How To Travel Internationally and Live To Tell the Tale

After a recent trip to Belize for a friend's wedding, I came to realize that we Americans are a little naïve on the savoir-faire of traveling in countries aside from our own.

Other than a few trips across the border into Mexico, I had never left U.S. soil before.

I suddenly found myself a foreigner, scarily, a “turista” like the ones I'd seen murdered in the movies.

We were the outsiders, and on the tiny island we were staying on, everyone knew it.

Experiencing other cultures should be a part of life, and if you have the chance to travel internationally, take it. You'll sound fancy and couth when you mention your excursions during a snooty dinner conversation.

But know that there are some rules:

1. If at all possible, take carry-on luggage only. Multiple plane-ride destinations create a high risk for lost luggage, and the last thing you need is to get to your vacation spot while your luggage travels on to Bora-Bora.

Plus, if you're going tropical, do you really need more than your bathing suit, linen shirts, and flip flops?

2. Make copies of every travel document before you leave. If you lose your passport halfway through your fifth piña colada, it expedites getting back into America if you have a copy on you (or safe in your suitcase in your room). If there's a U.S. Embassy in the country, have its number handy.

Also, make sure you are current on any vaccinations that you need for that specific country. You don't want to bring Hepatitis B with your puka shell necklaces and gift shop shot glasses back with you to America.

3. Wear bug spray. Mosquitoes that fly out of the rain forest carry crazy diseases. Malaria is for life.

And don't worry OFF! sprays now come in scents that smell nothing like hairspray mixed with gasoline.

4. Know the way back to your resort or hotel before you head to the bar.

5. Know that YOU are the foreigner. You're a visitor, and I guarantee you stand out like a sunburned thumb. Play by the rules of the country.

Breaking laws in the U.S. can get you thrown in the slammer for a night. Breaking laws in other countries can make you an instant amputee.

6. Know the currency exchange. Locals love a sucker.

7. Drink bottled water and avoid ice cubes. Foreign water treatment requirements can be dramatically less strict than the U.S., and you don't want to miss out on your trip because you can't leave the bathroom. They don't call it Montezuma's Revenge for nothing.

The same goes for caution with food ... that cute little sign in restrooms reminding employees to wash their hands (along with many other health regulations) might not exist in the country you're visiting.

8. Most importantly, enjoy your trip! Take a hundred pictures, breathe in every salty breeze, dance to steel drum music, and come back to America safely with tales of your life as a foreigner.