Keeping the Home Away from Home

Whenever you travel, you sometimes try to forget whatever is at home. The work emails, the busy calls, rush hour traffic or your upstairs neighbor who vacuums at 3 A.M.

But that’s the point of a vacation, you’re supposed to get away, chill out and just relax. Want to sit on the beach all day? Do it. Want to go see every art museum in town? Do it.

Sometimes, though, home starts to creep back into your mind, especially if you are going away for a long time on a semester abroad, internship or work-away program. Besides carrying around your favorite candy every day with you, what are some things you can do to keep home with you?

Below are a list of some “homekeeping” and “housekeeping” items to make sure you have the best vacation possible.

Put Travel Alerts on Your Credit Card

There is hardly anything worse or more embarrassing than trying to use a card only to have it denied. But when you’re at home, you can get around it by having them swipe again, using a different card or just using cash. But what happens when you’re abroad?

You may not speak the local language that well and they may not be as willing to just turn around and try again. It could be because your card isn’t authorized for use abroad and then you’re stuck trying to reach customer service when you could be out snorkeling.

Before you travel, put a travel alert on all your cards, even ones you may not use as often. Even though you may have just booked your hotel with your card, if you can’t use it then you’re out of luck.

When you’re abroad, you’re going to want keep racking up points and miles when you can. It’s the best way to prepare for your next big adventure.

Many credit cards let you do add these alerts online easily while others make you call and set it up. Either way, take the time out of your day as soon as you can so you can have a happy and stress free vacation.

Keep Up On Your Shows

Streaming is everywhere these days. You can stream all your favorite shows on Netflix and Hulu, all the sport leagues have their own streaming service and even Disney is starting to jump into the streaming game.

Unfortunately, Netflix isn’t a cookie cutter streaming service meaning what you get back home may not be what you get on your trip to Australia. The airplane movie selection isn’t always the greatest, so how can you make sure you’re still getting the shows you want?

Fortunately, our friends at Troypoint have lots of tips to set up a VPN. What is a VPN? A VPN is a virtual private network that not only adds an extra layer of security to your private internet, but it also allows you to set up your internet virtually. That means that while you might be hanging out in your rental apartment in London, you can be getting access to your American Netflix shows.

Not that many people are using a VPN, but you should take advantage of it today. You can easily set it up on your laptop, tablet or mobile device.

Keep Your Photos Safe

No matter where you’re traveling, you’re going to want to take photos. Even if you’re not an Instagram star, you’ll surely be snapping sites and selfies here and there.

That’s why you should make sure you have a backup service for your photos before you head out. Losing your phone on a nature hike is already a pain, but realizing that you’ve lost all your photos just salts the wound.

Make sure you have some kind of cloud service that automatically backs up your photos before you go. Have it connected to your home computer so just in case something happens to your phone, you can rest assured you haven’t lost any precious memories.

When you do return home, you can put them all together for a slideshow or print them out and put them in a picture book. It makes for a great conversation starter as well.