Travel tips

How to prepare for the trip? What to take in your first aid kit? How to have a safe flight? Tips for your safe trip here.

How to prepare for a trip?

When preparing for a trip, please follow these recommendations:

Arrival and departure:

  • Make sure that your foreign passport is valid (attention: in some countries, the foreign passport should be valid 6 months more from the moment of entrance);
  • Follow the rules of the customs control.

Car rent, voltage of an electric current, mobile phones: 

  • Make sure that your driver's license is valid in the country where you go (Attention: Often, there are age restrictions when renting a car);
  • Find out the voltage of electric system in the country, where you go, if necessary, take an adapter;
  • Find out the cost of Internet and telephone calls in the country, where you go.

Health: 

  • Visit a doctor for consultation (if necessary, an expert in the field of tropical medicine) or learn in the Internet, what inoculations may be necessary for you and what security measures are necessary to take when visiting the country you go to;
  • Do not forget to take the medicine, which you usually take;
  • Prepare the travel first aid kit, preliminary consul with a doctor or a pharmacist.

Payments abroad: 

  • Check whether your credit card is accepted in the country, where you go;
  • Do not forget to change cash;
  • Notify your bank about a trip abroad beforehand, so your credit card will not be blocked.

Addresses and phone numbers: 

  • Write down the address and phone number of Ukrainian Embassy in the country wher you go;
  • Write down the number of your bank, so you can block your credit card if necessary;
  • Take a phone and address book with addresses and phones of your relatives and friends if there will be a necessity of an emergency communication;
  • Give to your friends, relatives or neighbors a copy of your foreign passport and the address, where you will live abroad or number of your mobile phone availiable in roaming.

Before trip: 

  • Tell your relatives, friends and neighbors that you are leaving (arrange the check of your mail box, look after your pets, leave the apartment keys just in case);
  • Do not forget to pay the bills (for example, for phone and apartment);
  • Do not forget to close all windows and doors and if the apartment or the house are equipped by the alarm system - do not forget to switch it on;
  • Do not forget to switch off light, gas, water, all electrical devices of the house.

What is necessary to take with you in a trip?

First aid kit:

Consult a doctor or a pharmacist in a drugstore concerning correct choice of medicines, which can be useful to you during a trip. We recommend you to take: 

  • Medicines, which you usually take at home (for example, spray for asthmatics);
  • Sedatives (for example, against headache);
  • Tablets against nausea (especially if you travel with children);
  • Antibiotics of a wide spectrum of action;
  • Medicine against diarrhea (attention: never use these medicine at a high temperature and do not give them to small children);
  • Purgatives;
  • Ointment for healing of wounds, disinfectants;
  • Bandages (for example, gauze bandage, an adhesive tape, an adhesive plaster);
  • Scissors;
  • Nasal and ear drops;
  • Remedies against cough and sore throat;
  • Ointment against herpes;
  • Remedy against sun allergy;
  • Personal hygiene means.

Money, maps, passports (in hand baggage): 

  • Cash;
  • Credit card;
  • Foreign passport;
  • International driver's license;
  • Certificates of inoculations;
  • ERV insurance policy;
  • Guidebook;
  • Maps of the city and the country;
  • Phrase book;
  • Sun glasses;
  • Headdress for protection against the sun;
  • Purgatives.

How to have a safe flight?

Long air flight can become serious test for an organism. Blood circulation in feet is complicated because of long sitting. That is why it is useful to make a short walk straight before the flight, and from time to time in the plane, it is useful to toughen and relax muscles of feet. It is important to fill up loss of liquid. It is desirable to drink a glass of water every hour.

How to swim safely?

If you are going to swim straight after food – it is better to wait for a little. Cold water may cause nausea, dizziness or even loss of consciousness. Do not swim far away in the sea or ocean. Do not stay in cold water for too long. Overcooling can badly affect muscles and cause spasms. Do not dive headfirst.

If after a long stay on the sun you are strongly warmed up, the jump in cold water can cause heart attack.

If you have a cold or other cold-related disease, do not swim in cold or muddy water. Water amoebas can cause inflammation of a cover of a brain.

If you do not have possibility to address a doctor immediately, pay attention to the following pieces of advice:

for safe stay on the sun:

Overdose of sunrays changes the structure of skin cells. These damages can have irreversible character - from the accelerated ageing of a skin to cancer formation. A risk to receive a solar burn, first of all, depends on a skin type. There are four types of skin, but distinction between them is indistinct.

Type 1: External signs: white skin, red or light hair, freckles, light eyes, very sensitive skin. Reaction to the sun: immediate reddening of skin, heavy solar burns, skin peeling, absence of sunburn. 
Advice: if possible, avoid the sun, only short solar baths are allowed.

Type 2: External signs: light skin, light hair, light eyes, sensitive skin. Reaction to the sun: fast burn, probably weak sunburn, skin peeling. 
Advice: use a cream with high degree of protection against the sun.

Type 3: External signs: skin of average degree of pigmentation, light-brown or fair-haired hair, grey, green or brown eyes. Reaction to the sun: seldom there are not strong burns, the skin well sunbathes.
Advice: use a cream with reliable degree of protection against the sun.

Type 4: External signs: dark or dark-brown skin, dark hair, brown eyes. Reaction to the sun: burns are improbable, fast and sated sunburn. 
Advice: at occurrence of reddening, use a protective cream against the sun.

in case of light skin reddening from the sun:

Skin reddening can be reduced with the help of a cream or a lotion for skin-care after sunburn. They contain vitamins with antioxidant action, bisabolol and cooling components. Key rule: avoid further influence of sunrays.

for safe meals:

Unusual foreign products, nourishing meals during later time of days, surplus of alcohol - all it can badly affect a stomach. Pains, nausea and even vomiting are possible. If there is diarrhea, antacids (e.g. almagel) will help to get rid of bad state of health and to neutralize the raised acidity, besides, for one or two days, it is necessary to try to limit food intake.

"Montezuma’s Revenge" - about 50 % of all tourists, which visit warm countries, feel its effects on themselves. The diarrhea is a consequence of ingesion of infectious agents, which are transferred through water or dirty products into an organism. Therefore, the first precept of a tourist - to follow the rules of hygiene while drinking water and eating food. Remember a precept of seamen: "Boil it. Peel it. Cook it or forget it” and follow the following rules:

  • Eat only those salads, vegetables and fruits, which can be cleaned;
  • Order only those dishes of fish and meat, which have passed long temperature processing;
  • Boil or disinfect water;
  • Use mineral water from a bottle for brushing teeth;
  • Do not use ice cubes. 

Usually the diarrhea passes within three days. If serious complaints remain during longer time, it is necessary to address the doctor. The major principles of therapy are use of liquid and electrolytes. Therefore, there should be remedies against diarrhea and an electrolyte solution in the travel first aid kit.

in case of a slight cold:

You may catch a cold even on a vacation. It is a serious test for the immune system; therefore, it is necessary to support it. The organism can be protected against cold while taking enough vitamins and mineral substances. In case of change of a climatic zone, it is reasonable to take vegetative immunostimulating medicines. They will also help to avoid a cold from air conditioner. There should be remedies against cough, cold and sore throat.

 in case of pains:

If during a trip you are disturbed by pains, there should be sedatives in the travel first aid kit. It is permitted to accept such medicines for a long time only under supervision of a doctor. If long and strong pains continue to disturb you, it is better to consult a doctor.

- in case of traumas:

For first medical help, there should be the following remedies in the travel first aid kit:

  • Elastic bandage and sterile material for compresses;
  • Spray for management of wounds, scissors, tweezers;
  • Cooling compresses, gel at a stretching of muscles;
  • Disinfectants, disinfectant ointment. 

in case of insect netting:

Protection against insect netting has especially great value as insects transfer various infectious diseases. The major rules for protection against insects are:

  • Apply remedies against insects on not protected sites of a skin;
  • Wear clothes, which covers skin as much as possible, especially while you are in a wood zone;
  • Try to stay in the premises protected from insects (conditioners, insect netting);
  • Use mosquito nettings;
  • Apply aerosols, sticky spirals etc. 

We wish you a pleasant and safe trip!

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