Sticking on the theme of saving money one thing that really surprised me was the amount you can save on travel vaccinations and medication if you shop around!

Here is what I did…

Make an appointment to see a nurse at your Doctors surgery!

The nurse will either have or will gather a full record of your vaccinations right down to the week you were born!

If you're anything like me your last 'jab' was probably High School so no chance of remembering it!

From speaking with the nurse and discussing where I plan to travel, I learnt that I would need vaccinations for,

• Typhoid
• Diphtheria
• Tetanus
• Polio
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Yellow Fever

On top of this there is the mine field of anti-Malarial medication.

If I had gone to a private medical clinic like 'Well Travelled' in Chester this could have cost me nearly £300. Ouch!

Luckily Typhoid, Hepatitis A and the combined Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio are available for FREE from your doctors on the NHS!

Hepatitis B and Yellow fever however are not!

In fact my doctors, along with many others would have charged £30 per dose. And your need three!!

But after a bit of shopping around I found another surgery that only charged £6 per dose.

Not a lot you can do about yellow fever sadly. I paid £50

Not every surgery can do yellow fever vaccinations so you have to go to a yellow fever centre (http://www.nathnac.org/yellowfevercentres.aspx)

It is worth phoning around though as some places charged extra for the certificate (up to £20) which is ridiculous as the certificate is essential to travel across many Central American boarders (in theory).

So in total I paid £68

• Typhoid - Free
• Diphtheria -Free
• Tetanus - Free
• Polio - Free
• Hepatitis A - Free
• Hepatitis B - £18
• Yellow Fever - £50

Malaria

When you speak with your nurse they will go through every country you plan on visiting to check which the best anti-malarial medication is.

All anti-malarial's have side effects but some like Malarone are a lot better.

Problem is that Malerone costs about £2-3 per day!

Not such a problem if you're away for a week or two but if you're in malarial countries for 3 months like me then that would get expensive.

If you are worried about choosing one of the others I suggest asking your doctor/nurse for a trial before your go. I did 4 weeks trial or Chloroquine (the cheapest) with no major issues.

Chloroquine is about £2 for a box of 20 and you only take two a week! Cheap as chips!