After a number of visits to Bristol Nomad Travel Clinic our vaccinations are all done and our record cards are all filled out. At least one area of our preparation is sorted.
Bristol Nomad Travel Clinic were great, all the staff were very knowledgeable and more than happy to help advise us on all things travel, as well as general chit-chat. We can't recommend them highly enough.
We also had to visit our GP surgery Travel Clinic for some boosters as these were free, and they also did the yellow fever for £60 (comparable to Nomad).
Full list of vaccinations we've had:
Booster Diptheria - Free
Booster Tetanus - Free
Booster Polio - Free
Hepatitis A (x2) - Free
Hepatitis B (x3) - approx £40 each
Typhoid - Free
Yellow fever - £60
Rabies (x3) - approx £35 each
Rabies was not essential but advisable if travelling in remote areas, plus it has a 100% fatality rate if not vaccinated so we thought forking out the additional funds was worth it. At least it gives you a little longer to find some medical help. The yellow fever is now life long, where it used to only be valid for10 years. So long as you have a certificate to prove that you have had it done then it would be valid at borders, even if it was done over 10 years ago and said it was valid for 10 years. Just don't forget to take your certificate with you.
The other thing we had to consider was Malaria, as many of the places that we will be travelling to have a moderate to high risk of Malaria. If you are looking for your own travels, there are many places where Malaria Maps are viewable, however I used the ones on the Fit For Travel website. Due to a tight budget, we have finally decided to go for Doxycycline, despite this being an antibiotic that can cause an increased sensitivity to sunlight and heartburn. The issue for us was that you can buy Doxycycline tablets for 15 pence each, whereas Malarone is £2.25 per tablet!! An option, which is identical to Malarone (or so I'm told - please check with your travel clinic to be sure) is Atovaquone & Proguanil, however it is still £1.95 per tablet. As you can imagine, on a tight budget for a years travel in predominantly Malaria risk areas, for two people, the choice was pretty much made for us. We will be loading up on SPF50 sunscreen!