Help, Safety & Advice

Essential checks

Photograph showing a family waiting by a car, while a man talks on a mobile phone

Before setting out on that continental jaunt, make sure you've thought about everything on the travel checklist:

  • Have you ordered foreign currency/travellers cheques?
  • Is your passport valid?
  • Have you received your tickets?
  • Have you checked the legal requirement for the countries you are visiting?
  • Is your vehicle adequately covered against breakdown while abroad?
  • Do you have comprehensive medical and travel insurance?

Have you packed the following?

  • Spare wheel and a jack?
  • First-aid kit?
  • Fold-out warning triangle? Check the local laws, but most insist that triangles must be used in the event of breakdown in addition to the car's hazard warning lights.
  • Spare car light bulbs? It's compulsory to carry spare headlamp bulbs in some European countries
  • Jump leads?
  • A torch and spare batteries?
  • Fuse kits?
  • An up to date route plan to your destination and a useful phrase book?
  • Spare change for motorway tolls?

Next: Driving costs abroad