Running While Travelling: 5 More Easy Tips

So you’ve come here to learn some tips for running while travelling. Before I give you those tips, I just want to get spooky and predict the future: by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be – or will have been – in Greece! And one of the things I’ll be doing while travelling is running. I’ve been running while travelling quite a few times now, so let me give you some easy tips for running while travelling.

You may have noticed that I’ve given some tips for running while travelling before, but here are some more that I didn’t put in that first post, and that you might find useful.

These tips are for people travelling internationally and domestically. They’re designed with space in mind, so whether you have a travel case, duffle bag, gym bag, or backpack, they won’t take up too much of your travel bag space, if any at all!

1. Don’t run right away!

So this might sound a little bit counterintuitive, but one of my biggest – and best – bits of advice for running while travelling is to not run on your first day in your new location. You’re hopefully abroad for more than a couple of days, and if you are, you’ve likely been travelling all day, whether this is by plane, train, car, or boat – or foot, bike, etc., and this feeds into my first piece of advice for running while travelling

I advise not running on your first day abroad for several reasons. First of all, if you’ve been travelling the previous day, this can be an exhausting and stressful situation, and sleep will be one of the best things for it. Once you’ve gotten some sleep and are facing your first day abroad, I still don’t advise running, because you’ll probably have some residual tiredness. This can be a result of jet lag, disrupted routines, and several other factors (this page has a deeper dive into the subject. It discusses it in athletes, but can happen to anyone), but one of the best remedies – unsurprisingly – is sleep.

The other reason I advise not running while travelling on your first day abroad is because it can give you some time to reset, walk around, and explore your new destination. It also gives you a chance to learn more about the place and see what the streets are like, so you can take notes for the following days when you do go running. Oh, and of course, you’ll likely be doing A LOT of walking on your first day abroad, so while you may not be running on that first day abroad, you will be getting a lot of good exercise.

2. Maps are your friends

This is a small but useful thing to do. Of course, it might seem obvious, but I’ve made this mistake several times and gotten lost when running while travelling.

There are several tools you can use to help with running while travelling, especially when it comes to finding routes. Plotaroute has a very comprehensive planning tool you can use. Komoot has some really good routes available for various sports and terrains. Strava offers a Free 30-day trial of their Premium service, which allows you to draw routes for yourself, as well as discover popular routes. Though I’ve never used Strava premium, I know a lot of people that do, and they all recommend it. Finally, there’s the classic Google Maps which I use a lot to look at good paths to check out (I’m 22 and sound senile as hell, but I find remembering a new route really hard sometimes!). These tools, and others, can be really useful for running while travelling, and if you haven’t tried any of them before, I would highly recommend it!

3. Pack a high-vis jacket.

Some of you may be rolling your eyes at this one, but if you’re travelling during the winter of the country you’re visiting, or it’s dark a lot, please please PLEASE bring a high-visibility jacket (please do)! In 2020, 75 % of pedestrian deaths were believed to have happened during the night. And please, if you’re travelling alone or with loved ones, don’t let yourself be hit in the dark because you were running while travelling. It’s a very sad way to die.

High-visibility jackets are affordable and can take up very little space. You can find simple and cheap jackets for less than £4 and more sport-focused ones for a little more than £20. I keep a small, cheap one in my travel bag for all forms of travel, domestic and international, and it is very useful for running while travelling, especially during winter.

4. Travel in your sports shoes

If you are wanting to run and travel but don’t have a large travel case, have only one carry-on bag, or just have your hand luggage, one easy thing you can do is travel with running shoes on. It might not be your go-to fashion choice, but it’s likely that your running shoes will be one of your bulkier travel items.

If you do have enough space to pack them in your bag, then do, but they can help save space and keep you running while travelling. Plus, they should be comfortable, which is always important for travelling.

5. Pack light

If you can, don’t pack your biggest, bulkiest set of sports clothes. Of course, you may be travelling to a colder country, but if you can, shorts and a vest are among the lightest and easiest to pack items for running while travelling.

I hope these tips for running while travelling have been useful! Do you have any other tips for running and travelling? What else do you do for sports while travelling? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Conrad 🙂