If you’re planning to book a vacation, it is important to make sure that it all goes as smoothly as possible. There’s nothing worse than getting to your vacation site and realizing that you forgot something, or that you should have planned more activities, or maybe you planned too many and now you won’t have time to fit them all into the itinerary. These are just some things that should be checked before leaving to get the most out of your next vacation. With this in mind, here is a list of 6 tips to do just that:

1. Make a travel essentials checklist before departing – before you do anything at all, we recommend that you create a travel essential checklist of everything that needs to be done before you leave for your holiday. This way you won’t forget to pack or do anything.

2. Manage your banking – it is important to set yourself a budget and manage your financial situation before going on holiday to ensure that once there you won’t run into any troubles. If you aren’t sure whether to bring your debit or credit card, it might be a good idea to bring a travel card instead, like Revolut, to make things easier.

3. Buy travel aids – if you’re going to a country that you don’t know a lot about, or where they have a different language and culture, one tip is that you prepare travel guides to learn more about the area you are visiting. This will be helpful, as well as a language book of the country’s language so you have something on hand to help you with certain situations where your language isn’t helping you.

4. Get to know the area you’re visiting – using these travel guides, you can now start getting to know the country or area you plan on visiting. By learning as much about where you are going you can be sure that there will be few hitches or surprises. It will also greatly benefit you when it comes to planning and booking all of the activities that you are going to do on vacation.

5. Plan your activities – on that note, it’s always a good idea to evaluate how much time you are going to have each day and make an itinerary. Knowing exactly what you’re doing and when you’re doing it can remove a lot of the stress from trying to decide on something fun at the time. Whilst sometimes spontaneous holidays that are unplanned can be fun, if you want to get the most out of your vacation, it’s best to plan out how you will spend your days.

6. Check reviews before booking – finally, before book anything, whether than be your flight, hotel or activities, you must read other people’s reviews first. This will help you decide on the best options out there to choose from and might also help to avoid any issues where the place/service advertised is not as it seemed when booking and paying.