Travel Medicine: Pre Travel Vaccinations

A lot of people have questions regarding which vaccinations they need to receive prior to traveling.  This is a vast topic and it would be impossible to answer this question in a single blog post.  Vaccination requirements and recommendations vary by country and even regions within a country.  The best place to start when planing a trip is the CDCs Destination list.  This site lists country specific recommendations for vaccinations and other health related travel concerns.  The site lists both recommendations and requirements.  Some countries require proof of vaccination prior to entering the country. 

It is recommended that you begin researching these requirements as soon as possible, as some vaccinations must be administered a certain amount of time prior to travel in order for them to be effective.  Typhoid for example should be administered >2 weeks before departure and hepatitis B is given in several doses over a period of months. 

Malaria is another important consideration when traveling abroad.  Malaria is a parasite that lives in your red blood cells.  It is spread by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito.  Unlike the vaccines discussed above malaria prevention is accomplished with the use of prophylactic antimalarial medications.  The CDC website offers a Malaria Map tool which gives the prevalence of malaria as well as the specific species of malaria that is endemic to that area.  The specific antimalarial medication you are started on will depend on the local species prevalence as well as resistance patterns in that area.  If traveling to an area where malaria is common, it is important that you obtain antimalarial medications prior to departure and that you take it as directed by your doctor.

The WHO also has a pdf file of required vaccinations.  This list is up to date as of time of publication of this post, but requirements may change.
 http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2005/9241580364_country_list.pdf

Disclaimer: Information here is my personal opinion and shouldn't be taken as medical advice.  Remember, it is your responsibility to determine the vaccination requirements and recommendations of each country you will visit.  It is advisable to schedule an appointment with your primary care physician prior to departure to have a pre travel medical screening as well as to discuss vaccinations.  There are some contraindications to vaccine administration (such as immunocompromized state) that you must discuss with your doctor.  Some vaccines also carry the risk of adverse reactions.  Please discuss these risks with your doctor.

CDC Country Specific Information

CDC Malaria Map

Chase Ultimate Rewards Overview

Overview:

Just like American express membership rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) is chase's own brand of reward points.  Similar to amex rewards, chase UR can be transferred directly to several airline and hotel programs.

You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to the following programs;
Airlines:
British Airways avios
Korean Air Skypass
Southwest Rapid rewards
United Mileage Plus
Virgin Atlantic Flying club
Hotels:
Hyatt Gold Passport
Marriott Rewards
Priority Club Rewards

You can also redeem points directly through Ultimate Rewards for travel with a 20% bonus.  Meaning 40,000 points = 500$ in travel

Ways to earn UR points:

1. Sign up Bonus:
There are currently 3 chase cards which offer generous sign up bonuses with no annual fee for the first year.

Sapphire preferred: 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
Ink Bold: Business charge card, 50,000 points after spending $5,000 in 3 months
Ink Plus: Business credit card, 50,000 points after spending $5,000 in 3 months

Applications for all of these can be found directly on Chase's website

2. Spending:
Both the Ink Bold and Plus offer 5 points per dollar on office supply stores, cell and landline phone, Internet and Cable.  They also offer 2 points per dollar on gas stations, hotel accommodations.  1 point on all other purchases.
The Sapphire preferred card gives you 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining, 1 point on all other purchases. 

3. Ultimate Rewards Mall
This is an online shopping portal which allows you to earn bonus points while shopping online at hundreds of retailers.  If you are thinking of buying something check here first as there are tons of online merchants represented.

I really like this program for transfers to Hyatt.  Hyatt redemptions start at just 5,000 points and max out at 22,000 points for top tier hotels such as the Park Hyatt vendome Paris or the Park Hyatt Maldives.  Both of these run around $800 a night.  You can see my review of the Park Hyatt Vendome here.

American express membership rewards overview

American express membership rewards are amex's own brand of rewards points.  The point program comes standard on most American express cards.  I recently took advantage of an offer for 75,000 bonus points on the American express gold business card.  Unfortunately this offer expired in less than a day.  The good news is that you can still get 50,000 points as a sign up bonus.  This is still a nice chunk of points as you will see below.  I also have the American express premier rewards card (I got 50,000 points for signing up).  Both of the above mentioned cards have their annual fee waved for the first year and are "charge cards" meaning you need to pay the balance in full every month.

Program basics:
The two primary uses of membership rewards points are to "pay with points" or to transfer to a hotel or airline program directly.

1. Pay with points: you can use your points to pay for travel expenses on any airline or any hotel.  1 point = 1 cent, so 50,000 points = $500

2. Transfer points to airline/hotel program.  In my opinion this is the best use of your points.  There are often transfer bonus offers associated with this, including a current promotion of 35% bonus on transfers to british ariways.  Points can be transferred directly to several programs including:
Airlines:
Delta Skymiles
British Airways avios
KLM Flying Blue
Frontier EarlyReturns
Hawaiian airlines
Iberia
Jet Blue TrueBlue
Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer
Virgin America Elevate
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Air canada aeroplan
Alitalia
ANA
Aeromexico
Asia Miles
El Al Israel Airlines
Hotels:
Best western
Choice Privileges
Hilton HHonors
Jumeriah Hotels
Starwood

Conversion rates and increments

For most frequent customer programs, 1,000 Membership Rewards points will equal 1,000 miles, points or credits and must be transferred in 1,000-point increments unless otherwise noted. The only exceptions are:

• JetBlue Airways: 250 points = 200 JetBlue TrueBlue points; must be transferred in 250-point increments
• El AL Israel Airlines: 1,000 points = 20 Matmid points
• Starwood Preferred Guest®: 1,000 points = 333 Starpoints
• Hilton: 1,000 points = 1,500 HHonors™ points
• Virgin America: 200 points = 100 Elevate points; must be transferred in 200-point increments
• Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts: 2,300 points = 100 Sirius Points; must be transferred in 2,300-point increments

Now you might be saying "i don't use any of those airlines".  Well thanks to airline alliances you can get a little creative on redemption offers.  For example, British Airways Avios currently offers a 35% bonus on transfers.  This means that 75,000 amex points = 100,000 British airways avios.  You can use these points on any one of BAs Oneworld partners including american airlines.  British airways has a distance based award chart which often ends up offering some very good deals.  For example a flight from NYC to Toronto can be had for just 8,000 points round trip.  Another great bargain is a flight from Boston to Dublin on aer lingus for only 25,000 miles round trip.  A flight to Dublin costs around $700, therefore my 75,000 amex points could get me  $2,800 in flights.

Photo of the Week: London Eye

Since I missed posting photos for the last 2 weeks I guess its only fair that I post 3 this week.  The London Eye is a giant Farris wheel located on the banks of the Thames River opposite the Houses of Parliament and "Big Ben".  It is rather expensive to ride (20 pounds or so) and you only go around 1 time.  That being said, it is really huge and you get a nice view of the entire city from the top.  As you can see from the first picture each capsule can comfortably fit several people. 

75,000 American Express points

Edit: It looks as if this was a very limited time offer as the offer is now only 50k bonus points (which is still a good deal).  Im glad i faught off sleep last night, applied and was approved.

Typing this on my phone at 3am so please excuse the brevity Great offer available today on American express business gold card. Currently you can get 75,000 bonus points after 5k spend. No annual fee the first yr. This is a business card but many people have businesses and dont realize. Have you ever sold anything on Ebay? Or maybe cut the neighbors grass? You can get approved for this even if your business income is 0$. Just use your ss number as tax id and select sole proprietorship Link for application

Camping on St John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Continuing along with my theme of camping on islands (see my post on Easter Island), last week I spent 3 nights camping on St. John in the US virgin islands.  Now, I hadn't initially planned on camping during my trip.  I had snagged a great airfare to St Thomas from BWI ($212 round trip) and booked it without first looking at hotel prices. I searched high and low for a decently priced hotel or a good use of hotel reward points but I had no such luck.  That's when i decided to get creative and look at other possibilities.  Most of the island of St. John is part of Virgin Islands National Park so i figured camping might be an option.

The campground i stayed at was located at Cinnamon Bay; inside the park but privately run.  Cinnamon bay campground offers 3 different types of lodging.  Cabins, Pre set up canvas tents, and bare sites.  The rates are $93, $67 and 32$ a night respectively.  I decided to go for the cheapest option and bring my own tent.  To reduce costs even further I had planned on bringing everything I would need in my carry on.  I was slightly concerned about what TSA would think about a tent on a plane, so my plan was to remove the stakes and arrive at the airport a little early.  That way if they threatened to confiscate my tent as a weapon of mass destruction, I could always check my bag and pay the 25$ fee.

Along with my tent, we also brought along an air mattress, a light fleece blanket, cooking pot, plastic utensils and some easy to cook meals such as rice and beans, powdered soup mix, oatmeal, granola bars, etc.  I had heard that food on the island could be expensive so I wanted to minimize that expense.

Everything worked out just fine.  TSA had no issues with my metal pot or tent and everything fit into my carry on.  Getting to the campground was fairly easy.  From the Airport in St. Thomas, we took a cab (10$pp) to the ferry dock in Charlotte Amalie.  The ferry was 45mins long, cost 12$ and dropped us off in Cruz Bay on St. John.  An additional cab ride from Cruz Bay to the campground was 7$ each way + 2$ for bags.  We later found out that on St. Thomas there are "safari taxis" which are basically pickup trucks with open air benches in the back.  These run from the end of the airport road into Charlotte Amalie for just 1$.   
As for the campground its self, I thought the facilities were very clean and well maintained.  Our campsite, #58 was a stones throw away from the beach, yet in a shady secluded area.  The site came with a level platform for the tent, a picnic table, wood/charcoal grill and a Canvas covering the entire site.  The canvas was a nice touch as it meant we could leave our rain fly off of the tent and allow the breeze to cool things off at night.  Showers were clean but there is no hot water.  That is really not an issue as the cool water feels refreshing, and you have a beautiful view of the forest while showering.  The campground rents some equipment such as a propane stove for 5$/day and fuel 5$/day.  There is also a small shop which includes all the basic food and drink supplies you would need and they have an on site restaurant.  Additionally, there is a beach shop which rents snorkels and other beach related gear.

The location of the campground is top notch. It is located directly on Cinnamon Bay beach, one of the most picturesque beaches on the island.  The fact that we were staying there meant we had the whole beach to our self in the mornings and late afternoons.  The water was turquoise blue and there was some very good snorkeling just off shore.

As a tip, bring cash as ATMs are hard to find outside of the main towns and most places are cash only.  At the campground the "credit card machine was down" for 3 days so apparently even places that except cards can become cash only.

See my post on what we did on St. John and St. Thomas.

The view down the beach

Our Campsite (#58)

The beach from our shady spot

Bath House

The beach again

Rental stove (5$) and propane (5$), apparently the lantern came included with the fuel

Showering in the great outdoors

Update

Those of you who follow this blog with any regularity may have noticed that its been a while since my last post.  Rest assured that isn't because I've gotten lazy; its because I have been out doing things.  The good news is that I now have a lot of new trips to report on.  In the past 2 weeks I have taken day trips to Gettysburg to take in some civil war history, traveled to Philadelphia to watch a Phillies game and have a few Belgian beers at monks cafe, next i was off to the U.S. Virgin islands for 4 days and finally 2 days in Annapolis and a visit to the Naval academy.  So...stay tuned.  Over the next couple days ill work on getting some pictures and reviews up.