Tuesday 9 July 2013

6 top tips for the travelling expat


According to popular belief, us expats ain’t loaded.

For many expats the annual trip home is not a holiday and certainly not relaxing. There is a lot of pressure on our time to spend time with our loved ones, whilst trying to rest a little and catch up with friends and their families. There just isn’t enough time and something has to suffer, it’s usually the rest and relaxation.

Hubby and I travel alone so we can stretch the visits with the families but have decided it’s not really working for us and with so many family and friends travelling out to see us, we’ve decided to travel together from now on. There will be additional costs involved such as accommodation as it’s impossible for us both to stay with anyone for 2 weeks and we will need to hire a car. To date I’ve been able to borrow my parents car, but as they go down to one car soon, this option will no longer be possible.

I’ve been in the UK on this visit for 7 weeks, sorting out schooling for the youngest child and evicting tenants. Hubby and I are likely to return to the UK in September to settle son into his boarding school and I thought I’d share some of the things we are planning to do on our next visit. (finances permitting)

1.       Spend a night at a hotel on arrival, to sort out sim cards, finances, hire a car, buy phone card. Ensure we have everyone's phone numbers, hire a sat nav.

2.       Stay in accommodation that is accessible for family. They are in Bath, Gloucester, Monmouth, and Leeds. This will be dependent on price

3.       First planned visit is to Sister in laws to collect our post, we use her address for all our correspondence

4.       Visit to the supermarket to stock up on essentials, toiletries, basic food stuff that we find our family don’t stock (personal preference not a complaint)

5.       Let people know where we are staying in advance of our trip, giving them enough notice to make plans to come and visit us or let us know when they are in so we can make plans for travel to them

6.       Spend our final night at the airport, via Sister in Laws house to collect any additional post, return hire car and enjoy the last night and relax

 

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