Packing for an Overseas Trip

Now that a number of the genealogy plans for my Family Tree Tours fall adventure are coming together, my mind has turned to other more essential questions. The big one is what to do about a phone. I will need to have a way to stay in contact with my group, my family and my genealogy assistants while I am there. I anticipate that traveling to two different countries is going to complicate things, as it has already done with currency and electrical outlets. I have some options, which is always good. I could add an international plan to my Verizon account for my iPhone. But then I read reviews about the coverage and service, including an account by well-known entrepreneur Peter Shankman. Yikes! That pretty much scared me away from that alternative. My son has recommended that I simply turn off the data plan and roaming options on my phone. I would still be able to access my email and social media in areas where wifi is available, and any calls that I made or received would be billed to my Verizon account. That sounds pretty good for an "in case of emergency" situation. Other options are to rent a phone here, or purchase a disposable phone when I arrive.

The other thing I am looking into is whether or not I need to bring a converter for my electronic devices. You need to use a converter if your device is only labeled as 110 or so volts as the rest of the world operates at higher voltage. So far it appears that everything I will be plugging in handles 120/240 volts, with the exception of my hair dryer. As it is an over-sized beast, I have purchased a dual voltage yet small travel hair dryer. I need to check it out here to make sure the drying capacity is good for the thickness of my hair, and that it is not overly noisy.

We already have an adapter kit from earlier travel, but I still need to make sure that I have the appropriate adapters for both Germany and Switzerland. The adapter modifies the plug of your device so that will plug into a different socket configuration.

Another investment I am looking into is a power strip so that I can charge multiple devices at once. An added benefit is that I would only need one adapter for the power strip since the rest of the devices would plug directly into the strip. Through my research I have learned that you do not want to use a power strip with a surge protector built in when traveling abroad because apparently that is dangerous. However the power strip needs to be dual voltage as well, so I doubt any of the ones I have around the house will work.

I am sure some other things will come up, but this is what I am focused on right now.