A relocation guide can make moving easier. It's easy to see how moving can be a stressful time for anyone--you're going to leave your home, break ties with friends you've known for years, adapt to a new environment where you don't know anyone, go to a place possibly with strange customs or an unfamiliar language, get used to a new job, and settle into a new house or a new school. It helps to face the change by getting to know about your future domicile beforehand. You can talk to people who've lived there, read books and watch travel programs. One other way of acclimatizing and preparing yourself for the move is to obtain a relocation guide from an organization or agency.

Where to Obtain a Relocation Guide

Relocation guides are available from many places. You could try writing to the local Chamber of Commerce or the municipal government or tourist bureau, and more often than not they will be happy to provide you with pamphlets and other material that is very informative (and free, to boot!) about the place you're moving to. They provide such a service because often they want to attract new people and new business, which means you both get something out of it.

Relocation Help

A good relocation guide offers all sorts of relocation help; topics can include:

what the town is like,
what the prevalent industry is,
transportation routes to and from the place, such as bus schedules, train schedules, airport direct and connecting flights

A good relocation guide can also contain information about the climate. Such information can be useful by giving advance warning to a person prone to colds and other upper respiratory tract problems, for instance, or by showing what type of clothing needs to be brought and worn. It can also give you more information on the characteristics of specific sections of the city (helping the traveler to decide what part of town he or she will settle in, in case there was no prearranged housing), what services are available (such as the local Board of Education to help arrange for a child's transfer), what numbers to call in case of an emergency, what agencies to approach for relocation assistance, etc.

A good relocation guide will often include all sorts of moving tips and tricks. It may list companies that facilitate relocation to that area or companies that rent out moving equipment such as trucks and vans. It will probably also list places that provide temporary or permanent accommodation, giving you the lowdown on local real estate prices (although for really good deals a call or email to an agent familiar with the area might be in order), and firms that provide short- or long-term storage space. Relocation guides, furthermore, with their wealth of moving information, moving tips and relocation advice, can definitely be a big help when it comes to calculating your relocation expenses.

You can find relocation guides on the Web as well. Aside from offering the same information as their printed counterpart, the interactivity offered by the Internet means that you can find more material about your destination and relocation in general by just typing some words in a search engine. You can discover a lot without going out of your house.

Relocation guides online can also help with moving tips and various utilities, such as helping you calculate your relocation expenses with a moving calculator, finding out how much you can load onto your vehicle and still stay within safe limits, etc. To eliminate any bias, it's a good idea to peruse more than one relocation guide.