Travel is a wonderful thing. It can broaden your experiences in many different ways, opening up lots of new opportunities in the process. At the very least, it’s fun to get away from our usual day-to-day routines.
Everyone has the ability to travel, but some of us might feel as though our opportunities are limited due to preexisting health conditions. In fact, many aspiring holiday makers simply end up staying at home and missing out on their dream trip, believing this is the best decision for their health.
In reality, however, while this might be the case in some extreme situations, it’s certainly not true for all. Even if you’ve been diagnosed with a particular health condition, unless it’s particularly serious, you should still be able to make the most of the trip.
Speak to your GP or doctor
The first thing you’ll need to do if you want to travel somewhere with a preexisting health condition, is to speak to your doctor. This is the only way to confirm for sure exactly what you should, and should not, do. Whatever they say, listen to their advice and use it to plan your trip safely.
Although you may think you can’t travel with your health condition, having spoken to your doctor, it might be that you can go, but that you’ll simply need to take a little extra care and ensure you carry any essential medication with you. Or, it could be that you were under the wrong impression the whole time and, in fact, there’s nothing stopping you from travelling anywhere. Unless you speak to your doctor, you’ll never be sure. Once you’ve spoken to your doctor, you can begin preparing for your holiday, from packing in advance to reduce stress, to planning what to do when you arrive – including which restaurants to eat at!
Choose the right destination
Although you probably won’t want to allow your pre-existing health condition to dictat where you can go on holiday, this may be the wisest thing you can do. For example, if your body is sensitve to extremes of temperature, you might wish to avoid extremely cold, or hot, destinations. Hot temperatures can raise blood pressure and cold temperatures can cause circulation issues, and so on.
Always make sure you pick a destination that’ll work with your health – not against it. Even if it isn’t somewhere you’ve ever thought about going before, you should be able to enjoy yourself while exploring your chosen destination safely, provided you pick wisely.
Get the right health insurance
It’s always better to be safe than sorry, and adequate health insurance is a must when travelling, especially when you have a pre-existing condition. If something were to happen while you were away and you didn’t have an insurance policy in place, things could become extremely costly – especially if you’re in a place without inclusive healthcare.
While you can expect to pay more for your travel insurance if you have a heart condition, cancer, or diabetes, for example, it’ll be far less than the figure you could be looking at if you were to incur an accident abroad without a valid travel insurance policy in place.
So, while travelling with a health condition can be tricky, it’s not impossible – provided you do your research and planning.
What are your tips for travelling with a pre-existing health condition?
This is a collaborative post.