Category Archives: Travellers Advice

Top Ten Packing Tips for Mature Travellers

Posted on by By Vivienne DuBourdieu
Silver Travel Advisor photo - travel by elephant

Travel by elephant in South Africa. Photo from Silver Travel Advisor.

Here’s the definitive summer holiday packing list for mature holidaymakers.

Thanks to over fifties travel review website, Silver Travel Advisor, for this list. It hits all the right points.

.• Flight compression socks –great for wrapping around bottles of duty free in the luggage

• Haemorrhoid cream – to conceal late night bags from under the eyes

• A passport – in case you’re ID-checked in the local clubs

• A compass – to find your way home again

• A local phrase book – wedge a few pages under wobbly bar tables to avoid spilt drinks

• Wet wipes – great for cleaning red wine stains off the hotel bedroom carpet

• Slippers – if you look eccentric, you can make all kinds of unreasonable demands

• Reading glasses – To replace the ones you lost on your head

• Walking stick – ideal for jumping airport queues or attracting the bar staff’s attention

• Sunglasses –even the over-fifties need to sleep sometimes

Silver Travel Advisor’s MD, Debbie Marshall, said, “Today’s mature traveller is far more likely to pack a Rough Guide and a pack of malaria pills than the stereotypical comfortable shoes and cardigans that they were once associated with.”

She added,  ”We came up with our mature travellers’ packing list to make the point that older travellers are travelling further than any generation before them…

” They are active, they want to have fun and it’s clear from the numerous holiday and travel reviews posted at www.silvertraveladvisor.com that we are now seeing a new generation of `golden gap year’ travellers who are making the most of their time to explore the world.”

 

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Ecoli Incident in Germany

Posted on by By Vivienne DuBourdieu
Cucumber. Photographed and eaten by VDuBourdieu©May 31, 2011

Cucumber. Photographed and eaten by VDuBourdieu©May 31, 2011

An incident in Germany involving the potentially deadly disease Ecoli has brought widespread concern in the media.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (EDCDP), 373 people were confirmed to have caught Ecoli.

Most of the cases were in Hamburg, Germany, and 68% of those affected were women.

Meanwhile, authorities in the Czech Republic and Austria have taken some Spanish-grown cucumbers off store shelves over fears they are contaminated with Ecoli.

So how people can best avoid catching the bug? GP Dr Rosemary Leonard explains the symptoms and offers some advice here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health

Whatever the bug, it is always advisable to wash and, if necessary, peel vegetables befoe eating, whether they are to be used raw or cooked.

Whilst the Ecoli incident in Germany is extremely distressing for those directly involved, the media may be over-reacting, according to European Tour Operators Association (ETOA).

It is important to note:

  • Ecoli is endemic in all societies, and such regrettable “peak” outbreaks occur regularly in such developed countries as the United States and Japan. They are containable.
  • The current outbreak is exclusively associated with Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North-Rhine-Westfalia and Hamburg). There appear to be no sources of an outbreak in any other region of Germany, nor any other country in Europe.
  • Those involved seem to have been exposed to a contaminated batch of cucumbers. There is no evidence that there are any other foods, such as meat or dairy products, involved.
  • Whilst the occurrence of this outbreak is naturally a cause for concern, the risks posed to travellers even in the affected regions of Germany are extremely minimal.
  • There are no extraordinary risks posed to travellers in Europe as a whole.

It is always difficult to take a clear stand on a situation like this, especially when attention is drawn to individual instances. But there is a danger of undue concern occurring where no unusual risk exists.

In these circumstances any formal measures (such as the condemning all uncooked vegetables) seems disproportionate, particularly in areas outside those affected.

Since its foundation in 1989, ETOA has grown exponentially to include over 500 member organisations, of which more than 150 are Tour Operators.

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