Organisation and Preparation (3) : Travel Insurance and Vaccination

There is no excuse for taking to much risk, especially if you are a parent and travel with your kids. The risks are always there so make sure all your crew members are well covered by the travel insurance as well as adequately vaccinated. It´s not fun if it gets serious.

This year´s Halloween was cool. Be cool and make sure everyone is insured and vaccinated.

Travel Insurance

We believe parents do act responsibly (at least most of the time) so everyone knows that having good travel insurance is essential and not having it is being really stupid.

If not having any travel insurance permanently try to check that institutions you have your bank accounts with. They are often able to offer a great deals on family insurance coming with the account or cards.

For instance we pay less than 100 Czk (4 €) / month to be well covered (health, damage, luggage, flight delay etc.) anywhere and anytime we go (with the only limitation of no more than 90 consecutive days abroad). If going for a longer travel, the cost will be, most probably, significantly higher and therefore it is well worth exploring what the whole market offers as the differences could be huge.

Vaccination

Make sure you check for the destination vaccination recommendations well in advance before you go. 3 months might look as too much but it is actually optimal if you want to make it without stress for you and the kids. Especially the kids should be vaccinated when perfectly fit and is good to allow them at least 1-2 weeks break between the different applications. Also, vaccines require to be applied couple weeks prior to departure to be fully working once you reach your destination.

If you or the kids have been vaccinated in the past make sure it is still active and does not require re-vaccination.

In Czechia, some of the most important vaccines are covered by the core kids vaccinations:

Hexavaccine (Diphtheria / Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus inf. B) and

Priorix (Rubella, Parotitis and Morbilli). We are aware that the kids vaccination could be very specific discussion topic but let´s keep it simple here.

Most common and recommended vaccinations (based on where you go) are:

• Tetanus / Diphtheria

• Hepatitis A (2 shots)

• Typhoid

• Yellow Fever (required for South America trips)

Also worth to consider are:

• Japanese encephalitis (2 shots with 28 days in between required)

• Cholera

• Rabies

And make sure you are covered for these:

• Varicella

• Parotitis epidemica

• Polio

• Pertussis

• Rubeola

• Hepatitis B

Tad and Oliv have been very brave while obtaining their shots and apart from slightly worse mood and very small red(-ish) reaction there were no difficulties or side effects. We are all (extra) covered for Tetanus / Diphtheria, Hepatitis and Typhoid.