Home and away

Are you prone to last-minute holiday panic? Are you a serial passport loser? Do you tan slowly, only to lose it all on the seat of the plane going home? With the help of a before, during and after vacation regime you too can wind up tanned, relaxed and recharged ... which is the reason you spend all that money in the first place.

1 Unless you subscribe to the Michael Jackson school of whitewashed beauty you won't want to be flashing like a lighthouse on the beach, dazzling the throngs by reflecting sunlight off strips of pallid flesh. A self-tanning lotion is the answer, but it's no overnight miracle. Hit the bottle about six weeks before you tread sand and use once a week. You'll glow with ... well, perhaps not health, but all sorts of active ingredients that make tanning salons obsolete. And remember that some of the latest scares du jour have linked sunbeds to cancer. According to untold internet 'experts', 'self-tanning lotions and sprays are the safest and easiest way to achieve a tan'.

3 Mosquito repellent? Check. Antihistamine pills? Check. Extensive list of vaccinations needed to safeguard against yellow fever, cholera, typhoid, Japanese encephalitis and rabies? Tell your doctor where you intend to travel and ask for the appropriate shots. But remember that most illnesses can be prevented with a little common sense. Peel all your fruit yourself, don't drink tap water or have ice in drinks, don't buy your dinner from street vendors, sling a mosquito net over your bed and avoid making friends with cats, dogs and monkeys.

4 Take cover. Travel insurance, so often neglected, should be as much a part of a holiday as tickets, suitcases, groaning credit cards and hangovers. If a package costs $5,000, why baulk at an extra $200? And annual travel insurance, available from most large banks, works out cheaper than last-minute cover and gives you an incentive to flee more often than you may otherwise.