I've gotten seriously ill during my trips to more than 80 countries. Here's what I do now to protect myself from getting sick on vacation.

• Lauren Juliff used to be a full-time travel blogger and now spends six months a year traveling.
• After visiting over 80 countries, she's learned how to navigate situations such as getting sick.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lauren Juliff, a 35-year-old who's traveled to over 80 countries. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Going on vacations as a kid was the most exciting part of my year. No matter where I went, I felt happiest whenever I was away from home.

I worked through college to save for a big trip around the world. After I graduated, I took a gap year and traveled.

I started a website to keep my friends and family updated on my travels, and over time I gained a big enough audience to turn it into a business and fund my adventures. For five years, I worked as a full-time travel blogger and nomad, visiting countries such as Tonga, Mozambique, and Oman.

I stopped traveling full time in 2016. Now I spend six months every year in a home base and the other six traveling. My home bases have been in countries including Portugal and the UK. Right now I'm living in Melbourne, Australia.

While I'm grateful to have seen so much of the world, it's come with major setbacks, including falling ill. Here are my best tips on how to stay healthy and prepare for unexpected health emergencies while traveling the world.

Over the past decade, I've visited over 80 countries

I've been sick quite a bit while traveling, even ending up in the hospital a few times. I've battled with food poisoning, vertigo, and many other illnesses.

My worst experience was catching cholera while hiking in Borneo. I was staying in a remote guesthouse with no medical assistance nearby. It took months to recover from that illness, and I'm still not 100% today, five years later.

Food poisoning happens more often than any traveler would like

When I started traveling, I would get food poisoning several times a year because I'd eat street food or brush my teeth with tap water in places such as Laos, Thailand, and Turkey. But I've learned there are a few things you can do to minimize risk.

I always research the street-food vendors that are popular in the city I'm visiting. Usually, their popularity will result in a high turnover, meaning that their food won't be sitting out in the sun for hours. Dishes will therefore likely be cooked with fresh ingredients that won't have had time to accumulate bacteria.

I also pay attention to hygiene practices by the people running the street-food carts. I look to see whether there are different people handling the food and the money. If one person is doing both, there's a chance bacteria on the money could be passed onto your food.

I usually check Google or Yelp reviews to search for the phrases "food poisoning" or "sick" before I go. I also carry hand sanitizer to use before I eat, and I use the sanitizer on utensils before I use them in case they've been washed with unsafe tap water. I also take a charcoal tablet and probiotics once a day, which I've found to help minimize food-poisoning symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea.

In general, if I'm in a location that's known for having water that's not drinkable, including Mozambique and Tanzania, I'll avoid eating vegetables and fruit in case they've been washed in tap water. Instead, I'll buy fruit that I can peel myself.

Most times that I've had food poisoning, I've been able to recover by relying on rest, rehydration salts, and Imodium.

Make sure you have a translation app

I was traveling in Turkey in 2012 when I awoke in the middle of the night vomiting as the room spun around me. I went to a local hospital, and nobody there spoke English.

The doctors put me in a room, hooked me up to a saline drip, and performed an EKG, but they couldn't communicate with me to tell me what they were doing and what was wrong. They continued to run tests, and I was so sick at that moment that I surrendered to their care.

After several hours, they sent me on my way with medication. I had to Google what it was to figure out what was wrong with me (I had a type of vertigo called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo). Dealing with this was one of the scariest moments from my travels, and it took a full month for the vertigo to subside.

At that time, I wasn't traveling with a cellphone, so I didn't have access to quick translation apps that could've helped me.

Since then, I've started traveling with a phone, and I always get a local sim card with data on it so I can use apps including Google Translate to help me with medical situations. I've paid anywhere from $5 in Laos for a sim card with 60 gigabytes of data to $48 for an unlimited-data sim card in South Korea.

Bring your own customized first-aid kit

When I'm sick, the last thing I want to do is go to a pharmacy to try to find the medication and supplies that I need. On top of language barriers, some locations I've traveled to haven't offered the same medication that I'm used to back home.

My first-aid kit contains all the essentials: painkillers, Imodium, antihistamines, anti-nausea tablets, decongestants, Band-Aids, antiseptic cream, and a course of antibiotics. Yes, it adds weight to my luggage, but every time I've needed medication, I've been so grateful it's there.

Get travel insurance as a backup plan

I get travel insurance for every trip that I take, whether it's for two days or two years. Working in the travel industry means that I'm always hearing stories of travelers getting sick or hurt while they're away from home and then having to crowdfund their medical expenses. My opinion is that if you can't afford travel insurance, you can't afford to travel.

I use SafetyWing, which costs $11 a week for a traveler under 40 years old, as my travel-insurance provider whenever my main priority is medical care. I use World Nomads, which is a better option but pricier at $60 a week, whenever I require greater coverage, such as car-rental insurance, adventure travel activities, theft of electronics, delayed travel, or lost luggage.

It can be scary getting sick when you're traveling, but it doesn't stop me from getting out there and seeing the world. I've always recovered from illness, so I stay calm, remind myself it will probably last only a few days, and focus on what I'll do first once I get back to normal.