• Book wisely. While planning your trip, look at your destination’s average high and low temperatures and precipitation for the dates you’re considering. “Weather is constantly changing, but this information is a good baseline for you to make a decision,” says Cheryl Nelson, a meteorologist and the founder of PrepareWithCher.com.

• Get protected. Travel insurance can protect you financially if you need to cancel a trip due to illness or an emergency, but it typically hasn’t covered weather disruptions outside of natural disasters. Your credit card provider also might extend some weather-related travel insurance for trips booked with the card. However, some companies provide an alternative to insurance—weather protection—to guarantee against even minor weather washouts. WeatherPromise can reimburse the cost of a trip if the weather doesn’t cooperate. An example: Protection on a $1,500 trip to Vail, Colorado, July 19 through 21 cost $148.50 for full trip reimbursement if it rained for more than four hours between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on one of the days. Sensible Weather is a similar service, offering weather protection for vacations and outdoor experiences like skiing, camping, golf and more. This protection is not sold directly to travelers but through some hotels and attractions.

• Research indoor attractions. “If the weather is bad, you have to have a plan B,” says Christopher Elliott, the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. “I never travel without a plan B.” Then if a beach day doesn’t work out, the trip isn’t busted. “I look for whatever indoor excursions I can find—antique stores, art galleries, spas,” Nelson says. “If I want to do something active, is there bowling?” Or you can embrace the time in your hotel to just do what you want, an opportunity that might not come along too often at home. “Forced indoor time can be great for meditating or reading a book,” Nelson says.

• Stay calm; be flexible. Severe weather often leads to flight delays and cancellations. So you should be mentally prepared to handle the unexpected, says travel agent Brook Bramley of TripBoutiq. “When travelers are planning to go on a trip, they need to go in with the mindset that events happen that are out of our control. That’s just part of travel.” Consider disruptions an opportunity to create a new experience. “Some of my best travel memories and stories happened because things went wrong,” Elliott says. “I’ve adopted the attitude that that is better than a vacation that goes flawlessly and is utterly forgettable.”

• Inspect before you drive. You might know to inspect your rental car for dents and dings before leaving the rental lot. Less obvious is starting the car and making sure everything’s working well. “The best place to discover there’s something wrong with your rental is where you’re still surrounded by other rentals that the rental company can easily put you in,” Nelson says. “Make sure the headlights and taillights work, that there are no check engine lights on and that there is gas in the tank.”

• Keep documents handy. When you rent a car, you get paperwork that includes phone numbers to use if there’s a problem, says Bramley. Even if the rental office is closed, the rental documents should have a 24-hour emergency number.

• Don’t go to a mechanic. Bramley says some travelers make this mistake. “The local mechanic won’t even touch the car because it’s a rental. Rental car companies have their own service providers. They send their own tow truck or repair truck to where the customer is.”

• Create a cheat sheet. Most of us no longer memorize phone numbers because we have them stored as contacts in our phones. If you lose your phone, you lose that information. So one of the easiest steps to take is to carry a written list of important numbers, including your family and friends, hotels where you’re staying and your travel agent, if you have one, says Gary Brickhouse, chief information security officer at GuidePoint Security. Similarly, back up your contacts to cloud storage. If you lose your phone, you can still access that information from a computer.

• Enable security features. This includes passcodes, face ID and biometrics, and two-factor authentication. While many people take advantage of at least one of these precautions, you should consider making use of all of them. These security steps can help prevent your personal information from landing in criminal hands, Brickhouse says.

• Use Find My Phone. Most smartphones have a Find My Phone feature that you can access through a computer or another phone. It can help locate your phone if it’s lost. Be sure to set this up before your trip, Brickhouse says.

• Contact your cell provider. “There are protections they can enable on their end to mark the phone as stolen,” Brickhouse says. The provider may be able to set you up with a new phone and help restore backed-up data to your new device.

• Inspect your bags beforehand. “Go through all the zippers and compartments before you pack it to make sure there’s nothing in it from the last trip that might be a prohibited item,” says Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Lorie Dankers. If you’re unsure about an item, check the MyTSA app’s feature What Can I Bring? Or you can share a photo of the item in question with Ask TSA on X or Facebook Messenger, or text it to AskTSA (275-872), and get an official ruling.

• Listen. Think you know how to go through the security line? Take your shoes off, put your laptop in a separate bin, and take everything out of your pockets. Maybe. “We’re working towards streamlining the technologies we use, but right now every airport is different, and it’s even possible that two lanes next to each other might be different,” Dankers says. So listen closely to TSA instructions. If an agent stops you, “it is usually a communications issue.”

• Call ahead. If you’re stuck in traffic or overslept, the best action is to call the airline, Bramley says. This will give you the best chance of getting rebooked on a flight that’s convenient for you. “It’s possible that if you don’t call before you miss your flight, that you’ll be marked as a no-show, and your entire itinerary is canceled,” Nelson says.

• Pack light. Traveling without a checked bag will help if you miss a flight, Nelson says. “This gives you much more flexibility to change flights if your itinerary gets messed up,” she says. “And if you get stuck somewhere overnight, you’ve got all your belongings with you.”

• Go straight to the police. This is your first stop to get the crime on the record, which can help with other steps. For example, if your passport was in the stolen bag, a police report will be helpful in getting a replacement.

• Deactivate your cards. Call your credit card companies to report the theft. Do this right away to avoid bogus charges and also to get new cards delivered to your hotel. Before you leave for vacation, set up payment apps on your phone. “Let’s say you lose all your cards,” says Kenneth Bombace, a former Army intelligence officer and now the CEO of Global Threat Solutions. “You could use, for instance, Apple Pay.”

• Before your trip, make a list. An inventory of the contents of your wallet or handbag, carried separately, will make filing that police report easier, Bombace says. Or take photos on your phone and back them up to cloud storage that you can access from another device if needed. Another precaution: Place an electronic tracker inside your wallet or purse, Bombace says.

• Leave the fancy bag back at home. “If you’re traveling and you have a high-end luxury bag, you are asking for problems,” Bombace says. Even imitation fancy bags could cause an issue. “Thieves are going to see that, and they’re going to think that you’re a person of means, and you might have more to lose if they were to target you.”

• Know your embassy. Before you leave the country, you should be aware of the location of the U.S. embassy or consulate closest to your hotel, says Andres Rodriguez, spokesperson for the Office of Passport Services at the U.S. Department of State. This information can be found at travel.state.gov/destination.

• Get a new passport photo. After contacting the embassy, but before you go to your appointment, get a new passport photo. “In some larger consulates, they do have photo booths on-site, but it’s not guaranteed,” Rodriguez says.

• Fill out forms online. When you report a lost passport, there are forms to complete. To speed the process, do this online at travel.state.gov before arriving at the embassy or consulate. How long will it take to get a replacement passport? Rodriguez says that “in general, the average turnaround time is the next day. In some instances, they could do it the same day. If there are urgent, immediate travel plans, then the consulate is going to make every effort to issue the passport so you can make your travel plans.”

• Do your homework. The more you know about where you are traveling, the better your care experience will be. Knowing where local hospitals and urgent care centers are in relation to your hotel can save you time and worry, says Roberto Cardarelli, chief medical officer at Baptist Health Louisville.

• Ask your hotel. If you fall ill, your best option for care might be closer than you think. “If you’re at a resort or a hotel, some have medical offices within them,” Cardarelli says. Some hotels will also help coordinate care elsewhere.

• Know your medications. Be sure to bring all your prescription drugs, or at least a list of them, to the hospital or urgent care facility. That helps medical providers with your care, Cardarelli says. There are also apps that store your medical information on your phone.

Dina Mishev is the editor in chief of Jackson Hole magazine, and her articles and essays about travel have appeared in The Washington Post, Sunset and Outside magazine. She has written two books about traveling around Yellowstone National Park and Wyoming and a book about hiking in Jackson Hole.

Michael Grant is an award-winning journalist who has contributed several stories to AARP The Magazine and the AARP Bulletin, including the “How to Save Your Life” magazine feature (February/March 2024).