Six Top Tips to Stay Safe During Travels

Getting an injury, being robbed, getting sick, and other unfortunate circumstances can ruin your journey. Therefore, observing some practical travel safety tips is wise to prevent or counter glitches.

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Dress Carefully

How you dress can make you an easy target for robbers and scammers. If you are going to a new place, do not make it obvious that you are a visitor. Instead, do your research and try to dress like the locals.

Some destinations and countries have laws regarding the dressing code. Therefore, it would be best to familiarize yourself with the laws of a new destination. Furthermore, it is wise to dress conservatively if you visit a conservative country for respect’s sake.

Note Down Emergency Contacts

Before you go on a journey, remember to save important details that can help you out of sticky situations. For example, you may not have the time to contact relevant people in the face of calamity. You may also be too anxious to act on your own.

Record contacts in places that other people can easily access. For example, you can write them on a card, laminate them, and then keep them in your purse. As you note the contacts, you also note how to make your travel impactful.

Learn Tactics of Self Defense

Learning the basics of self-defense is crucial for your safety. However, you do not have to apply them in all situations, so you need to discern when and when not to be defensive. For instance, do not resist if an armed robber wants you to give them money or belongings.

It would help if you only used force when your life is in danger, and there is no other way out. In addition, you can carry pepper spray to use for defense except when using commercial airlines.

Set Aside Emergency Cash

Hide some cash in secret places among your clothing or belongings. Then, you can leave some emergency cash with a trusted friend or relative if you lose everything, including the hidden money.

A secret credit card and dummy wallet can save you a great deal. Have a dummy wallet with some money to give in a mugging scenario. For the credit card, do not carry it alongside other cards.

Use Safe Transport

Avoid travel mishaps by using reliable transportation companies. Get recommendations from relatives or friends who have used the services or check online to see reviews. If you lose your travel buddy due to the action or misaction of other people, contact a wrongful death lawyer who offers legal assistance to represent you in court.

Avoid Posing in Risky Places for Likes

Influence from social media has led people to take risky selfies. For instance, getting too close to wildlife or standing at the edge of a cliff to pose. Do not try to get more likes at the expense of your life. In addition, don’t ignore posted signs and cautions.

Conclusion

You cannot always avoid risks. However, you can mitigate them. Now that you have ways of staying safe, go on your journey and practice them. You will enjoy your journey more knowing that you are prepared to avoid danger.

Leave With Confidence

Getting ready to leave for a trip can feel like a long list of must-dos. Travel prep seems to never end, especially when you're the one planning everything and are stressing out. You may have remembered the important things, like packing underwear, paying your bills, and unplugging appliances/electronics that don't need to be sapping energy when not in use, but maybe you've forgotten equally important things that haven't crossed your mind. 

Well, here are a few things to do before you leave that will give you peace of mind and allow you to relax knowing you're as prepared as you can be:

1. Alert your credit card company(s) and bank - You don't want your purchases to get declined because your credit card company thinks your card has be stolen. Let them know you'll be on vacation, for how long, and where, so all your purchases go through like normal. A lot of bank apps or websites allow you to do this without actually talking to a rep, so that's easy!
2. Leave your info and itinerary with someone at home - You never know what might happen, so make sure you give someone you would contact in the case of an emergency a copy of your plans for vacation. It's nice for people to know if you need help or that you're even gone.
3. Clean out your wallet/purse - You don't need that yogurt punch card or your 900 crumpled up receipts taking up space. Take only the necessities and then use the extra room to keep receipts so you can stay within your travel budget. Often, I'll use an app called Smart Receipts, which lets me take photos of my receipts and it adds everything up for me and keeps a runny tally.
4. Call your cell phone carrier - If you'll be traveling out of the country, you'll want to make sure your mobile works, or else what's the point? Contact your carrier and make sure you don't need to get on a different plan for the duration of your trip and learn about any excess charges for international calling, roaming and text messages. In these cases, I ask everyone to skip texting me and instead use Facebook Messenger or the Voxer app, for free communication. (You might prefer WhatsApp.)
5. Go through your fridge - No one wants to come home to smelly house. Eat anything you can that's a leftover or close to an expiration date. Throw out what you need to, so when you come home, it's not full of rotting foods. If you can't eat everything in there, you can always make meals and freeze them, so then you have easy food for when you return and are trying to ease back into daily life. (While you're at it, take out the trash, too.)

Staying Healthy On Vacation

Even though Covid and all its variants are floating around and still a big problem, that doesn't mean it's the only thing you can get sick with on vacation. Flu season, regular colds, and just general germs are still exist, especially with mask mandates being non-existent most places and people being lax with social distancing. 

<just a quick reminder to get vaccinated & boosted>

I've had my share of sickness on trips. My first visit to San Francisco had me looking super miserable on our tour of Alcatraz. I ended up with THE WORST head cold in Vegas, which turned into a sinus infection. I started to feel the crud creep up on me in Hawaii, but by then I learned how to stave it off with all the Vitamin D. Need a quick cold remedy so you can get back on your feet and enjoy your trip? Here's what I know, in addition to always carrying some Halls Defense and Emergen-C in your bag:

Take a hot shower - Steam is great for breathing, and a hot shower can really open up your nasal passages if you've got a stuffy nose. 

Eat extra foods high in protein - Proteins help boost your body's infection defense, so load up on things like eggs, chickpeas, yogurt, quinoa, lentils, pumpkin seeds and tuna.

Hydrate - This is especially important as you travel anyway, because you're getting more exercise than normal (hopefully). Drink two or more cups of water more than you usually do. I always travel with a reusable water bottle, so this is the time to fill it up and drink it while out and about.

Get 7-8 hours of sleep - I'm a horrible monster if I don't get enough sleep, even on vacation. I tend to schedule myself for the whole day, but knowing how I am, I also schedule in down time, because I know I need to not be go, go, go 24 hours a day. I try my best to get as much sleep as I can, because if I don't, not only am I crabby and stressed out, I know I'm also likely to get sick.

Exercise/walk - Walking increases your ability to breathe better and it's also incredibly good for you. Fresh air and exercise are underrated, so even if you feel gross, try to get up and moving, because you may end up feeling much better, much faster than if you just lay in bed like a lump. You'll also still be able to see some stuff, which you won't see from the inside of your room.

Clean your hands - Yes, you're probably sick of hearing this, but washing your hands frequently and/or using antibacterial spray/gel can limit your exposure to germs, even if you're still masking (which I highly recommend in crowded places), and can keep you from lingering in your sickness if you're unfortunate enough to get sick while you're traveling. 

Wear a mask - If you do get sick, masking is even more important for those around you and to keep from spreading your germs to others. It's also important for you to get tested for Covid, just in case. There are a lot of testing sites up and running, or you can travel with at-home tests, which are easy to use and give you a quick response. 

In addition to these things, don't forget to eat well as much as you can on your trip, so your body has the nutrition to keep your immune system at its best. Now, go forth and have an amazing trip!

Tell me all your best healthy travel tips, or your worst case of sickness on a trip!