Solving Medical Problems When Traveling

A traveler going abroad with a preexisting medical problem should carry a letter from the attending physician, describing the medical condition and any prescription medications, including the generic names of prescribed drugs. Any medications being carried overseas should be left in their original containers and be clearly labeled. Travelers should check with the foreign embassy of the country they are visiting to ensure that required medications are not considered to be illegal narcotics.

If you wear eyeglasses, take an extra pair with you. Pack medicines and extra eyeglasses in your hand luggage so they will be available in case your checked luggage is lost. To be extra secure, pack a backup supply of medicines and an additional pair of eyeglasses in your checked luggage.

If you have allergies, reactions to certain medications, foods, or insect bites, or other unique medical problems, consider wearing a “medical alert” bracelet. You may also wish to carry a letter from your physician explaining required treatment should you become ill.

If an American citizen becomes seriously ill or injured abroad, a U. S. consular officer can assist in locating appropriate medical services and informing family or friends. If necessary, a consular officer can also assist in the transfer of funds from the United States. However, payment of hospital and other expenses is the responsibility of the traveler.

Before going abroad, learn what medical services your health insurance will cover overseas. If your health insurance policy provides coverage outside the United States, carry both your insurance policy identity card as proof of such insurance and a claim form. Although many health insurance companies will pay "customary and reasonable" hospital costs abroad, very few will pay for your medical evacuation back to the United States. Medical evacuation can easily cost $10,000 and up, depending on your location and medical condition.

The Social Security Medicare Program does not provide coverage for hospital or medical costs outside the United States. Consider purchasing a travel insurance plan that will cover medical expenses and evacuation. The Alumni Association's recommends USI Travel Insurance Services. We worked with USI for more than 10 years, and we have never had a complaint from any traveler who has purchased their insurance and then needed to use it.

To facilitate identification in case of an accident, complete the information page on the inside of your passport providing the name, address and telephone number of someone to be contacted in an emergency.

Passport Expediting Services

Your trip is just days away, but when you pull your passport out of the safe you find it has expired. Yikes! Fortunately, there are companies who can solve the problem. Passport expediters increasingly have become a go-to resource for panicked travelers, especially since the tightening of border regulations since 2007. The departments of Homeland Security and State have already implemented a rule requiring a passport (or similar documentation) for air travel between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean. By June 2009, a similar rule will take effect for land and sea travel.

The government offers expedited service to U.S. citizens, but it can take up to two weeks from when the application is received in the mail. If you need a passport within days, you're advised to visit one of only 13 regional passport agencies spread throughout the country. Expediting fees are $60, plus shipping, on top of the $75 to $100 cost for a new, renewed or replaced passport.

For those who are unwilling or unable to visit a regional agency, consider an expediting service that can walk you through the process and essentially take your place in line. The result? You can have that passport in as little as a day and delivered to your doorstep. Depending on the need for speed, these companies charge between $100 and $300 per person -- in addition to the fees charged by the government for the passport itself.

Though services can handle the filing, you're required to gather important identification materials (a birth certificate or an expired passport), fill out the paperwork, secure passport photos and go to a local processing center (typically a post office or courthouse) to have everything vetted and placed in a sealed envelope to be sent to the expediter. But after that, the services do take over. The best of them can also answer questions and make the process simpler.

Here are a few names of expediting services: RushMyPassport.com, It's Easy Passport, CIBT and A. Briggs Passport and Visa Expeditors.

Check out Yapta.com

Budget Travel reports that you can now receive an e-mail alert when an award seat becomes available on a route you're interested in flying. Search for an airfare on Yapta.com and click "including award tickets" to begin tracking the flight. Yapta (Your Personal Travel Assistant) will automatically send e-mail alerts if either the price drops or a seat available for frequent-flier point redemption becomes available. The service is free and works for on Alaska Airlines, Continental, Delta, United, and U.S. Airways.

Yapt.com also will help you find your ideal flight options by entering your travel dates, times and personal preferences. Yapta will offer up a list of recommended flights that closely match your travel criteria. If you've already purchased a ticket through an airline and the price drops, Yapta will give you explicit instructions on how claim your travel credit. Or for a fee of $15, Yapta will call the airline and get it for you.

You must join to use Yapta, but the membership is free.

National Geographic Photo Contest

What is your vision of heaven on Earth? Share it with National Geographic. To create Visions of Paradise, National Geographic asked their world-renowned photographers what they consider paradise. Now, they're asking other world travelers to do the same. Entries will be accepted online from Oct. 21 to Dec. 21, 2008. Each week, the general public is invited to vote on a new batch of Editor's Picks, and the most popular will be featured on the site. The Editor's Picks will also be judged by an expert panel who will select 20 winners at the conclusion of the contest. Winners will receive a customized edition of the National Geographic book Visions of Paradise with their photograph as the cover image. To enter, find out more about the book, and read the official rules, log on to www.nationalgeographic.com/myvision.

Paperless Check-In

According to Budget Travel, some airlines are using paperless check-in with passengers who have smart phones and PDAs.

It started with Continental Airlines. But others, such as British Airways, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, Alaska Airlines and Air Canada developing ways for customers to check-in for a flight, via Web-enabled devices such as iPhones and Blackberries.

Airlines are using similar, but not uniform, procedures. Delta scans the boarding pass directly from your mobile device. Register your cell phone number to receive a text message with a boarding pass bar code. Hold up the screen of your cell phone under the airport security scanner, rather than show a paper boarding pass. (As always, you have to present a government-issued photo identification too.) Delta is testing the service at LaGuardia Airport.

Similarly, passengers on American Airlines flying nonstop domestic flights from Chicago O'Hare, LAX and Orange County John Wayne Airport can check-in at AA.com and choose to receive an electronic boarding pass via e-mail, in the form of a two-dimensional bar code. In contrast, British Airways will fax the boarding pass, send it directly to an airport kiosk or check-in desk, or send it in an e-mail to be printed later.

"Premium Economy"

There is still a way to buy some comfort on long international flights even when your company, or your own bank account, won't cover thousands of dollars for business class, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Premium economy" is seeing a recession resurgence.

A dozen international airlines flying to the United States., including British Airways PLC, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., All Nippon Airways Co. and Scandinavian Airlines System, now offer extra legroom, wider seats and seats that recline lower in premium economy cabins for a few hundred dollars more than coach tickets.

It's about the same space you get in domestic U.S. first-class cabins. Some carriers even include perks like early boarding, access to faster airport security lines, better meals, amenity kits with tooth brushes and sleep shades, and power outlets at seats. Earlier this year, Qantas Airways Ltd. launched premium economy and Japan Airlines Corp. expanded its premium-economy cabin to New York and San Francisco flights, with Chicago and Los Angeles planned next year. Air France-KLM SA will add it to Air France fleet-wide next year.

The holdout for this feature? U.S. airlines.

Be Prepared at Security Checkpoint

Everyone who travels by air goes through airport security checkpoints. These checkpoints are operated by Transportation Security Officers from the Transportation Security Administration. Help yourself and all of those in line with you by being prepared. This keeps lines moving, and your experience more pleasant.

Take metal items such as keys, loose change, mobile phones, pagers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) out of your pockets. Put these in your carry-on or in a plastic bag. Avoid wearing clothing, jewelry or other accessories that contain metal, such as heavy jewelry, clothing with metal buttons or snaps, belt buckles, hair barretts or underwire bras.

Pack your coats and jackets in your baggage when possible. All coats and jackets that you are carrying must go through the X-ray machine for inspection. If you choose to wear an outer coat or jacket to the checkpoint, you will need to either pack it in your carry-on baggage or put it in one of the bins we provided.

You may be additionally screened because of hidden items such as body piercings, which can set off alarms. If you are selected for additional screening, you may ask to remove your body piercing in private as an alternative to a pat-down search.

Traveling Shoes

Save those bags when you purchase loaves of store-bought bread. They make a perfect fit for packing shoes when you travel. Their oblong shape allows you to slide in one or more pairs easily. The bags keep your shoes covered and your clothes clean from dirt. The bags are particularly helpful if your shoes are wet and need to be separate from other items in your suitcase. To clean up leather shoes when traveling, pack some Pledge Wipes. Just go over your shoes with a wipe, and they'll look freshly polished.

Share The Gift of Reading

Instead of bringing home all of the paperbacks you took to keep you busy on planes and trains during a trip, register them with bookcrossing.com and leave them behind for other travelers. The BookCrossing Web site is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves and conserve precious resources at the same time. Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, train station or hotel room -- anywhere it might find a new reader! Then the book is off for its own travels, and you can have fun tracking its adventures as it is passed on from person to person.

A New Set of Wheels

A Budget Travel reader made this suggestion for new luggage. He replaces the cheap plastic wheels with rubber Rollerblade wheels, which are more durable and better survive the wear and tear of traveling. You can purchase Rollerblade wheels at sports stores.

Travel Medications

In a recent issue of Budget Travel online, a reporter interviewed Dr. Richard Wenzel, an expert in infectious diseases at Virginia Commonwealth University. He lists 11 items that should be in every tourist's first-aid kit when they travel.

Pepcid Complete
The drug eases heartburn by combining a stomach-acid reducer with an antacid. "But be careful mixing antacids and antibiotics—it can reduce the effectiveness of the antibiotic," Wenzel says.

Band-Aids & Neosporin
"I bring a bunch of Band-Aid sizes on trips to treat everything from a blister to a banged-up knee," Wenzel says. And Neosporin keeps cuts from getting infected.

Advil
The ibuprofen in Advil not only reduces pain and fevers, it also can relieve inflammation of the muscles and tendons after a long hike—Tylenol doesn't do that at all.

Ultrathon Insect Repellent
Repellents with higher concentrations of deet protect longer against bugs. "Find something with 30 percent deet or more," says Wenzel. Ultrathon is a 34 percent deet lotion with a time-release formula that lasts up to 12 hours.

Dramamine
Dramamine helps prevent motion sickness when taken at least 30 minutes before traveling. "It also makes people drowsy," Wenzel says. "So don't take it before flying if you know you'll have to drive when you get off the plane."

Imodium A-D
When diarrhea strikes, Imodium can stop the symptoms within 30 minutes, unlike Pepto-Bismol, which takes up to six hours to kick in.

Benadryl
In addition to alleviating hay fever symptoms, this drug can be used to treat hives and an itchy nose or throat caused by food allergies.

Neutrogena Sunscreen
Many Neutrogena sunscreens are made with a formula called Helioplex, which the company says helps stop UVA absorbers from degrading too quickly—making the sunblocks last longer.

Zithromax
Wenzel says this prescription antibiotic is the most effective diarrhea cure—especially in places like India and Thailand where bacteria are becoming more resistant to Cipro. For quick results, he recommends taking four 250-milligram pills with Imodium.

Cortaid
Cortaid Maximum Strength anti-inflammatory cream contains 1 percent hydrocortisone, which is the highest concentration available without a prescription. The cream soothes rashes and bug bites.

Readers responded with some changes and additions. Many readers recommended bonine over dramamine, saying it lasted longer and didn't cause drowsiness. Others voted for moleskin as well as band-aids, particularly for use on blisters on your feet. And some readers showed concerned about toxicity of DEET products, saying that natural mosquito repellants work just as well.

Explore Moscow, Paris and Beijing with 3-D Maps

Some of the best of National Geographic's Traveler’s 3D Insiders Maps are now online. Discover the best ways to explore Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, and the Vatican City by clicking on the cities’ interactive maps and getting hints from local experts. At Krasnaya Ploshchad, Moscow’s Red Square, visit the 200-ton bronze Tsar Bell, or, on the opposite end, stop by the Kazan Cathedral. In 1936, the 200-year-old cathedral was destroyed by Stalin, and, by memory and old photographs, the red-and-gold wedding-cake shaped icon was rebuilt in the 1990s. Says Father Vsevolod Chaplin, archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, “It’s an expression of the dark night followed by the resurrection. It means that Russia is alive again." Click here for more interactive maps from Traveler.