It’s quite a controversial topic, but if you are planning a backpacking trip to South East Asia anytime soon, there may be some vaccines that you might want to consider getting. For the record, they are not mandatory, it is completely personal preference. There are many people that have said they’ve gone to South East Asia with no vaccines at all and been absolutely fine. Do your research, speak to your GP and make your own decision on what vaccines, if any, you need to book in for!

I’m from the UK so we have the wonderful NHS which means some vaccines are free. This may not be the case for you, if you’re reading this from another country. Other vaccines that are recommended are not covered by the NHS, so it is best to shop around to find the best deals. Places where you can get non-NHS covered vaccines include:

• Boots 
• Superdrug
• TravelDoc (Private travel clinics)

From speaking with other travellers, we found that there were a couple of vaccines that we were recommended by our GPs that others haven’t (and vice versa). I am travelling with my boyfriend, Alex, and he has a different GP surgery to me. On the whole we were recommended to get the same vaccines, however cholera was one that neither of us were expecting to be recommended and is certainly not one that other travellers have said about. However, after researching, it provides a bit of protection against any unwanted stomach bugs and illnesses caused by the water. Definitely worthwhile in my opinion!

We found that the cost of the non-NHS vaccines vary depending on where you get them from. For Alex, if his GP surgery were to order them in, it would have been more expensive than going to Boots for example. Whereas for me on the other hand there was no option for my surgery to offer them even on a private basis. I had to go to a travel clinic to get them. In our area TravelDoc comes out the cheapest and they have clinics all over the country. It was super straightforward to book in with TravelDoc. We booked online and were given the starting doses of our vaccines on the same day as our first appointment. Then we were booked in on two separate occasions after that to get the next set of doses. All in all, from start to finish, the whole process was done within a month. 

Alex’s surgery was able to offer slightly different vaccines to me, luckily for him, which meant that he didn’t have to get as many privately as I did. So to show the variation in costs, below are Alex’s vaccines and mine compared and what each cost. 

Alex:

NHS vaccines (free)

• Hepatitis A + Hepatitis B Combined
• Cholera
• Tetanus
• Typhoid 

Additional Vaccines

• Japanese encephalitis £100 per dose x 2 = £200 
• Rabies £60 per dose x 3 = £180

Alex’s total vaccine cost = £380

Me:

NHS vaccines (free)

• Hepatitis A
• Tetanus
• Typhoid
• Cholera (although technically had to pay the £9.90 prescription charge as they ended up prescribing it to me. Full story on TikTok!)

Additional Vaccines

• Japanese encephalitis £100 per dose x 2 = £200 
• Rabies £60 per dose x 3 = £180
• Hepatitis B £45 per dose x 3 = £135

My total vaccine cost = £524.90

@emilyvictoriatravels

Replying to @kayleigh 🌷 currently dose 1 of 2 down after a pretty interesting experience with this cholera vaccine 😅

♬ original sound – emily | digital nomad

Alex’s surgery offered the combined Hep A + Hep B vaccine, hence why he was able to get both for free. In my case, my surgery only offered Hep A so I had to get Hep B separately from the private travel clinic.

My best piece of advice is to start the vaccine process early. Many of the NHS vaccines are in demand and your GP may need a significant amount of time in order to get the vaccines in. Not only that but some of the vaccines like rabies require multiple doses over a period of time. Plus I have heard stories of the rabies vaccine being essentially non-existent in the UK at the moment, however we were absolutely fine and got them with no issues.

A few people from the TikTok community suggested getting the vaccines whilst in Bangkok, Thailand for example as they are far cheaper than in the UK. However, quite frankly that’s not really how I want to spend my time whilst travelling so I would rather take the hit now and not have to worry about it when we land. But this is also an option to consider if you would rather save quite a lot of money.

The cost of the vaccines definitely put a lot of people off getting them, and there was a point in my decision making process where I did think that for the costs involved was it really worth it? However, I eventually came to the conclusion that whilst the risk might have been low of actually coming into any kind of trouble a) the lessened anxiety of knowing you are actually protected and b) I saw this as an investment for future travel too were worth the costs associated with getting them. 

A reminder these vaccines are only recommended, not mandatory and it is always best to speak to your GP about what is recommended for you. 

Enjoy your Travels!

Em x

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