Going on vacation is one of the greatest joys life can offer. It is a reprieve from the toils of everyday life, a step away from the stress of going to the grind of your job day in and day out, a time when you don’t have to worry about getting the bills paid and the groceries bought and getting the tires on your car rotated. Oftentimes people get so excited about their blissful days without worry that they might forget things important for preparation for travelling to another country. Either way, there are lots of things you need to remember to do before you step out your front door of your house to get ready for your fabulous vacation like having ID backups, making yourself theft proof, and taking time to buy foreign currency.

With the amount of identity theft that happens nowadays, people are increasingly aware just how precious your identity is and just how important it is to keep it safe and away from prying eyes. Gathering up your photo identification (passport or otherwise), credit cards, and plane tickets and photo, copying them front and back, and then storing them in a secure place away from the original copies is a good and easy back up plan should anything get lost or stolen. You can even have a close friend or relative at home hold on to a third copy for emergencies. And if photocopies are too low tech, the technological savvy can always scan everything to a file and store it securely on their cell phone or in the cloud.

Having copies of your important information is one of the wisest travel tips out there, but at the same time it provides peace of mind when you take preventative measures toward losing these things especially against thieves. Should you be able, find yourself bags and/or purses that are built for travel – this means waterproof, knife proof, etc. You might even consider carrying a fake wallet filled with small bills and inconsequential cards to throw away should you get mugged. Likewise, purchasing a special sleeve for any chip-embedded credit card to prevent skimmers who can take your info with a hidden scanner would be a wise investment.

Since you won’t be at home and therefore won’t have easy access for money in bad circumstances, it is absolutely crucial that you work out all of the ways you will be carrying money before you land in country. Most will recommend having at least two credit cards on hand and perhaps your ATM card. As so many countries either prefer to deal in cash or are only able to deal in cash, making sure to get yourself the local money of wherever you are going is a great idea. Save yourself the headache and fees of using the exchange at the airport and guard yourself against opportunistic street exchanges and find yourself a reliable way to buy foreign exchange online. Companies like Xchange of America can not only let you buy the currency you are looking for but also let you sell back what you don’t use when you get back home. Just try checking out http://www.xchangeofamerica.com .