Extreme Travel Tips

This article is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;

Read the entire piece here.

Adventure travel has become a popular way to explore new destinations and test your physical abilities. Adventure travel includes “extreme” activities such as mountaineering, backpacking, diving, surfing, bungee jumping, rafting, zip lining, and paragliding.
Many adventure travelers also enjoy skipping the tourist-filled areas and opting for harder-to-reach locales. Some of the best travel experiences can take place in the middle of nowhere. However, traveling to a far-flung destination for adventure can require a bit more prep work than a typical vacation.

Before You Go

Adventure activities, both at home and abroad, carry some risk of injury. Remote locations can pose additional risks:

• Limited or no access to medical care
• Unreliable communication that can delay emergency response
• Unexpected weather changes that can make safety more challenging and rescue efforts more difficult

Here are some healthy travel tips to know before you head off on your adventure:

Get a healthy start.

• Use our website to learn about health and safety concerns at your destination.
• Make an appointment and discuss your itinerary with your health care provider to get needed shots and medicines at least a month before you leave.
  • Make sure you’re up to date on routine vaccines, such as influenza and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). Due to risk of injury, you may also want to consider a tetanus vaccine
  • Talk with your doctor or nurse about any planned adventure activities.
• Train properly for your trip. Many adventure tours and activities can be physically demanding, so it is important to be in shape before your trip.

Prepare for the unexpected

• Make sure you have health insurance that will cover you in case of emergency. Consider travel health and evacuation insurance to cover any gaps in your coverage.
• Leave copies of your itinerary, contact information, credit cards, and passport with someone at home, in case you lose them during travel. Also make sure someone at home knows how to reach you in an emergency, and carry your emergency contacts with you at all times.
• Enroll with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to get safety updates and phone numbers you might need in an emergency at your destination.

Pack smart.

Prepare a travel health kit with items you may need, especially those that may be difficult to find on your trip, including:

• A first aid kit
• Any prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines (enough to last your whole trip, plus a little extra, just in case)
• Insect repellent
• Sunscreen (SPF15 or higher)
• Alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Water disinfection tablets

Consider additional equipment and supplies may be needed and may not be available in remote locations.