How to Stay Hydrated While Traveling

Whether you’re on a business trip, a weekend getaway, or a two-week vacation, traveling is always exciting. Yet, keeping the same wellness routine you had at home and maintaining healthy habits when there’s so much to explore can be difficult, but there’s one important part of your routine you can easily maintain: staying hydrated.

Give your body what it needs and deserves. Be at your best while scouring every corner of the world with a few reliable tricks to show you how to stay hydrated while traveling.

Why is it Important to Stay Hydrated While Traveling

Every last cell of your body uses water to function correctly. Staying hydrated keeps your bodily functions on point, regulates temperature, and protects body organs and tissues.

Traveling, in general, increases your need for hydration, especially if you’re flying. Let’s say you get on a flight, where you’ll be at 36,000 feet for several hours. Airplane cabins have less humidity than the Sahara desert, so you can imagine how dehydrated you might be with limited water intake and long exposure to unnaturally low humidity.

Being dehydrated worsens the physical symptoms of jet lag, making it more challenging for you to adapt to a time change. Every sip of water you take keeps you away from fatigue, headaches, constipation, and muscle cramps. This is why it’s vital to rehydrate by drinking fluids and eating water-rich foods.

While carrying a bottle of water might seem the most obvious option to ensure you’re drinking enough fluids, there are more ways to stay hydrated and healthy.

Bring a Collapsible Water Bottle

Taking hydration for granted is often a mistake. Sometimes when we travel, finding fresh, potable water is a journey of its own. Rather than stuffing yourself with water before you leave your hotel room or drinking water from a non-reliable source and falling ill, invest in a collapsible water bottle -they’re the ultimate lifehack for travelers to hydrate throughout trips. 

Collapsible bottles are Sturdy-yet-lightweight, comfortable to drink from, and super easy to carry. Not only does it roll up for compact travel, but it can also loop around your wrist or attach to your bag for quick access. It can handle both hot and cold drinks, the dishwasher, or the freezer. They’re durable, flexible, and tough enough to resist any journey 一 just like you.

Instead of buying a bulky plastic water bottle, buy a collapsible one and reduce your carbon footprint while saving a couple of bucks. Just make sure you empty it when you arrive at the airport and refill it after going through security. 

Eat Water-rich Foods

Eating water-rich foods is a fun, easy, and delicious way to avoid dehydration. Seek out fruits like watermelon, pineapple, and oranges with high water concentrations. Other water-rich options are berries, peaches, cucumbers, and avocados. 

Adding oatmeal and bananas to your breakfast supports long-lasting hydration. Likewise, having lunch with vegetables that contain high water levels like celery, lettuce, zucchini, and bell peppers can keep you hydrated throughout the day.  

Drink Lots of Water While Traveling

If you want to get an idea of how much water you should drink to stay hydrated when you’re flying, the answer is at least 8 ounces per hour. We know that means you’ll have to go to the restroom several times during the flight, but on the bright side, you’ll also be able to stretch your legs now and again. 

The same goes for traveling by car. Drinking lots of water, pulling over at rest stops every few hours, and stretching your legs are healthy habits you should cultivate when traveling. It’s important to remember that not all destinations have clean, potable tap water. Whenever you’re unsure if it’s safe to drink straight from the tap, purchase bottled water or an electrolyte-rich sports drink to stay hydrated.

Adults need 6 to 10 8-ounce cups of water a day. To encourage yourself to stay hydrated, you can fill a bottle with your daily water requirement in the morning and drink it throughout the day. 

Keep in mind that some medical conditions, such as kidney failure or congestive heart failure, can cause an intolerance for excess amounts of water. Make sure you talk to your doctor regarding your personal health needs.

Add Chia Seeds to Water or Food

Just like oatmeal, Chia seeds absorb lots of water. These energy-boosting seeds are highly attracted to water, so much so that they can soak up nine to twelve times their weight in water. For this reason, nutritionists recommend eating them to help you stay hydrated throughout the day. Next time you’re sightseeing in the sun, add some chia seeds to your water or food and thank us later.

Drink Coconut Water

Coconut water is full of natural electrolytes and potassium. This essential mineral will help you regulate and sustain fluid balance in your body to get that hydration boost you need while staying satisfied for longer. 

Usually, coconut water is widely available in airport terminals and at grocery stores. Once you land, make sure you grab some coconut water. Be at your best with coconut water and forget about your water bottle for a couple of hours.

Use nutritional supplements like Fish Oil

Besides promoting healthy, youthful skin, Omega-3s can also improve balanced hydration, maintain healthy brain and eye functions, reduce breakouts, and even contribute to better sleep quality. Although you can find these essential nutrients in certain foods, such as salmon, tuna, and walnuts, the easiest way to get the daily dose you need is through nutritional supplements like fish oil capsules. 

Omega 3: Fish Oil will help you stay hydrated and maintain smoother, glowing skin while supporting your heart health and empowering your body so that nothing can stop you from enjoying yourself while traveling with the extra boost you need and the protection your body deserves.

Eat Rice

Rice is another super-absorbent food that acts as a vehicle to help you replenish fluids. This starchy grain soaks up water during the cooking process, which is why eating rice can increase your hydration levels. While rice has low sodium, fat, and cholesterol, some rice dishes can be quite salty, so be careful if you have heart issues. 

What to Avoid if you Want to Stay Hydrated While Traveling

If you’re following these tips, still feeling dehydrated, don’t ignore the signals your body is sending. Here are some things to avoid if you want to stay hydrated.

Dehydrating Foods and Drinks

Keep yourself away from processed foods – they’re packed with salt, sugar, and additives that don’t do any favors for your health and can actively dehydrate you while traveling. Fried food, salty packaged snacks, sugary drinks, and even coffee are dehydrating foods and beverages. Although these seem like quick and easy foods marketed especially toward travelers, the convenience they offer will be short-lived.

We believe that one of the best things about traveling is exploring local cuisine and those regional products you haven’t tried before. The trick is pairing these foods and drinks with enough water and other hydrating foods so you can balance the fluids you’ll lose while exploring.

Avoid Sugary Foods and Drinks

If you have a sweet tooth, it’s important to remember your cravings for sweets can make you lose more water than you might like. An excessive intake of sugary drinks can cause dehydration, especially if they’re caffeinated. 

While an ice-cold Coke may initially satisfy your thirst on a hot day, it drains your precious body energy because it requires more time and effort to process. Focus on incorporating more wholesome foods, healthy fats, fresh water-rich fruits, and vegetables into your diet. Lower your sugar intake, and craft a well-balanced lifestyle while traveling. 

Avoid too much Alcohol

If migraines, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, and extreme hunger and thirst would ruin your trip, you may want to avoid drinking too much alcohol. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means that it removes water from your body at a quicker rate than other liquids.

So if you like to indulge while traveling, make sure you drink enough water 一 otherwise, you’ll be on a one-way trip to extreme dehydration.

Avoid Starting your Journey Dehydrated

Experts advise drinking two 8-ounce glasses of warm or room-temperature water in the morning and one before you go to bed to avoid starting your journey dehydrated. If you feel as though you’re not getting enough water, here are a few signs to look out for.

Dehydration symptoms may include:

• Dry eyes
• Increased wrinkles
• Thirst
• Dry or chapped skin
• Dry mouth
• Low urine output
• Constipation
• Headache
• Dizziness or lightheadedness

Severe dehydration may result in low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, extreme thirst, loss of skin elasticity, little to no urination, confusion, and fever. Another helpful sign that tells you if you’re drinking enough water is the color of your urine, which should be clear or only slightly yellow when you’re well-hydrated. 

Prevention is the key, so consider bringing a collapsible water bottle on your trip and drinking a few sips of water every time you feel off until you’ve met your water intake goal. Research shows adequate water intake may prevent blood clots and heart attacks, especially when traveling.

Avoid the Heat as Much as Possible

A long walk under the scorching sun can take a toll on your hydration levels. Stay in-tune with your body and watch for symptoms of heat-stroke or heat exhaustion, which include:

• Loss of motor function
• Confusion
• Sweaty, clammy, or parched hands
• Muscle aches and cramps
• Dizziness
• Hot/flushed skin
• Nausea or vomiting
• Convulsions

Traveling to a place with a hot climate can be challenging. Try to schedule your outings in the morning or the evening, when the temperatures are lower. If you are outdoors during the day, bring plenty of water and try to stay out of the sun. Don’t ignore warning signs, and pay closer attention to your hydration at all times, particularly if you’re a person who sweats more than usual.

Practice staying hydrated and keep track of water intake on the go with some of the ideas mentioned above and find which one works best for you and stay healthy while traveling.