The biohacks, face scanners and DNA testing kits set to change travel.

In the not too distant future, travellers won’t have to worry about forgeting their passport, having their wallet stolen in Rio de Janeiro or waking up at 4.00am reeling from the effects of flying through multiple time zones. We will soon be in the era of biotravel, a time when your physiology is your ID and credit card and when a simple system reboot can cure all malaises.

From face recognition to microchip implants, there is a swathe of innovations that promise to elevate us to digitised demigods (well, sort of). A simple smile or wave of the hand will allow us all to travel stress free.

Tech experts are finding ways to integrate facial scanners into our environments to make moving through areas where queues build up more seamless. Later this year, Terminal 3 at Dubai Airport will unveil a tunnel lined with virtual aquariums and 80 3D face-scanning cameras that will replace conventional passport control. The idea is that when people turn their heads to look at the fish, the authorities will be able to capture their faces and compare them to their records (passengers will need to sign up to use it an advance).

British Airways has also been experimenting with paperless facial analysis at check-in and boarding gates. Heathrow Terminal 5 already has it and various US airports, including Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami and New York JFK, are putting it to the test. If successful, this could spell an end to being quizzed and fingerprinted on arrival. Meanwhile, Spanish company Roommatik has brought FaceIDNN technology to hotel check-in desks, so guests can bypass waiting at reception for their room key.

Home DNA testing is now easy and affordable, with companies such as 23andMe, MyHeritage and DNAFit giving the curious-minded a chance to unlock their genetic blueprint simply by sending off a sample of their saliva. These tests analyse an individual’s unique genetic markers, revealing things such as whether they are intolerant to gluten. They also provide a detailed breakdown of your ethnic background, too.

This has led to a rising trend for ancestry trips. People are journeying to places they discover they have roots, sometimes to make links with distant relatives, but more often than not to gain an insight into the places and cultures that contributed to making them who they are. Last autumn, Go Ahead Tours launched guided ancestry tours to Germany, Italy and Ireland, in partnership with AncestryDNA. Participants are guided by a professional genealogist who can help them understand what life was like for their forebears with visits to old churches, ancient sites and traditonal restaurants.

The ultimate travel biohack comes in the form of microchip implants roughly the size of a grain of rice that are inserted below the skin in your hand or wrist. These can then be used as scannable transport cards (like the Oyster travelcard in London), digital hotel keys, boarding passes, a means of contactless payment and even embeddable passports with all your ID information. After a body-piercing expert has neatly embedded the RFID/NFC (radio frequency identification/near field communication) chip with a syringe, you can even set it up to be linked with your bank account, for example, with a unique ID number.

An implant may not be one for the squeamish, but thousands of people in Sweden have already signed up to have them permanently placed inside their bodies. Co-working space Epicentre in Stockholm was an early adopter (and enabler, hosting “chip ’n’ beer” parties), followed by the Swedish national rail company SJ, which now sends e-tickets to people’s implants. In February, Pause Fest for entrepreneurs in Melbourne, Australia, offered attendees “injectable tickets” that could be scanned with a smartphone to gain admission to the event. In 2016, biohacker Mr Andreas Sjostrom programmed his microchip with his flight ticket information, which allowed him to pass through the airport and board a plane. If only we could get over our fear of needles.

How many times have you complained about the hours or even days you have lost recovering from a long-haul flight, or a hangover, on holiday? A growing number of people are turning to medical professionals to help them overcome the physical strains of travel. For example, American outfit IV Doc has a team of nurses on hand to come to your hotel room, office or Airbnb in a range of US destinations, including San Francisco, LA and the Hamptons, as well as London and Ibiza. They administer an intravenous cocktail of fluids, anti-inflammatories and multivitamins to get you back on track. The Jet Lag Relief IV Hydration package costs £419 and claims to be the “ultimate jet-lag cure”, but there are also treatments for food poisoning, migraines and “beautifying” before a big night out.

Other providers include the NutriDrip lounge in New York, The Cure LA and Boost Hydration in California and Mexico. In Las Vegas, you can call up Hangover Heaven, which not only has a mobile clinic, but will send a practitioner to your room to wire you up to a rejuvenating IV drip. It will also deliver Gatorade, pain killers, anti-nausea medication and give you a vitamin B injection in your posterior to leave you raring to go to your next pool party or poker tournament.