Most travellers' stomach upsets are avoidable, and the usual advice is only half right.
Drink bottled water and check the seal is intact when it is handed to you. That is the whole of the water rule, and resort hotels supply it constantly.

Ice is the more nuanced question. In hotels and established restaurants it is made from filtered water and is fine; from a street cart or a beach stall it may not be. The same logic applies to salads and cut fruit — the risk is the rinsing water, not the food.
What actually causes most upsets is neither: it is the abrupt change of diet, buffet food kept warm too long, and dehydration. Drink far more water than you think you need in this climate, and go easy on the first buffet.


If there is fever or blood, or it lasts beyond forty-eight hours, see a doctor — hotel doctors are quick, competent and used to exactly this.
Pack rehydration sachets and take them at the first sign of trouble rather than waiting. Most episodes resolve in a day. If there is fever or blood, or it lasts beyond forty-eight hours, see a doctor — hotel doctors are quick, competent and used to exactly this.

