The first thing to do is buy a guidebook for your destination country.  Go to Amazon.ca, pick one out and order it on-line. Lonely Planet, Moon Handbook, Frommer’s and Rough Guide are usually good. A guide book will help you find places to stay, places to eat and will help you decide where to go, what to look for and what kinds of things to do. You will find it invaluable and will want to carry it with you every day.  We use the guidebook to get a rough idea of what parts of the country we want to see and to plan a tentative itinerary. That is not to say you can’t do something else once you arrive and find out what it is like, but a general plan helps to make the most of your travel time.

Now, most of this information is on-line, which is cheaper and saves carrying a heavy book.

We always book a place to stay for two or three nights a new destination. Arriving in a foreign country after a long flight is stressful enough.  Knowing where you will be staying, helps to reduce the stress and gives you a chance to get oriented. Additionally, most countries now require you to indicate where you will be staying on the immigration card.  Look for suitable accommodation on the internet; we mostly use AirBnB and have had some wonderful experiences. On arrival, you only have to find the address or you can hand it to a taxi driver.  Many hotels and guesthouses will have someone meet you at the airport if you request it.  There will be someone holding up a sign with your (probably misspelled) name on it.  Always ask for a business card from your accommodation, when you check in.  When it comes time to find your way back, you can show it to people to get directions.  Drop a pin in Google Maps before leaving your accommodation.  Download local maps so you can access the location while off-line.

If you do any amount of traveling, we strongly recommend that you apply for a NEXUS card.  It costs $80.00 and you have to go to an international airport for a brief interview, but it will more than repay itself in convenience and time saved waiting in line at security checkpoints and immigration queues.  Most airports have a NEXUS priority line at security which saves you from winding through the regular interminable line-up.  It also allows you to pre-clear immigration to both Canada and the U.S. using automated kiosks at most major ports of entry.  I can't tell you the number of times we would have missed a connecting flight if we had to go through the regular line.

The most valuable piece of advice we can offer is to travel with only carry-on luggage!  Once you try it, you will be amazed at the ease and simplicity and you will never want to check a bag again. You will be first in line at customs and out of the airport while others are still waiting for their suitcases to appear. And you NEVER have to worry about losing your luggage!  We haven’t checked a bag in nearly twenty years.  If you can’t fit it in a carry-on, leave it at home!  Doug Dyment, a Canadian, has created a website which contains a wealth of information about traveling light.  http://www.onebag.com/  This website also contains an Annotated Packing List, which is an invaluable resource.  http://www.onebag.com/packing-list-introduction.html  We have created our own Pack List by trial-and-error that works well for us.  Click on the PACK LIST link above to see the list that I use; Susan modifies it for her own needs. 

Buy a bag that is designed to fit international carry-on limitations.  Length + width + depth = 45 inches will conform to most airlines and is the largest bag you should carry.  Smaller is better!  Susan prefers a backpack-style.  I find a roll-aboard style works well for me.  Many people use the wheelie-style with four little wheels.  They work well in airports, but not so well on rough sidewalks or dirt paths.    Doug Dyment’s website contains an excellent section on choosing a bag.  http://www.onebag.com/bags.html

 Make a few colour photocopies of the first page of your passport.  Leave one copy with someone at home.  Carry other copies in different places than you carry your passport.  If you lose your passport, the copy will make replacing it MUCH easier.  Your passport is the property of the Government of Canada.  You are required to SHOW it to a policeman or other official, but you are NOT required to GIVE it to anyone.  Giving an official a photocopy of the first page will usually suffice.  Make a list of credit card numbers and the phone numbers to call if they become lost or stolen.  Leave a copy of the list with someone at home and carry a couple of copies in different places with you.  A good suggestion is to email the list and the copy of your passport to yourself before you go.  You can retrieve the message off the email server if you ever need the information.  We carry copies on our phones.

 It is a good idea to have some sort of secure pouch or money belt, which you can wear under your clothes, to carry your passport, some cash and other documents.  It is much safer than carrying these important items in a purse, handbag or wallet.   Susan wears a security pouch on a strap around her neck.  It is RF protected and the strap has a metal wire so it can't be cut.  I have a sturdy pouch from Mountain Equipment Co-op that I wear on my belt like a holster.  It is very strong, and convenient to access, but is still visible.  When I was younger (and my tummy was flatter) I wore a money belt under my shirt.  Now, it won’t stay where my waist used to be, but slides down below my belt.  Where I once could undo a shirt button to slip my passport out, I would now have to unzip my fly!  Not nearly as inconspicuous!

 We carry our cash in several different places:  some in a wallet, some in a money belt and some in our travel bag.  Some people carry emergency cash (US$50) under the insole of a shoe.  It is virtually undetectable and if everything else were stolen, you would still have some cash to get organized.  We haven’t been victims of crime yet, but it is always a possibility.  In the past, we used traveler’s checks, but they have really gone out of fashion and are now cumbersome and expensive to cash.  ATMs are found virtually everywhere in the world.  It doesn’t hurt to carry debit cards from more than one bank, as an ATM will sometimes refuse one card but accept a different one.  If your debit card doesn’t work in one ATM, try different ones.  VISA or Mastercard will work in nearly every ATM.  If we draw cash on a credit card, we go on-line as soon as possible and pay it off so as not to incur interest.

 Go through your wallet before leaving and remove all cards, documents, etc. that you don’t need on the trip.  It reduces the work to replace everything, if your wallet is lost or stolen.  Never carry a national identifier like a social security card as it will place you at risk of identity theft.  If you plan to rent a car, motorbike or scooter, obtain an International Driver’s License from CAA.  Some countries won’t accept your provincial license and others charge an extra fee for a local permit.

 A purse or handbag can be a real nuisance when travelling.  It is just one more item to keep track of and it is a magnet to thieves.  A better solution is a small packsack that leaves your hands free and is much harder for a thief to yank away from you.  A small packsack is also very handy to carry your rain jacket, sweater, guidebook, sunscreen, water bottle etc., when you are out for the day.  Some people like to wear the packsack on their front in crowded situations to better protect the contents from thieves.

 Carry a few Ziploc sandwich bags in your suitcase.  Before going through airport security, put loose change, keys, jewellery, glasses, watch, etc. in Ziploc bags and place them in your carry-on bag.  Then you don’t need to unload and reload everything out of your pockets at the security counter.  Leave the Canadian coins in the Ziploc bag until your return, so they don’t get mixed up with foreign coins.  I put the items I will want during the flight:  earphones, inflatable neck pillow, eye mask etc. in my small packsack.  It qualifies as "one personal item" and easily slips under the seat.  I never have to access my carry-on bag in the overhead bin during the flight.

  We put just enough powdered laundry soap in tiny Ziploc bags to wash out socks and underwear in a hotel hand basin.  Very little detergent is required to do a sinkful of laundry.  Too much will require many rinses.  Woolite® is a good brand as it rinses out easily. A flat, universal sink stopper is an essential item.  There are virtually no sink stoppers to be found in developing countries.  I always carry a roll of toilet paper in my day-pack.  I remove the cardboard tube to save space and put the roll in a Ziploc bag.  Surprising how many times it comes in handy.

 Liquids are a problem at airport security and are heavy to carry.  Look for alternatives.  Try a crystal deodorant stick (available at WalMart).  Use tooth powder (or baking soda) instead of toothpaste.  Several brands of bar shampoo are available (regular hand soap works perfectly well for hair washing in a pinch).  Many other products such as make-up, perfume, insect repellent etc are available in non-liquid form.  Go to onebag.com for suggested sources.  Consider leaving most liquids at home and just buying some when you arrive at your destination.

SURGICAL LATEX BRAID CLOTHESLINE
This is one of those items so perfectly designed for its purpose that you wonder why we're not issued with them at birth. If you've never seen/used a good travel clothesline, you're in for a treat; it may well change your (travel) life. Get the right type, though ("Flexo-line®" is the recommended brand), one made from three strands of surgical latex rubber tubing, braided (not twisted) to form a clothesline, with reliable attachments at the ends. It packs small, stretches l-o-n-g (if you need it to), and holds your damp laundry all by itself (no clothespins needed: you tuck edges of the clothing between strands of the braid, and the latex rubber grips them firmly). Plus, every laundry night, you get to exercise your creativity by discovering the two optimal line attachment locations!  Inexpensive carabiners — you don't need a heavy-duty mountaineering version, the type sold for key rings is fine — will increase your clothesline's attachment options.  Carry some light cord to extend the clothesline reach.

Rolling wet clothes in a towel, and wringing the towel tightly (with clothes inside), is an old traveller's trick to extract water and thus considerably speed the drying process; the towel both absorbs the moisture and protects the fabric from damage due to wringing.

If some item of clothing isn't quite dry when you're ready to depart in the morning, do as they do in the army: put it on anyway. Though it might feel a bit uncomfortable at first, you'll be amazed at how quickly it will dry next to a warm body.

Travel stores sell underwear and socks which are easy to hand wash and dry very quickly.  These items are fairly expensive, but they are very good quality and also comfortable to wear.

VISCOSE TOWEL AND WASHCLOTH
Viscose, which is derived from cellulosic sources (wood pulp, cotton), has a highly amorphous polymer system (as well as polar polymers), making it the most absorbent fibre in common use, thus an ideal basis for a high-efficiency towel. Originally developed in 1983 by Pacific Dry Goods, but now produced by MSR, the classic Packtowl® Original (92% viscose/8% polypropylene) comes in a variety of sizes. It's lightweight and packs small, yet soaks up an astounding nine times its weight in water (the large size will hold a full litre of fluid), even when damp (unlike, say, terrycloth, which becomes effectively useless when wet, and — being cotton — takes a long time to dry). Further, you can release 90% of that water merely by wringing the towel out. It dries quickly as well (if still damp when you need to depart for your next destination, simply pack it in a Ziploc® bag and hang it out to dry when you arrive). Viscose towels may not look like much, or feel particularly soft (they initially resemble a piece of rather stiff felt, though become softer and more "towel-like" — and more absorbent — after each washing), but they're much more effective than other types of "travel towels". They can be machine washed (no bleaching or ironing), and air or machine dried. And they can be cut to preferred sizes, without worrying about the edges unravelling. Viscose is also biodegradable, and the brand I recommend is produced in an eco-friendly fashion.

A small viscose towel (or even a piece cut from a larger one) also makes a good washcloth, an item fairly uncommon outside of North America.  The Packtowel is available from Cabela’s

 A web forum hosted by Travel Gear  http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com/tips.htm  also contains a wealth of valuable suggestions.

Mobile phones have become so essential when travelling, to store boarding passes, addresses, maps, travel information, maps, etc., etc., that a dead battery at a critical time can be a real emergency.  Electrical receptacles are very scarce in some boarding lounges. We now carry a mobile power supply.  It isn't very big but will recharge a phone 4 or 5 times if necessary and can be a lifesaver if your phone goes dead at a crucial time.

We carry so many electronic gadgets and each needs a charger to be plugged in.  This would require multiple adaptors in countries with different receptacles.  To get around this, I carry a small power bar.  Now we only need one adaptor and all our chargers can be plugged into the power bar.

I asked my doctor for a prescription for Ambien. It is a very mild sleeping pill and I find it helpful to get some sleep on long flights.  It lasts about five hours and doesn't leave you groggy when you wake up.  It also helps to get a good night's sleep after arriving home, jetlagged, from a long, multi-time zone flight.