Travelling abroad advice hub

Before going away

Planning a holiday can be exciting. Here are some important steps to remember when planning and booking your trips.

1. Decide where and when to go

When deciding where and when to go on holiday, you may be most interested in the cost – especially for travel, accommodation and activities.

It’s also important to consider what’s happening when you’re thinking of visiting, and how this could affect your holiday and the price of travel, accommodation and activities, such as:

• national and religious holidays – such as Ramadan
• local climate – such as extreme weather
• situation – such as risk of crime.

2. Check what you need

Each trip is different, which is what makes them interesting. But in general, things to organise before you go on holiday could include:

• travel – such as coach, train, plane or taxi

• accommodation – such as hotel, hostel, campsite or rented apartment

• activities – such as guided tours, sporting activities or entertainment

• insurance – such as for travel, health or valuables

• protection – such as appropriate clothes, sun protection and vaccines

• payment – such as cash in an accepted currency, or a card with fees acceptable to you.

Make sure you can get everything you need in time for your trip. You should check:

• that you meet your destination’s passport validity requirements

• how long it takes to process a UK passport at the moment

• what medicines and vaccines are recommended for your destination.

3. Consider buying a packaged holiday

Buying a packaged holiday means buying several parts of your holiday together: transport and accommodation (and car rental if you want it). When you buy a packaged holiday from companies which are members of Atol or ABTA, you’ll benefit from extra protection. This means that if the seller goes out of business before or during your holiday the transport and accommodation (and car rental if you chose it) will be covered.

You can:

• Check if a company offers Atol protection (if you’ll travel on a plane)

• Check if a company offers ABTA protection (if you’ll travel on a train, road vehicle or sea vehicle).

4. Shop around

You can search online to compare what’s on offer for whatever you need for your trip. There are many price comparison websites that can help you choose transport and accommodation.

Price is an important factor for everyone but remember to also consider:

• location – for example, the location of a car rental pickup point

• timings – for example, the check-in and check-out times of a hotel

• terms and conditions – for example, age limits for a theme park

• extra costs and fees – for example, a high penalty charge for returning a rental car late.

5. Research the seller

There’s a lot of choice when browsing for what you need for your holiday. But you’ll want to avoid some retailers and suppliers, such as:

• fake sellers – takes the money without providing a service or steals your financial information

• dishonest sellers – does not provide the service they promised or charges you unfairly

• unstable sellers – at risk of going out of business and not being able to provide the service (if your holiday is Atol or ABTA protected, you’ll be covered against this risk).

It can be hard to know who’s trustworthy. To look into a seller, you could try:

• asking people you trust if they’ve heard about them (or if they recommend another seller)

• searching for reviews about them on websites such as TripAdvisor and Trustpilot

• searching online for more about them – just remember that reviews on the seller’s own website could be fake.

6. Check if you need to let your bank know about your trip

Some banks ask you to let them know if you’re planning to use your card abroad. This helps them understand if someone is using your card fraudulently. If you do not follow your bank’s instructions, they may block your card, and this can be difficult to fix when you’re abroad.

Read about how to let us know you’re travelling outside of the EU or Turkey.

If you’re planning to use a credit card

Under the Consumer Credit Act, you may benefit from extra protection on credit card purchases over £100 and up to £30,000. This means you may be entitled to a refund if something goes wrong, even if you’ve only paid a deposit. Read more about section 75 protection.