7 Essential Documents To Keep On Hand When Travelling Abroad

Going on vacation is a great time to kick back, relax, and take a break from all the stresses of daily life. To make sure your holiday goes off without a hitch, make sure to bring all the documents you’ll need during your stay in the foreign country to which you’re travelling. Failing to take one of these important documents may lead to your being held up at immigration or face other major inconveniences during your trip. While many countries now accept soft copies of documents, it is always recommended to carry a printed version, just in case. The cost of getting a printed version is much less compared to being denied entry to foreign country or any other such hassle during your trip.

Today, we’ll walk you through a list of 7 essential documents to keep on hand when travelling abroad. Make sure to bring all these travel documents with you on your journey to make sure your vacation is as stress-free as it can be. Note that foreign currency / card is not included in this list as technically these are not documents.

1. Visa (if required)

A visa is a document you definitely won’t want to forget when setting off on vacation. Before setting off, we strongly recommend using a PDF converter to generate an easily accessible digital copy of your visa. Besides this, you should also bring a hard copy with you in case your phone runs out of battery or in some countries they might still insist on printed version.

There are many countries that require Indian residents to secure visas before visiting. These include popular travel destinations like the United States, France, and Japan. Make sure to research the requirements beforehand to ensure that your arrival goes smoothly. We also strongly recommend applying for visas well before your planned departure date, as embassies can often take a long time to process applications, especially during the busier parts of the year. 

While it would be nice to travel wherever we like on a whim, moving across international borders usually isn’t so simple. Look up whether or not you need a visa for your destination of choice and secure the necessary papers before your travels.

2. Passport

Your passport is the single most important document to bring when travelling. Firstly, you can only secure a visa if you have a passport, so you’ll need to have your passport long before your departure date. Passports are also necessary for getting through immigration. Furthermore, a passport can also serve as proof of identity in a foreign country. Other national identity documents such as Aadhar, PAN cards, voter ID cards may or may not be considered relevant in other countries especially if you go to countries where English is not a widely spoken language or your national documents are in local languages. Apart from immigration, a passport can be needed also when you check-in to your hotels, purchase tickets to local attractions, getting into nightclubs, renting a car, taking trains / flights within foreign country. If the country you’re visiting offers tax rebates on local purchases, you’ll also need to take your passport while shopping and show it in the stores.

When on vacation in a foreign country, you want to guard your passport with your life. Losing this document means you’ll have to apply for a replacement at the embassy of your country of origin, which is a massive hassle and may delay your return date.

3. Driver’s Licence or Other Identification

Whether you’re taking a trip to Dubai, Paris, or San Francisco, you'll likely need some form of identification. Vendors often ask for an identity document if you're looking to lease a vehicle, purchase tickets, buy alcohol, or gain access to certain venues.

While a passport works as a form of identification, you might not want to bring it everywhere you go. As previously mentioned, losing your passport can spell disaster when you’re in a foreign country. Bringing another form of identification can alleviate this risk. 

A driver’s license is among the most universally recognised identity documents, and you’ll need to have one with you if you want to rent a car. Other options include national IDs like your Aadhaar card, vaccination records, and school IDs. If you’re planning on bringing your Aadhaar card, it’s also wise to keep track of your Aadhaar card PDF password to ensure you can also maintain access to your digital card – on the off chance that your physical card is damaged or misplaced.

4. Tickets and Booking Confirmation

Before heading to a foreign country, it’s important to make bookings for travel, accommodation, dining, and sightseeing. Depending on the country you are travelling to, you might have to show complete itinerary with bookings or at the very least, you would need to show booked return / onward flight tickets and a place to stay for first few days. Luckily, it’s possible to make these arrangements easily through various online platforms.

Once you’ve made your bookings, don’t forget to bring your tickets and booking confirmations along with you. While airlines keep records of who has tickets for a particular flight, being able to present a copy of your boarding pass or booking confirmation speeds up the check-in process tremendously. The same is true of showing a digital or printed version of a confirmation email to the concierge if you’re staying in a hotel. 

We also highly recommend pre-booking your tickets to tourist sites that require them, such as museums, zoos, and national landmarks. These places often attract massive crowds of people, so being able to present your tickets at the gates eliminates the need to stand in queues and removes lot of stress. 

5. Travel Itinerary

Whether you’re paying a visit to a distant country like France or Brazil or travelling somewhere closer to home like Bhutan, it’s crucial to make a travel itinerary. While it’s fine to be spontaneous, having a general idea plan can save you plenty of time, and make sure you don’t miss out any interesting landmarks just because you didn't plan it out well.

In some countries, you might also need to present your travel itinerary when going through immigration as proof that you are in the country on vacation and don’t plan to overstay your visa. So based on immigration needs and your own travel style, you may want to have some form of travel itinerary - either a detailed day to day one or a rough overview outline of tentative plan.

6. Travel Insurance

While we all hope we do not need to use one, you should never visit a foreign country without Travel insurance. There are number of things that can potentially go wrong on a trip from missed or delayed flights, loss or delayed baggage, sickness, accidents, burglary, losing passport to some extreme possibilities such as emergency evacuation, hijack or death. These may cause some or high amount of stress, anxiety, financial loss to yourself and your travel partners. That's where travel insurance comes to play.

Most insurance companies that you may know would also provide travel insurance. You would also most likely get options to choose from depending on how much insurance would you prefer and what it covers. You can easily buy these online by filling up a form and making a payment in a matter of minutes. Some countries may mandate you to buy travel insurance as they would want to ensure you can pay for any medical bills in the foreign country if such situation arises. But even if the country you are visiting does not mandate this, you should still get one.

7. Optional - Vaccination / Medical certificate

A vaccination or medical certificate is a document which medically proves you have taken a vaccination or are medically fit to enter the foreign country. Most countries do not need this and hence this is under optional category. However you should check if a country mandates bringing such certificate (could be COVID vaccination or any other such prevalent diseases) and get the necessary documents before you enter the foreign country.

Everyone loves a good vacation. Going on a trip to a foreign country is a fantastic way to learn about a new culture, see incredible sights, and spend valuable time with friends and family. To have a hassle free trip, it’s vital to bring several important documents with you.