How to stay hydrated while traveling in style
| May 16, 2011 | Filled under Bottles, General, Information, Traveling |
In the era of no-liquids-on-planes, it becomes very frustrating and pricey to travel while meeting our body’s hydration needs. In the pressure-controlled tube of an airplane, our bodies dry up really fast, which is why you often will find yourself in dire need of liquids. Soft drinks and alcohol may seem like a good choice as the steward wanders down the isle asking for your drink preference, but those drinks only supplement the sugar contents but not the hydration needs. Water bottles are definitely the way to go when it comes to flying.
This is a picture of my Vapur bottle at the Taipei International Airport’s dedicated bottle refill station. As I struggled to put water into a bag as the Vapur flopped around off the edge of the drinking fountain, an airport lady walked up to me and pointed to the machine to my right. It was not even in my thought process that any airport would actually dedicate an entire machine to bottle refilling…not to mention filtered clean water!
With that said, here are my top three favorite bottles to travel with:
1. Vapur Anti-bottle. It folds up really nicely in my bag going through security and fits into any nook and cranny on the plane without taking up too much room. However, refilling it at a drinking fountain can be somewhat of a challenge because of the way it flops.
2. ALEX bottle. The bottle “breaks” into two segments and stacks nicely on top of each other like a russian doll. It keeps my bag space free for other things I need to carry on and it holds a good amount of water that’ll last me through the flight. Be mindful, and this is VERY important, of the role air pressure plays into everything when you’re in the air. Pressure is a lot less up above, even when the cabin is pressurized, which means that water will find its way out of the bottle. More than once I’ve had water leak out the middle where the two ends connect. This is to no fault of the manufacturer but that it’s just how nature works. A simple solution is to loosen the cap to equalize the pressure between inside and outside the bottle.
3. CamelBak Groove bottle. This is the CamelBak bottle with a built-in filter. Especially for those of you that do not like the taste of tap/drinking fountain water, this is perfect for travel because the filter neutralizes the tap water taste easily. I like this one over the Bobble (and I’ve traveled with the Bobble before) because due to pressure (once again), the Bobble slowly seeps water up the top of the spout, causing drainage problems. With the CamelBak, the straw can easily release pressure from within the bottle with a simple squeeze without you worrying about keeping a bottle open and accidentally spilling it all over your books.
What about your travel experiences? What are some of your favorite ways to stay hydrated in the air or at the airport without buying overpriced water bottles?
I just traveled with my Lifefactory bottle! Def way better than spending $4 on airport water
how do you wash the first “bottle” again?
Yes, it’s always a struglle to refill my bottle in airports. If Airports outside of the US are doing this why can’t they do that here as well? One unit that is great and a win win for everyone is the pura vida h2o units http://www.puravidah2o.com. We are hoping to start seeing these all over aiprots soon when we travel.
D