How to Plan an International VacationHow to Plan an International Vacation
By Robert Isenberg

http://travel.msn.com/Guides/article.aspx?cp-documentid=414416

When it comes to seeing the world, the travel is the easy part—especially if you’ve considered entry requirements, health and safety before you take off.

For most of us, foreign travel is a luxury that requires both time and money. Maybe you’re a young beatnik taking your first backpacking expedition across Europe. Or you’ve arranged a honeymoon cruise around the Caribbean. Or you’ve just retired, and you’re going to spend a month or two sitting beneath a beach umbrella in Thailand. But once you’ve carved out a few weeks from your busy schedule and purchased bargain tickets, what’s the next step? How do you plan the practical details of your trip?

Whether this is your first journey overseas or your 10th, we offer some common-sense advice, from staying healthy to staying in touch. Read on, and bon voyage!

Passport, please . . .

Anyone who’s applied for a passport this year can appreciate how frustrating the process has become. A backlog of requests has made headlines and given many would-be travelers headaches; an estimated 3 million applications are currently being processed, with 18 million expected by the end of 2007.

The deluge is a result of new U.S. policies aimed at tightening the security of the nation’s borders. The government will soon require passports for U.S. citizens returning from Mexico and Canada by land or sea—starting as early as summer 2008. And if you’re flying, you already need a passport to travel to these countries, as well as to most destinations in the Caribbean.

If you’re a U.S. citizen thinking about a foreign trip and you don’t yet have a passport, apply for one right away; the sooner, the better. Expect to wait about 120 days for your new passport, unless you’re willing to pay approximately $60 for expedited service. You can also engage a private company (about 200 exist) as your agent; however, this service is expensive, and works only for customers who haven’t already requested their documents.

Once your passport is issued, it remains valid for a full 10 years (five if you’re under 18). For many countries, such as France and the Czech Republic, a passport is all most tourists need to cross the border. Other nations have more restrictions, and may require you to have a special entrance permit called a visa. For example, to enter India, U.S. citizens must have a passport that’s valid for six months past their date of departure, as well as a visa. At customs in Turkey, you can expect that an official will photograph you while your passport is stamped (you’ll also need a visa, which you can buy on the spot for $20). And if your destination is particularly adventurous, the requirements may be even more stringent: Algeria requires a visa to be typed (until recently, they could be handwritten). And to enter Turkmenistan, you must possess a visa that you can get only by having a letter of invitation from a Turkmeni citizen or organization.