How To Prepare For Travel: Our Annual ‘Home Base Reset’ Before Another Year Of Travel

The ultimate pre-departure checklist for travelling long-term for those who return home once or twice a year.

Every time we return to Australia, which is usually just once a year, it’s not just for catch-ups, coastal walks, and great steaks and wine (although those definitely help!). It’s our golden window to reset before diving back into another 12 months of slow travel.

This “home base reset” has become a non-negotiable part of our nomadic retirement lifestyle. It’s our chance to tie up loose ends, renew essential documents, refresh our gear, and mentally gear up for the next chapter on the road. We treat this time at home as a strategic pause, a reset that helps us travel more freely and with fewer surprises.

Over the years, our travel preparation checklist has grown and evolved. It’s not perfect, and it’s certainly not glamorous. But it works. It’s the reason we can embrace spontaneity during the year because the essentials are already sorted.

In this post, we’re sharing our complete, personal “home base reset” routine:
✅ What we do every year while home
✅ What we’ve learned the hard way
✅ And how this checklist to prepare for travel gives us peace of mind for another full year on the road

Bonus: We’ve also included a printable version of the checklist for travel! Stick it on the fridge, cross things off, and start your next big chapter fully prepped.

 Why a “Home Base Reset” Matters for Long-Term Travellers

When you live a full-time travel lifestyle, being back at your home base isn’t just downtime, it’s a reset button.

For us, returning to Australia once a year gives us a chance to do far more than sip wines and see family. It’s when we take care of the not-so-fun-but-very-necessary tasks that make the rest of the year on the road smoother, lighter, and less stressful.

We treat this annual reset as part of our rhythm, just as important as booking flights or renewing visas.

This ritual gives us:

• Peace of mind: We know our health, finances, and documents are in order.
• Freedom to travel slowly: No more emergency calls to banks or last-minute pharmacy runs abroad.
• A lighter mental load: We can fully enjoy the experiences ahead without second-guessing what we forgot.

This checklist before travel isn’t a luxury, it’s our foundation. It’s the reason we can travel for long periods of time without feeling like life is unravelling behind the scenes.

Our Annual Checklist For Travelling

The once-a-year routine we rely on before every long-term trip

We’ve refined this list of things to do before travelling overseas over years of trial, error, and learning what matters most when you’re away from home for 6 to 12 months at a time. Whether you’re heading off for another adult gap year or planning a full lap of the globe, this list is your reset guide.

Essential Travel Documents and Identity Check

• Check your passport expiry date – Some countries won’t let you in if you have less than 6 months remaining. Make sure you’ve also got at least two blank pages for stamps and visas.
• International Driving Permit (IDP) – We buy one every year as we often rent motorbikes in SE Asia and drive either families cars or rentals when in Europe. It is a legal requirement in many countries and if you are in a traffic accident, many insurance companies will request proof.
• Make digital and printed backups – We keep copies of our passports, driver’s licences, credit cards, travel insurance, vaccination records and emergency contacts in either physical form or stored securely online (Google Drive, phone files, saved to USB and emailed to ourselves).
• Create a “just in case” doc pack – We carry an A4 colour copy of both Jonas’ and my passport information and at the bottom of this page is all of our emergency contact info. We always carry this in my daily handbag along with our travel insurance policy details.
• Check expiry dates on everything – Medicare cards, credit cards, driver’s licence, passports, loyalty programmes. Replace anything due to expire while you’re away.
• First destination visa – Make sure you’ve printed and saved a copy if required.

Medical and Health Reset

When you’re on the road for months at a time, medical prep becomes more than a precaution, it’s peace of mind. We use our time at home to make sure we’re set up for the year ahead.

• Annual check-ups – We schedule all our routine health screens: blood tests, dental cleans, eye exams, skin checks, breast, cervical and colon screenings, hearing tests, and anything else age-appropriate.
• Prescriptions and refills – We make sure we have enough prescription medication for the year ahead. Our GP writes a script that allows for 12 months’ supply, and we carry a letter from the doctor for border crossings.
• Pharmacy stock-up – We pick up familiar, hard-to-find-overseas essentials such as good sunblock, anti-itch cream, and vitamins from our local chemist. These are brands we trust and know work for us.
• Vaccinations and boosters – Before heading to new destinations, we check if any vaccines are required or if we are due for a booster. We usually refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website to stay current.
• Travel insurance – Each year before booking travel insurance, we compare policies to make sure we’re covered for long-term travel. We always check for inclusions like medical emergencies, trip interruption, evacuation, baggage loss, and extras like motorbike riding or diving. Read the fine print, especially if you’re into adventure sports.

Financial Tune-Up

Long-term travel gets a lot easier (and cheaper) when your finances are sorted in advance. Each time we’re home, we give our banking and budget systems a thorough once-over.

• Check and update credit cards – We ensure all our cards are valid through the year ahead, especially those we use overseas. We keep at least one backup card per person, stored separately.
• Apply for new travel cards if needed – If we find a better deal (no FX fees, no ATM fees), we’ll apply while in Australia.
• Note down key card info – Card numbers, expiry dates, CVVs, and bank contact numbers go into our secure cloud storage and phones just in case we lose one abroad.
• Set travel alerts with your bank – This helps prevent your cards being blocked for “suspicious activity” when you start tapping in Thailand or withdrawing cash in Portugal. Most banks let you do this in-app now.
• Review interest rates and savings accounts – We compare term deposits, high-interest savings, and any new offers. A small change here can mean extra funds for travel later.

Gear, Tech and Packing Upgrades

After nearly a year on the road, things wear out, tech gets glitchy, and we always discover what we didn’t need (or really missed). Being home is our chance to reset, replace, and refresh our setup.

• Replace tired gear – We inspect everything: clothes, chargers, shoes, packing cubes, daypacks. If something’s broken or wearing thin, we upgrade it now, before we’re stuck hunting for it in a foreign city.
• Tech check-up – We assess our phones, battery life, cables, SD cards, adapters. If a device is acting up, we fix it or replace it.
• Backup hard drives – At home, we plug in our external drives, check they’re working, and do a fresh backup of all files and photos.
• Digital declutter – We clear out unused apps, cancel unnecessary subscriptions, and free up storage space.
• Print our key checklists – Accommodation criteria, laundry tracker, ICE (In Case of Emergency) docs, and a fresh copy of our travel insurance details which are always handy to have offline.

Bonus Tip: This is also when we test any new travel gear or tech before leaving, because discovering your new portable charger doesn’t actually charge is far more annoying in a hotel than in your lounge room.

Home Base Clean-Up

This part’s not glamorous, but it’s essential. Before we set off for another year of travel, we give our home base (in our case, we sold our house to travel so we now have a room in Peta’s mum’s house, and some storage boxes in her garage) a proper once-over.

• Check stored gear – Although we sold everything (nearly) to travel full-time, we do still have some boxes in storage in mum’s garage in Australia. Each year we go through our boxes of stored belongings to check for mould, pests, or damage. All leather items like shoes, belts, and handbags are cleaned and moisturised. Each year, we end up donating or tossing more stuff we no longer need.
• Minimise again – Travel teaches us how little we actually need. Every time we’re home, we reduce our stored items further — it’s a great feeling.
• Clean and test backup hard drives – These live in storage, so we plug them in to check they’re still functioning and update any files before we go.
• Update emergency contacts and key documents – If we’ve updated our will, added power of attorney, or changed insurance details, we make sure our trusted contacts have the latest copies.
• Restock our travel pantry – Things like protein bars, seasoning mixes, and snack packs for travel days are often easier (and cheaper) to buy before leaving.

This “home base tidy” closes the loop. It keeps things ticking over while we’re away, prevents future headaches, and helps us leave without that nagging feeling we forgot something.

The Most Overlooked Pre-Departure Tasks

The tiny things that cause big headaches if you skip them

Over the years, we’ve learned that some of the most annoying travel issues come from the things you don’t think to check—until it’s too late. Here are a few uncommon but critical tasks we now always include in our annual reset:

• 2FA and SIM strategy – If your bank or email uses two-factor authentication, make sure your Aussie SIM card will still receive texts overseas or set up an authenticator app. Getting locked out of accounts abroad = major pain.
• eSIM test drive – Planning to use an eSIM for data? Set it up before you leave, test the install, and make sure it works with your phone.
• Visa rule refresher – Even if you’ve been somewhere before, visa rules and entry requirements can change. Check entry conditions (especially post-pandemic or in Europe with ETIAS coming).
• Update your digital will / emergency contacts – Make sure someone back home has updated info in case anything happens while you’re away.
• Mental reset – This one’s underrated. We take time to reset our expectations, remind ourselves that things will go wrong sometimes, and ease into the pace of slow travel again.

These aren’t glamorous checklist items, but they’re often the ones that save the most stress.

Why This Preparing For Travel Checklist Keeps Us Grounded

This annual home base reset has become more than just a to-do list, it’s a ritual. It grounds us in the midst of an otherwise fluid lifestyle.

When you live on the move, routines can be hard to maintain. There’s always another destination to research, another border to cross, another surprise around the corner. Having this list of things to do before traveling – this once-a-year moment to pause, reflect, and reset – anchors us.

It reminds us:

• That preparation brings freedom
• That peace of mind is worth the admin
• And that we travel better when we start from a place of clarity

We’ve added, removed, and reshuffled items over the years, but the structure stays. It’s not about doing everything perfectly. It’s about arriving at the airport knowing we’ve done enough.

We can travel slower, trust our systems, and enjoy the unfolding journey because the foundations are solid.

FAQ’s: Preparing For Long-Term International Travel

Now that you have seen our checklist for travelling of what we do whist we are back in our home base, you might still have a few questions. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Here are some frequently asked questions about what needs to be done before resuming nomad travels.

Our annual home base reset has become the secret to staying sane, safe, and spontaneous while living a life on the road. It’s what allows us to relax into slow travel, knowing the essentials are handled before we even board the plane.

It’s not about being perfectly prepared, it’s about being ready enough to travel with confidence. Whether it’s replacing a worn backpack, printing updated insurance docs, or just checking your credit card’s expiry date, every small task adds up to a smoother journey ahead.

This checklist is the quiet backbone of our lifestyle and we hope sharing it helps you build your own.

📝 Want a printable version of our reset checklist?
We’ve bundled it into a simple, fridge-friendly PDF so you can print, tick, and prep without overthinking it.

👉 [Download the Home Base Reset Checklist here]

Do you do any of the things listed above in preparation for another year of nomad travels, or have we missed any things we should add to this list? Feel free to contact us on Facebook or via email and let us know.

DISCLAIMER: This article contains affiliate links and Exit45 Travels are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. That means if you click a link and make a purchase, we make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our disclosure policyfor more information.