What to do six weeks before a summer trip — written for Calgary families heading to destinations the standard family-doctor visit doesn’t prepare them for.
Summer travel from Calgary has expanded substantially in the past decade. Direct flights from YYC now reach destinations across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and increasingly into regions that require more than the standard “check that your routine vaccines are up to date” preparation. Mexican beach trips, European tours, and Caribbean cruises remain the dominant patterns, but Calgary families are also travelling to Central America, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa in larger numbers, often with children whose vaccine schedules need specific attention.
Travel medicine is a small but important corner of primary care, and it is often left until the last minute. A patient who books a trip in March and sees a travel clinician in early June has time to space vaccines properly, fill prescriptions, and adjust for any medical considerations. A patient who walks in two weeks before departure has fewer options. The pre-departure window, done correctly, also addresses the less-dramatic but more-common travel issues — gastrointestinal illness, insect-borne disease, motion sickness, sleep disruption, and chronic-condition management away from home.
When to start travel preparation
The practical recommendation is six to eight weeks before departure for most international travel. This window allows multi-dose vaccine series to be completed where possible, single-dose vaccines to reach full effectiveness before exposure, and time for any prescriptions — antimalarials, traveler’s diarrhea standby treatment, motion sickness medications — to be filled and trialled if needed.
Some destinations require more lead time. Yellow fever vaccination, required for entry to certain countries, must be given at least 10 days before arrival. Rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis is a three-dose series given over three to four weeks. Hepatitis B pre-travel is typically a three-dose series, though accelerated schedules exist. Japanese encephalitis vaccination involves two doses 28 days apart. Patients planning travel to higher-risk destinations should book travel medicine consultation as soon as the trip is confirmed rather than waiting.
Routine vaccines are reviewed at the same visit. Many Canadian adults are due for tetanus boosters, MMR updates, or have gaps in their pertussis or hepatitis A coverage. Travel is a good prompt to catch up on these regardless of the destination.
What a travel consultation actually covers
A travel medicine consultation goes beyond a vaccine checklist. It reviews the specific itinerary, the activities planned, accommodation type, length of stay, and the traveller’s medical history, then builds a destination-specific plan.
- Routine vaccine review and updates as needed.
- Destination-specific vaccines: typhoid, hepatitis A, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, cholera, or others depending on the destination.
- Malaria assessment and prescription where indicated. Different antimalarials suit different patients and destinations.
- Traveler’s diarrhea prevention and self-treatment plan, including standby antibiotics where appropriate.
- Insect-borne disease prevention strategy — repellent selection, clothing, accommodation choices.
- Altitude considerations for high-elevation travel, including acetazolamide where appropriate.
- Motion sickness, jet lag, and sleep management strategy.
- Chronic condition management while travelling — medication supply, time-zone adjustments, emergency plans.
- Travel insurance and access-to-care guidance for the destination.
The depth of each piece scales to the trip. A week in a major European city involves a different conversation than three weeks in rural Cambodia.
The conversations families with children especially need
Children present specific considerations that adult-only travel does not. Vaccine schedules differ — some travel vaccines have minimum age cutoffs, and a child’s routine schedule may need accelerated catch-up before travel. Antimalarial options for children are narrower than for adults; some agents commonly used in adults are not appropriate for younger children.
Practical issues matter as much as the medical ones. Hydration in hot climates is harder to manage with young children. Sun protection — already a Calgary issue given how rapidly children burn at altitude or on water — becomes more important in stronger sun. Insect bites bother children more, and the consequences of insect-borne disease can be more serious. Food and water choices, motion sickness in cars and boats, and access to pediatric care if needed all warrant pre-departure planning.
Families with children with medical conditions — asthma, food allergies, eczema, ADHD, anxiety — benefit from a more detailed pre-departure conversation. Carrying adequate medication supply, having backup plans for prescription loss, ensuring the medical summary is available in the destination language where relevant, and identifying accessible care in advance changes the experience when something does come up.
The most common travel illnesses worth planning for
Traveler’s diarrhea is by far the most common travel illness, affecting up to 50 percent of travellers to high-risk destinations. Prevention involves food and water precautions — bottled water, avoiding raw produce washed in untreated water, careful selection of cooked food — and management involves hydration, with antibiotic standby treatment for moderate-to-severe cases. Most cases resolve with hydration alone but the standby script changes the trajectory of an illness when it does occur.
Respiratory illness is the second most common, particularly on cruises and during the air travel itself. Hand hygiene, judicious use of masking in higher-risk settings, and current respiratory-illness vaccines reduce risk. Motion sickness affects a substantial proportion of travellers, and a tested strategy — patch, oral medication, behavioural techniques — applied early in a trip prevents lost days. Insect-borne disease risk varies enormously by destination and season; specific advice is destination-dependent.
Skin and minor injury issues — sunburn, blisters, abrasions, jellyfish stings, swimmer’s ear — are common and usually mild but worth packing for. A travel medical kit calibrated to the destination handles the routine items without requiring local pharmacy visits in an unfamiliar language.
Managing chronic conditions away from home
Travellers with chronic conditions benefit from pre-departure planning that goes beyond medication supply. Patients with diabetes need a plan for insulin handling in heat, glucose monitoring across time zones, and food access in destinations with different cuisines. Patients with cardiovascular conditions should have a clear emergency plan, including knowing what their medications would be called locally and where to access care.
Patients on anticoagulants, immunosuppressants, biologics, or other higher-attention medications benefit from a structured pre-travel review. A signed medication summary, kept in carry-on luggage, smooths customs interactions and any urgent care visits. Patients with mental health conditions should plan for medication continuity, time-zone effects on dosing, and access to care if needed in the destination. Calgary travel medicine consultations are most useful for these patients six to eight weeks before departure rather than at the last minute.
Travel insurance deserves attention. Provincial health coverage outside Canada is minimal, and a single medical emergency abroad without insurance can produce financial consequences that dwarf the cost of the trip. Coverage should be reviewed for the specific destinations and activities planned, with attention to exclusions for pre-existing conditions and high-risk activities.
The post-return considerations
Travel medicine doesn’t end at departure. Patients who return with fever, persistent diarrhea, skin rashes, or unusual symptoms — particularly from malaria-endemic regions — should consult a qualified clinician promptly and mention the travel history explicitly. Malaria can present weeks to months after exposure, and providers who aren’t told the travel history may not test for it. Jet lag, sleep disruption, and gastrointestinal recalibration are common in the first week home and usually resolve, but persistent symptoms warrant evaluation.
A post-travel debrief at the next regular visit is useful for travellers who have done substantial international travel. It captures any infections or exposures, updates the vaccine record, and informs future trip planning. Patients who travel regularly benefit from a continuity relationship with a clinician familiar with their pattern rather than starting fresh before each trip. For families that travel several times per year, this continuity is the difference between repeating the same intake conversation each time and building a usable medical travel history that compounds across trips.
Investing six weeks for a better trip
Travel medicine is the kind of preparation that often shows its value by what doesn’t happen — the gastrointestinal illness that resolves in a day instead of three because the standby treatment was on hand, the malaria that wasn’t contracted because the prophylaxis was correct, the medication crisis that didn’t occur because the supply and the summary were planned. The six-week window before departure is the practical time to do this work.
Alberta families travelling internationally this summer benefit from a structured pre-departure consultation tailored to the specific itinerary, the travellers’ health profiles, and the activities planned. Patients planning travel — particularly to destinations beyond standard low-risk regions or with children — should consult a qualified clinician early in the planning rather than in the week before departure.
About the author — this article was contributed by Primaris Health, a Calgary multidisciplinary clinic offering travel medicine consultations alongside family medicine, pediatric care, and chronic-condition management. The clinic supports families and individuals across the pre-departure window and post-return follow-up.