menu facebook twitter instagram pinterest youtube search chevron-down chevron-up
Be My Travel Muse
  • About
    • About
    • Contact Me
    • Press
    • Work With Me
  • Blog
    • Archives
    • Best of BMTM
  • YouTube
  • Solo Female Travel
    • Bucket List
      • The 31 Cheapest Places to Travel in 2025
      • 31 BEST Places in the USA for Solo Female Travelers in 2025
      • 25 Unexpectedly Awesome Destinations for Solo Female Travelers
      • 25 Best Countries to Travel Alone for the First Time
      • 13 Perfect Weekend Trips for Solo Female Travelers in the USA
      • 10 Best Weekend Trips from Phoenix, Arizona
    • Resources
      • How to take the best travel selfies
      • 41 safety tips for solo female travelers
      • The ultimate solo female travel guide
      • Best group tours for solo female travelers
      • Why Every Woman Should Travel Alone
    • All solo female travel blogs
  • Be My Travel Muse
  • Tours
  • Destinations
    • USA
      • Hawaii
      • California
      • Nevada
      • Idaho
      • Arizona
      • Florida
      • Alaska
      • Utah
    • North America
      • Mexico
      • Costa Rica
      • Canada
    • Asia
      • Thailand
      • Philippines
      • Indonesia
      • Japan
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Aruba
      • Chile
      • The GalĆ”pagos
    • Europe
      • Germany
      • Iceland
      • Italy
    • All Destinations
  • Trip Planning

What to Do When You Get Sick While Traveling

02/18/2020 by Kristin Addis 4 Comments

Getting sick while traveling sucks, but it is also inevitable, especially if you are not used to the food, climate, or both! Here are 5 things to remember when you get sick while traveling.
Pin me!

Before I sat down to write this article, I was a little bit hesitant to talk about getting sick on the road. I’m not a doctor and nobody likes to talk about stomach and digestion issues, but the truth is it comes up for almost everyone who travels, and when it does, it can be really shitty.

Pun not even intended, and yet here we are.

I used to pride myself on never getting sick on the road. I had a stomach of steel, I would say. I was careful to eat at street food stands that clearly had high turnover, but I ate raw vegetables, smoothies with ice, and I still always brush my teeth with tap water. Suffice to say, apart from getting immunized, I ignore all of the ā€˜typical’ advice because I find it’s too rigid and I just want to live. That did me just fine for years.

But in nearly each month out of the last few, I’ve consistently gotten sick with some type of gastrointestinal issue. So, unfortunately, due to an abundance of first-hand experience, this is what I’ve learned about getting sick on the road and what to do about it.

Table of Contents

Toggle
  • Pack the Right Supplements
  • BRAT Diet
  • Electrolytes and Non-Caffeinated Fluids
  • When You’re Ready, Sweat it Out
  • See a Doctor if Needed

Pack the Right Supplements

Sick in Mexico – that one was rough!

Full disclosure – the inspiration for this post is my partnership with Travelan. It was actually a conversation with my mother, who had tried it and said it truly worked, that made me decide to try it as well and share about it.

Some people take Imodium for food poisoning but I never want to keep my body from being able to purge if it needs to. I also avoid antibiotics unless I absolutely must take them because antibiotic resistance due to overuse is a real thing, and it kills the good bacteria in your gut as well. So, I would usually just suffer, wanting everything to pass, but when you’re on a short trip and you’re sick for part of it, you just want relief.

After some skepticism, I looked into colostrum, Travelan’s special ingredient, and found it’s a key component in mother’s milk, a superfood that delivers nutrients to newborn babies. Travelan’s bovine colostrum powder is a special form of colostrum enriched with Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) antibodies which grab hold of the ETEC in the gut, keeping it from sticking to the lining, and neutralizing gastrointestinal issues before they begin. I read reviews of the product as well as studies that have been done on its effectiveness, and finally tried it myself. Ultimately I found Travelan to be one of the best options for maintaining digestive health, especially without needing a prescription.

You can take Travelan three times a day before meals whenever you are in a location where the sanitation of food or water is uncertain. Travelan can be purchased online at Amazon (use the code 10TRAVELMUSE for a 10% discount!) or directly in most Passport Health travel medicine clinics in the US. In Australia, Travelan is a listed medicine and is specifically indicated to reduce the risk of travelers’ diarrhea. It’s available to purchase from Australian pharmacies. In Canada, Travelan is a licensed natural health product and can be purchased from Canadian pharmacies.

In addition to this, there are some complementary practices I recommend to heal and move on from intestinal upsets quickly.

BRAT Diet

Vegan food bali
Fluids, bananas, and taking it easy!

For my stomach to be able to get back on track, I usually need to give it things that are very easy to digest. I almost always fall back on the BRAT diet, or the closest I can get to it based on where I am. It’s bland and unexciting, which is a bummer in countries like Thailand where the food is so good, but the longer I put it off the longer I wait to feel better again!

The BRAT diet stands for:

  • Banana,
  • Rice,
  • Applesauce, and
  • Toast.

Applesauce is usually the hard one for me to find, but bananas seem to be universal.

Electrolytes and Non-Caffeinated Fluids

Giving up coffee is the hardest part for me about getting sick. However, it can also be quite dehydrating, and my first obligation is to replenish my body’s electrolytes and fluids.

I would still avoid super sugary beverages or anything that has caffeine, but traveling with electrolyte tablets is a great idea for replenishing your fluids.

When You’re Ready, Sweat it Out

Feeling renewed after the Temescal

As long as I’m not still actively having ā€˜events’, I try to sweat out the toxins as well. I have to make sure that I’m hydrated enough, but one of the best and most curing things I did after getting sick in Mexico was participate in a Temescal (sweat lodge). Sweating it out helped me hit the reset button and get the excess toxins out of my body.

Obviously, you really have to listen to your body on this one and decide if you’re truly ready for it, but exercise and allowing my body to feel invigorated again has been an important way to heal for me.

See a Doctor if Needed

What to do when you get sick while traveling? It is unfortunate but inevitable, so read up on these 5 tips to be prepared and still make the most out of your trip!
Pin me!

Obviously I am not a doctor, and my experience does not constitute a recommendation for you to take medication or supplements without talking to your doctor about it and making sure that it works for you. If you’re sick for multiple days, there could be something else at play like a parasite, and only a doctor can clarify that for you. If you need to go, then go! Talk to your accommodation front desk or simply Google to find a doctor in your area.

Additionally, Travelan is an animal milk product which may rule it out for some people with allergies to cow’s milk proteins and lactose, though it is gluten free (also it contains glucose, so those intolerant of glucose should avoid it). Always read the labels before consuming.

I’m hoping as I continue to work on getting my good bacteria back up in my gut that things will improve for me, but if you also suffer from a weakened constitution, you might need a little help from over the counter supplements. I like Travelan because it doesn’t negatively impact the essential microbiota of the gut and promotes digestive health, which can make for a more enjoyable trip.

*This post was brought to you in collaboration with Travelan, which I only recommend because me and my family members feel that it worked well for us. Your trust always comes first!

Get the guidebook for solo female travelers!

About Kristin Addis

Kristin Addis is the founder and CEO of Be My Travel Muse, a resource for female travelers all around the world since 2012. She's traveled solo to over 65 countries and has brought over 150 women on her all-female adventure tours from Botswana to the Alaskan tundra.

« Kakku Guide – Myanmar’s Amazing Pagodas
24 Hours in Mandalay: The Best Things to Do in 2020 »

Hello There!

headshot

Welcome to Be My Travel Muse, one of the top female travel blogs in the world, welcoming over 5 million readers annually.

I'm Kristin, and my vision of a better world is one where more women are empowered and living out their dreams. Solo traveling is the best method I've found to become the best, bravest version of me. This site is all about how YOU can have the adventure of a lifetime in an easy, fun, approachable way, so that you can feel empowered, too. Want to learn more about me?

Click here!

Get the Solo Female Travel Guidebook

Popular Posts

I am currently in:

The USA!

Check it out on Instagram Stories!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. Nikita says

    02/22/2020 at 7:28 am

    Hey Kristin.. I’m confused, I thought you are vegan?

    Reply
    • GG says

      02/22/2020 at 8:54 pm

      Hi Nikita. A good question. I believe one can be a vegan but still take a medicine/supplement that is non-vegan for dealing with medical conditions (including gastrointestinal issues). This article explains it better than I can in terms of drawing the line and being reasonable: https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/vegan-diet/medicine-where-should-vegans-draw-the-line/
      Clearly this line varies by differing opinions on the matter, but thought this write-up articulated the dilemma really well. Have a great day!

      Reply
      • Kristin says

        02/24/2020 at 9:06 am

        Hey Nikita, I was careful never to label myself as vegan, though I was pretty strict for a full year and unfortunately it really hurt my health and hormones. It’s just very difficult in developing countries at times and I was finding myself eating only bread or rice and my nutrition wasn’t good so I eat mostly plant based now, but not 100%. I put my health first.

        As GG pointed out, unfortunately almost no medicine is vegan šŸ™

        Reply
  2. Stephanie says

    02/22/2020 at 11:24 pm

    Great tips! I learned my lesson during my last solo trip. I was not carrying the right medicines and realised it only after I caught the fever.
    thanks

    Reply

Stay Connected

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Me
  • Archives
  • Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

© 2025 · Be My Travel Muse. All Rights Reserved

footer-icon