Your Exotic Vacation: Prepare, and then Relax!

You’ve always dreamed of going to Fiji. You’ve daydreamed about the gorgeous scenery, the scuba diving, chasing your kids on the beach. Or maybe your fantasy vacation involves visiting Morocco: poking through the open-air markets of Marrakech, the ancient quarter of Casablanca, Tangiers’ Kasbah.

Things to consider

When an African photo safari or Australian rainforest adventure exists only in your mind, there’s no need to worry about pesky details like whether the water is safe to drink or what bug you might catch. But set out to make that fantasy a reality, and you’ll quickly realize that there are a host of concerns to consider before stepping on the plane. Will your electronic babysitter (aka portable DVD player) work when plugged into your foreign hotel room wall socket? Do you need malaria medication or vaccinations? If your kids are due for shots, should they have them before the trip? And, of course, is the water safe to drink? These are all good questions when you’re planning a vacation that’s a bit more adventurous than April in Paris or Disney World over spring break.

It happened to us

When my husband and I traveled to China for the first time, we thought we were prepared. We brought tons of prescription and over-the-counter medications. We knew not to drink the tap water and brought waterless hand sanitizers. But a few days before leaving for home, my husband Jonathan, the baby, and I all came down with a terrible stomach malady. Although our meds helped, we were all laid low for a couple of days. The culprit? A bottle of water purchased from a street vendor. We should have known better: It’s a cardinal rule of international travel not to buy anything edible from street vendors, a notorious source of “traveler’s diarrhea” (the most common illness among international travelers). At its most benign, traveler’s diarrhea will cause you to give up sightseeing or relaxing to stay close to the bathroom; at the worst, ingesting contaminated food or water can lead to hepatitis and liver damage. While you may be parched and dry on the streets of Rome or tempted by the smell of lamb on a spit in rural Nepal, resist the temptation to buy water outside a grocery store and prepared food outside a restaurant. Do you really want to be sick when you’re halfway around the world?

Health care matters

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is, hands down, the best place to learn about any health concerns associated with international travel. Whether you want to know if your child needs hepatitis hepatitis-A shots before visiting Mexico (yes) or what your chances are of catching yellow fever on your South American tour (very unlikely – in this area, infection is almost exclusively limited to forestry and farm workers), whatever you want to know about healthy travel to exotic locales can be found at www.cdc.gov/travel.

Depending on where and when you travel, you may want to talk with your doctor about taking some preventive medications along just in case. If your doctor is willing to prescribe some medications, be sure to bring them in their original packaging, with an intact prescription label, in case of a customs search. If you need vaccinations, be sure to allow plenty of time before your departure; some will need to be administered more than once for maximum effectiveness.

All the comforts of home

If your teen can’t live without her blow dryer or you need your laptop to check in with work or your iPad is the only thing that will calm your wired preschooler, take heart: With an international voltage converter/adapter kit, available every place from Target to specialty travel stores, your appliances will work anywhere. Make sure to get a kit that has both adapter plugs (to plug your appliance in) and converters (to convert foreign 220/240 V electricity for American 110/120 V appliances). Most kits come with a variety of adapter plugs, so you can use the kit in Katmandu, Amsterdam, or anyplace else electricity flows.

Parting advice

You’ve got your shots, packed your converter/adapter kit, and studied the weather forecast. You’ve got your travel insurance and preventive medications. Is there anything else you should know? Yes, here’s one last piece of advice – relax, take lots of pictures, sleep later than usual, and let the kids eat junk food. In other words, kick up your heels up and have the time of your life! Vacations are too precious to waste time worrying – and after all, since you’ve prepared for the worst, chances are it won’t happen.

Local travel clinics

The good news is that there are more than a dozen travel clinics in the Twin Cities, so you won’t have to travel far for vaccinations. The bad news is that health insurance often doesn’t cover travel-related preventive health care. Check with your health plan to find out what they will and won’t pay for.

Chaska-

Crossroads Medical Center

3000 North Chestnut Street

952-448-2050

Coon Rapids-

Allina Medical Clinic

9055 Springbrook Drive

763-780-9155

Crystal-

Northwest Family Physicians

5502 West Broadway

763-287-6500