Before you leave - Travel planning

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Overview

Besides buying the plane tickets and booking the accommodations, planning an international trip requires certain preparations to ensure your health and happiness while traveling. Depending on the destination, you may need to receive vaccines and other medications from a physician. Other preparations you can do on your own.

Preparations

Ensure you have enough of any prescription or non-prescription medicine you are currently taking. Travelers who take prescription medications should carry an adequate supply accompanied by a signed and dated statement from a physician; the statement should indicate the major health problems and dosage of such medications, to provide information for medical authorities in case of emergency.

Consider taking the following with you: travel/first aid kit, bug spray, mosquito netting.

The traveler should take an extra pair of glasses or lens prescription and a card, tag, or bracelet that identifies any physical condition that may require emergency care.

Travelers with a history of motion sickness or sea sickness can attempt to avoid symptoms by taking anti-motion-sickness medication (e.g., antihistamines) before departure.

More and more, provincial health plans are reducing coverage for out-of-country travel or imposing restrictions on the coverage provided. You should arrange for private travel health insurance to pay for any costs which are not covered by your provincial plan. Should an illness occur during travel, the costs which the uninsured traveler can be required to pay may be thousands of dollars.