Drink Too Much In Las Vegas? There’s A Spa For You

by Sean McLachlan on

It’s easy to drink too much in Las Vegas. Hell, they want you to drink too much. As Hunter S. Thompson observed in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, “In this town they love a drunk. Fresh meat.”

Not only do bosomy waitresses offer free drinks to gullible dupes who don’t understand statistics classy high rollers, but pretty much all the bars and restaurants have cheap booze.

It makes for a great evening, but the morning after can be hell. That’s when REVIV–The Hydration Medspa comes to the rescue. Their slogan is, “What life takes out of you REVIV gives right back.” Founded by four emergency room physicians and staffed by registered nurses and paramedics, this spa specializes in rehydrating people who have had a bit too much fun in the sun.

Once you stagger through their doors, REVIV staff will sit you down in a plush leather message chair and offer you one of a number of IV treatments to get fluid, vitamins, and minerals straight into your system.

If you’re simply dehydrated, a liter of saline solution and electrolytes (aka the HydraMax Hydration Infusion) may be just the thing for you. More serious cases might opt for the MegaBoost Wellness Infusion, where the patient also gets vitamins, antioxidants, and and “immunity boost”. If your system is making you look and feel like the Toxic Avenger, go for the UltraVive Recovery Infusion, which adds B12, anti-nausea and anti-inflammatory medicines into the mix. These IV injections start at $99. For something a little less radical you can set the QuickFix oral treatment for $49.

Hmm, maybe that slogan should be, “What Vegas takes out of you REVIV takes a little more.”

If you find yourself hungover somewhere other than Vegas, or if you simply don’t want to fork over large sums of money to pay for your mistakes, you can either try to absorb the toxins at a buffet or check out these hangover cures from around the world.

Happy drinking!

[Via The Los Angeles Times]

How To Stay Healthy On Spring Break

by Laurel Miller on

Whether you’re a beach-bound college student or a middle-aged couple headed to the Rockies for some end-of-season snow, spring break presents the same health risks every year. Fortunately, they’re all easily preventable by using common sense and following a few basic rules.

This year, here’s hoping your only souvenirs are great photos and even better memories.

Hangover helpers
You could just watch your alcohol consumption, or try drinking a glass of water in between drinks, but I hear you laughing. Try to maintain, especially if you’re in a foreign country, traveling alone or at altitude. If I wake up with a hangover that not even a truckload of Tylenol can cure (it’s also not good for your liver when taken in combination with booze), I swear by coconut water, which is loaded with electrolytes. Don’t forget to consume regular water, as well, and get something in your stomach that’s full of complex carbs and protein, not grease (sorry).

Adjust for altitude
Regardless of your physical condition, altitude sickness can strike anyone. Give yourself a couple of days to acclimate, hydrate frequently and take ibuprofen, aspirin or even Diamox if you’re really feeling bad. Watch your alcohol consumption! One drink has the effect of two (see above if you ignore this advice).

Prevent food- or waterborne illness
Far be it from me to tell anyone to avoid street food, unless they have a compromised immune system, or are very old or young. You can safely enjoy street eats in foreign countries, as long as you know what to look for. If a stall or vendor doesn’t have a line, or their sanitation practices are poor, give it a miss; the same rule applies to restaurants (just because gringos flock there doesn’t mean it’s safe). As for water, I avoid ice cubes in rural areas and from street vendors, and always check bottled water in developing nations to make sure the seal isn’t broken. Don’t forget to travel with Imodium, because nothing is ever foolproof.

Save your skin
Yes, you need to wear sunscreen, even if it’s cloudy, rainy or snowing, and you need to reapply it thoroughly every two hours. Wear a minimum SPF 30 broad spectrum product. Ask your dermatologist for referrals; not all brands are created equal.

Be self-aware
Being drunk n’ sloppy is never attractive, but it can also be downright dangerous. Know your limit, stick with you friends if you’re not traveling solo, and if you (ahem) get separated, maintain phone contact, let them know where you are and who you’re with, and when they can expect you back. We’ve all had a spring fling, but safety should always come first.

[Photo credit: Flickr user dbrekke]@

Hangover Cures: A Global Primer

by Laurel Miller on

New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, so what better time to provide a list of hangover cures from around the world? Our friends at Alice Marshall Public Relations in New York asked some of their clients about local versions of hair-of-the-dog. Unsurprisingly, the preferred remedies all have a distinctly regional flavor. Here’s to a headache-and-nausea-free January 1!

St. Barts
On this notorious party island, the secret is to stay awake. Pull an all-nighter, and when “the bakery” in St. Jean opens, score a croissant straight out of the oven. Devour it, cross the street and jump into the ocean.

Thailand
Although I’ve found coconut water to be the best hangover helper in existence, Thailand has a more original cure. According to the Anantara Golden Triangle resort, Black Ivory Coffee (aka elephant dung coffee, which I believe puts kopi luwak to shame) is what does the trick. Elephants feed on coffee beans, which then ferment in their gastrointestinal tract.

The beans are then plucked out by the mahouts (elephant keepers) and their wives, roasted, and sold for approximately $1,100 per kilogram. But wait, there’s more! Eight percent of all sales are donated to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. No reason is given for why this cure supposedly helps, but I’m thinking this folklore is full of … you know.
Maldives
As if being in the glorious Maldives weren’t cure enough, Naladhu luxury resort has my kind of cure in mind (that’s me, right, killing a hangover in Mexico). They provide queasy guests with fresh coconut water from their own groves. All those electrolytes along with potassium stop hangovers in their tracks.

Cape Town
According to chef Reuben Riffel of One&Only Cape Town, a swank urban resort, you need to drink yourself better. His solution is an alcohol-free tonic consisting of one cup of chilled Rooibos tea (an indigenous plant), a half-cup ginger ale, and 1 ounce of lemongrass simple syrup. Top with soda water, and a dash of Angostura bitters.

Santa Fe
After many visits to Santa Fe, I’ll swear by the local’s cure for a long night. A green chile cheeseburger is the prescription, although I’d add that a bowl of great posole, green chile, or a breakfast burrito also work wonders.

Nantucket
Nantucket Island Resorts recommends a brisk swim in Nantucket Sound, followed by a visit to Brant Point Grill for a Lobster Bloody Mary and lobster kabobs. Now we’re talking.

Have a safe, happy, hangover-free New Year’s!

[Photo credits: elephant, Flickr user rubund; coconut, Laurel Miller]

Intrigued by Black Ivory Coffee? Watch this video!


Gadling’s hangover cures

by Sean McLachlan on

Sooner or later it will happen to you on a trip. You’ll drink too much schnapps, or ouzo, or chang, or tej, and you’ll wake up the next morning feeling like your brain is two sizes too big for your skull and your mouth was indecently violated by The Mummy.

A hangover is one of the worst types of traveler’s illness because it’s self-inflicted. Luckily every country that has a local branch of hooch (and that’s most countries) has a local remedy. Here in Spain, someone suffering from a reseca should go to a cafe and order a tostada con tomate. This is toast with a bit of olive oil topped with tomato puree and salt. It’s best taken with some strong coffee. The Scots like drinking their national soft drink Irn-Bru. In England people have a traditional fry-up, with baked beans, toast, sausage, bacon, tomato, and mushrooms. Lots of carbohydrates is one school of thought for curing a hangover, although Vitamin C is also a common cure.

When I asked the rugged, hard-drinking travelers here at Gadling, I got plenty of suggestions. One blogger gave her personal recipe as “Emergen-C, carbs, a nap, a shower, more carbs.” Others suggested the “hair of the dog.” Two said a few Bloody Marys work best, mixed either with eggs Benedict and greasy hash browns or a nap. The Mexicans have a variation on the Bloody Mary cure called the michelada that sounds like it should work pretty well. I wish I had known about it after a certain tequila night in Nogales.

Gadling readers offered some favorite cures too. In Wisconsin, with its history of German and Scandinavian immigrants, the traditional remedy is sauerkraut juice. I can’t imagine stomaching such a thing the morning after a pub crawl, but with its salt, liquid, and vitamins C and B6, I can see how it would work. More palatable is ice cream or chocolate milk to get your blood sugar level up quickly. Chocolate before going to bed is said to give you crazy dreams as it flushes the alcohol out of your system more quickly but you’ll wake up feeling OK.

The main causes of a hangover are dehydration, vitamin B deficiency, and the toxins in the booze you guzzled the previous night, so the best cure is preventative: drink quality stuff and before going to bed have plenty of water and some vitamin B tablets. I’ve noticed that a night on the town enjoying quality British real ale gives me a pain-free morning, while drinking regular lager destroys me.

For more international cures, check out this handy National Geographic diagram. If all else fails join The Prohibition Party. Yep, they’re still around!

SkyMall Monday: Headache Relieving Wrap

by Mike Barish on

The SkyMall Monday Headquarters has an extensive liquor cabinet. But when that runs dry, I like to head to my favorite neighborhood dive bar and drink until this product makes sense to me. Writing about futuristic SkyMall products for a living is fun, but, during my leisure time, I like to keep things simple at a dingy pub with cheap whiskey and even cheaper women. But all that drinking can lead to some pretty epic hangovers. It’s pretty hard to focus on driving my go-kart when my head is throbbing (Note: I never drive my go-kart when drunk. That’s when I take my Hoverboard.) So, how do I power through the hangovers and get back to testing the SkyMall products that are making our lives easier? I could simply pop pills or gulp down Bloody Marys until everything feels numb, but my therapist says that self-medicating is not a healthy coping mechanism. Instead, I treat my headaches externally. That may seem strange, but if i can’t trust the medical advice of SkyMall, who can I trust? That’s why I treat all of my hangovers by strapping on a big old Headache Relieving Wrap.Sure, it would be great if I met some whore at the dive bar who would massage my head the next morning. I mean, if I’m going to pay her $38 dollars (plus a breath mint), the least she could do is rub my temples until I stop crying. But, in lieu of that, I wrap this band around my head after heating up the accompanying gel packs. The heat and pressure work together to help me forget the shots of well whiskey from the night before. Actually, those shots usually make me forget things, but the wrap helps me forget the headache that accompanied them.

Think that I should quit drinking? You’re not the boss of me! You’re not even my real father! But since you don’t believe that I have things under control and know what’s best for me, take a look at the SkyMall product description:

The unit straps comfortably to your head and provides a soothing, consistent pressure that gently compresses blood vessels…

I’m engorged with enthusiasm over this product.

Look, you could quit drinking. You could eat healthy, go to sleep early and find a partner who values and supports you. But that’s the easy way out. It takes a tough bastard to stick to your guns and wrap an insulated headband on your dome every morning.

So, the next time you’re in New York City, join me for some cheap whiskey, a few cans of beer and a good cry. We can compress our blood vessels together in the morning.

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.