Cold and Flu Essentials Our Editors Never Travel Without

The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is among the busiest for travel. Unfortunately, it also happens to be peak cold and flu season, and nothing kills holiday vacation plans like coming down with a stuffy nose or a sore throat.

While you can take steps to protect yourself (like getting a flu vaccine and regularly washing your hands), at the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do to keep the germs away. Sometimes, you just get sick—a fact of life our editors keep in mind whenever they pack for winter vacations. From a lovely-smelling hand sanitizer to a throat-soothing tea, these are the cold- and flu-season essentials they always toss into their suitcases.