8 Essential Tips on Staying Healthy While Traveling

8. Get Necessary Vaccines before Leaving

Some countries still have diseases present that are considered rare elsewhere. Make sure to have all your current vaccinations up to date, as well as getting any required shots when visiting specific regions. Your family physician can tell you which vaccines you need once you specify your destination. You can also consult the CDC Travelers' Health site for official, destination-specific requirements.

7. Don’t Try to do Too Much at Once

Overdoing it causes your body to not only feel tired physically, but it also becomes less able to fight off sickness when rundown. If you are feeling fatigued, why not take a short nap and eat a snack to boost your energy level? A ten-minute nap will do you a world of good. Remember the importance of hygiene when snacking on the go.

6. Carry Necessary Medications with You

Having enough prescription medications to tide you over in the event of a delay will help keep your body running the way it is supposed to. Running out of prescriptions in another country can be difficult. Not only can it be hard to refill them overseas, but it could be a life or death situation for some people. Always pack more than you need, just in case.

5. Don’t Nuzzle the Animals

I love animals and have a hard time not wanting to pet or cuddle every one that I come into contact with. However, even local wildlife or stray pets can carry diseases or germs that you might have a severe reaction to. It is best to admire them from a distance.

4. Drink Bottled Water

The locals might be able to get away with drinking water from the tap, but as a tourist, it is probably in your best interest to stick to bottled water. Better yet, have a filtration system on hand, since even bottled water can have impurities. There are bottles with built-in filters capable of removing 99 percent of impurities, such as those from LifeStraw. These are very handy items to have.

3. Avoid Touching Everything

I like going into stores and looking at everything. But I have a bad habit of touching everything too. Each time I catch myself picking something up, I always remember the mom of a friend of mine. She used to say, “We look with our eyes, not with our hands.” I still find myself wanting to touch everything as I look at it. I try to remind myself that I’m not the only person who has touched this object, and who knows what else the previous person had been touching. This is another reason why keeping up with washing your hands is so vital.

2. Don’t Eat from Vendors on the Street

I have a hard time trusting vendors in my own country, let alone risking eating from one overseas. In foreign countries, I’m worried about what food items might be included that I’m not used to. Maybe the fruit was washed in local water, or the vendor washed their hands with local water before preparing the food. Who knows? Of course, some countries are much safer than others. Just be mindful of where you are and what diseases are lurking.

1. Wash Your Hands

My mom is a fanatic about hand sanitizer. She has one in her car, purse, pocket, and in a number of rooms in the house. She uses hand sanitizer after shopping, before eating, and it seems like she squirts some on her hands whenever she doesn’t have anything else to do. I prefer good old soap and water to liquid hand sanitizer, but a quick-evaporating hand gel will do in a pinch. Washing your hands often when traveling is extremely important, since you are touching things that other people have touched after they touched who knows what.

Here are a few quick reminders for hand hygiene on the go:

I hope these 8 essential tips on staying healthy while traveling are ones you find useful someday. So far, they’ve been very helpful to me. What methods do you use to stay healthy when traveling?