Covid foreign travel check list

This is a draft of a Covid foreign travel check list that still needs work and suggestions:

1. Get vaccinated and bring certificate in your passport and copy in your cell phone.

2. Avoid travel during weekends, holidays and days when airlines and resorts are crowded. 

3. Ask your doctor which anti Covid pills and test kits to bring with you: 5 days/2 antiviral pills per day, such as Pfizer Paxlovid.

4. Study US re-entry requirements, write down all pertinent details, avoid nasty surprises.

5. Determine where and when to get official Covid test for return trip, ask travel agent or airline. 

6. Health insurance that works overseas, ask your insurer.  

7. Good travel insurance, ask your Agent. 

8. Bring plenty of cash for tips and contingency.

Anything else?

• Print every travel certificate. In the hands of a foreign border agant, a paper always feels more tangible than a screenshot
• Bring antigen (LFT) selftest kits with you
• Bring FFP2 / FFP3 masks

Just back from an overseas trip.

Carry your own sanitizer for when you need it

For some countries you need the booster vaccination (but you got it already right, so you should be good to go)

Check if there are any apps that you need to have on your phone and get them loaded before you leave home. Some places require them for entry to restaurants/stores/etc

Make sure that you are booked into hotels (etc) that meet any local quarantine requirements for the days after you arrive

Budget extra money and time to get all the tests you need

Make sure you check-in early at the airport. A number of airlines are closing their check-in counters well before the flights leave to allow for all the paperwork and processing steps.

Be super patient with all the airline staff, they are not responsible if things take a long time or your paperwork is messed up.

Wear your mask(s) properly - it's not that hard to do - and it's polite for the rest of the people around you.

Research for each individual destination is required as the rules vary around timing of tests and procedures upon arrival. 

Copies of all certificates are important as is travel insurance.  Singapore for example required $30,000 of hospitalisation cover in case you contracted covid in country and wanted a certificate for that as part of travel documentation.

Make sure you have a certificate for you vaccination that meets international standards - I Australia we had a local one first and they developed an international one when overseas travel started to happen.  The certificate usually needs to be tied into your passport number, as do the Covid test results.  You need to check that the place you get tested will issue an internationally recognised test certificate with reference to your passport number.  Your name on all these certificates must match the name in your passport.

I am VERY wary of posting this type of checklist. Whilst ostensibly a good idea, I would urge everyone to do their OWN research into travel arrangements.

There are simply too many variables which, combined with a fast moving, changing environment, means that relying on any third party checklist is at best problematic. Please liaise with local operators, travel agents and (where appropriate) government agencies. 

Each country has its own individual entry/exit requirements, and this applies to both home and travel destinations. Some of these are regional too. 

By all means share that information on here for the benefit of our community, but I should again stress, it is critical that you do your own research.

Please note that any information shared on here should be viewed as guidance only. 

I concur with Adam here. Every country has their own entry and exit requirements, and every airline has its own requirements on top of that, and they're all changing all the time, so building something universal is plainly impossible.