Important: Prior to Travel!

I’d really like to emphasize the importance of checking the endemic and eradicated diseases associated with the country you are traveling to. Certain vaccinations like yellow fever are required to enter certain countries. They absolutely check and you aren’t permitted to enter the airport off the tarmac if you can’t prove you have it. That is is very costly affair…typically the airline that flew you in gets a huge fine and you will have to pay your immediate flight back to your departure country after you are held in quarantine. Please get anti malaria medication prescribed to you before you leave Canada if you are traveling to countries that have a high chance of getting malaria You can get very very sick.

Next, consider registering your trip (including flight details)at https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/registration. No the government isn’t tracking your every move, they do have an obligation to help you out of a country if a civil war breaks out or there is a natural disaster. They will send you emails giving you instructions on where to go in order to be evacuated safely and in a timely fashion. I’ve been on the receiving end of this process. It was very frustrating to look up the number of registered Canadians abroad and try to coordinate air travel when those numbers do not come close to the accurate number of people in a country. And in the flip side, I was stuck inside a country where civil war broke out as well as a country when a typhoon hit and air travel came to a standstill. Those emails were lifesavers. Lastly, if something happens to a flight you are traveling on, that registration means the right people can contact your loved ones.

Please take the time to look up the geography with elevations to the countries you are traveling to. If you take anxiety medications or muscle relaxants you will not be able to take them if you are at a higher altitude because it will depress your breathing when there air is already thin. I don’t take any medication of this nature above 1000m or 3300ft.

Do some research on the entry requirements to a country. If you can get a visa on arrival, great. This is what I do every time I travel to Egypt. However, I will acquire my visa or ETA (electronic travel authority) for most countries prior to travel. Use this link: https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories. It’s easy to use you just look up the country you are traveling to and scroll down to entry/exit requirements:) The travel advisories themselves are a super important part of the research you need to do prior to travel.

I like to learn as much as I can about the demographic, religions, political climate, security, Infrastructure and flora and fauna of a destination before I plan my trip. I typically go to: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

🙂