We are about two-and-a-half weeks out from our departure date! And while that means the excitement is building up, it also means that we have to make sure all our t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted before we head out. It’s been a bit overwhelming over the past several weeks and months to plan for this type of trip. Yes, even though one of my personal goals of this coming year is to let go of my type-A planner personality a bit, I am not letting go enough to just book a one-way flight somewhere and cross my fingers that it all turns out okay.

The Essentials

There are a few “bare minimum” items before we have to take care of before we take off:

• Purchase travel insurance: An essential item for long-term travelers. This will help with any medical emergencies on the road and also covers lost/stolen items and unexpected changes in travel plans.

• Get our final immunizations and medications: We both have to get our second round of the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine, and Vikram needs to get his yellow fever vaccine (a required immunization for several countries on our list). Then we need to pick up our prescription pills for malaria, altitude sickness, and anti-diarrhea (oof).

• Register with STEP: This is the U.S. State Department’s “Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.” Through STEP, we’ll get specific travel warnings for places we’re going to and get support from U.S. embassies abroad in case of emergencies.

• Copies and copies and copies: We need to make copies of all our important documents, like passports, immunization records, birth certificates, and credit cards. We should bring a few hard copies to carry with us, and then email ourselves (and our parents) with back-up soft copies. Then repeat. (Okay maybe not, but you can never be too careful!)

The Finances

There’s not much more we can do at this point to save up for the trip, but there are a few major items to help keep us on track financially:

• Sign up for Charles Schwab checking accounts: We checked this off a few weeks ago, so not an actual final to-do item but important nonetheless. Charles Schwab is one of the only, if not the only, bank that doesn’t charge you for withdrawing money overseas. This will help significantly in the long-run to avoid racking up bank fees on the road.

• Finalize a plan to track against our budget: We have a general sense of how we’ll stay within our trip budget, but we need to finalize a plan for how to execute on it. I’m thinking that we’ll update our budget each week with the true costs to-date (we plan to track every expenditure) and course-correct our spending as needed. We’re also using this budget template to track our costs during the trip. (This budget is from A Little Adrift, a blog that’s been really useful across the board for our planning.)

The Packing

If you’ve ever caught me in the past few months with a serious but confused expression, chances are I was imagining how to fit my pants and socks and everything into a 44 L backpack. But before we pack the final bags, a few things:

• Buy final odds-and-ends: We need to buy some travel accessories still, like locks and converters, and some remaining clothing.

• Do a test-run of our packing: Not essential but something I’d like to do, just to get a sense of how everything fits in and decide what to cut or keep before we actually hit the road.

The Return

Finally, before we leave, I think it’s important that we start thinking about our return at the end of the year.

• Update our résumés: We should update our résumés while everything we’ve done in our jobs are still fresh!

• Organize our stuff for storage at our parents’ houses: We’re both lucky that we can leave things at both of our parents’ houses. To be respectful of their space and to also reduce the craziness when we get back, we want to have things organized and stored carefully.

If you’re curious to learn more about our preparations or if you’re also thinking about a trip like this, I’m happy to talk more with you about our planning process!