All over the world, also in Poland, there has been a rapid growth in the number of international travels globally, most of them for tourism purpose. The article discusses the basic principles of travel medicine – a new interdisciplinary specialty bringing together and making use of the majority of medical disciplines in terms of epidemiology, clinical picture, diagnostics, treatment and prevention of health conditions related to traveling and staying in areas characterized by adverse climate conditions or those lacking sanitation. As the number of travelers to tropical and subtropical countries is constantly growing, there are thousands of patients reporting to their health‑care providers for a pre‑travel consultation on how to prepare for an international travel and how to behave in the unfamiliar environmental conditions. Therefore, medical practitioners, and especially the primary health care providers, are faced with a challenge to provide their patients with accurate information enabling them to travel safely to and stay in the most distant destinations.