Health travel checklist: be prepared on holiday

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Holidays are meant to be all about recharging your batteries, seeing new places and spending quality time with your family. However, accidents happen. It’s life. That’s why it’s best to be prepared on holiday. There are a few things you can do to give you peace of mind that you’ve got your family’s health covered while away from home. Here’s our health travel checklist that we tick off before each of our trips:

Health travel checklist

First aid on holiday

Whether you’re away for a day or a week, it’s always sensible to carry a first aid kit with you to deal with minor injuries on the go. As a minimum, you want to make sure you have a kit that contains adhesive dressing pads, cleaning wipes, microporous tape, a non-adherent dressing pad, plasters in different sizes and skin closure strips.

Motoring kit and insurance

Driving abroad isn’t as simple as checking you’re on the right side of the road. Make sure you have the right insurance and licence to cover you while motoring abroad. If you’re traveling in Europe you’ll also need a motoring kit in case of breakdowns. Finally, make sure you’re aware of the blood alcohol limits when driving on holiday as these are not the same in every country. If in doubt, don’t drink and drive. It’s always the best insurance policy.

Travel insurance

It’s so important to get the right level of travel insurance to cover your whole family and the activities you’ll be doing. If you’re going on a cruise, thinking about taking part in water sports or travelling with a known medical condition, you need to declare these details for full cover. We found our current travel insurance through Money Saving Expert, which is updated regularly with the best deals.

European Health Insurance Card

The EU Referendum result may have shaken up the relationship between the UK and Europe but the European Health Insurance Card is still valid. Check yours is in date and, if not, apply for a new one. We got Tin Box Baby’s first EHIC this year and were really impressed that it took just a couple of days to come through.

Vaccinations

If you’re travelling outside of Europe you may need a vaccination or a course of jabs. Make sure you check early as these may need to be administered over a period of time.

Prepare your medication

If you take regular medication, take plenty to last you for your trip and a few extra days in case of any delays with your homeward journey. Also make sure you have a list of all the medication you use and the manufacturers so you can get hold of it should you need extra while you are on holiday.

Bonus travel checklist essentials

In date Passport

You can currently travel within the European Union with an in date passport right up to the day it expires. However, for holidays further afield check before you travel. Some countries require your passport to be valid for least another three to six months.

Travel document copies

Take photos of all of your travel documents, then email them to yourself and someone back home. You’ll thank your lucky stars that you did if any of the hard copies go missing.

Pet passport

We try to take Tin Box Dog on as many of our holidays as possible. We haven’t been abroad with her yet, but when we do venture into Europe on the ferry or tunnel she will need a passport just like us. \

Getting a pet passport is vital to avoid having your dog, cat or ferret put into quarantine for four months – something we’d hate to happen to TBD.

Are there any other things you do to make sure you have a healthy and happy holiday at home or abroad?

Save this health travel checklist for later.

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