you, you can scan everything and email the images to your email account or family and friends as attachments.

Cash Safety

Think of this scenario. You’ve just got to your hotel, and you see a nice bar over the road, you go to your pocket to get all of your foreign currency, and it’s not there! Your in a strange country, with a strange language and it’s your first day on a holiday you’ve been paying for all year. Please remember travellers cheques, take debit or credit cards and foreign currency.

Have fun.. but be safe.