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Travel Tips

Practical guidance for international and group travel, for travelers and the people who organize for them.

The library

Practical guidance, in the order it matters

Travel Tips is LABUSA Travel’s reference library for international travel: the things worth knowing before you go, written for U.S. travelers heading abroad and for the group leaders who arrange it on behalf of other people.

It is organized by the decision you are making rather than by the country you are visiting. What a specific destination requires, when to go and what it is like when you arrive lives in that destination’s own guide.

  • Written for U.S. passport holders and group leaders
  • Sourced from the government authorities that make the rules
  • Every guide carries the date it was last reviewed
  • Free to read, with no sign-up
Start with planning your trip
Map of Southeast Asia with colorful pushpins marking travel support destinations including Vietnam; Malaysia; Singapore; a

The sequence

When each decision binds

Planning an international trip is mostly a sequence problem. A handful of decisions have long lead times and no flexibility, and everything else arranges itself comfortably once those are settled. This is the order they bind in, and the guide that covers each one.

  1. 12 to 6 months out Choose where you are going. If it is a group, start recruiting now.
  2. 6 to 4 months out Read your passport, and find out what entry permission your citizenship needs.
  3. 3 months out Book the flights, and see a travel health clinic while there is still time.
  4. The final month Confirm your entry permission arrived. Read the advisory for every country.
  5. The final two weeks Pack, and put copies of your documents somewhere other than your bag.
See the full checklist

Start here

All ten planning guides

The library

Every guide in the library

Planning and preparation 32 guides

Documents, entry and local law 29 guides

Flights, transport and the journey 31 guides

Packing, dress and places you visit 30 guides

Money, culture and being a good guest 30 guides

Travel support coordinator reviews documents with three travelers beside a coach bus during a group departure.

Leading a group?

A group trip runs on someone else’s calendar. Deposits, rooming lists, traveler documents collected from everyone at once and supplier commitments all fall due months before departure, and the earliest of those deadlines is the one that governs.

Every guide in this library carries a section for group leaders, because the same decision is a different job across twenty people. If you would rather not hold the deadlines yourself, that is most of what a travel advisor does.

Explore group travel planning

Also coming to this library

Group Travel · Group Leader Resources · Accessibility, Mobility & Older Travelers · Destination-Specific Tips

Each section is written and reviewed before it is published. In the meantime, planning your trip covers the decisions that come first, passports, visas and entry requirements covers the documents, flights and airports covers getting there, packing and luggage covers what you take, money, currency and payments covers paying for things once you are there, health, insurance and travel protection covers cover, vaccinations and what to do if something goes wrong, safety and security covers advisories, documents and emergencies, phones, technology and connectivity covers staying online and reachable, culture, customs and responsible travel covers arriving as a guest, and our destination guides carry the country-specific detail.

Plan your trip with LABUSA Travel

  • Talk with an advisor

    Everything in this library describes work a travel advisor does as a matter of course. Tell us what you are considering.

    Start a conversation

  • Browse destinations

    Entry rules, seasons and transport for a specific country, with guides written the same way.

    See destination guides

  • Traveling as a group

    Deposits, rooming lists and document deadlines, held by someone whose job it is.

    Explore group travel