Common Travel Health Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Editor’s Note: This is general travel health advice and is not intended to replace individual advice from your GP, specialist nurse or another qualified travel health professional, that has been tailored to your past medical history, medication or travel plans. This article was reviewed and updated on November 2026. It is routinely reviewed every 3 years unless new clinical evidence emerges.

Travel health is easy to overlook when you’re busy planning everything you want to see and do. You might have your vaccinations sorted and a first aid kit packed, but looking after yourself also comes down to everyday decisions, from washing your hands before eating to giving yourself a break when you’re exhausted.

As a former nurse with a background in emergency care and travel and tropical medicine, I’ve seen how easily small oversights can turn into avoidable problems. After more than 25 years of independent travel, I also know how tempting it can be to squeeze in one more excursion, ignore an upset stomach or assume the insurance paperwork can wait.

You don’t need to spend your trip worrying about getting ill, and becoming unwell doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done anything wrong. But understanding these common mistakes, why they matter and how to avoid them can save you unnecessary discomfort, expense and time away from the things you travelled to enjoy.

Not Travelling With Important Medical Details

If you need medical attention abroad, knowing your allergies, existing conditions and medication can help the person treating you make appropriate decisions. Trying to remember the name of your tablets when you’re ill, exhausted and communicating through a language barrier makes an unpleasant afternoon considerably harder. “Small, white and comes in a blue packet” is not quite the clinical detail we’re looking for.

Before you go, put together a short medical summary listing any conditions, known allergies and medication you take, including the generic names and doses. Include relevant vaccination records and details of any treatment or monitoring you need. If you have an agreed plan for managing a condition, take a copy rather than relying on your ability to explain it from memory.

If you’re carrying prescribed medication, take copies of your prescriptions and a letter from your prescriber explaining what you take and confirming it is for your personal use. Keep medicines in their original, labelled pharmacy packaging, and check the documentation and permission required by every country you’ll visit or pass through. Some medicines need advance authorisation or are restricted, even when legally prescribed in the UK. A prescription is useful evidence, but it isn’t an international permission slip.

Keep a paper copy of your medical information and supporting documents with your travel essentials, and save copies somewhere you can access offline. Your phone can be useful, but a flat battery or forgotten password shouldn’t stand between you and your own medical information. If you have a condition or serious allergy that could affect emergency treatment, ask your healthcare team whether medical identification would be appropriate.

This doesn’t need to become a travelling archive of every appointment you’ve had since childhood. A clear, current summary, the paperwork for your medication and any additional information your clinical team recommends will usually be far more useful. Hopefully it will stay tucked away for the whole trip, but it takes very little effort to make it available if needed.

Not Having A Clue What Your Insurance Actually Covers You For

Okay, so you’ve bought the policy, begrudgingly handed over your hard-earned cash and filed the confirmation email somewhere you’ll definitely remember. Probably. But do you actually know what you’re covered for? More importantly, do you know what you aren’t?

Having travel insurance is a good start, but the cover needs to match your trip. An annual policy may only cover individual journeys up to a certain length, which is rather inconvenient if you discover that three months into a year-long adventure. Trekking, diving, riding a scooter, volunteering and working abroad can all come with restrictions or require additional cover. Check the activities you might realistically try, including any altitude limits, licence requirements or qualifications.

Pay attention to medical treatment, emergency evacuation and repatriation, too. If you’re trekking somewhere remote, getting you to a hospital may be the expensive part. A policy that covers treatment but excludes the rescue needed to reach it leaves a fairly substantial hole in your plans.

Answer medical screening questions fully and accurately, and check what changes you need to report before or during your travels. If you’re unsure whether a condition, investigation or medication needs declaring, ask the insurer and keep its answer in writing. Guessing what it probably meant is a poor foundation for a claim.

Finally, save the emergency assistance number and find out how the claims process works. Check when you need to contact the insurer, whether treatment needs authorising and whether you might have to pay upfront. In an emergency, get urgent medical help first; paperwork can follow. You don’t need to memorise the policy, but you should understand it well enough that needing treatment doesn’t come with a second, financial surprise.

Not Researching The Medical Care Available At Your Destination

No one expects you to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every clinic and pharmacy within a fifty-mile radius. You’re going travelling, not conducting an inspection for the local health authority. But knowing roughly where you could get suitable medical help, and how you would reach it, is a sensible bit of preparation.

Look up healthcare options near your first destination and anywhere you’ll be staying for a while. Check the health section of the UK government’s FCDO travel advice for information about local facilities, and ask your insurer how its assistance service can help you find appropriate care. Save useful addresses, local emergency numbers and your insurer’s contact details offline. Searching for a clinic is much easier before you’re trying to do it from a hostel bathroom between increasingly urgent visits to the toilet.

Give this more attention if you have an existing condition or need ongoing treatment. A nearby clinic may be perfectly capable of treating a minor injury without having the staff, equipment or medication needed for your particular care. Arrange anything you know you’ll need before you go, including monitoring or specialist treatment, rather than assuming that a hospital symbol on a map means everything is covered.

The same applies if you’re heading somewhere remote. Ask your trekking guide or tour operator what medical support is available, how you would contact help and how an evacuation would work. A hospital two hundred miles away is useful to know about, but you also need a realistic way of getting there.

You don’t need to turn this into a research project for every overnight stop. Just ask yourself if something went horribly wrong, would you know where to go for help? A little knowledge, updated as your route develops, gives you a useful starting point if something happens.

Not Washing Your Hands

I know. You’d think this one wouldn’t need saying, but spend enough time around shared hostel bathrooms and you’ll soon discover that apparently most people are just filthy animals. The fact that people had to be taught this during a pandemic and then treated it as if it was a new found miracle cure tells you everything you need to know. Washing your hands is one of the simplest ways to reduce the spread of infections that can leave you spending several days becoming intimately acquainted with the plumbing.

Enterotoxigenic E. coli,Shigella, Entamoeba histolytica, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Giardia, Cryptosporidia, Cyclospora, not to get too technical here, but these are just some of the organisms that are spread via the faecal/oral route. And yes, that is exactly how it sounds.

Respiratory illnesses like the flu spread like wildfire via unwashed hands, and gastrointestinal bugs that cause illnesses like diarrhoea and vomiting can spread when tiny traces of faeces pass from contaminated hands, surfaces, food or water into someone’s mouth. Has that made you feel sick? Good. Then do something about it.

Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for at least twenty seconds, particularly after using the toilet and before eating or preparing food. Clean your fingertips, thumbs, between your fingers and the backs of your hands, then rinse and dry them properly.

Carry alcohol-based hand sanitiser for occasions when soap and water aren’t available, but understand its limits. It does not kill norovirus and is less effective when your hands are visibly dirty. Use it as a backup and wash with soap and water as soon as you can, rather than treating a quick squirt of gel as a universal disinfectant.

This isn’t about becoming afraid to touch anything or scrubbing yourself raw. It is an ordinary hygiene habit that helps protect you and the people around you. No one wants to lose three days of diving and snorkelling off a tropical beach because they’ve developed a painful bout of Montezuma’s revenge, especially when a little soap and water could have stopped the problem.

Taking Chances With Food And Drinking Water

I don’t want to put you off here. Eating is one of my favourite parts of travelling and you absolutely should try as many local dishes, street food stalls, cafes and little family run restaurants as you can when you travel. Food is one of the best ways to discover a culture, whether you’re sharing a family meal or pulling up a plastic stool beside a street stall. I have happily planned entire days around things I wanted to eat, and consider that a perfectly reasonable use of my time.

But saying that, Delhi Belly and Montezuma’s revenge are a travellers perennial nemesis, and the last thing you want when exploring is to be doing the Kathmandu Quickstep in between temple visits just because you weren’t careful.

Ignoring basic food hygiene or advice about safe drinking water can mean eating or drinking something contaminated. Contaminated food and water can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps and infections such as hepatitis A and typhoid. Illness can range from a miserable afternoon to something requiring medical treatment. Handwashing is only a part of this. Paying attention to a few basic precautions is considerably more appealing than spending your trip reviewing the bathroom facilities.

When choosing somewhere to eat, pay more attention to how the food is prepared than how impressive the premises look. Somewhere cooking meals fresh to order and serving them piping hot is generally a better prospect than food sitting lukewarm for hours. That applies to hotel buffets as much as roadside cafés. Street food needn’t be off the menu either; watching your meal being thoroughly cooked and served straight onto a clean plate gives you something useful to judge. A busy place with a steady turnover is encouraging, but clean handling matters too. If the same utensils move between raw meat and your cooked dinner, find somewhere else. As a very general rule, look at where the locals go, if there is a long queue, it’s usually a good indicator.

Be especially cautious with raw or undercooked meat and seafood, unpasteurised dairy products and anything that should be refrigerated but is sitting in the heat. You don’t have to inspect the kitchen with a clipboard, but you can choose another dish or another place when something clearly isn’t right.

With water, establish whether the local supply is safe before relying on it. Where it is unsafe or uncertain, use unopened factory-sealed bottled water or appropriately treated water, including for brushing your teeth. Think beyond what goes into your glass: ice, salads and raw garnishes can introduce untreated water into an otherwise sensible meal. If you cannot establish that safe water was used, skip the ice and choose cooked vegetables or fruit you peel yourself. Tea and coffee made with freshly boiled water and served steaming hot are generally safer choices.

These habits help reduce risk without taking the pleasure out of eating. Enjoy unfamiliar dishes and follow your appetite, while giving preparation and hygiene the same attention you would at home. The goal is to discover your next favourite meal, rather than develop an unusually detailed knowledge of the hostel toilet.

Thinking That A Suntan Is A Good Thing

Sunbathing is one thing I’ve never really understood. Travelling halfway around the world to lie there slowly roasting yourself seems an odd use of a plane ticket, but if you want to look like a more leathery version of David Dickinson, that’s up to you. What you need to realise though is that a UV-induced tan is your skin responding to damage, not a sign of improved health. Repeated exposure contributes to premature skin ageing and increases skin cancer risk, whether or not you burn.

Choose sunscreen with at least SPF 30 and four-star UVA protection. Apply generously before going outside, then reapply every two hours and after swimming, sweating or towelling dry, even if it is water resistant. A bottle purchased at the airport cannot protect you from inside your backpack.

Use shade, covering clothing, a wide-brimmed hat and UV-protective sunglasses as well. Reduce exposure around early afternoon where you get the strongest sun and check the local UV index. Cool weather, cloud and a breeze do not reliably indicate low UV levels. Sunscreen is an additional layer of protection, not permission to spend longer sunbathing.

Heat illness is a separate problem from UV damage. You can overheat without getting sunburnt, including during exercise in humid conditions. Ease into strenuous activities, take cooling breaks and drink regularly. That temple will still be there after you’ve stopped for a drink; you do not need to complete your sightseeing itinerary like a military selection exercise.

Headache, dizziness, nausea, heavy sweating and weakness can indicate heat exhaustion. Stop activity, move somewhere cool, remove unnecessary clothing and cool the skin with water and fanning. Give cool water or an oral rehydration drink if the person is fully alert and able to swallow safely.

They should start feeling better within thirty minutes. If they remain unwell despite cooling, or develop confusion, poor coordination, seizures or loss of consciousness, call the local emergency service immediately and continue cooling while help arrives. Don’t wait thirty minutes if those emergency signs are already present, and don’t give drinks to someone who cannot swallow safely.

Drinking To Excess

Nobody is suggesting you take vows of abstinence and spend your gap year living like a monk. Have a drink, meet people and enjoy yourself. But if the next morning involves piecing together a FUBAR’d version of The Hangover’s closing credits to establish where your phone went, why you’re bleeding and whether you’re still in the same country, you’ve probably taken things a little too far.

Alcohol affects judgement, coordination and reaction time, increasing the risk of falls, road accidents, drowning and other injuries. You may also be less likely to notice danger, keep track of your belongings or make decisions you would be comfortable with when sober. From my emergency nursing days, I can assure you that “it seemed like a good idea at the time” rarely introduces a story with a happy ending.

Decide how you’re getting back before you start drinking, pace yourself and alternate alcoholic drinks with water or another non-alcoholic option. Eat beforehand, and remember that unfamiliar measures, strong cocktails and generous free-pouring can make it difficult to judge how much alcohol you’ve actually had. Water and food do not sober you up or cancel out the alcohol.

Avoid drinking before swimming, driving, riding a scooter or activities where impaired judgement could have serious consequences. Check with a pharmacist if you’re unsure whether alcohol interacts with your medication, and don’t assume your insurance covers incidents involving alcohol. Odds are that is one of the excuses your insurer will be looking for to laugh at you and leave you stuck with a massive medical bill.

Look after the people you’re with, too. Someone who is difficult to wake, has a seizure, is breathing slowly or irregularly, or loses consciousness may have alcohol poisoning. Get emergency medical help rather than leaving them to “sleep it off”. Stay with them, put them in the recovery position if unconscious but breathing normally, and follow the emergency operator’s instructions. Cold showers, coffee and a forced march around the hostel will not reverse alcohol poisoning.

Not Drinking Enough

Surprisingly, given how much some travellers like to drink at the bar, or perhaps because of it, drinking enough water can get forgotten. Being able to locate the cheapest beer in three different languages does not necessarily mean you’re keeping yourself adequately hydrated.

Dehydration happens when your body loses more fluid than you replace, and that can be easily done when you are travelling, far more than people may realise. Long journeys disrupt your routine, safe drinking water may not be readily available, or you are on endless long distance busses and you drink less because the next toilet stop appears to depend entirely on the driver’s mood. Unfamiliar climates that you aren’t used to have more of an effect than you think too. Heat can make you sweating considerably more than usual, particularly when carrying a backpack or doing something strenuous, and humidity makes cooling yourself harder because sweat evaporates less readily. This is manageable on most normal travel days, but then throw in an activity or two like jungle trekking for example, and that makes it infinitely worse. I remember my jungle experience in Panama, it was like a permanent bath of sweat and mud and there were days I forgot what feeling dry was like!

Replacing fluids regularly is essential. If you don’t, it can affect your health, and if you keep pushing it can become serious, even dangerous. Mild dehydration can cause thirst, a dry mouth, headaches, tiredness and dizziness, along with darker, stronger-smelling urine and peeing less often. Beyond making you feel miserable, if it is not dealt with you can develop severe heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke and even seizures and kidney problems. The average traveller is unlikely to let it get that far, but I want to stress how important it is to stay hydrated. Feeling faint halfway through a city walk is unpleasant enough; feeling faint halfway up a remote jungle trail creates a rather more complicated afternoon.

Illness adds another source of fluid loss. Fever can increase fluid losses through sweat, diarrhoea and vomiting can dehydrate you quickly because you lose even more water and salts through a more obvious route, often while struggling to keep drinks down. Combine a stomach bug with tropical heat and a determination to catch the next overnight bus, and you’re giving your body rather more to cope with than it needs.

If you’re losing fluids through diarrhoea or vomiting, stop and concentrate on replacing them. Take frequent small sips if you feel sick, and use oral rehydration sachets where needed to replace fluid and salts. Mix them with the exact amount of safe water stated on the packet; a stronger mixture is not a better one. Avoid alcohol and get medical advice if you keep vomiting and cannot retain fluids.

Persistent dizziness when standing, very little urine, unusual drowsiness or a fast heartbeat need urgent medical assessment. Confusion, difficulty waking someone or difficulty breathing require emergency help.

The thing is, all of this is such an easy problem to solve. For everyday prevention, carry safe drinking water, keep it accessible and drink regularly rather than waiting until the end of an excursion. If you don’t want to keep buying endless water bottles, of which there is generally an ample supply on most backpacker routes, carry a good refillable bottle with you. Check where you can refill before long journeys or activities, and carry enough to allow for delays. You’ll generally need more when sweating heavily, checking when you pee is a useful everyday guide, if you have pale-yellow urine, drink more fluids. For strenuous trips, plan water, food and rest stops with your guide, and give yourself time to adjust to the climate.

Running Yourself Ragged

I understand the temptation to cram as much as possible into a trip. You’ve finally got the time, you’ve spent the money getting there and there are temples, mountains, markets and approximately seventeen different things on sticks you want to eat. Spending an afternoon doing very little can feel like wasting an opportunity, especially when there is somewhere else you could be exploring. But trying to do everything is a good way to leave yourself too exhausted to enjoy any of it properly, and trying to fit everything into an ultra tight schedule you will run yourself into the ground, make yourself exhausted and probably get ill from it too

Constant early starts, overnight journeys and packed days take their toll. When you aren’t getting enough sleep, your concentration, judgement and reaction time suffer, which is particularly unhelpful when navigating unfamiliar roads or heading out on a demanding trek. You can also reach a point where another magnificent temple barely registers because all you really want is somewhere to sit down.

Flexibility is one of the great freedoms backpacking is famous for, so use it. Your itinerary is allowed to change. Plans can be relaxed, journeys spread out and an overnight stop turned into a week somewhere you like. You don’t have to keep moving simply because that was the plan you made three months ago from your sofa.

The older I get, the more I alternate between doing things and properly relaxing. If I’ve spent a particularly demanding week trekking or exploring ancient temples, I see absolutely no problem with finding a beach, opening a good book and sitting there for a few days. I call it having a holiday from travel, because travel can be hard! As much as I love it, constantly getting around, finding accommodation and taking everything in requires energy.

Build that breathing room into your trip. Give yourself time to recover after long journeys, alternate strenuous days with easier ones and leave space to stay longer when you need it. An overnight bus may save the price of a room, but it doesn’t necessarily provide the equivalent night’s sleep, particularly when the driver appears to be auditioning for the next Fast & Furious film.

You aren’t wasting your travels by slowing down. Sometimes those quieter moments give you more of a feel for a place than another day spent rushing between its attractions. Sit at a café table for a few hours, listen to the language being spoken around you, watch people going about their day and settle into the rhythm of life somewhere different. That is part of travelling too, and you don’t have to be constantly on the move to experience it.

A few quiet days can give you the energy and enthusiasm to enjoy the next adventure, and spending time somewhere without rushing off often becomes a pleasure in itself. Nobody is going to confiscate your backpack because you chose another afternoon in a hammock.

Not Resting When You’re Ill

There is a particular kind of bargaining you do with yourself when you get ill while travelling. Perhaps you can still manage the excursion if you skip breakfast. Perhaps the overnight bus won’t be that bad. Perhaps your stomach will behave itself for six hours because you’ve explained how much the ticket cost. Unfortunately, your digestive system has very little interest in your travel budget.

If you’re unwell, give yourself permission to stop and look after yourself. Trying to carry on with vomiting, diarrhoea or a fever is just pointless and unhelpful. It also puts you somewhere much less comfortable if your symptoms worsen. A private room near a bathroom is generally a better place to deal with a stomach bug than a bus halfway through the mountains.

For a mild illness you can safely manage yourself, extend your stay for a day or two and just rest and make your recovery easier. If you have been staying in dorm rooms get a little upgrade to a private room with a bathroom. It can really be worth the extra money when you feel awful. Keep safe drinking water within reach, arrange simple food when you feel able to eat and ask accommodation staff or someone you trust for practical help like bringing you extra water or checking up on you. If you’re alone, let someone know you’re ill rather than disappearing into your room without telling anyone.

Be considerate about spreading infection, too. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water and postpone group activities while you’re infectious. Your fellow travellers may appreciate your adventurous spirit rather less if the souvenir you share is a stomach bug.

Rest has limits, though, and getting a private room is not a substitute for medical assessment. Get help if you cannot keep fluids down, have blood in your diarrhoea, severe or worsening pain, or signs of dehydration. A fever during or after travel in a malaria-risk area needs urgent assessment, even if you took antimalarials. There is a fine line between a bug that will pass with a bit of rest after 24 hours and something more serious. Don’t decide that everything is food poisoning simply because it started after lunch.

Resume your plans when you’re well enough to manage the journey or activity, rather than because you feel guilty about missing it. You may lose a day or two to being ill, but rearranging a booking is preferable to pushing yourself into a situation where getting help becomes much harder.

Ignoring Advice About Malaria Prevention

One of the more frustrating things I encountered in travel nursing was people dismissing malaria prevention because someone they met had travelled without tablets and been fine. I’m pleased it worked out for them, but ‘my mate Dave went to Thailand last year and didn’t bother’ is not a clinical risk assessment.

Although there are clinical guidelines when prescribing, every assessment is unique and based on your individual factors. One recommendation will not be the same as the next.

Whether you need antimalarials depends on your specific route, the time of year, how long you’ll be exposed and your individual health and medical history. Risk can vary within a country too, and recommendations for one part of your trip may not apply to another. If there is a high malaria risk in rural border regions for example but your trip only consists of a short stay in the city where there is a low risk, then antimalarials may not be the best option. There are genuinely a lot of factors to consider.

The problem is many people avoid antimalarials for a lot of reasons, not all of them sensible. Some have experienced side effects themselves in the past and assume all meds are the same, while others have heard alarming stories and dismiss them completely. Cost can put people off too, particularly on a long trip, and previous visits without illness can create a false sense of security. Those concerns deserve a proper discussion, but neither an uneventful previous trip nor a bad experience with one medicine establishes that going without protection is the safer choice.

Get advice from a qualified travel health professional, giving them enough detail about your plans to assess what is appropriate.

If tablets are recommended, use that consultation to discuss suitable options and any concerns about side effects. Your medical history, other medication and previous reactions all help determine which medicine is appropriate for you.

Take the prescribed medicine according to its instructions, including starting it at the right time and continuing for the required period after leaving the malaria-risk area. That final part is easily forgotten when you’ve moved on somewhere else or arrived home, but leaving the area does not mean you can stop the course immediately. Ask your pharmacist or prescriber what to do if you miss a dose, vomit after taking one or develop side effects.

Bite prevention is essential alongside tablets, and remains important where antimalarials are not recommended. Use an effective repellent, cover exposed skin where practical and make sure your accommodation has appropriate protection, such as screens or a treated mosquito net. Malaria tablets do not provide complete protection, and they do not prevent other mosquito-borne infections such as dengue.

If you develop a fever during or after visiting a malaria-risk area, seek urgent medical assessment and explain where you’ve travelled, even if you took your tablets correctly. Prevention substantially reduces risk, but it should never become a reason to dismiss symptoms that need checking.

Not Getting Individual Advice About Travel Vaccinations

There are a wide range of vaccinations specific to travel, and so many people dismiss them out of hand without knowing much about them. Whether or not you have a vaccination is your choice. Your bodily autonomy and voluntary informed consent are absolute rights. I will never argue otherwise or judge any decision either way. But that decision should be informed and freely made with all the information and advice you can get.

You are entitled to ask questions, raise concerns or decline, but give yourself reliable information and advice relevant to you and your trip, rather than assuming you don’t need vaccinations or ruling them out before finding out what they cost.

There is no standard package of injections every backpacker needs. Recommendations depend on your destinations, activities, length of stay, medical history and previous vaccinations. You may already have protection against some infections, need to catch up on routine vaccinations or benefit from specific travel vaccines. A consultation helps establish what applies to you, rather than leaving you to choose from a list of diseases that sounds increasingly unpleasant the further down you read.

Ask what each recommended vaccine protects against, how that infection could affect you and how likely you are to encounter it on your particular trip. Discuss the expected benefits, possible side effects, any reasons it may be unsuitable and the implications of going without it. You should leave understanding the recommendation, not simply holding a receipt and wondering what just went into your arm.

If cost is a concern, say so. Some travel vaccinations are available free through the NHS, while others are paid for privately. Ask which recommendations are most relevant to your plans and whether changing particular activities or parts of your route would affect the assessment. Having a limited budget deserves a useful conversation, not embarrassment or a lecture.

Remember that vaccinations are only one part of looking after yourself. Food and water precautions, bite prevention and other sensible habits remain important. The aim is to make a considered decision about your health, with a clear understanding of both the protection available and its limits.

Treating Everything Yourself

Most minor travel ailments can be managed with a little self-care, and many start improving within a day or two with rest, good hydration and appropriate treatment where needed. You don’t need to rush to hospital every time your stomach grumbles or you develop a headache. Equally, owning a first aid kit does not oblige you to handle everything yourself. There is a useful middle ground between panicking over every symptom and deciding you’re now the hostel’s answer to House.

The trick is knowing when you can reasonably manage something yourself and when you need help. Consider how severe your symptoms are, whether they’re improving and whether you can drink, keep fluids down and pass urine normally. Mild symptoms that are getting better can often be managed yourself. If you’re deteriorating, struggling with those basics or have a condition that makes illness more risky, get advice earlier. Somewhere remote, factor in the time it would take to reach treatment rather than waiting until you urgently need it.

Don’t assume familiar symptoms mean a familiar diagnosis, or that suppressing them means you’ve treated the cause. An upset stomach is not always food poisoning, and taking enough medication to survive an overnight bus is not the same as being well enough to travel. Diarrhoea that hasn’t improved within three days needs medical advice; fever, blood in your stools, severe pain or dehydration warrant help sooner. A fever during or after visiting a malaria-risk area needs urgent assessment, even if you took antimalarials.

Use medicines for a clear purpose and follow their instructions. Check ingredients before combining products, and don’t borrow antibiotics or take leftovers ‘just in case’. Antibiotics do not treat viral infections, and an unsuitable medicine can add side effects to an already unpleasant situation. If you have prescribed standby treatment, follow the plan agreed with your clinician.

If you’re unsure where to turn, contact your insurer’s medical assistance service. Depending on your policy and the service available, it may arrange a telephone or video consultation with a doctor, direct you to a suitable local clinic or coordinate treatment. A reputable pharmacist can also advise on minor ailments and whether you need further assessment. Explain your symptoms, when they started, relevant medical conditions and where you’ve travelled.

For emergency symptoms such as difficulty breathing, confusion, collapse or sudden severe pain, seek local emergency help immediately rather than waiting for your insurer. Otherwise, asking for advice early can save you a lot of uncertainty. You don’t need to diagnose yourself before calling; helping you work out what is wrong is rather the point.

Look After Yourself And Enjoy Your Travels

Looking after your health should help you enjoy travelling, rather than leave you worrying about everything that could go wrong. A little preparation, sensible everyday habits and knowing when to ask for help can prevent a lot of unnecessary trouble. If you do become ill, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed some test of backpacking competence. These things happen, even when you’ve done everything reasonably possible to avoid them.

Give yourself the same care you would offer someone travelling with you. Eat well, get some sleep, take the precautions relevant to your trip and allow your plans to change when you need a break. There are far better things to bring home than a preventable illness, and far more enjoyable travel stories than a detailed account of your bowel movements.