No matter where you travel for spring break, here are CDC’s top 5 tips to help you have a safer and healthier spring break.

1. Visit your healthcare provider before travel.

If you are traveling internationally, make an appointment with your healthcare provider or a travel health specialist at least 4-6 weeks before you leave. They can help you get destination-specific vaccines, medicines, and information. Discussing health concerns as well as your itinerary and planned activities with your provider allows them to give more specific advice and recommendations.

2. Stay up to date with your routine vaccines.

Routine vaccines protect you from infectious diseases, such as measles, that can spread quickly in groups of unvaccinated people. Many diseases prevented by routine vaccination are no longer common in the United States but are still common in other countries.

3. Check the travel requirements and recommendations for your spring break destination.

Check CDC’s webpage for your destination to see what destination-specific vaccines or medicines you may need and what diseases or health risks are a concern at your destination.

4. Plan for unexpected issues.

It is important to plan for unexpected events as much as possible. Doing so can help you get quality health care or avoid being stranded at a destination. A few steps you can take to plan for unexpected events are to get travel insurance, learn where to get health care during travel, pack a travel health kit, and enroll in the Department of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).

5. Protect yourself during travel.

Travelers should continue to practice usual precautions during travel, including washing your hands often with soap and water or using hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, covering your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze, and avoiding contact with people who are sick.

A few other ways you can protect yourself include practicing road safety, wearing sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher, avoiding bug bites by using insect repellent, and choosing safer foods and drinks. Practice safer sex and use condoms to protect yourself against sexually transmitted diseases. Avoid drinking too much alcohol and using illicit substances, as these can put you in dangerous situations.

Stay home and away from others if you have fever or respiratory symptoms. 

After Travel

If you traveled and feel sick, particularly if you have a fever, talk to a healthcare provider and tell them about any areas you recently traveled to. 

If you need medical care abroad, see Getting Health Care During Travel.