5 Ways to Avoid Getting Sick While Traveling

Travel is a wonderful thing to do. You get to learn about other cultures, try exotic cuisine, and see some amazing sights. However, you also have to take care when you travel, as there are always dangers for which you should be on the lookout.

In this article, we’re going to talk about a few of the ways you can avoid getting sick while traveling. With Covid-19 still a worldwide threat, it’s more critical than ever that you take precautions.

Check Whether the Drinking Water is Safe

There are particular regions where drinking water quality is not necessarily excellent. There are certainly water purity testing systems that individuals and governments use, but you probably won’t have the opportunity to do these tests yourself if you visit a foreign country. You have to watch out for contaminants like:

• Lead
• Copper
• Zinc
• Mercury

Any of those can make you very sick if you ingest them. What you should do is research the water quality wherever it is you’re going. If you learn that the quality isn’t reliable, you can stick to bottled water while you’re there.

Take Covid-19 Precautions

The pandemic is still very much a threat all over the globe. You might know that an area to which you are traveling is a hotspot. Even if you haven’t heard that, though, you still don’t know whether the people you’ll encounter along the way have the virus.

To combat the threat during your trip, you can:

• Wear a mask whenever possible
• Wash your hands frequently
• Attempt to keep six feet away from others
• Carry hand sanitizer with you and use it

Flying right now is inherently risky since the air recirculates. Even if there are seats between you and the other passengers, it’s still not an ideal situation.

If you can, drive instead of flying. If you have no alternative except flying, keep your mask on for the entire time you’re on the plane.

Avoid Raw Foods

If you visit a new state or country, whether it’s for work or pleasure, then you probably want to try and experience some of the local culture. That’s admirable since it’s a chance to broaden your horizons.

Still, while you might want to sample some of the local cuisine, it’s risky if you eat any raw or undercooked food. You might feel fine eating some sushi if you go to Japan, but the reality is that you don’t know about the cleanliness in the restaurant you’re visiting.

If a guidebook gives a restaurant great reviews, then that might make you somewhat more confident. However, you should still understand that unless you eat fully-cooked food, you might risk salmonella exposure or other harmful situations.

Prepare for Poor Air Quality

There are some parts of the country, and the world, where there’s poor air quality. That is certainly true right now in California and Oregon, where wildfires have burned thousands of acres. The air isn’t safe to breathe, and many residents have had to flee, visiting relatives, or staying in makeshift shelters.

If you know that you’re going to travel to a city, state, or country where there’s poor air quality, you should prepare yourself for that. There are masks that will protect you to some extent.

What’s even smarter to do, though, is to try and put off the trip till you feel the air quality will be better. If you’re traveling for work, then that’s not always possible, but the least you can do is wear a mask to protect yourself, so you risk as little exposure as you can.

Don’t Shake Hands

During the pandemic, medical experts say that we should not shake hands with one another. Perhaps even after there is a vaccine, though, we’ve seen the last of handshakes as a greeting method.

If you’re going to travel and meet people for work, don’t shake their hands. They should not take offense, but if they do, explain your concerns, and they should get over it. This is definitely not the time to be cavalier about spreading germs, and a handshake is one of the fastest ways to do that.

Now isn’t the best time to travel, and until a vaccine is widely available, you should put off trips whenever possible. If you can’t do that, then follow these precautions. You should be able to avoid getting sick, while at the same time you can see what a different part of the world has to offer.

Please share your best tips for staying safe while traveling in the comments below, on Twitter, Facebook  or Instagram.