Medical Precautions

When travelling, there are plenty of things to be thinking about as well as your tickets, passport and flights. If you have a specific medical condition or allergy, then you will have to think about medical provision at your destination. Medical ID tags are a sensible precaution when travelling in a place where you are outside your normal circle of acquaintances. A medical alert bracelet is now available as an attractive bracelet in lots of different styles ranging from attractive jewelery styles to funky webbing styles. If you don’t like the traditional functional type of ID, then these are a great alternative. You should make sure that your have supplies of drugs that you may need providing that you are allowed to carry it through customs and on your flight. It is always wise to get as much information as you can from your doctor and travel company before setting out.

Using your credit card on holiday

We should always be diligent when it comes to credit-card security, however we are more vulnerable to credit card fraud whilst on holiday because we are less aware that our details may be falling into the wrong hands.
Three scams to be aware of at any time, but more so when in unfamiliar surroundings:

• 'Skimming' - where your card is copied whilst out of your sight immediately after your payment is processed, leaving your card details open to use on any number if transactions where 'chip and pin' is not required.
• 'Inflating' - Adding extra digit to your bill, making a EUR10 transaction into EUR100 without you noticing (this can be very difficult to reclaim).
• 'Doubling' - where the sales person appears to make a mistake and runs your card through for a second transaction (always insist on a copy of the proof of cancellation)

Remember:
For UK users, If your card is stolen and used, your liability is limited to £50, if you retain your card, but the details are copied, you have no liability
NEVER keep your PIN details with your credit card
Tell your card issuer straight away if your card goes missing - keep contact details for your banks handy
Check your bills carefully and keep your receipts.

Home Base Holidays

I recently researched the concept of home swaps as a means of a comfortable holiday at a reasonable cost. My first search was the basis of my original post, my more extensive search has highlighted Home Base Holidays as an excellent resource if you have seriously considered this type of holiday (and even if you haven't, go and have a look at what is on offer, you might change your mind).

Home Base Holidays is run by Lois Sealy a native Canadian who runs the service from London, England. They offer home exchanges from all over the globe and even have local franchises in many countries.
One aspect of home exchanges that I did not previously focus on is the security feature of having someone staying in your home and keeping everything running while you are away...another good reason for trying this type of holiday.

The site also has it's own blog where you can read about travel related issues and specific homes available for exchange. Lois has a great writing style and her posts make very interesting reading. Browsing through the website and the blog, I started to think that this kind of scheme is a really great idea, but was aware that if I were to ever embark on this type of adventure, that I would want the kind of support of the service that Lois offers. I would want to use a service that has been well established (Lois has been doing this since 1985!), and one where I felt that I could ask questions and get personal answers. Home Base Holidays charges a small annual fee, but at £29 for a year or £39 for two years, this is an extremely small price to pay for peace of mind.

You can combine this service with some of the cheap flight services that you can read about on this blog and end up with holidays costing very little indeed.

Travel Visa's

We all know that you need your passport and your travel tickets before you depart on your holiday, but what about a visa.. What is a visa? Do I need one? and how do I get one?

If you are travelling to a place outside your home territories you may need to apply for an entry visa from the country's consulate or embassy. Some countries have websites with visa information - so, for example, the United States Embassy website has details of who needs a visa to travel to the US.

If you are a British dependent territories citizen, British overseas citizen, British subject, British national overseas or a British protected person you may need to apply for a visa even if British citizens do not.

For travel to the US, any traveller not covered by the 'VISA WAIVER PROGRAM' will need to arrange a visa via their local US Embassy prior to travel.

Certainly, for those in the West, travelling to Eastern countries such as Russia or China will require a visa. Make sure you find out all you can about applying for a visa well before your planned travel date. Criteria can change quickly, for instance, it became much more difficult to get a visa for China when there were active protests regarding the Olympic torch.
Always check with your own national Foreign Office and with the Embassy of the country to which you plan to travel.

Local Knowledge

There is nothing like local knowledge to help you get the most out of your holiday and there are plenty of guide books and guide web sites that can help you... One such has been compiled by a friend of mine. The site is entitled Colins Wales and covers every inch of the South Wales coast line featuring all beaches and local attractions. Each page imparts knowledge about the locality that will help you to know what to expect, or whether it is the sort of place you want to visit.
The content of this site has been built up over years of travelling throughout the area on a daily basis and forms a valuable resource for anyone visiting South Wales. There is no commercial side to this website and that makes it all the more appealing, it's just honest opinion and information to help the prospective traveller.
Guide books are an excellent way to form a plan of how you will spend your holiday, but with the world wide web at our fingertips chock full of free information, it's beginning to be difficult to justify the costs of a decent guide book.

Home Exchange Scheme

House exchange schemes are a great way to get around the world without having to worry about finding (and paying for..) accommodation. I browsed the 'net today and came up with this website:
Geenee.com have homes available for 'borrowing' from all around the world. I browsed around the site (currently free to join) and found some lovely properties. Some retired people are open to exchanging their home at anytime, some others have specific dates that they want exchanges. For instance I found a local householder open to offers around Christmas time and has specified Australia as a preferred destination.
There seems to be all sorts of homes included, admittedly some of them DID look a bit like show-homes, but others had that 'lived-in' look.
If you are considering this as an option, then I suppose like anything there are 'up' sides and 'down' sides, but I am guessing that when you've done it a couple of times, you would soon get into the swing of it.
Once you can get over the inconvenience of having strangers in your house whilst you are on holiday, no doubt having all the home comforts when you are away from home (especially if you are taking kids), and a real local insight into the place you are visiting more than compensates...

Airport Security

Security updates – with the stepping-up of airport security and changes to threat levels, travellers may not be entirely sure what security measures are now operating. For up-to-date information, the UK Department of Transport has a resource here…
In brief, the one bag hand-luggage restriction was lifted at many airports in January 2008. Since the revelation of a plot to use innocent looking liquids to create an explosion, there are still some recommendations in place namely:

1. Where possible, put all liquid items in your hold baggage. This includes water and other drinks, creams, sprays, pastes and gels.
2. Liquids, gels and aerosols are only allowed in individual containers of 100ml. All containers must fit comfortably in one, transparent, bag no larger than 20cm x 20cm.

Contact your airline for up to date information relevant to your travel plans.
Some interesting side-issues here are that if you take baby food onto a plane, you may be asked to taste it before you are allowed to take it with you (that's enough to put me off flying, or at least my in-flight meal!), similarly if you take nappy (daiper) cream with you, you can be asked to apply it to your own skin.
You can check alcohol into the hold baggage and any duty free you buy in the departure lounge can be taken with you on board. But do remember that the liquids restrictions apply at all EU airports and a growing number of other airports across the world, so you might need to pack duty free in the hold baggage for your return journey.
Happy traveling

Travel Advice

According to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth office, these are some of the things to consider before setting off on a trip:

1. Check with travel advice services for the country you are visiting
2. Find contact details for Embassies near to where you will be staying
3. Get adequate insurance
4. Check whether you will need vaccinations
5. Make sure you have Visas if required and check validation of your passport (some countries require 6 months after your date of travel…)
6. Tell people at home where you are going and keep in contact
7. Get a good travel guide
8. Check your license validation if you intend to drive (take copies of your licence and passport)
9. Take enough money in various forms or emergencies

All good advice before you set off…especially the safety aspects if you will be moving around, and the issues around paperwork such as passport validity, visas and travel insurance.