I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm a pretty vain person. In fact, looking back on all my travel experiences, the ones I enjoyed least were the ones where I felt the least attractive, where I had (or perceived myself to have) any of the following: bad skin, bad hair or an overarching issue with my personal style.
Most notable among my ugly travel experiences was my April 2011 visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After a long day on Ipanema Beach, I developed a heat rash on my forehead, which is fair enough: It was hot and I had crappy sunscreen on.
But what started out as a run-of-the-mill skin irritation developed into something much redder and uglier after I scratched it in my sleep one night. I was in one of the most image-obsessed cities in the world -- and I looked like a piece of pizza!
The good news is that these episodes of ugliness have been rare and intermittent for me, not because I'm effortlessly sexy, but because I take the adequate precautions any vain traveler should! If you want to look good when you travel, no matter your travel budget or the places you visit, keep these travel beauty tips in mind.
