Getting ready for a trip soon? Here are five tips for healthy travel.
Do you travel often, whether for work and/or for fun?
This year, I'm on the road or on a plane at least a couple of times each month, for various lengths of time. Regardless of how much or how little you travel, being on-the-go can take its toll on your health. Outside of the shared germs in air travel, there are delicious calorie-laden exotic dishes to be enjoyed at every turn, local wine, beer, and spirits to imbibe, and sometimes several hours of sitting while traveling via planes, trains, and automobiles.
I like to try to balance the excess that comes with traveling with some health smart habits on the road. While some destinations lend themselves to more active travel – hiking, backpacking, skiing, etc. – my focus for this post is non-adventure travel trips.
Here are five tips that have helped me keep my health on track while traveling.
Five Tips for Healthy Travel
1. Walk everywhere you can.
Some destinations lend themselves to more physical activity while other destinations make it so easy to drive everywhere. I've been on a few of the latter and can attest: indulging in local food & drink plus being shuttled everywhere by car is not a healthy combo. Before you leave for your trip, plot out at least a few hours each day for sightseeing on foot. Bonus points for walking to those museums or local attractions that are up hills!
2. Sign up for local activities that allow you to also see the sights.
Most destinations offer tours by bicycle, which is a great way to really experience a new location. But also look for local lakes and rivers or parks where you can rent paddleboats, kayaks, canoes and take those out to see the sights. You can get a great leg and/or upper body workout while enjoying the views.
3. Shop outdoor markets for fresh, local produce.
Most destinations, whether within the United States or outside of the country, have local markets where you can buy fresh produce, seafood, meat, and more. I love these outdoor markets because they give you such incredible insight into the regional cuisine, they give you the chance to meet and learn from locals, and they're also probably the best way to eat healthy and local while traveling.
These markets are an awakening of your mind and body to the new location: they allow you to breathe in, taste, touch, hear, and see your destination in a full feast for the senses. Load up with local fruits and vegetables here!
4. Pack healthy snacks
Packing healthy snacks may seem like a no-brainer, but I've learned that it's important to distinguish between healthy snacks that you know you should eat (but maybe will forego for the more appealing calorie-laden local sweet treats), and healthy snacks that you know you will love and will eat and drink. There's a difference!
I've written about my love of Naked Juice products before; they're one of those healthy travel-friendly options that are also super delicious! I usually stock up on Naked Juice smoothies and juices when I'm on the go in everyday mom/work life, and when I'm on a road trip. Recently, I've added the new Naked Cold Pressed Juices to my family's healthy travel kit!
Each Naked Cold Pressed Juice is made with ready-to-eat, high quality fruits and vegetables that are cold-pressed right into the bottle. These are SO refreshing and taste absolutely clean. They make awesome travel companions because they contain no added sugar, no preservatives and are verified by the Non GMO Project. Plus, they come in five delicious flavors: Lively Carrot (my favorite!), Bright Greens, Hearty Greens, Bold Beet, and Cool Pineapple (get the full details on each flavor in this post).
As you can see, I stocked my mini-fridge during my last trip to Seattle with one of each flavor! They were great to keep me hydrated, to keep my energy up while constantly on-the-go, and to make sure I got my fruits and veggies in during the indulgent Seattle Wine & Food Experience.
Naked Cold Pressed Juices are available now in stores throughout the West Coast and are rolling out to the rest of the country. I found mine at my local Target store!
In addition to Naked Cold Pressed Juices, I also rely on the following healthy snacks while traveling:
- Nuts: almonds, cashews
- Various flavors of jerky
- Portable fruit: mandarin oranges, apples, bananas
- Homemade trail mix
- Crackers (my daughter loves rice crackers in particular)
- Carrot sticks with peanut or almond butter
5. Build in breathing room into your travel itinerary
This last tip is really important. It has more than once saved me from travel exhaustion and poor health.
While it's tempting to try to fill every breathing moment while you are traveling, leave some breathing room in-between activities. This not only allows you room for those unexpected surprises that come up during travel, but this also allows you to truly enjoy each individual experience fully, without being rushed or stressed.
And we all know that stress is not good when it comes to your health, especially when you are supposed to be enjoying your travels!
There are, of course, many more travel tips to stay healthy, but those are my top five for everyday, non-adventure travel. What about you?
Bonus Tip: Healthy Travel Apps
What are your fave travel snacks to pack to keep your health on track?
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Kara says
Great tips! We try to do a lot of walking when we travel too, it's especially nice if we've been driving or flying for a long time. Get the blood flowing again. Those juices look really good. I'm going to see if I can find some here.
Pech says
The walking one is a great tip because wherever you go you can usually find an interesting walk, whether it's easy or hard - such as just soaking in the local streets of a cool neighborhood or nearby Park.
Rosie from Blog To Taste says
These are great tips, and so simple! Walking is the best way to take in a location as well, so that is always a must-do for me. And I cannot live without healthy snacks, traveling usually means indulging in local cuisine, and even trying desserts, something I rarely do at home- so it is important to me to get good healthy snacks for in-between meals. I also stick to a one indulgent meal per day- if I indulge at breakfast, i eat light for dinner or vice versa. And I only plan to eat 2 real meals a day- the rest is snacking in between, so again, the healthier the snacks the better.
The Southern Thing says
Great tips! I love the idea of packing healthy snacks, since they can be harder to find while traveling.
Kamara says
Great tips! I think it's so important to stay healthy whilst travelling, people often tend to 'cheat' whilst away and eat absolutely everything, laze around and do no exercise because why not, it's a holiday. I always try to walk a LOT and I bring a stash of healthy snacks from home too (in case I can't get hold of any there), haha. Thanks for sharing!
Kusum says
Such a wonderful post, we do travel quite a bit and the first thing we do is to stock up on some healthy goodies as soon as we land. Makes for such a great guilt free travel experience. We also love to visit the local farmers markets as part of our trips, so it works out well..
Loving your pics and I have never tried a Naked pressed, should do sometime.
xx, Kusum | http://www.sveeteskapes.com
Melinda says
Great tips! Especially the one about building in breathing room...that's something I always forget to do!