Stay safe while on holiday

Holidays don’t always go to plan, and no matter how hard you try to organise every detail, there’s always room for something to go wrong and it normally does. Yet despite having to contend with misbehaving kids, bad weather and terrible food, holidays are, in the end, extremely enjoyable.

safe holidays

However, there’s a difference between putting up with general mishaps and enduring the type of drama that results in having to make a holiday compensation claim. To avoid this eventuality, it’s vital that you make sure you stay safe on holiday.

Holding the fort

Before you go away, you should make sure that you don’t discuss your plans to go away too often in public, you never know who could be listening. If you have an alarm, then you should set this when you leave. Locking the doors is an obvious precaution, however, once they’re locked, double check them, it’ll give you peace of mind while you’re away. For the time you’re not at home, have a trusted neighbour check round your empty house every now and again.

Staying safe on arrival

You need to have your wits about you when you reach your destination. However, this is hard to do if you don’t feel in good shape. To avoid getting struck down by jet lag, you can change your sleeping patterns before your flight: if you’re going east, go to bed a little earlier for a few nights, if you’re going west, try going to bed a little later.

When you touch down you need to make sure that you stay hydrated, a lack of water can make you irritated and can affect your levels of concentration, which could make you an easy target for an opportunistic thief.

Travelling around

Try to do a bit of research on your holiday destination before you leave, make sure you know about any potential dangers such as dodgy neighbourhoods or unsafe spots.

If you’re going to a seaside resort, or even to hotel with a pool, it’s vital to make sure you keep an eye on any children that you’re travelling with. It’s also a good idea to avoid drinking alcohol if you’re going swimming yourself.

Hygiene

Many places across the globe, especially those in developing countries, don’t have a water supply that’s safe to drink. If you’re unsure, rather than take a risk picking up a stomach bug, makes sure that you either drink bottled or boil the water that you’re going to drink first.

Try to only eat in recommended restaurants while you’re away, and avoid anywhere that looks unclean like the plague. Although most of the time a restaurant will be fine, it’s not worth taking the risk, especially when you’ve got such a limited time away.

Insurance

Of course, even after taking all these precautions, the worst could still happen so it’s important to make sure that you get holiday insurance, just to cover you in the worst case scenario.