Overseas Travel

[ozziebee]

Hiyas,

I have a unique opportunity to travel overseas to the EU mid next year, but am in a bit of a panic about whether to accept or not.  

I'm at the stage in my incontinence journey where I need to consider how to have a supply of nappies available (I'm 24/7 in nappies these days).  I can take a bag or so overseas with me, but I will need to purchase a supply over there (I'll be gone for upwards of 3 weeks or so).  I'll be in Germany and CZ.  

I've never flown overseas before being incontinent.  The last time I went over, I began to realise I was having issues, and went to the urologist after I came back.  Now, I have the added complication that I'd be wearing nappies.  

So where would I order nappies like BetterDry or Rearz from in Germany and CZ?

[mick_dl]

I don’t know how this will work in CZ but for Germany I just had a look to the database. Betterdry is GKV listed, so you should be able to order them in any pharmacy and get them sometimes at the same day. You can order them also directly at Thrust Vector Germany. Rearz is not listed - so I‘m not sure how easy this will be…

How ever, there are several internet shops where you can order at last Betterdry also easily. If you based near Hamburg you can have also a look to AirOliver, who deal with a lot of more „exotic“ diapers: 

AirOliver Hamburg

Air Oliver also sell Northshore. Other onlinshops that deliver Betterdry are:

https://www.inkodirekt.de/catalogsearch/result/?q=Betterdry

https://www.insenio.de/p/betterdry-windelhose/

It is mostly much cheaper to order them online as to buy them in a pharmacy. They will normally delivered in two or three days.

 

Hope that helps

Michael

 

[oznl]

I'd gone through the planning stage for this in early 2020 when I was faced with a USA trip that was just too long for me to haul supplies (I'd already done a Thailand trip but just carried what I needed).  For the US it turned out that it was relatively easy to organise local deliveries to my hotel that would hold them for me (pre-shopping on US trips was pretty common anyway). I was just going to carry a few days worth to handle trips and any delays in shipping - maybe a pack in my checked luggage and a few more in my hand luggage for when United lost my bag for a day or two (as they'd been known to do).

I'd already girded my loins to deal with the bodyscanner and inevitable flagging I was going to get.

This was in February, just before the world exploded.  My trip was cancelled due to travel restrictions a week or three before I was due to depart (I hadn't actually pushed the "send" button on my nappy order so that wasn't a problem).

Of course I went on from "cancelled trip" to "cancelled career" in the subsequent COVID mayhem and I've not stepped on an aircraft since but I'd at least planned the logistics and it all looked feasible.  BetterDry are very definitely German head office and manufacture somewhere cheaper in EU (suspect East European) so would be pretty widely available.

For my US trip, I'd be planning to try Megamax because the prices weren't stupid ?

[jeremy12312]

One piece of advice with airoliver/save express, give them a day or two (or three) to process and ship the package and add that to the shipping time estimate.

I tried the ship-to-the-hotel trick, and ended up having to take a commuter train to the Parisian suburbs to a UPS office on our last day in town, lest a giant box of diapers went forever unclaimed at the hotel front desk.

On the plus side, though, the pharmacy across the street had Tena Maxis available for same-day purchase. 

[babykeiff]

18 hours ago, ozziebee said:

Hiyas,

I have a unique opportunity to travel overseas to the EU mid next year, but am in a bit of a panic about whether to accept or not.  

I'm at the stage in my incontinence journey where I need to consider how to have a supply of nappies available (I'm 24/7 in nappies these days).  I can take a bag or so overseas with me, but I will need to purchase a supply over there (I'll be gone for upwards of 3 weeks or so).  I'll be in Germany and CZ.  

I've never flown overseas before being incontinent.  The last time I went over, I began to realise I was having issues, and went to the urologist after I came back.  Now, I have the added complication that I'd be wearing nappies.  

So where would I order nappies like BetterDry or Rearz from in Germany and CZ?

BetterDry are realitively easy to get in Germany, but getting products in Czech Republic may be an issue. Due to a conflict in Ukraine plus certain restrictions with Covid plus related virus', travel in some cases will be restricted. Getting incontinence products and/or most everything else today due to failures in logistics still exist in Europe. Hopefully by April / May / June 2023 (your timeline), most of this will be back to normal. I would suggest bringing enough BetterDry (as they are smaller than the Rearz) to at least last a week.

Unlike USA, these branded diapers (nappies / briefs in europe) are usually not available off the shelf unless in specific high end specialist medical stores, where only a few exist per country. Online orders are usually very fast to be delivered, but it depends on where you are staying - a hotel / b&b or a private address. If it is a private address, in Germany, DHL / German (Deutche) Post is the courier and this is to a Post Box or delivery location which is usually not in the middle of the tourist sections on the city. You may need a car / mode of transport to get to these delivery locations in order to pick up your order.

There is an alternative, since Germany has a excellent transport system, you may be able to get to the supplier (Airoliver or similar) and organise to collect your packages from their 'warehouse' rather than have them attempt delivery.

The Czech Republic has a different process, a merge of old world processes and new concepts which, in my experience, needs local assistance to understand how the systems are working for the day you are handling the order.

[rusty pins]

I hope things work out for you.  I went to Europe for 6 weeks with a large touring group of teenagers from Michigan when I was 16.  It's a once in a lifetime experience and I hope you can make it work with being able to keep yourself supplied with diapers.  Don't miss out on such an opportunity if you can.