Coventry Travel Forum

I'm from Northern California where we suffer miserably from environmental allergies. Will I need to be concerned with this same issue while I'm in Conventry and surrounding areas?

Coventry has an environment, yes. Whether you will suffer will depend entirely on which allergen is your trigger.

DOr do you mean what we call 'hayfever'? That is, itchy eyes/runny nose/sneezing etc related to pollens? In which case yes, you may suffer (again this depends on your specific trigger/s) but more if you are nearer to countryside, and certainly not during most of the year. Much of the surrounding farmland is arable, and many people find the pollen from oil seed rape (widely grown) is an irritant. Hayfever anti-histamines are widely available over the counter, should you suffer.

Or do you mean reactions to specific plants, such as 'poison ivy'? In which case, no. There is nothing indiginous to the UK which creates allergic reactions in everybody, unless you count stinging nettles (which only need the application of a nearby dock leaf, or a bit of anti-histamine cream if you must). One garden escapee, giant hogweed, can sometimes cause nasty blisters but as it's pretty obvious (being up to 6ft tall), not particularly common and certainly not pretty you are unlikely to want to touch it.

Hope this reassures.

Or perhaps you are also affected by industrial fumes and the emissions from motor vehicles. When we were in your part of the world we were appalled by the smog like atmosphere that hangs over some places, and which we were told by our host, was the result of these man made hazards. I doubt you would see anything on that scale in the UK.

And definitely not in Cov (or anywhere else in the UK really). Smog isn't a big problem here (not since we stopped using coal as industrial and household fuel anyway), because we rarely get the type of weather which traps fumes in the lower atmosphere. Unless we are lucky enough to get the sort of very hot weather (ha!) which has, once or twice in the fairly recent past, raised the air pollution level to something which was important enough to actually be noted on weather forecasts.

As always, you provide such great answers. Now I know to pack my antihistimines. Ok, here's another question! Do I need to pack an adapter for my U.S. electrical appliances? Good grief, I'm getting excited. We leave in the a.m. for your part of the world! ~Liz

Yes, you do need to pack an adaptor. Our sockets have 3 rectangular pins; all plugs do, even if they do not require an earth wire.

Bet you don't need your antihistamines at all, btw. But you aren't actually going to be staying in Cov, more the countryside as far as I know, so it's just possible you might be allergic to the (very little) pollen which is still around. Hayfever season is long past in the UK!

Be careful to check the voltage of any appliances you bring with you as we run on 230/240 volts, whereas I think that in the USA you run on 110 volts? There should be a switch on the appliance to convert it to our standard, if not, dont use it.