On vacation you might deal with traffic. Or crowds. Definitely high prices.

And germs. Someone else's germs.

"You touch more surfaces, like elevator buttons and shared TV remotes, and you share space with more people," says University of Arizona environmental microbiologist Charles Gerba."You're exposed to many more germs." Here are some other places where you should watch out for germs.

On Picnics

You know who uses picnic tables? Birds. You know how they use them? As a public restroom. So always use a tablecloth. Make sure to wash your hands (and your kids' hands) or use hand sanitizer before enjoying a picnic, specially because they might be covered with fecal bacteria from tossing around a volleyball that's been rolling in the dirt.

When dining al fresco on a hot day, skip anything with a creamy salad dressing. Yup, that means the potato salad. Certain bacteria are drawn to the high salt and sugar content of these dressings. Any fruits and vegetables should stay out in the sun for no longer than 30 minutes. Bacteria can easily double in that amount of time, Gerba says. After that, put them back on ice.

If you know someone is getting over a cold, keep them away from the ice chest. One sick person can spread illness to everyone else through contaminated ice.

Be wary of where you place those reusable (generally cloth, canvas, or heavy plastic) grocery bags you're using to transport your picnic foods, which can pick up viruses from infected floors, like in the bathroom and kitchen. In Oregon, one of those bags rested on the floor of a bathroom used by a young girl with diarrhea. The virus was transferred from the sick girl in the bathroom to the bag to the girls who ate the cookies that had been in the bag. Also, these bags can host E. coli if they have carried raw meat, Gerba warns. Wash them often.

In Hotel Rooms, on Ships, and in Crowded Spaces

While hotels have regular maid service, some areas and objects never get cleaned, like the TV remote, Gerba says. To be extra careful, wipe down the remote before using it. Same goes for the phone.

Amusement parks are covered with germs. People throw up on sidewalks, on rides, in the bathrooms. Other people use bushes or areas under the boardwalk as restrooms.

So always use hand sanitizer and wash your hands regularly, specially before taking a bite of that funnel cake.

At Public Swimming Pools

The number of swimming-associated outbreaks has skyrocketed in the United States, largely because of a parasite called cryptosporidiosis, which is resistant to chlorine. To prevent spreading or catching the germ, U.S. Centers for Disease Control suggests that you should not swim while ill with diarrhea, avoid swallowing pool water, and shower with soap before swimming, the CDC recommends.

Rather than going to the big public pool, try using hotel and motel pools or apartment pools, which have fewer users, and less chance for bad bugs, adds Gerba. Morning is the best time to swim because that's when the pool gets the lightest use

Your Office Isn't Any Cleaner

Wait, don't cancel your trip yet! Your Memorial Day getaway isn't the only place you should watch out for viruses; so is your office, another study says.

Break rooms and kitchens at offices top the list of germ hot spots in a recent study done by Kimberly-Clark Professional, a washroom product company. The sink and microwave door handles were the dirtiest surfaces, according to the study. The research is based on about 5,000 swabs from office buildings with more than 3,000 employees.

Other areas found to have high levels of contamination include breakroom faucet handles, microwave door handles, keyboards, refrigerator door handles, water fountain buttons, and vending machines.

Half of all computer mice and desk phones were also teeming with bacteria.

“People are aware of the risk of germs in the restroom, but areas like break rooms have not received the same degree of attention,” said Gerba, who was a research consultant for the report. “This study demonstrates that contamination can be spread throughout the workplace when office workers heat up lunch, make coffee, or simply type on their keyboards.”

Workers should regularly wipe down kitchen handles and use hand sanitizers regularly to prevent spreading germs, Gerba recommends.