We stick to a healthy routine while traveling not to remember the home, but to have more immersive and meaningful travel experiences.
Last updated: September 1, 2025
How to Stay Healthy while Traveling
Travel is good for the soul, daily routine is necessary for a healthy body. While no one can deny the importance of leaving your worries, including work, behind, keeping a healthy routine while traveling is also necessary.
Bloating, mood swings, unhealthy cravings that leave you lethargic… You don’t need any of these while exploring a new continent or culture. Bringing along a few of your daily rituals on vacation helps avoid and even eliminate most of these unhealthy “byproducts” of travel. With that said, here are 10 simple tips on how you can keep your healthy routine while traveling and at home, after that memorable trip.
10 TIPS ON HOW TO KEEP YOUR HEALTHY ROUTINE WHILE TRAVELING (AND AFTER A TRIP)
1. Stick to a Healthy Morning Routine while Traveling
You may be on vacation, but don’t waste time and energy by staying in bed until noon. If it’s a part of your daily routine at home… well, keep it. Many people however, are up at 6-7 a.m. to get ready to work.
Use this opportunity to share a cup of tea or coffee with locals before they are off to their offices and other places of work. Exploring charming alleys before they get filled with tourists. Or enjoy a palette of bright colors that adorn the sky at sunrise.
While even not an early riser may find these “troubles” worth the new experiences, your hard-working body can’t stop thanking you. Your internal clock and overall well-being depends on your healthy routine whether you travel or not. Adjusting to any significant, even temporary changes can be hard on it. Often it results in some rebellious outbursts. That’s when you get bloated and suffer from severe headaches.
The simplest solution here is to help your body. So get up and go to bed at the same time or as closely as possible to the sleeping routine you follow at home.
2. Stick to Your Dietary Routine
By all means, explore new cuisines and try something new every day. Yet remember that a routine, that boring and sometimes annoying ally of yours, is good for your body.
Keeping your eating routine while traveling can be hard sometimes. For many, it may even defy the purpose of exploring. These people are right to some extent. Yet you want to have enough energy to enjoy your trip. Sadly, food, our primary source of nourishment, can also make us feel weak.
So make a plan on how to stick to your healthy routine before a trip. The easiest way is to keep the same meal hours and skip excessive snacking in between.
3. Eat Your Veggies
This brings us to our next tip on how to keep your healthy routine while traveling. Vegetables, particularly green leafy plants, are full of fiber that helps digestion. Make it a routine to eat a large salad before indulging in local delicacies. In the worse case scenario, load up on veggies as a side dish.
If you’re accustomed to starting your day with green smoothie or juice, don’t let this habit slip away when you travel. Combine the healthy routine with the pleasure of discovery and set off on a new adventure to find the best juice bars or stands in your new home away from home.
4. Book a Room with Kitchenette
Cooking for yourself not only is one of your reliable allies when it comes to keeping your healthy routine while traveling, but also saves money. A small kitchenette usually has all the essentials to make that delicious soup after an eventful day. If you’re a morning person, wake up half an hour earlier and make your own breakfast.
5. Get to Know Your New Neighborhood
On your first day in a new city or town, trouble yourself to walk outside and explore your neighborhood. Check out what supermarkets, stores, restaurants, and cafes are located within a walking distance from where you stay. Then step inside and see if they have healthy choices that will help you keep your daily routine. If not, head outside and find a place that can quench your hunger pangs without jeopardizing your health.
6. Build a New Temporarily Habit that Supports Your Old Routine
Several years ago, I spent a few days in Amsterdam. A green-smoothie-in-the-morning girl, I couldn’t possibly have shortage of these healthy drinks in the vegan-friendly Netherlands. On the other hand, 10 Euros per a smoothie seemed unreasonable. So, I ended up creating a new healthy travel routine to support my main routine. I gave up on the morning smoothie, but incorporated a fresh-squeezed orange juice as part of my relaxing evening routine at the hotel.
The juice that cost less than 2 Euros didn’t come from a specialized juice bar. I made it myself at a local supermarket, Albert Heijn, that had a juice making machine for customers to use when they needed a bottle of freshly pressed orange juice.
7. Bring along Supplements or Snacks
Vitamins, digestive enzyme supplements, protein bars… Pack anything you use on a daily basis to keep your healthy routine while traveling.
8. Stick to Your Exercise Routine while Traveling
This is one of those tips that you can be flexible with. If a 15-minute daily yoga helps you start your day on a strong note, do it. Go to a gym at your hotel for a quick morning workout. Run on a beach or go forest-bathing.
9. Keep Your Healthy Travel Routine at Home
On the other hand, some healthy travel routines are not to be gotten rid of, but adopted when you get back home. Start with a simple walk you got used to on your latest trip. Don’t just clean your walking shoes and put them in a box until your next adventure. Instead, start putting them on every day and re-exploring your own neighborhood in your own city.
10. Keep Your Work Routine while Traveling
Some routines, however, are meant to be changed while traveling. Keeping up with your projects, tasks, due dates should not be your concern at this time. Leave the work at our office and give a break to your mind. And don’t feel guilty of not being productive while on vacation.
Things look different if you’re on a business trip. Yet even a business trip can be enjoyable. Instead of taking on a new project right after the business hours, finish your work as quickly as possible (no procrastinating, no wasting time) and enjoy a leisurely afternoon walk or a relaxing dinner with your coworkers or partners. Make a rule, though, no business talk at this time.
