Travel is one of the most energising and stimulating experiences you can do in your life.
You are exposed to a new world, a way of life different to some degree from your life at home.
You don’t need to go far. It can just be a weekend away out of town. Or, it could be long-term travel around the world for a year or two.
The one thing that all type of travel has in common is coming home.
Coming home can be difficult. One minute you are sipping Mai Tai’s in Hawaii, the next minute you are back at the desk for the Monday work meeting.
Your adventure seems to have ended in a flash. Often what has been a dream for years has come and gone so quickly that it hardly seems to have happened at all. It’s hard.
The Post-Travel Blues can be a difficult time, but I’ve learned some strategies to deal with these feelings of anxiety and sadness that come with the end of a holiday.
In this article, I share my nine best tips to beat the Post-Travel Blues.
Let’s dive in
Get Out Your Travel Photos!
Relive those memories as soon as you get home.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but by swiping through your travel photos, you can recapture the emotions and relive some of your travel memories while they are still fresh.
Try and remember the small details in the photos. The drink in your hand, or the view you enjoyed at the time.
Relive those moments in your head as you do. Through your device in your pocket, you can relive those emotions again. Travel photos take you back into the moment and stir up those beautiful holiday memories.
Browsing travel photos are the best way to recapture that holiday feeling. I have always found it instills a deep sense of gratitude for the experiences of my trip away too.
Those memories are there for life. Treasure them.
Book or Plan Your Next Trip
The second best thing to going on a trip is planning the next one.
Either booking or planning your next trip is the ultimate cure to the travel blues. If you don’t know where you will go next, you can start my favourite part of travelling – researching new destinations.
Dive into YouTube, Travel Blogs and social media to get some new ideas. The information world we live in allows us to access the world easier than we ever have.
Most of us aren’t in a position to book a trip straight away, but that’s cool, don’t let that stop you from dreaming and plotting your future adventures.
Many of us have had an enforced break from travel due to Covid. It sucked. Many travel plans were ruined – for all of us. What kept me going was the anticipation of future adventures.
The sooner you get excited about your next trip, the quicker the Post-Travel Blues from your last one will disappear.
Display Your Souvenirs
Keep your souvenirs somewhere you can see them.
The souvenirs could be something simple like fridge magnets, postcards or whatever souvenirs you picked up on your travels.
By having something physical to touch or look at regularly from your trip, you can relive a small part of your travel experiences every day.
I have a fridge covered in magnets from cities and countries from all over the world. I have a rock from Everest Base Camp on my bedside table. Every souvenir always makes me smile a bit inside.
When you get home, don’t stuff your souvenirs in a drawer, never to be seen again.
Use them as a reminder of the memories you created.
Be a Tourist At Home
Get out and about and play tourist in your own backyard.
When you are on holiday away from home, your days can be full of fun activities and adventures.
Your adventures don’t have to stop when you come home.
In the first week or two of your return home, plan a day trip somewhere closer to home. It could be a nature walk, a trip to the beach or even just a nice lunch somewhere new.
The Post-Travel Blues occur when you return to your ‘normal’ world. Your world of routine. By changing your routine at home when you return, you can keep a sense of adventure in your home life.
Take the curious mindset you have on your travels and use it at home.
Don't Rush Back to Work
If you can, try to schedule at least one free day before returning to work.
‘But that day I could have spent on holiday!’ I hear you say.
That statement is true – it is a difficult thing to argue. However, having a day between your holiday and return to work allows you to have an easier transition between the fun of your holiday experience and your return to normality.
When returning to work the next day, my Post-Travel Blues were usually horrible – I was still in holiday mode. Sitting at a desk staring blankly at a screen, wishing I was somewhere else.
By taking an extra day or two, I would return to work in a far better frame of mind.
Connect with Friends and Family
The Post-Travel Blues is a mental challenge, nothing more.
An effective strategy is to keep your mind occupied instead of allowing your mind to drift into wishing you were still on holiday.
This is where your friends and family come in. When you return, get in touch and arrange to catch up!
They will probably be interested in your holiday too, so it’s a perfect opportunity to reminisce on some of your travel memories. Just don’t be the person who annoys everyone by talking about their holiday too much.
Life will have moved on in your absence. Hearing about what has gone on will help bring you back into the present and might help you enjoy being home again.
By keeping your mind occupied and busy with friends and family, you can reduce the effects of the Post-Travel Blues.
Read Travel Books
Reading travel books is the best way of immersing yourself in the world without leaving home.
Travel writing is one of the oldest forms of literary writing out there. Dating back to the ancient Greeks, travel writers have written about adventures and recorded their inspiring travels for centuries. From the humour of Bill Bryson to the global adventures of Paul Theroux, travel writing has inspired me to visit new places for years.
If long-form reading isn’t your thing, be sure to check out the image-heavy Lonely Planet series. They make perfect coffee table reading. Lonely Planet books have inspired many of my own adventures.
Travel writing has expanded to travel blogs (like mine!), where it is easy to access millions of travel stories to inspire your next trip.
Books remain the best option in my opinion. There is a reason why the travel section at your local library is still a popular one.
For a little inspiration, my number one recommendation is ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. An inspiring read about following your dreams.
Eat Like a Traveller at Home
One of the most memorable parts of any travel experience is the food.
From the street food tastes and aromas in Thailand to sizzling steaks in South America, if you close your eyes for a moment, you can take yourself back to that restaurant or food cart instantly.
The next best thing is to have a go at recreating the experience at home. Yes, it won’t quite be the real thing, but it can get pretty close.
We can access millions of recipes online. If you are lucky, you might have specific cooking classes in your local city. Who knows, you might uncover a skill that you never thought you had.
When dining out, go beyond your travel experiences and try the food from somewhere you have never been. It might be on a recommendation, or somewhere you have just seen in passing.
By expanding your dining options, you might inspire your next travel journey when you need the inspiration the most.
Embrace Your Home Comforts
Coming home at the end of a memorable holiday can be hard. Or it can be the best thing.
Often, there is very little in between. Either way, an effective tool for dealing with the Post-Travel Blues is to embrace your home – your home comforts.
The familiarity of your comfy bed or your soft couch is a comfort most of us have to some degree. As nice as some hotels or Airbnb’s are, nothing beats some of the comforts of home.
Enjoy those comforts. Learn to appreciate them and use them while you plan your next trip.
The Post-Travel Blues are simply a matter of mindset and finding strategies to make your post-trip experience a positive one, instead of a negative one.
These feelings do pass in time – quicker than you might expect. The key is to find different ways to enjoy being home.
Now it is over to you. What are your strategies for dealing with the Post-Travel Blues?
Let me know in the comments.
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