Said It Here

How to handle terrible air pollution when traveling

Severe air pollution in densely populated cities can feel overwhelming and damaging to your respiratory health, leaving travelers feeling trapped by the toxic conditions. This constant worry prevents people from fully enjoying their trips and makes outdoor sightseeing stressful or impossible.

Overview
People affected3 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found3 items attempted
Community agreement17,161 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    relying on a translation app
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    traveling outside the major cities to natural landscapes
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    learning a minimal amount of the local language before traveling
    Did this help you?

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/travel3 people · June 2026

“The air pollution was terrible. I've traveled to more than 20 countries, and it was the worst air quality I've ever experienced.”source ↗

“It honestly felt like if I lived here for a year, I’d lose about 10 years off my life from respiratory problems.”source ↗

Dazzling_War864 · r/travel · 16,331 upvotes

“The only real problem I see here is the air pollution.”source ↗

Antoine-Antoinette · r/travel · 479 upvotes

“I’m there right now and I finally cracked a bit today with the random creep shots and staring.”source ↗

SovietPenguin69 · r/travel · 390 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised