1. Take the stairs.

I eat a lot more high salt convenience foods and desserts while traveling than I do at home, but one of the good habits I keep up is that I rarely take elevators.

Check if your hotel has a sidedoor with direct access to the stairwell. It’s usually faster than walking through reception and taking the stairs is super good for you.

2. Take a multi vitamin.

The science about whether multivitamins are good for physical health is iffy but there is good evidence that taking a multi vitamin during times of high stress prevents emotional issues.

As awesome as travel is, it can be stressful. Take a multivitamin.

Although there’s not good science to support this… I believe that taking multivitamin helps me fight off a cold if I’m starting to get one.

3. Moisturize.

Dry air, heating and cooling, and flights can make your skin very dry while traveling. Get some Aveeno moisturizer or something similar. I sometimes get flare ups of eczema while traveling and some 1% hydrocortisone helps with this (it’s also good for bites or sunburn).

You might also need some moisturizing eye drops. Even cities like NYC seem to have very dry air compared to what I’m used to.

4. Don’t always rent a car.

If you rent a car your whole trip you’ll likely find you get very little exercise. Instead of renting a car for a week, rent it for 4-5 days at the weekend rate and do public transport the other days. Although public transport can be a pain, I often have good conversations with people while waiting for the bus, which helps prevent loneliness.

5. Take care of your mental health by talking to people.

I am about as introverted as it’s possible to be. However, I talk and joke with strangers much more while traveling. Having a foreign accent means people will usually be receptive to your attempts to have a brief chat or laugh. If I get lonely sometimes I’ll go ask the front desk a question about local attractions or stuff like that (provided they don’t seem busy). My natural instinct is to just to Google or look in one of those tourist magazines but I override that and have a conversation instead (or do both).

6. Have a glass of water while you’re waiting for takeout.

I’m not good at drinking water but one of the good habits I have is getting a drink of water while I’m waiting for a takeout order. In the US you can get sachets of lemon juice that are sometimes at breakfast buffets and can make hot water a bit more interesting. My Mum calls this “lemon tea” (there’s no tea, it’s just lemon juice and hot water). If you have an in room coffee machine you can just run it to heat the water rather than have coffee.