During your holiday you should have managed to balance your caution with relaxation and liberal doses of enjoyment. In fact you had such a nice holiday that you are in danger of sitting down under a palm tree and forgetting the flight home. Don’t relax too much yet, because you are about to encounter a new range of risks and threats.
Confirm Flight And Travel Plans
Even though you hold a return ticket, some airlines require you to contact them a day or so before your return flight to confirm that you will be travelling. Check with your travel agent and airline to see if you need to do this. You don’t want to book out of your hotel room and find yourself at the airport with all of your cases, only to be told that you are not booked on the flight and the next available seat is in three days’ time.
Foreign Currency
Some countries prohibit the export of their currency. That means that you could be required to exchange any currency back into pounds at the airport, using government facilities that offer very unfavourable rates. The worst possible scenario is that the authorities could simply seize any local currency in your possession.
At least a few days before you are due to fly back, find out what the rules about local currency are. With any such rules in mind, review your own needs. You may never want to come back to the country again, so you won’t need the local money on future trips. On the other hand you may love the country and can’t wait to get back, so you could feel that any spare local currency will be used again within a few months. I try to monitor my usage of the local currency and towards the end of the holiday be careful about how many traveller’s cheques I exchange. That way I know I won’t be left with a lot of local currency.
Local Currency At The Airport
Your next consideration is how much local currency you will need at the airport, where you may have to pay for a taxi, food and drink, or local taxes, all payable in local currency. If you haven’t been very thorough with your research or if your travel agent has left some vital information out, you could be in for a shock.
Trying to book in for my flight home, congratulating myself for having spent my last local currency, I was surprised when the check-in desk clerk asked me for the new departure tax. All foreigners were required to pay about £7 each in taxes to compensate for the environmental impact of their travel (well that was what they said). I had to go and change another traveller’s cheque.
Loose Change
Travellers often seem to get stuck with a pocket full of change. When I was writing this I had a quick whip around among close family members and collected all the forgotten dusty holiday change. We had coins from 11 different countries, but the most surprising thing was that between us we had almost £53 in change. It quickly adds up and banks and travel agents won’t accept or exchange foreign coins, so any change you bring back is lost.
Packing
In a security-conscious world, packing and luggage take on a new and crucial importance. All airlines ask if you packed your own bags, and if you are carrying anything for anyone else. This is partly as an ineffective security measure (will a terrorist or criminal really admit to carrying something he shouldn’t be carrying?), but mostly to do with deniability. When and if drugs or other illegal imports are found in your case, you have already admitted three things. It is your case, you packed it and everything in the case belongs to you!
Treat travelling seriously, and be aware that the greatest threat is probably drug smugglers looking for ‘mules’ to carry their substances for them. They use all sorts of tricks, including the old favourite of a free holiday as long as you bring back one small package for them. Drugs detection and intelligence is improving all of the time, and the likelihood of drug smugglers being caught is increasing. Make sure that you strictly follow the guidelines set down by airlines and travel agents. DON’T CARRY ANYTHING FOR ANYONE ELSE.
As with the journey out, pack your things neatly, and make sure that you follow the airline safety rules. Don’t pack electrical equipment with batteries installed. Security will make you open the case and remove the batteries. Don’t try to carry sharp objects onto the aircraft in carry-on luggage. They are banned because they could be used as weapons by terrorists. You should also remember to make sure that the lids of bottles of shampoo or perfume are securely sealed. There is nothing worse than getting home to find that your new digital camera has had a bath in a mixture of medicated shampoo, nail varnish remover and suntan lotion!