Snowbird travel with eye drops

If you winter in Florida, Arizona or another warm state, you can keep using Quell by entering your winter address at checkout; it ships anywhere in the United States, but not abroad. Pack enough for the drive or flight down and the first weeks there, keep bottles out of a hot or freezing car, and expect desert air to feel drier than the Gulf Coast.

Changing your shipping address for the winter

Each Quell order ships to the address entered for that order, so there’s nothing to update in an account or a subscription: there’s no subscription, and checkout works without an account. When you head south, enter your winter address on your next order. When you go home in spring, enter the home address again.

• Check the address before you pay, especially if your browser autofills your northern one.
• Put the unit, lot or site number on the second line for a condo, RV park or manufactured-home community.
• Some communities hold packages at a clubhouse or office. Add a name the office will recognize.
• If you use mail forwarding, it’s usually simpler to order straight to the winter address than to rely on forwarding.

Shipping to a holiday address covers temporary addresses in more detail.

How many bottles to pack for months away

The directions set the pace: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Each bottle holds .33 fl oz (10 mL). How long that lasts depends on how many drops actually reach the eye, which varies, so count your own pace at home for a few weeks before the trip; how long a bottle lasts walks through it. Then pack enough to cover the trip down and a cushion for the first stretch in your winter home, and plan to reorder from there.

Shipping is $10.00, or free on orders of $89.00 or more, which covers 3 bottles. Because no delivery date is promised, place the first winter order soon after you arrive rather than when the packed bottles run out. Quell sends one reminder email when it may be time to reorder.

The drive south: keeping bottles in range

Many snowbirds drive, and a car is hard on a bottle in both directions. Quell’s label says: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). Leaving the north in late fall, a car parked at a motel through a frosty night can drop below that range. Arriving in the South, a car in a sunny lot can climb well above it within an hour.

• Keep the bottle you’re using in a bag that comes into the motel room and the restaurant with you.
• Pack spares inside a suitcase in the passenger area, not in a rooftop carrier or the trunk.
• If you bring a cooler, keep the drops out of direct contact with ice.
• Use drops at rest stops, not while you’re driving, and wash your hands first.

Flying down with eye drops

TSA’s 3-1-1 rule limits carry-on liquids to containers of 3.4 ounces (100 mL) or less, packed in one quart-size bag. A bottle of Quell holds .33 fl oz (10 mL), well under that. Keeping it in your carry-on means it stays with you, and in reach, for the whole trip. Traveling with eye drops has the rest of the airport details.

Desert air vs. the Gulf Coast

Where you winter changes how dry the air feels. NOAA’s Comparative Climatic Data table, which averages relative humidity by month, shows the contrast clearly:

• Phoenix: January averages 60 percent in the morning and 33 percent in the afternoon. By March, afternoons average 23 percent.
• Fort Myers, Florida: January averages 89 percent in the morning and 55 percent in the afternoon. March afternoons average 50 percent.

In Arizona, the outdoor air itself is dry, and a round of golf or a desert hike can leave your eyes scratchy. On the Florida coast the outside air is humid, but people spend long stretches in air-conditioned homes, cars and stores, and that cooled air is drier than the air outside. Either way, wraparound sunglasses outdoors and vents aimed away from your face indoors make a difference.

Wintering outside the United States

Quell ships to US addresses only, so it can’t go to a winter home in Mexico, the Caribbean or elsewhere. If you split the season between a US address and somewhere abroad, order to the US address and pack what you need. Any buyer 18 or older can send an order to a US winter address, wherever home is the rest of the year. For questions about bringing drops across a border, ask that country’s customs authority.

Seeing a doctor away from home

If your eyes bother you in a new way after the move south, or the dryness keeps going despite the change of climate, find an eye doctor near your winter home rather than waiting for spring. The label says when to stop and get help: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.