Travelling within the EU is very easy as far as governmental restrictions and the annoyance of exchanging money are concerned. However there are a number of other things that travellers need to be aware of when travelling internationally that they might be less likely to think about now that everything feels a bit less localised. Here is a quick list of things that you’ll need to keep an eye on to make sure that your travels run smoothly.

EHIC

The European Health Insurance Card is something you can sign up for online at an EHIC provider to get your national health insurance to cover you anywhere inside the EU at state run health institutions. It’s very cheap to apply online (just £20).  There is absolutely no reason to travel abroad without your health insurance coverage when a sudden emergency could leave you in massive debt for the rest of your life.

Phrasebook

Pretty much everyone in the cities can speak English, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be willing to talk to you. With most people you might find a cold welcome waiting if you don’t at least make a nominal effort to speak their language, since pretty much anyone considers it rude to just walk up to someone and begin talking to them in a foreign language without so much as a hello and excuse me. More importantly, if you find yourself stuck somewhere there might not be anyone who can speak English at all, in which case a few small phrases are the difference between panic and being able to find means of contacting someone who can help.

Personal Identification

This should be entirely obvious; however it’s a pretty major problem. The UK is one of the EU countries that has not removed its border controls so getting back home after your trip can be considerably more complicated if you can’t prove who you are. To make your life easier you should email yourself a scanned copy of your passport so that you can access it anywhere in case you lose the hard copy somehow.

Talk to Your Bank

Nothing is quite as frustrating as having your bank account frozen while you’re on vacation. In order to protect your money most banks will automatically lock down your funds if it finds that they’re being spent in an irregular manner, like for example 400 miles away from where you were yesterday. In order to make sure the bank is working with you rather than against you, make sure to call them several days or weeks before you leave so as to ensure that they know where you will be before they call you to ask if you really just spent £150 at a Portuguese restaurant.

Guy Pierson is a writer and globetrotter. His hobbies include learning new languages, eating bizarre food, and glider flying. He writes for applyehic.org which offers paid review and submission services as well as a European hospital locator for the NHS’s free EHIC program.