Many people prefer to buy their airline or cruise tickets and make their hotel reservations online from a reliable site. It might be a hassle to look for the cheapest or best deal but it can be worth the trouble.

When making hotel reservations, you may want to find out if the hotel is located near a hospital, police station and etc. These services are great in an emergency, but you might want to stay away from noise when you are there for a holiday.

Get yourself some travel books to know all the best spots, cheapest restaurants, best food, places to stay, and hundreds of insights about your destination. You may want to photocopy the pages of travel books relevant to the area you are visiting rather than taking the entire book with you to cut down on weight.

Get a language translation dictionary and carry it with you. You will find it useful.

Before leaving on a trip, make sure that you give all travel information to your family and close friends. If anything should happen while travelling, multiple people know where you are and have a better chance of getting a hold of you and others who might need to reach you.

If you have friends staying in the city you are about to visit, why not give them a ring? They live there, so they should have some good tips for you.

Renew your visa or apply for one before departing.

Learn a few essential terms in the native language of the country you are travelling to. For instance, if you are going to a Chinese speaking country "ni hao" means "hello" and "xie xie" means "thank you". Your trip will be more enjoyable in learning a new language and culture.

Place photocopies of your identification in your luggage to help your airline or cruise ship to return it if lost while travelling.

Use your own padlocks instead of the padlocks supplied with suitcases. It is usually safer. Remember to keep the key(s) in your carry-on luggage.

Tie a colorful ribbon on each of your bags for quick identification at the baggage claim.

Photocopy all documents and cards and store it in a secret place in your suitcase. If your wallet is ever stolen, you will know exactly what you have lost and will have all the telephone numbers to call to cancel credit cards and the credit card numbers, etc. at your fingertips.

Instead of photocopying all your important documents and carrying them with you, you can scan everything and email the scans to your email account as attachments. You can use a free web based email such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com so you can access your documents from anywhere in the world.

You can rent a GSM (Global System for Mobiles) wireless phone before you leave your country. For a small amount of cash a day, you can have one phone, with one number that will work in over 92 countries worldwide. These are great for the business traveler, families leaving the kids at home, or anyone who just wants to stay in touch.

Convert some of your cash to the currency of the country you are visiting to get a better deal.

Make sure your passport does not expire within 6 months of your date of travel. A large majority of countries insist that your passport be valid for at least that time period or a year. Make a copy, in case you lose it while on vacation, you can send the copy to your Embassy.

Find out before you depart whether there is a departure tax, and how much it is. Some countries do charge a small fee and will not let you board your flight without first paying it. It is best to reserve an amount of cash, as credit cards and other forms of payment are not accepted.

Reserve your car rental (if necessary) and arrange for collection in your arrival airport.

Get an international driving license (if necessary). Many car rental services insist on an international driving license.

Be sure your airline tickets and hotel reservation is confirmed, otherwise you may not have a reservation at all.