7 Ideas for Staying Sober While Traveling

Sometimes you can’t choose where you need to go, especially if you’re traveling for business or an important family occasion. But if you do have a choice, you should consider avoiding party destinations or tourist traps known for serving alcohol. You can prioritize nature trips, historical tours, and other sober attractions to further minimize the odds of a relapse.2.) Set expectations with your travel companionsIt’s important to be honest and open with people you’re traveling with so that they can help rather than hinder your recovery. You should be upfront about your desire to stay sober throughout the trip, especially if the people you’re traveling with enjoy drinking. By setting expectations early, they might be more considerate and less inclined to pressure you into drinking.

3.) Plan to avoid stress and boredom

Travel stress and boredom can be major triggers for alcohol consumption, which is probably almost every airport in the world has a bar. While not necessarily a problem for most people, the ubiquity of alcohol at airport terminals and roadside rest stops can be a major problem for those recovering from AUD.

While you may not be able to completely remove stress from the basic traveling experience, you could at least minimize the odds of bad things happening. Make sure to take a few days to carefully plan and set your itinerary. That way, you can ensure that you’re not taking any unnecessary risks and are neither too bored nor anxious, which can do a lot to minimize your cravings.

4.) Call your hotel about the minibar

Make sure to call your hotels ahead of time and arrange to have the minibar emptied of any alcoholic drinks before you get there. That can help ensure that you won’t be tempted to fall off the wagon almost as soon as you get to your hotel room.

5.) Schedule a virtual support group meeting

If you’re still in the early part of your recovery, it may be difficult for you to stay sober without the help of your regular support group. Unfortunately, these groups can’t always be found everywhere, especially in many overseas destinations. Thanks to modern technology, you can now easily do virtual meetups with you can try to join one of the many hundreds of virtual AUD support groups to tide you over. Check out this listing of virtual AA groups for US residents to get an idea of how the process works.

6.) Look for support groups at your destination

If you’re traveling within North America, odds are really good that you will be able to find AUD support groups at virtually every destination. If your itinerary allows for it, try to join local sessions wherever your travels take you. You might be surprised at how many fresh perspectives you’ll find, even if you only went a few towns over.

7.) Take a journal and a nice camera with you

Journaling and taking pictures is a good way to make good use of any downtime you have when you’re traveling. Recording your thoughts and emotions as well as things that interest you can help you contextualize your recovery, which can help with understanding your own long-term motivations.

Thankfully, most phones today have a decent camera and a voice memo function, so you don’t really need to take anything extra with you. However, you may still want to have a regular notebook as your journal, since having a separate thing for this specific purpose may help you better focus on your mental health and recovery, compared to using your phone.