Solo travel can be an extremely liberating experience. You get to explore the world of your own accord and find out a lot about yourself as an individual along the way. But you are also a little more vulnerable, as you only have yourself to trust and rely on. This can affect various aspects of your trip, but for now, let’s focus on how it can affect your finances. Here are a few steps that you can take to protect your personal finances while you are away!

Take out Travel Insurance

Before you even head away, you should take out a comprehensive travel insurance policy. Sure, you may think that this is an unnecessary expense. But you never know when problems may arise. If you break or lose any of your belongings while you are away, or become the victim of a theft, travel insurance will help to repair or replace your items. Travel insurance can also come in extremely handy when it comes to covering medical expenses, should you fall ill or injure yourself while you are away. This all helps to reduce personal financial loss that could be associated with travel.

Challenge Professional Mistakes and Misconduct

When you are travelling, you are bound to come into contact with a whole host of individuals who should take a level of responsibility over your general health and wellbeing. If you take a day trip, your guide takes on a share of responsibility over you, as they should only take you to places that are recognised as safe, avoiding areas with problematic terrain, potentially dangerous wild animals, or other health and safety concerns. If you take a taxi from one place to another, the driver has a responsibility to be sober and in sufficiently good health to safely transport you. If you find that you do experience a problem, or find yourself in a difficult situation through no fault of your own, you should contact an attorney who specialises in the relevant area. Say you experience a problem at sea – you should contact a maritime accident attorney. If you have an accident related to a road vehicle, look for someone who specialises in road accidents. They will be able to assess your case and potentially claim compensation for loss of belongings, loss of earnings through personal injury, or a need to cut your trip short due to personal injury.

Familiarise Yourself with Exchange Rates

Purchasing anything in an overseas territory that uses a different currency to that which you’re familiar with can prove difficult. Many vendors will acknowledge that you are unfamiliar with exchange rates and may take advantage, overcharging you in the hope that you won’t notice that you are paying too much for a given product or service. So, make sure to familiarise yourself with the worth of foreign currency according to current exchange rates. This will prevent you from losing out.

These are just a few steps that you can take to secure your finances when travelling solo. Always keep them in the back of your mind to make your trip as positive as possible!