If your family is like most, you spent weeks trying to decide which amazing destination you would spend your summer vacation at this year. You may have reviewed lodging options, selected fun activities and made arrangements for someone to care for the family pet months before your departure date. Now that some time has passed and your departure date is on the near horizon, you should take a few extra steps to prep for your summer vacation.

Verify Your Reservations

Approximately one to two weeks before your departure date, you should make an effort to verify all of your reservations. Contact all of the hotels where you will be staying as well as the rental car agency, the airlines and even the kennel to ensure that your reservations are still in place. This is a great time to review policies and procedures that each venue has in place, hours of operation and other details. You may not have concerned yourself with telling the hotel you need to have a late arrival time for check in months ago, but now is the perfect time to do so.

Make Plans For Lawn Care

If your summer vacation will take you away from the house for more than a week or so, you should consider making plans for lawn care while you are away. Your homeowners’ association may frown on you allowing your lawn to go without mowing and watering for longer than a week or two in the summer, and an unkempt lawn also tells thieves that you haven’t been home in a while. You can ask a neighborhood teenager to mow your lawn while you are away and to water the lawn periodically or you can hire a landscaping company to tend to this for you.

Think About Your Mail and Newspaper Service

You should also consider who will pick up your mail and newspapers while you are gone. You may ask a friendly neighbor to pick these items up for you on a regular basis. If you don’t feel comfortable asking someone who lives close by to handle this task for you, you may consider placing a temporary hold on these services. You can visit the post office and indicate the days which you want your mail service withheld, and you can also call the newspaper and place a similar order over the phone. This will prevent your mail and newspapers from piling up while you are away.

Review Your Insurance Policies

Things can and do happen to people while on vacation, so you want to ensure that your insurance policies are paid up-to-date and that they provide you with ample coverage. Review your life insurance policies, health insurance policies, homeowners’ insurance policy and even your auto policy. You may even consider adding optional cover before you leave, such as adding roadside assistance to your auto policy if you plan on taking a road trip.

A summer vacation provides your family with the wonderful opportunity to spend much-needed time together so that you can reconnect and make new and lasting memories. As wonderful as your vacation will be, you do want to take a few additional steps to prepare yourself for your time away from home. By spending time today focusing on these areas, you can rest assured that your vacation will be amazing!

This post was provided by Denise McKendry, who writes about travel tips and home maintenance for the homeowners insurance site ired.com.