· BIG ISSUES ·
Health Disadvantages of Travelling Long Term – 15 Tips For Wellness on the Road
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 19 Apr 2025
Are you struggling to maintain your health while you travel? Yeah, us too. We travel full time and it’s a constant challenge to exercise, stay motivated, eat well, sleep properly and generally take care of ourselves. Here we talk about why travel is bad for us, some of our tactics to help, and more.
We travel long-term. It’s how we run this blog – on the road for nine months at a time, then recuperating in the U.K. during summer months. The health and wellness challenges that result from this lifestyle choice constitute the biggest disadvantage of travelling and remains our most contentious topic of conversation. Personally speaking, staying healthy abroad is the bane of my existence.
In 2014, university researchers found that, although long-term travel was often associated with having a ‘higher social status’, the reality was that the more difficult aspects, such as health, were commonly ignored.
This, somewhat alternative, lifestyle, as glamorous as it appears (it’s not), takes a huge toll. Our health, both physically and mentally, is strained by travelling continually and we feel rundown, exhausted, left with an absence of inspiration. Our waning physical health contributes disproportionately to the travel burnout we feel, every time we go away.
Physically, we’ve suffered huge weight fluctuations; our hair falls out; we lose a chunk of fitness (my muscles pretty much just atrophy); our complexion is terrible. Mentally, our concentration lacks, senses are dulled and we just struggle to feel any passion for our journeys. The temptation to drink alcohol sometimes gets the better of us and cake looks more appealing than ever.
All these symptoms are simply the consequence of not prioritising our health and wellbeing when we travel.
And it’s not just us. Harvard Business Review reported that the odds of being obese were 92 percent higher for business travellers that spent more than 21 nights per month away. Employees that travel also suffer disproportionately with hypertension, depression, anxiety, poor sleep and alcohol dependence.
So, over the years, we’ve worked on this issue (heads up, we’re still shit at it). However, it’s gotten much better and there are loads of tactics for health management that we thought we’d share. Lots of people struggle with weight, hair, mood and other health disadvantages of travelling – if that’s you, you’re in the right place.
IN THIS GUIDE //
Health disadvantages of long term travel
HEALTH DISADVANTAGES OF TRAVELLING – WHO STRUGGLES MOST?
– DEMOGRAPHICS
WHY CAN TRAVEL BE BAD FOR US?
– PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES WHEN TRAVELLING
– MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES WHEN TRAVELLING
WELLNESS TIPS
WHAT IS TRAVEL BURNOUT?
OUR PERSONAL HEALTH DISADVANTAGES OF TRAVELLING
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Health Disadvantages When Travelling – Who Struggles Most?
Straight up, the health disadvantages caused by travelling do not discriminate, and everyone can struggle with wellness on the road – fitness, age, gender, nationality – none of these really matter.
Nick and I are late 30s, male and female, moderate (at best) fitness, British. We’re not immune to it and nobody else is either.
As with anything, there’s a bell curve.
Some people may go away for several months and not suffer significantly, whereas others may struggle after just a few weeks. There is certainly a sweet spot, when you return home feeling healthy, refreshed and enthusiastic; travel has energised you and the health disadvantages have yet to kick in. Everyone is different, but unless you’ve got your wellness-planning down-to-a-tee, it’s likely that at some point you’ll suffer from some kind of hindrance, be it mental or physical, while travelling long term.
Demographics
It goes without saying, but the older you get, the harder it is to moderate your weight, skin, fitness and general physical health. On the other hand, younger travellers might struggle more with their mental health instead, especially homesickness and loneliness.
Alcohol and drug use is more prevalent with young people, which can have a long-term mental disadvantage while travelling (this can also be a response to struggling with mental health – it’s a vicious cycle). Mental and physical issues affect both men and women (although generally, women struggle more to manage weight than men).
Obviously, these are generalisations. However, whether younger, older, male, female or other, you may face issues with your health if you travel longer-term.
Why Can Travel Be Bad For Us?
There are lots of reasons why travel can take a toll on our health. Here is a general list of things that can be attributed to the disadvantages that arise from longer-term travel:
Physical Health Issues Caused By Travelling
1. Lack of routine | this can impact almost everything we do for our wellbeing e.g. sleep hygiene, regular meals, exercise.
2. Availability of prescription medications | some branded medications are not easily accessible abroad, such as contraception or the malaria medication Malarone (the only one we use).
3. Disrupted sleep | sleeping in hotels, hostels or even airports is rarely good for our snooze patterns. Hotels have bars, tempting us to stay out longer; hostels have backpackers arriving at 3 a.m.; travelling has us catching up with our sleep (where we can), in airports, train and bus stations. Sometimes, the lack of general sleep hygiene can even cause insomnia.
4. Sketchy diet | one of the biggest disadvantages of travelling is gaining weight. Eating is essential; unlike caffeine and alcohol, you cannot dodge food! Often, it’s on the go, missing nutritional benefits and fattening.
5. Lack of access to particular products | this includes things like vitamins, skincare and haircare which make you feel more yourself. For example, a specific face wash, hair conditioner, or multivitamin that is too cumbersome to travel with.
6. Poor posture | with long term travel comes sketchy beds, pillows, bus seating and less-than-suitable co-working spaces. Compared with your perfect, ergonomic desk and memory foam bed at home, this continual twisting and hunching can lead to detracting aches, pains and more.
7. Excessive risk taking | this is a bit of a weird one and doesn’t apply to everyone, but realistically, most people take risks when they travel that they wouldn’t otherwise at home. Some may get into a taxi without a seatbelt, others may ride a scooter without a license, or maybe just eat some slightly riskier food than normal (studies have shown that people almost universally do this!). All these choices can lead to severe health issues – increased risk taking is a disadvantage of travel.
8. Exposure to new viruses and bugs | this isn’t that different to when, at the beginning of each term at college, you’d pick up a variety of cold or flu bugs. Being around new people means exposure to new, unfamiliar, pathogens, making it more likely that we get sick.
9. Food poisoning/upset stomach | it’s not always food hygiene that can upset your stomach, sometimes it’s just a significant change in water and diet. Sometimes it’s stress as well.
10. Different weather | when travelling, local temperatures are often extreme compared with your home climate. Some will adjust easily, others less so. Temperatures (and weather) can dictate how much outdoor exercise you get and how much sunshine you’re exposed to – even if you are well-adapted.
11. Reduced exercise | we all picture the typical tourist marching 30k steps around Rome in a day, which is surely enough exercise, right? Well, yes. The thing is, if you are travelling longer term, you’re not a typical tourist. It’s very unlikely you’re going to have the time or motivation to do this kind of sightseeing daily. Many travellers let their gym/yoga/running/walking routine go to shit.
12. Sun damaged skin | the priority for many travellers when choosing a destination is climate. Most opt for warmer, sunny climates for their travels, meaning they get far more sun exposure than at home. This is always me – England is not a sunny place.
13. Lack of routine physicals | if you would usually visit a doctor for certain minor complaints or yearly check-ups, this might get put to one side if you are out of the country for months or years at a time. It’s common for travellers to avoid seeing a doctor abroad.
14. Tropical diseases | the possibility of catching an illness such as malaria, dengue or other unpleasant ailments infinitely increases if you travel from somewhere like the U.K. to parts of Africa, South America or Asia, for example.
15. Dehydration | counting your water-litres can go out of the window with ever-changing schedules, fluctuating temperatures and hectic travel days.
16. Salt | consider how much extra salt you are consuming abroad versus at home. Eating more processed food than usual can lead to health complications – remember wellbeing is more than just weight. For example, food from south and east Asia is notoriously salty, but also affordable and served as decent-sized portions. It’s a dangerous combination.
HOW LIKELY ARE YOU TO HAVE A NEGATIVE HEALTH EVENT ABROAD?
A 2022 study of 1000 travellers from Switzerland to six countries in the Global South, showed that mild illness was very common. Mosquito bites, congestion, headaches, sunburn and diarrhoea led the way. 16.9% of travellers report to have suffered moderate or severe vomiting. It was shown that all these symptoms were significantly more likely to happen while travelling than at home.
Many other studies have been done, but the difficulty in data collection and bias from respondents makes it difficult to analyse. An article in 2017 investigated 743 previous studies written over 40 years, and looked at the most reliable, which reported that 43-79% of travellers to the Global South became ill, most frequently with diarrhoea.
No matter how you look at it – you’re statistically more likely to get ill than staying home. It’s just the nature of the game and one of the biggest disadvantages of travelling.
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ARE TRAVEL BOYCOTTS EFFECTIVE? | IS TOURIST DUAL-PRICING FAIR?
Mental Health Issues of Travelling
17. Contact with friends | even with the best of intentions, it can be difficult to maintain relationships at home if you are away for months or longer. This can lead to feelings of resentment, sadness and isolation.
18. Constant stimulation | this is an overlooked disadvantage of travelling long term. Travellers often crave the new and exciting, but after a certain length of time, it can become almost *too much*, and the need for familiarity sets in. This enhances exhaustion and can even result in a sense of homesickness. Personally, I think this can be a significant source of travel burnout.
19. Loneliness | this is a subtle, insidious feeling that isn’t always apparent until it’s a bit too late. The lack of *meaningful* contact with other people can get to you. It depends on who you are travelling with and which country you are in – I felt the loneliest when travelling with friends, ironically.
20. Lack of downtime | an obvious one, but if you don’t schedule some days off, you’re going to get some serious travel burnout and everything is going to seem, well, a bit shit.
21. Jetlag | studies show that continuous jetlag can lead to mood disorders and even permanent cognitive decline.
22. Culture shock | sometimes a place can just feel a bit overwhelming. Culture shock is far more complicated than just going somewhere unfamiliar and feeling a bit homesick though. It can be profound, kicking in months after you leave home, appearing in waves or phases and seem quite erratic (although science can predict it pretty well).
Combatting These Disadvantages – Wellness Tips
There are effective techniques that can mitigate many of these inherent struggles of travelling long term, which will reduce the risk of adverse issues, making your journey healthier and easier. Here are 15 general tips for approaching your health mindfully when you travel:
1. Sunlight | regulation of sunlight can improve mood, help beat jetlag and also persuade you to leave your room if you’ve been lurking for a few too many days without much exercise (happens to the best of us).
2. Talk to friends and family | if you’re feeling any of the mental health disadvantages of travelling, speak with someone familiar (it helps if you like them too!). This can relieve a sense of loneliness and isolation and can provide a grounding effect. (l often feel like I’m floating in some form of alternate reality when I travel if I haven’t spoken to anyone apart from Nick for a while).
3. Travel with medications | anything you’d usually take at home, ensure you take with you. This might seem a bit obvious, but many people neglect it when travelling.
4. Vaccinations | nobody wants typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria or hepatitis (I caught Hep A when travelling). Get your recommended vaccines to reduce your risk.
5. Down days | watch some Netflix, write a journal, eat a pizza, pet a dog – whatever you’d typically do at home. It’s all therapeutic and good for fighting travel burnout.
6. Alcohol intake | I get it, not everyone wants to avoid alcohol and that’s okay. However, being alert to any changes caused by alcohol is beneficial. If your sleep is irregular, your mood is dipping, you’re feeling a bit rough, physically, then maybe cut it down for a little bit.
7. Hotel/public/park gym | lots of travellers go from multiple gym visits a week to doing absolutely nothing. Nothing at all, while assuming that ‘all those sightseeing steps’ will be sufficient. Honestly, it rarely is enough though!
8. Get your steps | get a step tracker if you don’t have one and just make sure you move a bit everyday (those 56,000 fake steps you got from sitting on a rickety bus in Sri Lanka don’t count).
9. Heat exhaustion | don’t overexert yourself in hot weather. I pay for an airconditioned gym, every time. I also never, ever, run (or even walk sometimes) during the middle of the day in hot countries – it’s madness and possibly dangerous.
10. Electrolytes | this is *severely* underrated as a tip. In places like Thailand, in 7-Elevens, there are shelves of rehydration/electrolyte drinks for a reason – use them! You’ll gradually feel awfully rundown if you sweat loads, overexert yourself and don’t replace the minerals you’ve lost.
11. Wash your hands | use hand sanitiser, it’s obvious. You don’t want to get food-related stomach issues (or covid, for that matter).
12. Clean water | be aware of how safe the water is and don’t drink it if there’s any risk of getting ill. Filters and reusable bottles are perfect for this scenario – we use a Sawyer water filter and Platypus pouches.
13. Avoid mosquitoes | they carry malaria, dengue, chikungunya and zika (amongst other things). These are serious illnesses and a major health disadvantage of travelling. I’ve had dengue fever in Laos – it wasn’t my best time.
14. Prepare your own meals | if you get the opportunity, cook some food yourself, even if it’s just yogurt, fruit and oats. Every processed, salty, fatty or nutrition-less meal that you cut out is a sensible choice for your health.
15. See a doctor | this can be due to an acute issue, such as a dodgy stomach, or just for a general health checkup and blood tests. Health check-ups are quite common in cities that are full of expats. Bangkok, for example, has hospitals that offer healthcare packages.
WHAT IS TRAVEL BURNOUT?
Travel burnout is not really any different to other forms of burnout – from school, work or family life. It’s a creeping mental health issue that is brought on by a combination of factors, individual to each person.
Symptoms can include a monotonous, empty attitude towards travel, a flat mood, low energy, change in appetite, increase in alcohol consumption and a lack of enthusiasm for things that would usually be exciting.
Straight up – it’s kind of like low-level depression. If you think you’re struggling with it or want to learn more, check out our dedicated post on travel burnout.
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AN INTRO TO SLOW TRAVEL | QUEST FOR AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES
Our Personal Disadvantages When Travelling
Below are a few specific things that we attempt to incorporate into our travel habits to keep our health top-notch. A lot of wellness choices an individual makes depend on the style of accommodation, type/length of travel, destination, complex health issues and more.
For reference: we are definitely *not* super-fit, slim, athletic runners in our 20s. We have health constraints, painful knees, shockingly bad sleep, and a tendency to gain ten pounds by just passing nearby a pizzeria.
Some of our choices below may seem a bit, well, harsh. These are not things that everyone should always do, however they keep us from falling off the wagon for nine months a year. Pick and choose what might help you alleviate some of the disadvantages you suffer from travelling long term.
Also, I re-read through everything here and it makes us sound super-dull.
23 Specific Tactics to Help Our Health
1. Sleep routine | this is set in stone. Having a specific snooze-pattern is probably our number one tip for any traveller, anywhere. We brush our teeth, comb our hair, shower and sleep at the same time every day. This means waking up at the same time every day too.
2. Yoga | 30 minutes before bed. It’s exactly the same, every single day.
3. Never skip hair conditioner | but do skip hotel hair conditioner if there is any – it’s always shit.
4. Yoga mats | we carry lightweight yoga mats on all our trips, because sometimes you just need to actually lay the mat out to get the motivation to do some physical exercise. That human-sized purple rectangle I lug around the world has a sensory association that just makes me feel more okay about movement.
5. Low-calorie days | this is our ultimate weight-management tip. Nick and I get fat. On Instagram, you’ll see athletic, energetic 20-somethings who never sweat or gain a pound, whilst eating their weight at buffets and knocking back 20 beers. The thing is, their experience is rarely the reality for the majority. If you struggle with weight on the road – try having a few days a week where you cut something back – it works wonders for weight maintenance.
6. Limit bad foods | same incentive as the low-calorie days. This means we avoid most foods with lots of sugar (like fruit smoothies that people so insistently say are healthy for you). We avoid white bread, pretty much always and, as vegetarians, don’t eat meat.
7. No alcohol | I know many people can’t picture travelling without having a drink and that’s cool. However, we find it to be an absolute disaster for routine, mental health, diet, calories and more even though we *love* craft beer and wine. Oh, alcohol is also a disaster for our budget.
A LITTLE ABOUT US
Average weight gain after our previous 9-month trip | 12 lbs
Age | in the 35-40 bracket (tragically at the upper end)
Ideal hours sleep a night | 8
Actual hours sleep a night | < 7
Exercise | 1.5 hours a day
Fave Exercise | yoga
Fave bad food | macadamia nut ice cream
Fave good food | hummous and carrots
Biggest struggle abroad | any exercise in hot temperatures
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8. Early morning walk | this is especially applicable in hot climates where you may not want to move for the rest of the day. Sometimes it’s the only cardio-type exercise we can manage.
9. Drink a pint of water before breakfast | another pro weight-loss tip. By drinking a pint of water, it means that if we have a free breakfast, we’re less likely to overeat. Breakfast is, by far, my weakest time of the day, food-wise.
10. A day-on, day-off approach | this is in relation to sightseeing and activities. Travel burnout is something we both suffer with extensively, which ruins everything. We try to take chill days whenever possible.
11. No sugary drinks | never drink a non-diet beverage or fruit juice. It’s just empty, diabetes calories, isn’t it?
12. Eat fruit at a buffet | we have a weird rule about always eating a plate of fruit at any buffet first. This ensures we don’t then eat our body weight in pasta and bread. It usually works!
13. Avoid late evening screens | I’m guilty of editing photos before bed; Nick will doom-scroll mindlessly through the news. Neither is great for your sleep, so we cut it back and, surprising nobody, our sleep improved.
14. Always use sunscreen | we used to be a bit lax on this but it’s important to protect your skin. It’s not just for the serious long-term ramifications, it’s also because sunburn fucking hurts and will make you miserable for days on end (you’ll also look like a bright red bell-end).
15. Healthy snacks for road trips | we do tonnes of driving abroad, it’s our thing. Hours in the car risks some crazy snacking. We try to stock nuts, fruit, oats, hummous and carrots for journeys. They’re not so more-ish and we’re less likely to overeat.
16. Minimise caffeine | this is the one we neglect the most. Nick loves coffee; I love diet coke. It’s a challenge to cut out but we can tell it makes us both feel anxious and affects our sleep. In particular, try not to drink any caffeine after your evening meal.
17. Never skip a meal | although we have low-calorie days and are always diet conscious, we never skip a meal. Like, I get hangry and it’s just not worth the hassle; I’ll end up eating twelve donuts or something.
18. Don’t eat out much | I think that eating in restaurants becomes a bit exhausting after a certain amount of time – they lose their glamour. Also, restaurants tend to make portion sizes far larger than is necessary for a normal human being, plus all those excess sugar and oil calories add up.
19. Pack lightweight bowls, cups and cutlery | this facilitates preparing foods yourself.
20. Accommodation with kitchen | wherever possible, get a room with a kitchen. For longer term stays, check the kitchen equipment that comes with it.
21. Comfortable room | we prioritise accommodation with long term travel. Not luxury, but if we need aircon, we’ll get it. What do you consider important: comfy bed? Quiet? Bright, natural light? It all helps with wellbeing while travelling, having whatever you need to chill and sleep well.
22. Eye mask | I never sleep without one anymore. It helps when you don’t have decent curtains!
23. Altitude | this destroys me. I have no idea why I’m so much worse than other people, but altitude really affects me. We intentionally schedule lots of extra days in high-up places.
Final Thoughts – Health Disadvantages of Travelling
Obviously, a lot of these apply to long term travel only – anything less than a month is usually manageable health-wise (it definitely doesn’t apply for that weeklong bender in Ibiza or Cancun). Having said that, nobody ever feels great going home from a trip carrying a few extra pounds, sporting some awkward sunburn lines and a five-day hangover.
I hope the above lists help you plan out how to stay the best version of yourself as you travel/backpack or otherwise explore the world. I also hope you don’t find the health disadvantages of travelling as challenging as we do!
Hi, thanks for visiting our blog! If this post has been of help to you, or you’ve just enjoyed our random ramblings and musings, say thank you by buying us a coffee! It helps keep The Restless Beans blog up and running.
Thank you, Claire + Nick
