The first time I travelled, I came back utterly, irrevocably destroyed by my own lack of respect for my body. Over the month I was away, I drank immense amounts of booze, ate exclusively bread for one week and rich restaurant meals in another, chain smoked my way through most of Eastern Europe, and just as I recovered re-ruined my lungs all over again in Amsterdam. I never drank enough water, spent hours every day walking in dirty clothes, and rarely ate anything – at all – that would be considered good for me.

Travelling is a wonderful experience, but it’s very, very easy to ruin yourself whilst you’re busy having the time of your life. Which is, on the face of it, fair enough; though the time of your life may well be cut short if you spend too long sightseeing and eating badly and not enough time looking after yourself. So, without further ado, here’s my guide to staying healthy whilst travelling. It’s not like I know much, but I certainly know what not to do. Now.

First off, make sure to keep water on you at all times. Not just when you’re on a big trip or a flight, but genuinely all the time. There will come a time when you’re stuck somewhere hot, sticky and unpleasant for far longer than you were expecting, and you’ll thank yourself very, very much that you brought that water bottle with you. And no, a soft drink will not do. Water is the best thing – everything else is secondary.

Along the same lines, also try to make sure that you have at least some food on you when you’re moving around the place – or can get some easily. There’s nothing worse than going hungry on a day out sightseeing or at an airport and not being able to willing to pick yourself up anything because it’s too expensive/strange/hot/cold/salty/whatever. Keep a little bit of food on you at all times, and make sure it’s at least half-healthy. Fruit’s good. Fruit and a sandwich is better.

Try to not go all-out every night. Yes, you’re (presumably) on holiday and are looking to have some fun, but booze every night is never a good idea – I’m not saying save it for the weekend, I’m just saying when the hangovers start to extend into your sightseeing time it’s probably a good idea to slow down. A similar rule applies to eating out at restaurants and with street food. Yes, it’s all good stuff, but generally it’s fatty, rich, filling and entirely empty of the important things like vitamins and nutrients etc. etc. It’s nice to eat well, but sadly there’s little demand for healthy street food. Visit a supermarket and make yourself something good every once in a while.

Finally, if you’re a smoker, quit. And if that doesn’t work, then try to not speed up your smoking when you’re on holiday. That’s what I did – mainly due to the novelty of being able to smoke indoors coupled with the sudden price drop of tobacco – and it ruined me for a good long while. I couldn’t talk to anyone without sounding like I was going to throw up a lung. Yeah; if you’re going to smoke, try not to smoke more because it’s cheap. Value for money is not a good enough reason to get extra-addicted. Trust me.