Preparation
Take out good travel insurance
If you are going travelling for a long time, check in advance whether the travel insurance covers the entire period. Many insurers have a maximum of 90 days or 6 months. There are also insurers that offer special “world travel insurances” that also cover you for a longer period of time.
If you are going to do special things during your trip (e.g. diving, rafting, or canyoning), you can check in advance whether the insurance also covers any (personal) damage associated with these activities. If this is not the case, it is wise to insure yourself for the risks associated with these activities.
It is also wise to check which medical care abroad is covered by your health insurance. Often you can take out additional insurance with the travel insurance for these costs if they are not included in the health insurance. Moreover, check whether your travel insurance or health insurance includes anything about repatriation costs to your home country. Make sure you are insured for this as these costs can be extremely high.
Make copies of important documents in advance
Before your trip starts, it is useful to make copies of all important documents and email them to yourself and a person who is staying at home in the Netherlands. When you email them to yourself, it must be an email address that you can access anywhere in the world (for example Gmail or Hotmail). If something happens to you, you have at least recorded all the details in your inbox. Think about:
- Passport
- Medical passport
- Driving licence
- Credit Card
- Visas
- Policy number and details of your travel insurance
- Policy number and details of your health insurance
- Important telephone numbers (bank for blocking debit/credit card, your country’s embassy, emergency number travel insurance)