Coping with an emergency abroad Action to take before you travel 

Ensure your mobile will work abroad

Check that your phone will work in the country you're visiting

  • Look at the travel advice page for your destination on the FCO website or call 0845 850 2829.
  • Register with the FCO’s Locate service before leaving the UK, and find contact details and opening times for the nearest British consulate at your destination.
  • Familiarise yourself with the laws of the country to lessen the chance of being arrested or involved in a road accident. Check that any prescribed medication you bring will be legal – and carry the prescription. 
  • Take out adequate travel insurance. Check the small print to ensure it covers you for every eventuality (all potential medical bills and activities, repatriation and curtailing your holiday, for example), and always have the number of the travel insurer’s medical assistance company handy.
  • Ensure your mobile phone will work in the country you are heading to. Take the relevant charger and adaptor to make quick contact if necessary.
  • Find out the phone number for emergency services (it’s 112 in European Union countries) and your tour operator’s helpline.
  • Check the passport and visa requirements of your destination, keep your next-of-kin contact details on your passport up to date, and take spare passport-sized photos.
  • Scan your passport’s main ID page (and relevant visa) and driving licence, and send to an accessible email account. Also give one photocopied set to a trusted relative at home, keeping another with you separately from the originals.
  • Check that your credit/debit cards are accepted where you’re going, keep a separate record of their details and your card issuer’s helpline, and inform them of your travel plans.
  • Consider travellers' cheques as a backup – if lost, they can be replaced within 24 hours. Share the cheques among your party and have them in two names. 
Which? works for you