Things to Do Before You Travel: Our Final-Week Checklist

Most of what we do before a big trip happens on one weekend. Whichever day we fly out the following week, our checked bags are packed the weekend before, everything is charged and the documents are sitting in their folder. After that, the bags just sit there until departure morning, when the last few things go in.

This is that routine as a countdown, from the weekend before to the moment you lock the door, along with the things that should already be done before the final week starts. If you’re feeling unsure about the trip as a whole, Nervous About Your First Trip? How to Plan So You Feel Ready covers the planning side. This is the practical last stretch.

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This helps us to keep bringing you travel updates and news. See our Disclosure Policy for more information. We only recommend companies and products that we personally use.

Before the final week: what should already be done

The final week isn’t the time to find out your passport expires in four months. These are the things we check well before we start packing. If any of them aren’t done, sort them first, because some can take days or weeks.

• Passport. Many countries want at least six months’ validity beyond the end of your stay, and some will refuse entry without it. A renewal can take several weeks.
• Visas and travel authorisations. Even where you don’t need a visa, you may need to apply online before you fly (see Good to Know below).
• Travel insurance. Buy it, and save the policy somewhere you can find it quickly. If you’re not sure what you need, here’s what travel insurance covers and whether you need it.
• Vaccinations. If your destination needs them, they’re usually needed weeks before you go, so this one can’t wait for the final week.
• Bookings. Flights, accommodation, transfers and anything that needs a reservation.

I print each booking as I make it and put it in a folder, save a copy to cloud storage and tick it off against my trip spreadsheet. By the final week, there’s nothing left to book, only things to check. Our International Travel Documents Checklist has the full list of what to carry.

Good to Know

Many visa-free destinations now ask you to apply online before you travel, such as the US ESTA and the UK ETA. Most UK ETA decisions come back within minutes, but the UK Home Office recommends applying at least three working days before you travel. The EU’s ETIAS isn’t running yet; once it starts, it will apply to visitors from visa-exempt countries. Apply only through the official government website.

The weekend before: pack, charge, check

Most of the work happens on this weekend. If we’re flying out on the Monday, we pack on the Saturday. If we’re not flying until the Friday, we still pack the weekend before.

Pack your checked bags now

Packing the weekend before shows you what you’re missing, whether that’s a toiletry you’ve run out of or something you need for a particular activity, and it gives you time to go and get it.

It matters most when you’re changing seasons. Going from an Australian summer to a European or Asian winter, with snow, means cold-weather gear that takes real thought. Going the other way, from our winter to a northern summer, still needs a proper pack. Summer to summer is the forgiving one. There have been trips, like a week in Fiji, when we were so busy we ended up packing the morning we flew, and we got away with it because packing for the beach is easy after living in Australia for so long.

Everything gets packed except toiletries. We check we’ve got them all and gather them into our toiletry bags, so on departure morning they go straight into the suitcase. For packing itself, see our 10 packing tips for overseas travel.

Check the baggage allowance for every flight

Don’t assume the allowance on your international flight applies to the whole trip. When we went to Peru, we had 22 kg of checked luggage each between Brisbane and Lima. Our two internal flights, from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon and from Puerto Maldonado back to Lima, allowed only 12 kg. So 12 kg each was what we packed for the whole trip, including what we needed for the Inca Trail, such as hiking poles. It took us a couple of packs to get both bags under the 12 kg limit.

Lisa’s Tip

Check the allowance on every leg before you pack, not just the long-haul flights. Small planes and low-cost carriers can allow much less, and the weekend before is when you still have time to rethink what goes.

Charge everything, and know the battery rules

Getting my camera gear ready is almost a production line: the camera, an action camera, an Osmo Pocket 3, an Insta360 and, when the drone comes too, the drone batteries. Battery banks and iPads all get charged that weekend as well.

We travel with one 100 Wh battery bank, the largest size you can take in carry-on without the airline’s approval. It gets checked at airports regularly, but it’s clearly marked with its capacity and we’ve never had a problem getting it through. There’s more on that in our guide to taking a power bank on a plane.

Good to Know

Spare lithium batteries and power banks go in your carry-on, never your checked bag. Most airlines allow batteries up to 100 Wh without approval, and between 100 and 160 Wh only with the airline’s approval. More airlines are banning the use or charging of power banks during the flight, so check your airline’s current rules before you pack (Qantas’s battery rules are one example).

Trackers and documents

AirTags go into our checked bags and our carry-on, and we test them first to make sure the batteries aren’t flat. My passport wallet has RFID protection and an Apple Find My tag, so that gets charged too.

Then I go back over every document and booking one last time. They all live in a small plastic folder, ready to go.

Phone and data

I compare my phone plan’s international roaming with a Holafly eSIM for the trip and sort out whichever works out cheaper.

Our VPN is already on our phones. We use Bitdefender VPN because we have their full suite of products across all our devices, and it’s a yearly subscription, so there’s nothing to set up before a trip. At home on our own internet, we leave the VPN off; from the moment we travel, it’s on whenever we’re not using our own data. Here’s why we use a VPN overseas.

Darren’s Tip

Use a VPN on your phone, tablet or laptop whenever you’re on public Wi-Fi, whether that’s at the airport, the hotel or a café.

During the week: money and home

I organise our travel money (if needed) the week before we fly. If we’re flying the Monday after the packing weekend, that means the week before; if we’re flying later in the week, it’s done during that week. Here’s how we prepare our money before travelling overseas.

What you need to do at home depends on where you live. We’ve recently moved into an apartment, and the list is much shorter than it used to be: the fridge, the dog and switching things off, all of which happen in the last day or so.

When we had a house, the week before was busier. We told a neighbour we were going and they looked after the bins, and the big fridge clean-out happened the day before the last rubbish collection, which meant a couple of days living on whatever was left. The plants were on automatic watering, our mail goes to a post office box anyway, the security system went on, and friends with a key could check the house whenever they needed to. If you’re leaving a house, our guide to securing your home before travel has the security side in more detail.

The day before

Online check-in usually opens 24 hours before departure, and I do ours as soon as it opens. Our seats are normally chosen when we book, so that’s already done.

Now we’re in an apartment, this is also when the fridge gets cleaned out. How we’re getting to the airport is already sorted, because we work it out when we’re doing all our bookings: for shorter trips we sometimes drive and pre-book airport parking, and for longer ones we take an Uber or a taxi.

Then there’s Jazz, our poodle. She now goes to my mother-in-law’s, where she gets to play with her dog. If we’re flying out early, I drop her off the day before; if we’re not leaving until late afternoon, she goes that morning. If you have pets too, here are five pet care options for when you travel.

Departure morning

Toiletries go in once we’ve brushed our teeth, and all our medication goes in our carry-on (more on travelling with medication). Then the bags get one final weigh with everything in them.

We aim to leave home about four hours before an international flight. I don’t like rushing at the end, so I’d rather be at the airport early, and we make use of the airline lounge while we wait. Brisbane Airport, our home airport, recommends arriving three hours before an international flight, and other big airports suggest something similar. It’s also worth checking your departure airport’s website or app on the day for security wait times or disruptions, especially in busy holiday periods.

Forgot something? You’ll probably be fine

Even with all of this, we still forget things. Darren once left his big warm coat on the kitchen chair when we flew to Iceland, so we went shopping in Iceland (there’s more in our cold-weather layering guide). We forgot deodorant on a trip to Vietnam, and on our first day in Ho Chi Minh City I mimed what I needed in a shop where we didn’t share a language. They knew exactly what I meant. In Bora Bora it was sunscreen, which is a serious thing to forget in French Polynesia, and buying it at the hotel cost about five times what it would have at home.

What we’ve never forgotten are the things you can’t replace: passports, visas and the documents that get you on the plane and into the country. That’s where the checking really counts. Almost everything else, you can buy when you land.

Until next time… keep wandering.

Last updated: 26 October 2026. Passport, entry authorisation, check-in and battery rules checked October 2026.

Love this guide? Save it for later

Pin it to your Pinterest board so it’s there when you plan your trip.