Pre-tour regimen for staying healthy while traveling (respiratory issues)

I wear a good mask on the tour bus, in airport and on planes. I clean my seat area on planes as well. I don’t wear a mask outside but do in inside museums, etc. That is really all I can do to try and stay healthy other than handwashing and trying not to touch my face. I see people use Vaseline or some antibacterial stuff up their noses. I doubt this helps at all. Increasing vitamins— I don’t think helps. Any excess is excreted by the kidney.
Shame on the tour guide for not in forcing company policy on masking when ill. We had three ill on our tour in September, they all wore masks. Sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw.
I also take OTC cold meds too!

I’d say always travel with otc meds so you can jump on something as soon as you feel it coming on. I’ve had issues with coming home with a cold before but fortunately not lately. I know it’s miserable. Possibly we get a tad run down after 2 to 3 weeks of busy travel as well? And then the super dry air on the long plane trip home doesn’t help.

I'm prone to sinus infections on a grand scale (and I have the doctor's bills + extra hotel nights from various cities to prove it), even when mostly masking. Urgh. A couple of tips:

• I find using a simple saline nasal spray regularly helps a lot. [I can't use a neti pot, but if you can I imagine that would also be effective, though harder to travel with.]
• Strong lemon and ginger tea with honey as soon as I feel even a tickle in my throat. I usually travel with the teabags and pick up some honey en route. Bonus - it tastes good.
• Vicks vapor rub at the first sign of a sniffle, either for inhaling or direct application. I have a roll-on container that makes reapplication a much less gooey affair, as well as a nasal inhalation stick.
• Vitamins, after a discussion with my GP. It's worth doing this properly - what I would have though the best options had I been buying off the shelf were not what my doctor recommended. And they seem to help.
• Regular antihistamines - mine are non-drowsy and prescription, but ask your doctor.

Oh, and if one gets sick in Germany - pseudoephedrine is available over-the-counter here. It's in combination with either painkillers or an antihistamine, but it is here (unlike some other EU countries).

To me this starts with my immune system well before i travel. I try to cultivate my gut microbiome so that I can have as strong an immune system as possible when I start out on a trip. I follow a vegan GI doc (Will Bulsewicz, MD) who also has a fiber supplement that encourages the growth of good bugs and try to eat 30 different plants per week to encourage gut microbiome diversity for health.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/plant_points_explained

Having said that I will also say that I got a cold on my last trip. I masked when I was in the van (small group tour) but did not mask when I was outside or at meals. No one else caught my cough. I had been in Paris nearly 2 weeks before I joined up with my tour so exposure was not on the plane.

I had masked on the way to France with an N95. On the way home I did not mask and did not catch anything. I've been home 10 days. I also flew Delta One which I feel protects me a little just because the cabin is not so densely peopled and you are in your own little cubicle.

I'm so sorry you are ill. Take a look at the research on the gut microbiome and see if this is something you think might help you overall. BTW, one of the things you are encouraged to eat is fermented food. I can barely tolerate sauerkraut but I do try to eat a few spoonfuls several times a week particularly in the 4-6 weeks leading up to travel. I'm not sure how long it takes for good bugs to form but that is about all I can tolerate of fermented food!

Editing to add: I also use a nasal rinse. At home I use a Neti Pot but when I travel I use the Neil Med squeeze bottle. I take the packets of salt with me and get bottled water at my destination to use for the rinse. At home I used distilled but on a trip I just use bottled, still water. I do not use tap water. When I feel something coming on I will sometimes rinse AM and PM.

Some people, not all, are helped by using zinc lozenges (such as Cold-eeze) at the first indication of a cold. They usually shorten the sniffly symptoms for me and pretty much prevent a sore throat. For me they don't seem to prevent development of a cough. Unfortunately, zinc lozenges affect one's sense of taste, and that will persist for quite some time (days, not hours) after you stop using the lozenges. It's worth it to me, because the lozenges do usually help, but it would be a good idea to use them once for a cold at home before using them on the road. It's a personal decision whether the benefits outweigh the significant impact on one's sense of taste, and it's true testing has shown they don't work for everyone. I didn't have good luck with them during my trip this year; I suspect the zinc content is not as high as it was years ago. You may need to adhere to the dosage suggestion on the package; I was using considerably less than that, per the instructions I remember from years ago.

Zinc lozenges do not seem to be available in Europe.

I can barely tolerate sauerkraut but I do try to eat a few spoonfuls several times a week particularly in the 4-6 weeks leading up to travel.

Pam, have you tried kimchi? So much tastier (IMO).

My husband is prone to sinus infections and has suffered them on about half our trips. What seems to help him is saline nasal spray and resting for a couple of hours in the afternoon to get a break from wind, pollen, etc. It's also likely a placebo effect, but taking something like Airborne daily while traveling too.

Hi, the handwashing may be obvious, but I will add that I bring the Purell individual packets of sanitizer. These aren’t the small bottle type; they are flat little packets that you bend the center in half to release the liquid. The liquid isn’t sticky afterwards, and I am mentioning them because you can open the packet over a garbage and not recontaminate your hands by touching a bottle afterwards as you place it back in your purse.

I ride trains a lot in Europe and am happy when it is not assigned seats. I avoid sitting near anyone who is coughing or has the sniffles. If I hear it, I move to another section.

Can an Aperol Spritz be considered a helpful regimen? One of my tour mates on the RS Adriatic tour said they taste like cough syrup- LOL! So, maybe my occasional one in Italy is part of my solution! ; )

I do self-quarantine at home for a week before each trip, and I take Airborne that week, also. I don’t mask during my trip. I don’t bring a water bottle that could get contaminated. I eat outdoors when possible and walk a lot - rarely take a taxi. So far in 21 trips to Europe I have had one migraine, one sinus headache, and one day of diarrhea from a meal - doing very well!

I’ll also add a piece of advice from my niece who is an RN and was an ICU nurse through Covid and is now a care-flight nurse. When I went back to traveling after the pandemic she advised me to shower at night instead of morning. ‘You’ve been out peopling all day in a sea of germs, wash them off!’ I had to admit it made a certain amount of sense. I prefer to shower in the morning and sometimes I still do but most of the time I’ve taken her advice.

Pam, I’m with you on bio diversity being good for your gut health but I stick to lots of fruit and veggies but eat Greek yogurt instead of kimchi (shudder) or sauerkraut. There’s only so much sacrifice we can sustain!

I have come home with a nasty head cold after the last three tours this past year despite diligent hand washing and use of hand sanitizer. I suspect that my immunity has waned as I have gotten older. My other thought is that tours are the culprit as you are with a certain group of people for a prolonged period of time so you have increased exposure if someone has a virus. Masking would probably be the best defense but then you are eating communally and exposed anyway. We are not doing tours any more and will travel on our own instead. I am tired of coming home sick and dealing with a long recovery period from a cold in addition to jet lag.

Lyndash, that’s great advice to shower at night! I take a quick evening one before the regular late dinner when it’s a hot day of walking. That’s in addition to my regular morning shower. I’ll incorporate it more now with your niece’s advice. Thank you!

I’ve read that some people try to wear their clothes more than once before washing. I hadn’t put the connection together that maybe it’s been helpful that I wash my clothes in the sink each day / reducing germs I’d touch on my clothing items.

My recent trip to France was the first where I was completely solo the entire time, and the first trip in years where I did not get sick respiratory-wise at all.
My usual travel friend who lives in Scotland could not come along this time so I went alone.
I didn’t do anything else different on this trip than I normally do, so who knows.
I always take vitamins at home anyway and on my trips; I wipe down the seat, etc on flights, I mask in crowded areas, I stay away from ‘coughers”.
When I was working, I would always need another few days off when returning home to recover from being sick on a trip.
This time: nothing.
For which I am very grateful……..see: there is a bonus to solo travel! ;)