Travelling with a hangover is never ideal. And it’s a predicament our Lonely Planet staffers know all too well… But whether you wake up worse for wear in Berlin, Bali or Bangkok, chances are you’re not alone in your suffering.
Read our hard-earned hangover cures and find an excuse to try them for yourself with our new boozy title, Lonely Planet’s Global Beer Tour.
Refuel with pho in Southeast Asia
The night started well – Thai dinner, cold beer – but one thing led to another and we found ourselves downing cocktails at one of Bangkok’s dizzying rooftop bars. Cue the dawn wake-up call of a rooster outside the guesthouse, a thumping headache, and no water left in my re-fillable water bottle – because of course I didn’t plan ahead.
While looking for cold water and sympathy down some back streets, I stumbled across a street food stand doing Vietnamese breakfast pho and rejoiced. This clear broth is one of the world’s best hangover cures. The broth rehydrates, the sodium gives you a little pick-me-up, and the freshly cooked beef adds protein in wafer-thin slices (which is all I can usually stomach in this state).
Tasmin Waby – Destination editor for Australia and the Pacific. Follow her tweets @TravellingTaz
Cheer up with a cherry brandy coffee in Zadar, Croatia
You don’t stay in a hostel with the word ‘drunken’ in its name and expect to wake up fresh as a daisy. But this hangover was a real doozy! Zadar is famed for its Maraska cherries, which are distilled into various tipples like brandy and room (rum) – naturally, I had to sample these local delights. But, this being a hostel and all, ‘sampling the local delights’ meant engaging in a brutal night-long ‘rum pong’ championship.
The next morning, I vowed never to touch another Maraska concoction. But it turns out it's best to fight fire with fire – I was told to add a healthy shot of Maraska cherry brandy to my coffee and boy did that put the pep back in my step. And if, like me, you get hangry when hungover, wash your coffee down with a cheesy burek pastry and you’ll be ready to roll!
Louise Bastock – Assistant editor, lonelyplanet.com. Follow her tweets @LouiseBastock
Heal your hangover with fresh juice in Bali
When you've sapped your body of vitamins after too much Bintang on Monkey Forest Road, and wake up to the horrendous itch of a million mosquito bites, there's nothing the body craves more than fresh, ice-cold juice. Luckily, you don’t have to go far to find health tonics, green smoothies and wheatgrass shooters in yogi-centric Ubud, Bali.
While I quickly discovered that a downward-facing dog is not the best idea with a thumping head, the greatest cure I found was a not-too-sweet mix of fresh coconut water (macheted in front of our bleary eyes), strawberries, lime juice and a touch of turmeric. I’m not sure I could recreate this thirst-quenching recipe to the same standard back home – but Ubud sure is a good place to have a hangover!
Ellie Simpson – Traveller communications analyst. Follow her tweets @gutsygrad
Blow away the cobwebs with a black (or blue) run
It's hard to resist the lure of cheapish drinks and bad music after a day's snowboarding. Maybe it's a desire to anaesthetize aches or put some life back into weather-chafed cheeks, but drinks slip down like a dream in the mountains.
Then you wake up with a pillow stuck to your face and a stomach like poison. Your thermals go on in a blizzard of swearwords, your boots take six months to do up and the gondola feels like a rush-hour train. But suck it up: pointing yourself down that first run and letting rip, as cold air floods your lungs and the world clicks back into place, is the only way to go. By coffee-time you’re smug and smiling, if still a tiny bit shaky. Wherever you are, getting on with your day is always the best medicine.
James Smart – Destination editor for Britain, Ireland & Iceland. Follow his tweets @smartbadger
Walk it off in Ireland’s windy west
One too many nights out drinking one too many pints of Guinness in Galway have taught me that the best hangover cure is a walk on the Atlantic coast (following a Spar breakfast roll, obviously).
A strong cuppa Irish tea, taken black to avoid that milky hangover malaise, steels your insides before a gentle but profound sheet of rain on your face, and the salty West-of-Ireland air completely revive your energy levels. Making you ready for another day on the black stuff...
Megan Eaves – Destination editor for North Asia. Follow her tweets @megoizzy
Prepare with pork in Berlin
I’ll say it: hangovers have no chance in the face of crispy pork knuckle in Berlin. A stone’s throw from the touristy Alexanderplatz, hidden behind the ruins of a church, is Berlin’s oldest restaurant: Zur Letzten Instanz. Heads turned as we creaked open the 16th century wooden door; the barmaid greeted us while splashing steins poured from an ornate china beer tap.
The traditional German pork knuckle, coupled with mashed potato and red cabbage, was intimidating but delicious. I was dangerously close to lining my stomach far too well before a heavy night but felt compelled to finish it. After a brief respite and some fresh air I confronted my next stein and felt prepared for the array of concoctions Kreuzberg’s dive bars had to offer. I certainly didn’t have room for breakfast the next day and thanks to this tasty dish, I didn’t have room for a hangover either.
Joe Davis – Online marketing coordinator. Follow his tweets @joedavis_
Curb the shakes like a cowboy in South Dakota
I woke late and hungover, regretting the previous night’s agreement (promised over several beers around a campfire) to herd bison across Custer State Park. A few hours spent riding over a dusty plain under a hot sun would not be the hangover cure I so desperately needed. Avoiding the ‘hair of the dog’ offered in the form of a half-full can of Crow Peak beer, I opted for a fistful of bison jerky – a breakfast light enough not to disrupt my queasy stomach but loaded with enough salt to replenish a few depleted electrolytes.
It was just before noon by the time we mounted up and headed into the plains. Where I expected the bouncy ride to aggravate my throbbing head, the opposite occurred. I settled into a rhythm of the landscape, the clean air cleared my head, and the thunderous hooves drew my attention away from my body riddled with nausea and bad decisions.
Alexander Howard – Destination editor for Western US and Canada. Follow his tweets @AlexMHoward
Carb up on the Costa del Sol, Spain
Spanish measures of gin and tonic at a friend's wedding on the Costa del Sol were responsible for a pretty serious morning-after carb craving. Eschewing the complimentary bowls of cereal at our B&B we headed out into the rising heat of a late-July morning, making it a few hundred metres before collapsing at a shady table neighboured by Spanish gentlemen sipping strong coffee.
There is genius in the simplicity of a tortilla baguette – warm, salty egg and potato, sat in a crusty, olive-oil- and tomato-brushed baguette. I would happily start every day this way, but on this occasion it also proved an excellent gin-absorber. See also post-Malbec empanadas in Argentina: pastry, beef, egg, olives, in a small enough package to satisfy the need for salt without pushing the grease-consumption into the danger zone.
Jo Cooke – Managing destination editor. Follow her tweets @JoannaCooke1
Buy a rolex in Uganda. Seriously.
The ten-year reunion party in Kampala had been much hyped in the months leading up to it, so it wasn't altogether surprising that the Nile Special beers flowed almost as liberally as their namesake. The next morning, cowering under the collective weight of our hangovers, we drew straws to decide who had to walk down the road in the stifling heat to place our order at the rolex cart. No, not that sort of rolex.
A Ugandan rolex is the ultimate street-food panacea: an omelette topped with fresh veggies – chopped tomatoes, onions, shredded cabbage, avocado if you're lucky – all rolled up in a soft, hot chapati. A reverent silence fell as we ate. As I chewed the final mouthful, wiping my face with the back of my hand, I could already sense the hangover starting to surrender. Magic.
Jess Cole – Commissioning editor, trade & reference. Follow her tweets @coleywole
http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/world/lonely-planets-global-beer-tour-row-1/