I came across the Worldcue Travel Planner today when renewing my DAN (Divers Alert Network) membership. It is an online tool that allows you to plan your upcoming trips with a little more ease. I noticed 3 key areas that are very useful, particularly for more exotic trips:
- Location Intel
- Tools/Health Requirements
- Tools/Entry Exit Requirements
I’m aware that not everyone has DAN membership as it is quite a niche area, but from searching around it seems that Worldcue has a number of corporate relationships, so many of you might want to check your company employee benefits, and also some colleges provide access for study abroad trips.
Location Intel
This tab is great for selecting your destination and bringing up a list of potential risks, such as CDC health warnings, and geopolitical issues. It is reasonably smart in that the data drills down into hotspots, for example, I entered ‘Greece’ in general and got a different risk profile from ‘Athens’ as there is likely to be more civil unrest in the capital than in the Country overall.
When testing other locations you get to see CDC warnings and alerts for outbreaks. I also like that there is a currency on this page, and while I know that Greece is (as of today) in the Euro, there are often times when I go on vacation not knowing what the local currency is, or the fair exchange rate, so have to find all this data separately.
Tools/Health Requirements
Under the Tools tab there is a Health Requirements section, I plugged in some of the places from our honeymoon (it didn’t have Zanzibar listed) and included entry/exit points.
Note that this didn’t really take into account the ‘pattern’ of the trip, so you still need to exercise caution as you read the results. They do clearly state ‘if you are entering from a Yellow Fever Country…’ and when we traveled we didn’t fully consider that the route we took (USA>South Africa>Mozambique>Tanzania>Zanzibar>South Africa>USA) meant that we were considered ‘at risk’ when we came back into South Africa on the return to the USA…. However, all the information is there, so it is just a case of me not properly visualizing the route.
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/ 05JUL15 / 1434 UTC Embarkation USA (US) /Transit Mozambique (MZ) Transit South Africa (ZA) /Transit Tanzania (TZ) Destination Mozambique (MZ) /Destination South Africa (ZA) Destination Tanzania (TZ) ALSO CHECK DESTINATION INFORMATION BELOW |
Mozambique (MZ)
Passengers arriving within 6 days after leaving or transiting
countries with risk of yellow fever transmission 
Mozambique (MZ)
Passengers arriving within 6 days after leaving or transiting
countries with risk of yellow fever transmission
Tools Entry/Exit Requirements
This item is useful as it also allows for the route to be taken into consideration. I’m aware (vaguely) that certain routes require visas, such as transit through parts of Russia and other areas. I plugged in a fruity itinerary to see what popped up, and you can see the alerts for certain regions/airports.
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/ 05JUL15 / 1455 UTC National United Kingdom (GB) /Residence USA (US) Transit Russian Fed. (RU) /Destination Madagascar (MG) ALSO CHECK DESTINATION INFORMATION BELOW |
Russian Fed. (RU)
TWOV (Transit Without Visa):
Visa required, except for Holders of onward tickets for a max.
transit 
Madagascar (MG)
Overall, quite a useful tool when booking exotic awards, and checking ahead to make sure that your visas and inoculations are up to speed. It seems that access to the tool may be a little limited, but perhaps there is a way for the unwashed to access this without paying DAN or having it part of their corporate benefits – please let me know in the comments if you’ve heard of one.
One feature that caught my eye about DAN membership is the $100,000 worth of emergency evacuation insurance that is included with your annual membership fee. $100,000 worth of insurance, and other benefits as you mention above, for $55/year seems like a good deal.
Yeah,there are a few little perks like that which make it more useful than simple dive coverage… I’m also looking at it for Group Life.