Staying hydrated on the road is hard to do. Well, it’s hard to do without sucking down a bunch of tap water anyway.

You can always swing by the front desk and their little market and scoop up a bunch of bottles of water. What’s that cost? $3 per bottle if you’re lucky? What about the bottles that are already in your room? We’ve all made it to our room with 60 lbs of luggage and snatched up that bottle only to read the label while we’re chugging that says “please enjoy this water, but know that we’re going to charge you a babillion dollars when we realize it’s gone.”

Forget all that nonsense; I have a solution. Bring a water bottle with you. I always carry my Lifeline 40 oz Steel Bottle with me. It slips into my backpack and as long as I don’t try to go through security with liquid in it, I get no grief.

Okay, you have a water bottle. You’re still left with tap water, right? No ma’am. Head down to the gym. Every hotel that I’ve stayed in that at least had a hamster wheel also had a water bottle with those little paper cups. Fill ‘er up as often as you need to!

This works especially well on-site with a customer. When I walk into a new office I want to know two things: 1) where’s the water cooler, and 2) where’s the bathroom. After that it’s smooth sailing.