With the recent health crisis news, it’s more important than ever right now to ensure you are practising the correct and appropriate hygiene methods, and this is particularly important to those who are travelling. Keeping yourself clean and healthy on the go is essential to ensure that you’re not posing a risk to yourself or others. Here the travel health experts at Vaxxy Travel reveal 7 tips for practising good hygiene whilst travelling.
Wash your hands
This is obviously a given, but ensuring you wash your hands regularly even if you haven’t gone to the bathroom or if you only washed them 20 minutes ago is imperative. When you’re travelling you are open to a whole host of germs, more so than you would be in normal life so it’s important to ensure you are washing them regularly and properly using anti-bacterial soap and warm water.
Be self-aware
Self-awareness is key when you are travelling to keep yourself safe as well as your fellow travellers. If you have a cold already you should be carrying anti bac wipes, a tissue and hand sanitizer on you anyway but even if not, you want to ensure you catch any coughs or sneezes in a tissue or hanky as this will prevent spread of any bacteria to other passengers. If you are due to travel you should ensure that you have had all the appropriate travel vaccines you require, and if you do feel slightly odd you should always consult your GP before going away.
Sanitize on the move
When on the move, the best thing you can do to prevent getting sick and keeping yourself clean is to bring with you travel size hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes, anti bac sanitizing spray, face wipes and any other anti-bacterial products such as hand creams or face creams. Having all these will ensure appropriate defence against any harmful bacteria. You can also squeeze a bit of hand sanitizer onto tissue and wipe down any areas near you such as your arm rest on the plane, tray table and any other areas you will most likely touch.
Keep nails clean
Keeping your hand nails short and clean will prevent dirt and bacteria particles from collecting under your nails which if brought up to your face or mouth could cause you to digest any bacteria from under them. If you are someone who touches their face regularly, ensuring your nails are cut short will ensure they stay clean and germ free. You may also want to bring along a travel nail brush to ensure they can be washed with soap and warm water.
Practice spatial awareness
It’s not just about keeping your own body clean, you also need to be mindful of others who are perhaps not practising their own hygiene. Try to remain aware of what you’re touching, who your touching and who you are near. If you can, try to avoid skin on skin contact with other people travelling and if someone is coughing close to you, move yourself away from them, or move your face away, and quickly wash or sanitize your hands.
Keep your face and body clean
If you are travelling long haul it’s really important to try and keep your face and body as clean and fresh as you can. Keep a facial wash, wet wipes and moisturiser on you whilst in transit and morning and evening take yourself to the bathroom and give yourself a wet wipe wash on the areas that need it, you may also want to bring a facial wash with you to ensure you are properly washing your face twice a day to ensure no bacteria is sitting on it. For cleanliness purposes, bringing a spare pare of clothes and underwear is also a good way to ensure you are not only clean but feeling fresh.
Don’t share food
This is fairly obvious, however many people forget how easily germs are passed across from sharing food, whether that’s snacks such as crisps, nuts or sweets or even sharing the same cutlery. If you are travelling with a partner or friend, ensure you aren’t sharing utensils that will enter the mouth. If you’re travelling solo, don’t have any communal snacks which may be present on methods of transport such as flights or trains, these are most commonly nuts or crisp bowls.
