Getting sick while you’re traveling is never a fun experience. You’re away from home, you don’t know which doctors you can visit, and you’re sick while on vacation. None of those sound pleasant. ParkDIA wants to help you stay healthy on your trip, so we’ve compiled this list of tips to help avoid catching a cold while you’re away from home.
Don’t Touch
The easiest way to pick up a cold is by touching things in public spaces, like in airports. Airports are easy places for colds and illnesses to get stuck since they’re packed and have a lot of long lines where it’s easy for those bugs and flus to jump from host to host. Make sure you stay considerate in those lines and sneeze and cough into your elbow instead of your hands.
Don’t assume though that because you’re practicing good health practices though that everyone else is. Avoid touching railing and seats with your hands when you can, as well as doors to the bathroom. If you do need to touch something, like the standing supports on terminal trams, don’t touch your face until you can wash your hands.
Plan Around the Seasons
The seasons affect lots of things, but definitely allergies. If you know you have allergies from pollen or hayfever, you may want to do a little investigating around springtime to see if your allergies will be acting up. Springtime comes to different regions at different times, so while you may think summer is rolling in because it is in Denver, heading north you may find a later starting spring catching off guard.
If you’re not sure, or if there are poor weather conditions that reduce air quality, plan ahead and pack some allergy medicine to make sure you don’t pick up some unpleasant sneezing while you’re away from home.
Pick Up Face Masks
Sometimes there are things you can’t control, like disease outbreaks in cities. However, outbreaks are either something that happens everywhere, like flu outbreaks, or highly contained because of their severity. There are still things you can do though if you find out about an outbreak and can’t or don’t want to cancel your trip. Anti-dust face masks are simple and inexpensive, making them great options to pick up while you’re traveling in crowded cities, or small enough to pack without issue.
Be Sure To Rest
If you’re on a long trip, it may feel like wasting any time on sleep is time wasted from seeing the place you’re visiting. However, rest is an important part of staying healthy. Make sure you get plenty of sleep while you’re out seeing the world, and take a day off if you start to feel sick. Tired bodies can’t handle colds as well, and left untreated can turn a little sniffle into a trip-ruining cold.
Drink Water
When you have family visit in Denver from out of state, you tell them to drink water. That goes for you too when you travel. Traveling likely means leaving the Rockies, and you’ll need to eventually adjust back to altitude. But also, water helps keep us healthy. Drinking water regularly obviously keeps us hydrated, but it’s also great for staying healthy. Be sure to stay refreshed with plenty of water on your trip.
Keep Up With Your Routine Hygiene
This may sound like a no brainer, but between being in a new place, having to pack toiletries of the right size, and dealing with the TSA, it may be the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day of travel. But keeping up with your hygiene is incredibly important, particularly when you’re traveling. Airports can be great places for colds to travel, and other cities may have veins of a disease you haven’t been exposed to. Keeping your hygiene up is one of the best ways you can keep your immune system at its best.
Walk
It’s important to get in some exercise every day, even if that exercise is as simple as walking. Walking is a great way to see the city you’re visiting, but it’s also a great way to keep from falling out of the habit of working out and staying active. Being active also keeps your body moving, inside and out. While you may not feel up to a visit to the hotel’s gym, as least being up and choosing to walk a little extra to nearby locations will help you stay up and moving while you’re away.
Are you sick of airport parking rates at DIA? Choose ParkDIA for secure, offsite airport parking at an affordable rate. Our covered and uncovered parking lots are monitored 24/7, meaning you won’t have to worry about your car while you’re away. Contact ParkDIA today to reserve your spot and get back to enjoying your trip.
