If you’re considering breast implants, you’ve likely heard of the growing trend toward “medical tourism,” where patients hop off to foreign countries, particularly Central and South America, to get breast augmentation at a fraction of the price doctors charge in the United States. But before you book a flight toward cheaper breast implants, here are some cold, hard facts you should know about traveling to the tropics for plastic surgery.

For many women, the motive to travel abroad for breast implants is strictly financial. However, when you consider the full cost that traveling for your surgery will cost, you may find it’s not much of a savings. The expense of round-trip airfare plus housing and medical assistance during your recovery can quickly eat into what you’ll save on surgery.