Ever since Brexit, there have suddenly become many European countries where in order to have service or data, I need to set up an add-on (at an additional cost).

Sometimes I’ll do this, but mostly I’ll see how far I can get just hopping from wifi zone to wifi zone. When I’m in this position, there are a few things I do ahead of time to make life a little easier for myself:

Download all PDFs the night before. Don’t wait until you’re at the airport to download tickets for flights, trains, or busses. And anything that has a barcode or a QR code is screenshot from me if it can’t be downloaded!

Pin important emails to the top of my inbox. Flight information, hotel confirmation, virtual tickets for the shuttle—it all goes to the top of my inbox, so I don’t have to rely on Outlook’s search function.

Download the city’s map for offline use. You never know when you’ll be lost and in need of guidance—and even though you can’t ask Maps for directions without an internet connection, the GPS on my phone has always put me in the right location in the map. Lifesaver!

Backup photos ahead of time. If you use an app like Google Photos, you need an internet connection to back up your pics. Be sure to do this before you fly, and delete anything that’s taking up too much storage. You don’t want to be in a position where you run out of storage and have to spend time going back and deleting and going back and deleting…all while missing the moment you’re trying to take a pic of!

Screenshot any needed translations. I’m allergic to nuts, so anywhere I go where I don’t speak the language, I use Google translate to explain why my food needs to be nut-free. I then take a screenshot of the translation, because when I return to a web tab, sometimes it refreshes, and without service the page won’t reload (it’ll just be a blank screen) so I take a screengrab, which I then can show waiters etc. You might try this with simple phrases like “How do I get to the metro?” or “Can you help me find a taxi?” etc.

What would you do if you had no data on vacation? Let me know in the comments. Happy travels!