6 Ways to Make Travel Less Stressful in 2025
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There's nothing like airport chaos or passport emergencies to ruin a vacation—which is why stress free travel is one of our New Year's resolutions for 2025. Travel can be thrilling, eye-opening, and restorative—but let’s face it, actually getting to your destination leaves plenty of room for error. Everything from shelling out on expensive airfares, to navigating crowded airports and trying to stay on top of travel documents like passports and compliant Real IDs can be enough to keep even the most passionate nomads at home.
But with a little planning ahead, you can set yourself up for a smoother ride in 2025. By completing a handful of simple tasks at the start of the new year, you can ensure you’ll be able to better afford your trips, maximize your precious points and miles, and decrease security and customs wait times. Below, we've rounded up six ways you can get ahead on your to-do's for stress free travel (your future self will thank you).
Check your passport expiration date
Dreaming of an international trip in 2025? Then you’ll want to give your passport a quick glance. If the expiration date is coming up within the next year, it’s a good idea to apply for a renewal. Remember that many countries require your passport to be valid for at least six months past the day you arrive, so you should always renew your little blue book well before it actually expires.
Fortunately, passport processing times are finally back to their relatively quick, pre-pandemic timeframe of four to six weeks (not including mailing time). But renewing a passport, or applying for your first one, should still be carefully planned for. If you can get your application submitted before the end of December, you’ll be sitting pretty for your travels in 2025. According to the State Department, the best time to apply for or renew passports is from October through December—a three-month period with the fewest applications that the Department says is its “slow season.”
Try renewing online to cut down on paperwork—many travelers are now eligible for the new, entirely digital process, although first-time applicants must still submit by mail. And if you forget to do it over the holidays, you can still pay an extra $60 fee for expedited processing, which shrinks the passport turnaround time to just two to three weeks.
Reassess your points and miles strategy
“To create a points and miles plan for the new year, start by taking stock of the credit cards and points you already have,” says Rachel Lipson, founder of Brooklyn Family Travelers, which helps families book trips on points and miles. Ask yourself a few questions to assess your current spending habits. “Have you put all your spending on the same airline or hotel card for years and now find it hard to get much from your points? Do you have a card that earns cash back but now feel ready to dive into points?”
Lipson says the answers to these questions can help clarify your priorities for the year ahead, making stress free travel that much more attainable. “For some travelers, the next step may be opening a new card and for others it may be shifting spending to a card that has been collecting dust,” she says.
In 2024, there also were sweeping changes to some airline loyalty plans, making it harder—and more expensive—to achieve coveted elite status. Before 2025 travel revs up, it’s important to determine whether chasing or maintaining elite status makes sense for you. “While status feels great and can lead to fun upgrades and perks, I always caution my clients that focusing on building status isn’t always worth it,” Lipson says.
At the same time, some travel brands now offer high elite status just by holding a particular credit card, according to Lipson, which means more competition for precious upgrades. “Putting more of your spending on a card that earns transferable points offers significantly more flexibility when it comes time to choose a hotel or flight,” Lipson says. Those types of cards include heavy hitters like the Amex Platinum and the Chase Sapphire Reserve, among numerous others. “With flexible points, you're able to book the trip that has the best rate without the need to stick to one brand.”
Apply for (or renew) Global Entry
If you’ve never used Global Entry—which allows access to faster lines at airport Customs and Immigration after returning from an international trip and grants membership to TSA PreCheck—you might consider joining if you're planning frequent trips abroad in 2025 and beyond. It costs $100 for a five-year membership (which many travel credit cards cover for you) and could save hours of waiting in lines at the airport.
After submitting your application, you can complete your required interview at an Enrollment on Arrival kiosk at an eligible airport after returning from an international trip. Washington Dulles airport also has the only Enrollment on Departure office, so take advantage if you’re leaving on a flight abroad from that hub. (There are also other enrollment centers around the country where you can interview, but sometimes it’s difficult to get an appointment.)
If you’re already a member, check your expiration date. Members are eligible to start the renewal process one year before their membership expires. Renewing early is well worth the effort: Travelers who renew before their membership expires are allowed to keep using Global Entry benefits for 24 months after the expiration date.
Start a savings routine for big trips
In 2024, the average cost of a one-week vacation in the US clocked in at $1,991 for one person, according to data from banking app Chime. For a couple traveling, that number rose to $3,982.
Those numbers can certainly sound daunting, but if you start a savings plan at the right time, you’ll be able to hit those benchmarks in 2025 with relative ease. The key is to start saving early and putting away small chunks of money in a separate account that acts as your dedicated travel fund, according to Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate. Rossman recommends naming the travel savings account something fun, like “Paris 2025”—it will help you stay motivated and make you less likely to raid that account for other purchases, he says.
Even putting away small chunks of change—say $40 a week—will add up if you are able to do it regularly. “It's easier to save in bits and pieces as opposed to all at once,” Rossman says, noting that putting aside just $38 a week will add up to $2,000 by the end of the year. To help yourself stay consistent, automate the contributions to your savings account. “Setting up automatic transfers ensures you'll stick with your goal, and you're less likely to miss what you don't see,” Rossman says.
Set price alerts to dream destinations
Most of us are already fantasizing about where we want to go in 2025. If you have a few dream destinations in mind, consider using an airfare tracking feature to monitor flight prices. The tools—available on sites like Hopper, Kayak, Google Flights, Skyscanner, and Going—offer to send email alerts or push notifications when prices drop on a flight route you’re interested in. With most of the sites, you simply input the dates of your trip, departure airport, and destination and sign up to receive price alerts. Most sites allow travelers to set multiple alerts across different flight routes, so you can input several journeys you’re interested in booking.
When setting the alerts, timing is key in order to find the cheapest fares. “Airlines release fares about 12 months in advance, but prices usually start high to snag early bookers willing to pay more,” says Katy Nastro, a spokesperson at Going. There’s usually a sweet spot for most destinations when tickets hit their lowest point. “If you're eyeing a summer trip to Greece, that means monitoring fares between 4-10 months ahead,” Nastro says. Using this method, Nastor was able to find a recent fare from New York to Athens for just $672 roundtrip, she says.
Skyscanner also has a Savings Generator tool that identifies the best time to book a flight based on your travel details. For instance, the best time to book a flight for a May trip from Chicago to London is 26 weeks ahead of time, according to the search tool. You can use that information as a guide for when to set price alerts for all your dream trips.
Make sure you have a Real ID
New federal identification rules for air travel, called Real ID, go into effect next year. The Real ID deadline is May 7, 2025. On that date, all travelers aged 18 and older on US flights—even domestic ones—must have a Real ID-compliant form of identification to board a plane. Essentially, it means that travelers must show a Real ID driver’s license at the TSA checkpoint, or another form of compliant identification, which includes a passport or passport card, Global Entry card, and a few other types of IDs. Getting a Real ID driver’s license takes a few extra steps, but they’re obtainable in all 50 states and US territories, too. You know you have a compliant license if there’s one of these symbols in the top corner: a gold or black star; a white star with a gold or black circle around it; or a gold bear with a white star on top.
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
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