Traveling With CIRS: How to Stay Safe on Planes, Hotels & Airbnb
*Note: this blog was written by me, Mark Volmer. All spelling mistakes, misquotes, errors, and omissions are my own doing. It is not AI generated.*
Lena had been looking forward to this retreat for months. Three nights in Bali, reconnecting with friends, some sun. She deserved it. Halfway through her first night at the hotel, she woke up gasping. Chest heavy. Brain fog rolling in thick. Her throat burned like she’d been breathing smoke. She cut the trip short and flew home feeling worse than when she left.
If you have CIRS, this story probably doesn’t surprise you. You’ve maybe lived a version of it yourself.
Travel is one of the places where CIRS patients get blindsided most often; not because they were reckless, but because they weren’t given a real framework for doing it safely. That’s what this blog is all about.
I want you to be able to travel. Connection, rest, new experiences. All of these are part of healing too. You just need a different strategy than most people use.
Why Travel Hits CIRS Patients So Hard
Your immune system in CIRS is already running hot. The defense budget, so to speak, is stretched. That means exposures that a healthy person shrugs off can push you into a flare.
Travel can potentially stack several exposures at once.
Planes recirculate air, concentrating VOCs, mold spores, and chemical off-gassing. Hotels have hidden water damage, HVAC systems nobody has maintained, synthetic fragrances baked into every soft surface. Add jet lag, disrupted meals, and a packed schedule and your detox and immune systems are fighting uphill from the moment you leave home.
This isn’t about being fragile. It’s about understanding your biology and building a system around it.
The 2-4 Week Window Before You Leave
Start your planning at least two to four weeks out.
Environment research first. Look at the climate. Check humidity levels and local air quality. Tropical destinations and older coastal cities carry higher baseline risk. This doesn’t mean avoid them, but it changes your preparation level. Once you know the climate, check building methodologies for the places you’re planning to stay.
For me, I feel much safer travelling to Mexico than I do to Florida. Not because Mexico has lower humidity than Florida; humidity levels in coastal Mexico are not much different than in Florida. But the building methods are completely different.
Most home construction in Mexico is done with concrete, cement, and rebar. Most home construction in Florida is done via stick framing and drywall. Wood + drywall is all the “food” mold needs to grow. Making a stay in Florida more risky for those of you with CIRS than Mexico.
Always check the space you’re renting to see how much fresh air can enter the premises. With CIRS, we’re generally concerned about concentrated indoor microbial contaminants. The solution to pollution is dilution. If you can keep all the windows and patio doors open, you’ll have significantly diluted indoor air contaminants. Thus making for a much more CIRS-friendly indoor environment.
When you’re booking, choose newer buildings over older ones. Upper floors are safer than lower ones (less chance of plumbing leaks migrating up). Ask hotels directly whether they’ve had water damage and how recently HVAC filters were serviced. Most will answer honestly if you ask plainly.
Pack your gear. The non-negotiables:
- a portable air purifier (small enough to fit under a plane seat),
- a small hygrometer to check room humidity,
- co2 monitor to use as a proxy for fresh air (higher co2 levels = stale indoor air)
- binders
I always recommend patients to increase their binder frequency one to two days before travel.
Choosing and Triaging Your Accommodation
Not all accommodations are equal, and “nice hotel” does not mean “safe hotel.”
What to look for when booking:
- recent renovation dates,
- hard floors instead of carpet,
- rooms away from kitchens,
- confirmed window ventilation rather than sealed windows only.
Your first 15 minutes in any room are the most important. Open every window, run your purifier on high, and let the space ventilate before you unpack anything. Then do a triage sweep:
- check humidity with your hygrometer (you want 40 to 50%),
- check Co2 levels (you want <1000ppm),
- inspect the ceiling corners, bathroom grout, and baseboard for any staining or water marks.
- If something doesn’t feel right, ask for a different room. You have that right.
Run your purifier continuously for the first 24 hours.
During your stay, keep the purifier running near where you sleep. Vent the bathroom aggressively after any shower to prevent steam and humidity buildup. If the climate permits, keep the windows and doors open at all times.
Handling a CIRS Flare Mid-Trip
If you get hit mid-travel, the approach is systematic.
Take an additional binder dose as soon as you recognize the exposure. Get outside if you can. Do a nasal saline rinse if you suspect inhaled spores. Rest aggressively rather than pushing through.
The most common mistake I see is ignoring early signals. A mild headache or slight throat tickle is your body telling you something. Respond early and the recovery is usually manageable. Wait until you’re flaring and you’re fighting much harder. Don’t question those initial intuitions when you enter a new indoor space!
CIRS-safe travel: A new paradigm
For Eve and myself, CIRS inspired new ways of thinking about travel. We do fewer international trips. Travel for us today looks like getting out into nature. We spend a lot of time camping.
At first, I mourned the loss of international travel. But I can honestly say that regular camping trips into nature has been far more settling to my nervous system than crossing multiple time zones. We still plan for international travel, it’s just no longer the same priority for us as it was in life before CIRS.
The Bigger Picture
Just like Eve and myself, Lena eventually traveled again. She did it differently: a newer hotel, a purifier in her suitcase, a slower pace, and a plan for what to do if something went wrong.
That’s the goal. Not a perfectly sterile trip. A trip where you’ve stacked the odds in your favor, responded well when things weren’t ideal, and came home without setting your recovery back.
Travel is worth figuring out. Your world shouldn’t shrink because your biology is complex. Start with one short trip. Track what worked. Refine your system. Build from there.
