Keep the whole family safe when travelling overseas:Keep these in mind for a hassle-free family vacation
Date: July 22 2016
Travelling with kids is always a fun and rewarding family experience. Not only does it give you the opportunity to create memories to cherish for a lifetime, but it allows your children to experience and learn about different cultures and locations.
When planning a family holiday abroad, there are many safety elements that you should consider before you leave. These include requirements such as passports, vaccinations, medications and travel documents. Although it’s high on every parent’s agenda to ensure their family is safe while abroad, occasionally developing a safety plan can be overlooked.
Devising a safety plan before you leave on your vacation will ensure you and your family are prepared for the unexpected, know what to do in an emergency and have the essential tools and equipment on hand to help ease the stress of any unforseen circumstance.
While planning your vacation, think about all of the potential emergency situations that could occur. Write them down and then highlight the information, documents or contacts you would require in these situations. Then ensure you have the essential items required for each emergency. With your safety plan you should include:
1. Documents
Before you leave gather all of the important travel documents you need for your vacation and place them in a folder. Ensure you have all of your family member’s passports, medical information, visas, travel itinerary and any booking confirmation documents. While travelling keep the folder in a safe but accessible location. This will ensure you are prepared with all of your family’s relevant travelling and medical information should the unexpected occur.
2. Communication
When travelling abroad communication mediums can be difficult and expensive to set up. From mobile phones to tablets and even laptops, there are many options to consider but communication requirements should not be overlooked when setting up your safety plan. Phones are the best way to keep in contact with everyone. If your children are old enough, ensure they have a mobile phone each. This will allow them to contact you if they get lost or use in an emergency. Data roaming can be expensive if your children are not aware of the costs and also want to use WiFi. If you require a more affordable option, you can hire a portable router from WiWander which will provide you and your children with unlimited WiFi throughout your trip. Through WiFi you can access the internet to update your family at home about your movements, find directions or medical information.
3. Medications
Taking your family’s medical files with you when you are travelling is important in case you or your family require urgent medical attention. Before you leave pack in any medications your family requires regularly. This will ensure you are prepared with the relevant medications if required and will save you from having to find the right medication in a different country. It’s also important to pack in essential medical aids such as bandaids, antiseptic cream, a small bandage and pain relief.
4. Fire exists
When checking in to your accommodation, ensure you ask or take note of your nearest fire exists. Make your family aware of the nearest fire exists and inform them of what you will do in case this emergency arises. This will give you peace of mind knowing that in an emergency, you and your family will be aware of any fire exists giving you all the best possible chance to escape in a fire emergency.
5. Inform the relatives
It’s important to inform a family member about your travel plans. Provide them with an itinerary including relevant contact details of your accommodation arrangements. This will ensure someone knows of your location throughout your trip and will be able to contact you if necessary.
Although setting up a safety plan can be a time consuming task, it will save you time, money and minimise the stress of having to make emergency arrangements in another country. Enjoy your vacation knowing that you have it all sorted!
For more information or to rent a router visit www.wiwander.com.
About WiWander:
WiWander is a portable pocket WiFi router that provides unlimited WiFi for travellers. From five dollars AUD a day, Australians can rent a WiWander router for their next overseas trip and enjoy unlimited WiFi access while abroad. The router is sleek, light weight and can connect up to eight devices at once. WiWander pocket WiFi is currently available in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, China, South Korea, USA, Malaysia, Thailand and some countries in Europe.
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