A sick or injured child can turn a fun filled family vacation into a disaster. Prepare for the unpredictable before you leave home.

If anyone in your family takes prescription, over the counter medication, or supplements regularly, be sure you have enough on hand for the trip. You may not be able to find them in a strange town.

Remember, not all OTC medicines are available everywhere. If there is a specific brand of allergy medicine your child uses occasionally, take it with you.

For prescriptions, carry a new written script with you.

For each family member write down the name of the medication, the condition it is taken for, doctor’s name, patient’s age and weight. This is especially important for children. Keep a copy of this list in your luggage, another in your vehicle, and a third in your purse or wallet.

Keep the name, address and telephone number to your pediatrician or family doctor in an obvious place. Rescue workers will look in your wallet or on your cell phone first. To identify contacts in your cell phone as emergency numbers use the key phrase ICE with the entry. ICE stands for “In Case of Emergency”

If traveling by car, be sure to have a well- stocked first aid kit and reference manual with you. Cuts, scrapes and minor sprains can be treated with basic first aid. For broken bones, head injuries and more serious injuries, treat with first aid until you get to the nearest emergency room.

Always keep insurance cards with you, and make copies of the cards, just in case. Have enough cash available for one parent to fly home with an injured or ill child.

The odds are, you’ll never need to fly a child home because of illness or injury, but it’s better to be prepared.

For an older child, consider speaking to your doctor about one of the many medications for motion sickness. Use caution, though, the medicine is likely to make the child sleepy. If possible, travel at night. A sleeping child is less likely to become ill.

Keep the child as cool as possible. Open a window or run the air conditioner. Parents in the front may be chilly, but the child in the back will feel better. Hand held fans that spray water may help, as well.

Have the motion sick child sit in the front passenger seat, they’re less likely to have problems there. If that’s not possible, the next best place is the middle of the back seat an look through the front window.

Plan to stick to freeways and major straight roads, when possible. Twisty, bumpy roads will aggravate motion sickness.

When you figure travel time, allow for frequent stops. Know how long your child can ride in the car before getting sick, and try to stop before then.

Some children can avoid motion sickness by eating small, frequent snacks during the trip. Other children shouldn’t eat all while in the car.

When packing snacks, choose small, easy to digest foods. Crackers, bananas, apples, and ginger cookies are good choices. Ginger of any kind is known to help ease the stomach, but stay away from carbonated drinks, the bubbles will most likely make nausea worse.

Try to keep the child occupied to help keep his mind off his turning stomach. Consider bringing along hand held video games or a portable DVD player.

So where can travel maps be purchased? There are wide varieties of places, and some are vary obvious. Anyone who has been lost before and had to stop for directions knows that gas stations are popular places to buy travel maps. Usually there are not a wide variety of maps available though, just the standard road maps that either come in a large book containing all of the fifty states, or a single map that is usually just for the state in which you are currently in.

Another place to find travel maps to buy is at many grocery stores, but again their maps may be limited to a few specific ones, again for the state you are in at that time.

Along with these more obvious places to shop for maps, another location is on the internet. There are several websites available that sell both new and used travel maps, and they have a wide variety available for purchase. This is a great resource since the person planning their travel simply goes to one of these websites, and from there types in the type of map needed along with the destination and a variety of maps pertaining to that area is shown. This is a very convenient method to buy travel maps, as most people are on the internet daily anyway. However, it will take some time to receive the order and therefore is not a reliable method for those that are traveling on short notice.

For people who do not have the time to order a specific type of map online, and cannot buy the map they need at stores near them, another option, which also saves money, is by going to a website that provides free maps. These maps are not going to be as detailed as the maps a person can buy, but they are certainly better then no map at all, especially for those that need to leave in a hurry.

For anyone who plans on doing any type of travel, it would be wise to buy one or two maps to have on hand. Many people who own cars keep maps with them just in case, this is a smart practice. When planning a trip, give yourself enough time to find and buy the maps that would be most beneficial to you as you travel, and then spend the time needed to adequately study and mark them. This will help to minimize the stress that comes from traveling in a unfamiliar location, and may save a few arguments as well, since the driver will not likely get lost.

One of the best ways for travelers to be prepared is by giving him or herself enough time to make the necessary preparations, which include booking the necessary transportation, hotels, and other services needed while traveling. These are usually the first steps travelers take before their trip. However, another necessary preparation, which may be overlooked by those that do not travel often, is the gathering and studying of maps. There are many people who do this as a hobby, and there are others who never touch maps because they do not understand them and feel they are too much trouble. The savvy travelers know that maps are an essential part of any trip, whether a short road trip on a weekend or a trip around the world.

The first step that was mentioned is gathering maps. There are several resources available to travelers. A person planning a trip can buy road maps at most stores or gas stations. They can go to their local travel agency and they can also contact the travel and tourism office for their destination, this can be done online for those who know how to use the internet. Other methods for obtaining travel maps is shopping for specific ones online or calling the hotel or car rental agency that the traveler will be using and asking them for maps.

Once the maps are collected, the savvy travelers will study those maps, not just gather, and pack them. They will mark the route, which will be traveled if driving either by car, the whole trip or just once at the destination by using a rental car. They will circle any places they plan to visit either along the way such as rest stops or scenic sites along the road, along with attractions or sites at the destination itself. Savvy travelers will also keep their maps on them while traveling so they can easily be accessed when needed. A map will do a person no good if it is packed at the bottom of a suitcase or left at a hotel.

There are certain people that enjoy the thrill of spontaneity and do not care for planning. This may be all right for quick weekend trips to familiar locations; it is not necessarily the best idea when traveling to unknown places, especially when traveling to foreign destinations. Savvy travelers know it is best to be prepared, and enjoy the trip with little stress and hassle, which is what anyone hopes for while traveling.

1. Fill out all emergency information on your passports. Make sure family members wear their passport on their body at all times. Children should carry the phone number and address of at least one trusted adult back home.

2. Read, understand, and follow all travel warnings issued for the area you are visiting. Do not travel to unsafe areas.

3 .Make two copies of everyone’s passport id page. Carry one copy with you in a separate place from your passport, and leave the second with a trusted friend or family member back home. Parents should carry additional copies of children’s passports.

4. Always carry current photos of your children with you.

5. Leave a copy of your travel plans with family or friends at home. Include hotel names and phone numbers. Have your children carry a copy of travel plans with them, as well.

6. Learn local laws and customs before you leave for your trip. Be sure your children understand them as well.

7. In airports, bus depots and train stations, never leave your luggage unattended. Instruct your children not to touch other people’s luggage, or pick anything up from the floor.

8. If you will be in a foreign country for more than two weeks, contact the embassy or consulate in that country. This will make it easier for officials to find you in case of emergency back home.

9. Do not wear expensive jewelry, or clothing that stands out. Don’t carry more money than you will need. Consider credit cards or travelers checks.

10. Make sure you exchange money at authorized places. If you have any questions or get in trouble, contact the closest embassy.

To alleviate your concern, speak to the adult who will be in charge during the trip. Be clear on any conditions you may have regarding the trip. Maybe Grandmom can take Suzie to Europe to visit family, but you want to her to be with Grandmom the entire time, no babysitters, even family, allowed. Make these kinds of wishes clear.

If your child has food allergies or a medical condition, spend time teaching the responsible adult about the condition. Send written materials with the adult and make sure they have all emergency numbers and medication.

Share any medication information with the responsible adult, as well. Educate them on side effects and things to watch for.

Get a detailed itinerary from the responsible adult. You will feel much better if you know well in advance where your child will be going and where they will be staying. If they will be staying with friends or family overseas, call and speak to those people before your child leaves. This is especially important if you have never met these family members.

Be sure to give the responsible adult medical power of attorney over your child for the duration of the trip. Nothing is more upsetting than getting a call from a hospital out of country that your child has been injured or is ill, but they can’t provide medical treatment until you arrive on the premises.

The first type of travel guides are brochures, pamphlets, books and other reading material that gives a traveler a very good idea about a certain destination. They will often include such information such as where hotels, restaurants and other facilities used by people traveling are located. They will also give information about these places including their ratings and even prices. Along with prices, travel guides can also be helpful for people who need or want to travel on a budget as they can recommend the best places to go to get the best deals. For people who know where they want or need to go, but have no idea what to do once there, travel guides are perfect for listing the attractions and sites available in that location. There are many types available, which are geared for certain types of travel. Some travel guides may focus on one aspect of a location such as information for families, where other travel guides may focus on information that a person going on business would find most useful. These travel guides can be found in many different places.

For people that have ample time to prepare for their trip, two good sources are the travel and tourism office for the desired destination. By contacting this office, they can give you a package of information all relating to their location. They may even include some coupons. For those that are on the internet frequently, the phone numbers and even email and website address can all be found online with a simple search. Another good source for those who are online is by simply searching using the words “travel guides.” There are many sites available to choose from that offer online travel guides which can be printed up, or there are many guides which can also be ordered and usually for free.

The other type of travel guide is actual people hired to take either individuals or groups of people once at the destination and show them around, taking them to the most popular sites and attractions. While those traveling within their own country do not generally need this service, it may be a valuable service to those traveling outside of their country. It can be reassuring to know there is someone with you who knows about the country and the best places to visit.

Travel guides, whether paper or a person is a great source of information when planning a trip. However, along with these guides a person should also consider having available a map. While most travel guides do include some type of map, having other sources of maps such as a road map will make the trip even more enjoyable since the more maps are used, the less likely a person will find himself or herself lost, which can make an enjoyable trip turn bad. Using the combination of travel guides and maps is the best way to make a good trip great!