After an incident in which one of the two authors discovered that he had inadvertently left behind a number of important travel items, he joined with a colleague—both seasoned travelers in the fields of foreign affairs and international travel—to write this personal reference book in which individual “needs and conveniences, likes and dislikes, can be recorded, tracked and changed as circumstances require.” Harris and Katz have organized the reference book into sections on topics such as travel calendars, things to do before leaving, basic considerations, budget calculations, and a set of checklists for leisure, business, personal, and emergency travel. Additionally, there is a chapter dedicated to evaluation of the trip (what worked, what didn’t work so well, and space for miscellaneous notes). The authors note that their “book is designed to help readers list everything they like to have with them on any trip away from home, [and] allows readers to select what they will need for any specific purpose.”

One of the unique aspects travelers will find useful in this reference book is that, for each relevant section, the charts and other pages designed specifically for personalization by the reader are presented in an extremely easy-to-navigate format. Further, photocopying of the many forms is not only stated by the authors as being allowed but is, in fact, encouraged. As such, any frequent traveler—whether for pleasure, business, or any combination therein—will find that both the content as well as the ease-of-use make for an extremely convenient system in which to assure ahead of time that every item needed on any type of travel not only ends up being properly packed for the trip but also makes it to where it is needed during the length of the voyage and back home after the journey.

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