Do you go on holidays these days ?

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My partner and I go abroad as often as we can, once so far this year, Christmas is booked and we're looking for somewhere in September. Having diabetes is no reason not to travel but there may be several other reasons that might stop you. Diabetes isn't one of them.
 
Merluza said:
My partner and I go abroad as often as we can, once so far this year, Christmas is booked and we're looking for somewhere in September. Having diabetes is no reason not to travel but there may be several other reasons that might stop you. Diabetes isn't one of them.
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No but it can make it more difficult. My 3 week holiday to Costa Rica was a bit of a disaster. I had lost my dad a few weeks before so was suffering from anxiety. Flights had been booked for ages, but no accommodation or activities because i would have cancelled if he’d still been alive. Anyway so I planned for my sugar to run a bit high doing hikes, diving etc. I’m on insulin but my blood sugar is really well controlled, never hypo, never hyper. So i went into a hypo climbing up a mountain, ate packet of skittles, waited, another packet, still dropping to 3.2 by now. Getting the shakes and starting to panic, ate half a pack of glucose tablets and some cough candy, eventually stopped it. But then went up to 12 ( i never go above 8) so took a few days to get it stable again. After that I didn’t take insulin before any activities, although it didn’t happen again. Also hard to find anything low carb, apart from salad and veg, so basically had to eat rice and beans and correct high blood sugar later on. It wasn’t great to have that anxiety piling up as well. It was also the first time id scuba dived since being diagnosed, so was worried about that too. The diving was fine because i'm a good and calm diver and it didnt affect my glucose levels too much so I wont start my dive so high next time. Hopefully my next adventure will be less stressful, but it was a trial. I usually only take small amounts of insulin, because I'm low carb so Im not used to taking higher doses.
 
Hiking up mountains and scuba diving is pushing the envelope a bit. You seem to have remarkable control so this obviously came as a surprise to you.

I certainly don’t go bowling off abroad without considering the potential problems, particularly as regards eating. All travel is stressful with time shifting and irregular meals, even travelling to Northern Italy has left me a bit drained and you have to be able to anticipate difficulties as best you can and adapt as you go. The amount of extra energy you expend on holiday, even if you are just walking around cities as I tend to do is quite a surprise and I really just factor in that my control will be erratic and hypos are likely. By the time I’ve adapted it’s usually time to come home.

Apart from the obvious misery I hope you got some enjoyment from your trip and congratulations again on your control, I think it’s amazing.
 
Merluza said:
Hiking up mountains and scuba diving is pushing the envelope a bit. You seem to have remarkable control so this obviously came as a surprise to you.

I certainly don’t go bowling off abroad without considering the potential problems, particularly as regards eating. All travel is stressful with time shifting and irregular meals, even travelling to Northern Italy has left me a bit drained and you have to be able to anticipate difficulties as best you can and adapt as you go. The amount of extra energy you expend on holiday, even if you are just walking around cities as I tend to do is quite a surprise and I really just factor in that my control will be erratic and hypos are likely. By the time I’ve adapted it’s usually time to come home.

Apart from the obvious misery I hope you got some enjoyment from your trip and congratulations again on your control, I think it’s amazing.
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Thankyou. According to my libre ,settings 3.9 to 10, I’m usually around 95 % in range and that’s always low ( due to libre reading too low sometimes) Tbh my diabetes was not caused by diet, hardly ever ate carby takeaways, ie fish &chips, pizza, not much bread. Home cooked, liked rice and noodle dishes, sometimes pasta, so wasn’t diet caused, so I didn’t find it difficult to exclude them. And yes I had an amazing time otherwise. I dived with Mantas, sharks and turtles. Kayaked in a bioluminescent lagoon, saw so much wildlife and met wonderful people. Yes I knew it would be tricky and I realise I might need to pace myself a bit. I’m also 60 next year. But that’s what I do on holidays, sitting on sunbed round a pool is my idea of hell. But maybe a bit more research. But in my defense I only had a month to book everything as well as dealing with all the family stuff. Next time I’ll be more relaxed and prepared. I did have a medical to clear me for diving, and the doc was very happy to sign it, as no other medical issues, and that actually was fine.
 
Sounds fantastic. I have to agree that considering how much trouble it takes to get there, anywhere, I certainly don't think it's worth it to sit around a pool and I would likely go mad.
 
I went to Canada last year and am hopefully heading to Spain at the end of this month - I think the long haul flight to Canada did me a favour as I now I have done a return long haul flight I feel much more confident travelling with diabetes.

The year I was diagnosed we had thankfully only booked a UK holiday to the Cotswolds that I was still able to go on, but I’d have been nervous with it abroad in those early days.
 
we always holiday in the UK were off to Cornwall in the morning for a week.
 
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We arrived in Cornwell late afternoon so far its been a nightmare triedto post earlier but it wouldn't go on so trying again before posting what's happened
 
So we arrived at the holiday let after a 5 hour trip the place was really nice but when my hubby checked the kitchen to prepair our first meal he discoved that there was only two sauspans one was very small and one frying pan our meal was steak Mushrooms New potatoes egg and peas obviously not enough to prepaid a meal and as we intended to have most of our meals in the let it was not possible with the equipment provided so my hubby messaged the owner to ask if he could provide us with an extra frying pan and a couple of saucepans also there was one utility knife and the list goes on to be honest I am so upset after spending almost £800 and he has said we are making unreansonable demands and we can leave if we want trying to sort it out with holiday cottages but we have to see what they can do in the morning whatever happens sorry for the rant
 
Self catering is too often like that especially as the last thing they expect is that you might actually want to cook. We've often left a self-catering apartment better equipped than when we arrived. A knife here, a pan there, don't even think about a decent pair of scissors. The owners of these establishments seem to have a very odd view on the sort of pans you might use. In my experience they like to provide 2 or 3 very large saucepans and a very small frying pan. Given that most of them equip the place from IKEA who sell a very reasonable and economical set of pans I'm slightly puzzled by what they offer.
 
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Yes that's very true our situation is difficult as alot of places don't accommodate wheelchairs and although I am able to walk on holiday if we are out I nèed to use my wheelchair so self catering is a good option this place is really nice but it's not possible yo cook a meal the owner is frankly very rude
 
@Pam123 we’ve learnt the hard way with holiday lets. Because of my complex gastric system it’s better for me if we self cater. I take my Le Fake Aldi Cruset, kitchen tongs and scissors, a large sharp knife, a small non stick frying pan for one egg, holiday cottages often have absolutely huge frying pans that could cook half a dozen eggs, my own tea towels/dishcloths, a teapot and cosy and my pinny! We’ve just arrived back last night and this house was very well equipped but you can never be sure. I don’t think you’re being unreasonable at all, you have paid a lot of money and it should have everything to be able to cook as if you’re at home otherwise you might as well have gone to a hotel. I would stick to your guns, if they won’t or can’t get you what you want I would make a complaint straight away to the holiday company. My best friend works for a holiday let company as a letting manager and she visits the cottages and owners and makes suggestions. ie get more pans! I did have a local contact for our cottage that wasn’t the owner, maybe your holiday company does too. Check our your latest email from them. I do hope it doesn’t spoil your break away.
 
eggyg said:
we’ve learnt the hard way with holiday lets. Because of my complex gastric system it’s better for me if we self cater. I take my Le Fake Aldi Cruset, kitchen tongs and scissors, a large sharp knife, a small non stick frying pan for one egg, holiday cottages often have absolutely huge frying pans that could cook half a dozen eggs, my own tea towels/dishcloths, a teapot and cosy and my pinny
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So organised @eggyg. Like you we have a few ‘essentials’ that we take, including a sharp knife and garlic crusher. We also take Nigel Slater’s 30 minute cookbook. Well used and dog eared.
In Ireland our car was broken into. They left us our squash rackets (obviously not good enough - no idea why we had those with us) but took the box with Nigel Slater and a lot of other stuff. For ages after we kept going to the shelf for it and swearing loudly when we remembered . We did buy another which looks equally messy now and still goes on any self catering holiday with us.
 
When we go self catering, we take a sharp knife, a bottle opener and Tupperware containers. The containers work well for stuff we open one day and finish another plus packed lunch boxes because we usually go walking in the middle of nowhere. I used to take cling film but hated the waste.
Thankfully, we have always had good enough pans in our cottages although oven trays often leave something to be desired and always need a jolly good scrub before using. I guess not many people bake bread rolls when on holiday. Maybe I should pack some silicon mats to bake my bread on.
Most recipes are on my iPad which I take for other purposes so no need of cookbooks.
 
Latest update the holiday let people offered to move us sent several options none with a hot tub or the type of place we want to stay we've been hanging around waiting for them to call back so looks like we're going to have to buy some sauce pans etc not happy
 
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I always take my own sharp knife, and we used to take a corkscrew, but now most of what we drink has screw tops that’s not so vital. I draw the line at packing a teapot,@eggyg, and most of the last few cottages we’ve been to have had one. In fact, being Yorkshire, the last one had two, a modest sized one, and an enormous one which you could have used to serve tea to a whole building site. Never a tea cosy, though, I end up wrapping the oven gloves round the teapot for insulation.
We are off to Scotland in a few weeks, the last Scottish cottage we stayed in had a Spurtle, in case we needed to stir our porridge.
 
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Update after the worst experience we have ever had. Holiday cottages phoned us and offered to re locate us the let owner contacted them because we asked for extra saucepans no idea what he expected then to do anyway he decided to tell us we were no longer welcome and asked us to leave this was a request by email which we didn't see out of the blue he turned up with a bloke who was nothing more than a thug demanding we leave I was shaking and my hubby was also shaken I went and sat in the car and phoned holiday cottages who advised us to call the police we were trying to pack as we had no intentions in staying holiday cottages tried there best to find us another let but there was nothing available eventually after sitting in the car in Bude we found a holiday park and have just unpacked my blood sugar went up to 18 and now its on its way down I feel completely deflated and drained hubby has just gone on line to leave these horrible people feedback and it's down as cancelled so we can't leave any feedback we think that's why he wanted us to leave so we couldn't leave feedback sorry for the rant
 
Pam123 said:
Update after the worst experience we have ever had. Holiday cottages phoned us and offered to re locate us the let owner contacted them because we asked for extra saucepans no idea what he expected then to do anyway he decided to tell us we were no longer welcome and asked us to leave this was a request by email which we didn't see out of the blue he turned up with a bloke who was nothing more than a thug demanding we leave I was shaking and my hubby was also shaken I went and sat in the car and phoned holiday cottages who advised us to call the police we were trying to pack as we had no intentions in staying holiday cottages tried there best to find us another let but there was nothing available eventually after sitting in the car in Bude we found a holiday park and have just unpacked my blood sugar went up to 18 and now its on its way down I feel completely deflated and drained hubby has just gone on line to leave these horrible people feedback and it's down as cancelled so we can't leave any feedback we think that's why he wanted us to leave so we couldn't leave feedback sorry for the rant
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What a dreadful experience, I wonder what sort of people they are used to having.
We had a bazaar experience many years ago when we rented a cottage, It was being let out by a family who had been left the cottage by their grandmother. But they hadn't cleared out any of her stuff so there was a bag of knitting and a half done jigsaw and all her personal stuff around the place. It was very creepy.
 
I leave for my first proper holiday this year on Tuesday night, and first time abroad since being properly diagnosed and prescribed Insulin. Ferry is booked for France and am looking forward to it. Only 10 days this time but another couple of trips planned for later in the year. The car fridge is pumping down already.
If I go away in the UK it's only for weekends taking one of my old cars and strangely the French trip is far less stressful to get ready for.
 
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