For most of my trip I stayed in Youth Hostels.  A really good tip is when making a reservation, ask whether they can do a bed reservation for you, i.e. set aside a bed number in a dorm that is equal to a bottom bunk-bed.  Not only are bottom beds more convenient, they are also much safer if you need to stagger out of bed in the middle of the night to treat that annoying hypo that has interrupted your glorious dreams of hiking in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  Many bunks tend to lack suitable ladders on their sides, so if you are hypo, uncoordinated, and half asleep, you’d be much better off getting out of a bottom bunk-bed than a top one! 

When you arrive at a new Hostel, make sure you find out things like what time the front doors are locked, and an important one for me was, is the door to the kitchen locked at night?  A locked kitchen door + hypo in the middle of the night + no food in you room = problem. 

Don’t keep all your food supplies in the kitchen.  If a Hostel kitchen is locked, make sure you keep some effective ‘hypo’ food in your room with you.  This tip is also is also important as sometimes your food can ‘grow legs’ and disappear, i.e. another hostel guest decides that they need your food more than you do. 

Try to obtain the Toll Free Customer Service Hotline telephone numbers in the country/ies you are visiting for the company who makes your BG metre, before you leave in case your meter ‘goes on the blink’ (as mine did on the final day of my holiday), you can try to organise an immediate replacement. Alternatively, chuck in a packet of trusty old BM 20-800 testing strips for emergencies. 

Note that many countries will have their own equivalent ‘Diabetes Australia’-style organisations, a good place to start if you did need some support or advice.  Look up the International Diabetes Federation website for their member organisations all over the world. 

Make sure you take an extra 1/4 to 1/2 again of your insulin/strips/lancets.  This means that if you decide to extend your trip by an extra week or two, you will hopefully not run out of supplies.  It also allows for unexpected breakage/damages.  Likewise, if you do, say, 2-3 blood tests a day at home, you may want to do more tests per day when you’re ‘on the road’, so make sure you take extra test strips to cover this possibility. 

Be aware that in North America, food manufacturers are really big on using alternative forms of sweeteners in their products.   I found that ‘high-fructose corn syrup’, and regular ‘corn syrup’ are very common in the ingredient lists of products, so it’s worth paying extra attention to the labels. 

If you’ve ever contemplated ordering a ‘diabetic meal’ on an aircraft, then let it be said that you’ve now officially been warned: DON’T BOTHER! They are almost completely devoid of any form of carbohydrates or flavour.  If you do want to get your meal before all the other passengers, try ordering a vegetarian meal.  I found them to be quite tasty and generally contained enough carbohydrates. 

My final travel tip is what I ultimately consider to be the most important, and that is to have fun on your holiday!! 

I hope that you find my travel tips useful!  If anyone has any other tips that they would like to share, why not send them in for publication in future editions of YADA YADA.