Planning a trip is no joke. There are multiple things to take into consideration. That is if you want to have a successful trip and no unpleasant surprises. Since we all want that, we seek new ways to make the planning more thorough and convenient. Technology can help a great deal in that matter, and below you will find a few tricks that will make your planning process a piece of cake.
Passport photos online
Almost every country you go to requires a passport unless you are a European traveling inside Europe. The rest of us need a passport to cross the border. While getting a passport is easy these days, it takes some time, depending on the area you are located in. How can technology help with that? Passport photos. You can have your picture taken over the internet. Just sit in front of the webcam, take the pic, retake it if you do not like it, and wait for your photos to arrive in your mail. It is very simple, and it is very cheap. It beats going to a superstore or photo studio anyways. Like this, you can be in your underwear for that matter. After all, it is the face that counts.
Check to see if you are eligible for an electronic visas
The list of countries that issue electronic visas is pretty long, and it is still expanding. Maybe the state where you are going to has an electronic system as well. You will not know until you look into it. If it does, see if it issues visas for your nationality. Again, if it does, you have your work cut off for you. Applying online is so much better than going to an embassy. Let’s say you want to go to Cambodia. As a US citizen, you can get your Cambodia evisa is as little as 24 hours. Sounds terrific, doesn’t it? The process I entirely online, you do not have to take leave from work, you can apply day or night, and the document arrives via e-mail. It cannot get any better than that. Unless they abolish visas altogether.
Use apps! As many as possible
The smartphone generation is the luckiest. You have a lot of tools sitting inside of your pocket, and that can help you in your travels as well. For example, did you know that there is an application that takes all of your booking e-mails and turns them into a whole itinerary? Well, there is, and it makes forgetting things impossible. Just add your e-mail, and the app will do the job perfectly. You will not lose your hotel reservation or anything else that you book online. Neat, isn’t it?
Apart from the wonder app, you can also find a great deal of use with Google Maps, offline maps, offline currency converters, and many other things. It is indeed amazing how such a small device can spare you a lot of trouble, but it does, and we could not be more grateful.
Technology can help a lot with anything, so why would traveling be any different? Furthermore, we have become so accustomed to using it, that there are few things today that we do otherwise. We book our tickets and check in online, we use it for instant communication, and we know where we are at all times. In a way, we are privileged that we have such ease of access to anything.