I was on a bus tour not that long ago for the better part of a month, travelling around the UK with my wife, and someone on the bus wound up getting a nasty bug that circulated to eeeeeverybody on the tour. By the end I'm pretty sure the entire remaining population of the bus was phlegmy and hoarse and generally quite miserable. (Somehow the tour guide and the driver completely avoided getting sick, though. Still wondering how they managed.) Has anyone else had to suffer through an illness while on vacation? How'd that go for ya?
I got a mosquito-borne disease when I was traveling about 10 years ago. I don't do guided tours nor travel with other tourists so I was all on my own. Thankfully though after getting treatment, in two days I was OK. Took a week for full recovery but by then all I wanted was to come back home. Sickness can not only ruin your vacation but also make it damn too expensive too.
It sounds like traveling while sick is not something we want to do. I am very happy to say I have not gotten sick while I have been traveling, I do have a sensitive stomach which can get upset very easily. I watch what I eat when I travel to avoid getting severe diarrha, and becoming dehydrated. Eating yogurt and oatmeal when I am traveling seems to work.
We were on a family vacation to Mexico when my oldest son got sick. I thought he'd had too much sun and we treated him for heat stroke and not the flu. When the symptom's didn't go away we called for the hotel doctor who told us he had the flu. He was sick for 5 out of the 7 days of the trip and then missed another week of school recovering from this nasty flu. We figured he caught it on the plane. The worst part about it is he probably spread it to a lot of passengers on the plane ride home and he coughed for the entire 5 hour flight. It was heartbreaking to know we had spent all this money on a vacation to have someone be so sick. One of us had to stay with him in the hotel room. I don't think we've gone on another big trip like that since.
When we were in Kuala Lumpur this April, my husband developed a bad case of gastritis. He had been sampling Malaysian food in the breakfast buffet table and had forgotten about his gastritis. When the gas started coming up that afternoon, he was not able to eat anymore until midnight. Although we were still roaming to see places, he was not feeling well. Fortunately he got better the next morning and he was back to being choosy with the food he eats.
I’ve been quite lucky, I don’t recall ever getting ill while traveling. I’m thankful for that, since I’ve heard enough horror stories from friends who have had travel illnesses. That said, I’ve gotten sick immediately after coming home from traveling. I guess it was a combination of running myself down while I was away, plus traveling during certain times of the year when illnesses were going around. Made me more susceptible.
It's really uncertain thing that all of you had such bad experiences. But I think I am lucky that I never sick while travelling till yet.
This happened to me once when I was very young and it felt miserable for me. I was coughing my lungs out and had to go through cold weather on top of it. The worst thing was that there was no available beverages where we went so I had to settle with drinking cold soda, which added more to the miserable feeling I was having since I was already cold enough and soda would definitely have been my last choice at that point. Thankfully we were traveling with family so it was at least somewhat comfortable during the ride on the way and back home and I didn't have to make anyone else sick apart from my own family.
Getting sick on a trip hasn't happened to me. I just found that taking more vitamin C helps fend off colds and flus. I got samples from of Airborne and it worked so well, though pricey they kept the cold away. I felt a cold coming on and I bought orange juice and drank it up and did not catch cold. I hope this helps for vacationing and when at home too. For ridding myself of phlegm I put a little eucalyptus oil on sinus, throat & chest and sleep well with no coughs and I find the cold or flu is over quicker.
I don't remember being sick while travelling yet, although my dad always complains of his irritable bowel syndrome while travelling, so he avoids travelling as much as possible.
With tours like that, they're booked in advance so you can't know whether you'll be sick when they start. Then a sick person has to decide whether to lose what they paid or try to have fun as much as possible while not feeling well. In addition, anytime you have a group of people in close proximity, there is an increased risk of disease spread. In a group situation like that, I become super careful about hand sanitizer and washing my hands. I know that any surface they touch could be a danger as well as airborne droplets so I wipe things down, don't share things like pens, do my best not to touch my own face except immediately after washing my hands, and I try to boost my immune system with vitamins and stuff. I don't know how well it works...but I ride the city bus (often full of sick people) a few times a week and rarely get sick.
I agree that it's impossilbe to know that you're going to fall ill on holiday so I suppose in those cases,it's best to observe strict hygiene rules. Covering your mouth when you cough, using something to stop you coughing so much in the first place, using tissues and not leaving them lying around as well as sanitizer and frequent hand washing. I know it sounds a bit extreme but in these cases, where you're constantly in contact with others, it's the considerate thing to do.
I have been sick while travelling before and it is not fun. First because being sick sucks regardless, but it's horrible to be sick and have nowhere to run to. When travelling we are usually in very constraint places, it's so hard to get comfortable if you are sick, not to mention when you need to use the bathroom...
Yeah, be as careful as you want, a tour bus doesn't work the same as a city bus. I take transit all the time, too, and the risk is probably far less there than with the same crowd of people for hours on end. The chances of diseases spreading skyrocket when you're on a bus for hours rather than fifteen or twenty minute stretches. Still, every little bit helps.
Well, I think this thread is suitable to spread information about traveling and its features. I have an experience of sickness during my last tour to Canada. In my last tour, I got high fever and unable to walk and enjoy anything. My tour was spoiled and I never enjoyed it in that Which was my expectations.
