3 Mistakes I Made When Travelling To Hot Countries

Coming from the land of gloomy grey skies (London), at this moment in my life I choose to only go on holiday to places with hot climates. I am not a fan of cold weather, but I have learnt to tolerate it my whole life. However, if I am to spend money exploring a foreign country, it certainly has to have better weather than the place I call home.

Having been to over a dozen countries with either hot climates, or during summer, I have learnt a lot about travelling, enjoying and in some cases just coping with the heat, but this doesn’t mean these trips have always gone smoothly. Below are three mistakes I made when travelling to hot countries.

Assume that it wasn’t going to rain

I don’t know what was going through my mind thinking that because it is known as a hot country, I wasn’t going to see rain. My first trip to the Philippines proved me wrong immediately. Although it is generally hot, it is also a tropical country meaning that it is also prone to storms. I found out that it can very quickly go from 30 degree celsius heat and sun, to torrential downpours and still remain the same temperature.

I knew immediately that I needed to prevent myself falling victim to this again, and decided to try and buy a womens rain jacket, which is not the easiest thing to purchase when you are not in the city. In the meantime I had to settle for a cheap poncho. Believe me, after this traumatic experience I had learnt my lesson and now my Rains womens waterproof jacket is the first thing I pack regardless of where I am going!

Not carrying a water bottle everywhere

If you didn’t realise how much water you would drink while travelling through a hot country, i’m sure you would learn very quickly. I highly recommend bring a reusable bottle (we need to cut down on single use plastics!) as it saves you money from constantly buying water bottles. Also, unlike many western countries where the tap water is safe to drink, I would not risk drinking it in less developed countries.

Having water with you at all times is an essential in order to keep hydrated, given how much you will sweat. If you don’t look after your health while travelling you could be left with some expensive repercussions in terms of medical bills and such.

Failing to apply sun cream when out in the sun

I’ll be honest with you, having naturally tanned skin made me naive to the fact that I still needed sun cream when exposed, out in the sun for long periods of time. What was a relaxing time at the beach turned into sunburn hell for the next 2 weeks. After that experience, sun cream has always been in my toiletries kit!