Go to the dentist
No one ever wants to go to the dentist, but if you’re away for more than a few weeks, you probably won’t want to see a dentist in a far-flung area of the world. You’d be wishing you’d just gone to see your dentist before you left!
Dentists generally, are the same as at home, aside from very remote areas in Africa and parts of Asia, where you’d probably want to get to a large city to get treatment. Costs do vary wildly though, and in North America dentistry is extremely expensive. In Canada especially, it’s worth checking the dental school attached to the Universities, as they usually have clinics which do treatments at much lower prices than elsewhere.
Travel insurance generally has limits as to how much you can spend on dentistry, and usually it’s only for emergency treatment to relieve pain, and we’re no different. We pay out hundreds of dental claims each year, and usually the amount paid out doesn’t cover the whole cost of treatment anyway, so, do yourself a favour. See your dentist before you set off!
Get jabbed!
If you’re off to the wilderness wherever in the world, make sure you’re jabbed, as if you’re not, you are putting yourself at unnecessary risk.
Do check the Travel Health Pro website for specific advice for your destination, but really as a minimum you should ensure you get a Polio, diphtheria & tetanus vaccination booster if you haven’t had one in the last 10 years.
Travel insurance doesn’t pay for vaccinations, but as no vaccination is 100% effective, in the event you do become ill overseas please just contact our 24/7 Emergency Medical Assistance Service for advice.
Scan your papers
If you lose your passport abroad, getting the local Embassy to issue you with an Emergency Travel Document (ETD) is made an awful lot easier if you can print out copies of your documentation for them! So, before you go, take photos, or scan all your documents – passports, visas, e-tickets, credit cards and email that to yourself! Note for British Passport holders, you only get an ETD which is very restrictive on what it allows you to do and is not the same thing as a new full British Passport. Getting a full new British Passport when you’re abroad takes many weeks to process, so, if you’re going through lots of different countries on your journey you may want to consider getting a second passport before you leave and get a family member to FedEx it to you should your original passport be lost or stolen.
Currency Cards
Getting one of these is very useful, as usually you get free withdrawals from cash machines throughout the world, rather than the 2% or more your bank will probably charge you. You can do all the transfers to it from the internet, and usually you get a secondary card just in case you lose your first one, or have one in your travel wallet and one in your main wallet. The popular choices for traveller’s currency cards are Revolut or Currensea, but there are others out there as well!
Back to tips