First… what is travel sick?
The younger sibling of road weary and a first cousin to home sick, travel sick is what happens to everyone after a few months on the road.
The initial excitement and momentum that propelled you out of the house initially gets blunted by the day-to-day necessities of travel:
- Another overnight bus trip.
- A bus-to-train-to-taxi-to-plane full day of travel.
- Staying in a new bed every night.
- Sleeping in bunk beds in dorm-style hostel rooms to save a few bucks.
- Wearing the same two shirt and pants combinations in every picture.
Months of facing these realities of travel always leads a traveler to ask the next question…
How To Cure (The Inevitable) Case Of Travel Sickness
The equilibrium point between travel sickness and travel ecstasy.
Travel sickness kicks in on a long-term trip when the monotonous realities of travel become more unbearable then the ecstatic joy received by visiting a new place.
It is a very simple math equation: When Annoyance About Travel > Joy From Travel = Travel Sick
But the cure is easy.
Stop.
Don’t go home and quit your journey. Just stop the travel part for awhile.
Find a nice apartment to stay in a place you have always wanted to visit and book it for at least 2 weeks.
Make sure everything you need is close by.
If you like partying, be near a few bars.
Same if you like museums.
The trick is to just find a place where you can settle in for a few weeks and just BE.
The magic of this cure is that it completely reboots all of your travel momentum that was lost from the months of moving from place to place.
You enjoy where you are. You enjoy just being.
What We Did When We Came Down With Travel Sickness
We made a list of everything we were looking for in our next location, found it, and did not leave for 5 weeks.
5 weeks?!?!
I know… we might have gotten a little carried away, but it was definitely an incredible experience to just melt into a place after the months of just scratching the surface of city after city.
We found our cure one hour south of Split, Croatia in a little town of 300 people called Drasnice.
We were the only tourists in town (besides a special guest appearance by TwoOregonians) and lived 10 meters from the beach with easy access to beautiful sunsets every night and incredibly fast internet. What else did we need?
How about living above a bar? Oh yeah… check that off of the “dreams I never thought I would realize” list.
Add in the amazing fresh markets all over the coast of Croatia and we were cured of every bit of travel sickness.
5 weeks was longer than we needed to cure ourselves of being Travel Sick, but we fell in love with the Croatian coast and were able to have a few excellent culinary adventures along the way… not too shabby.
Your Turn: When traveling long-term, how do you not get jaded? What are your tricks for keeping your travel bug alive and kicking even after all those hours of sleeping in airports?
Quit his job to try actually following his dreams for once... and is currently loving it. He is working hard to to make this life-style permanent by writing about his adventures and brainstorming money making opportunities with his partner-in-crime, Meg.
Drasnice sounds like SUCH a nice place. Were you close to Omiš or Makarska? We stopped in those towns.
Having a base in the UK has given me a respite from travel sickness, but it’s a double-edged sword — when I travel, I’m Crazy Travel Girl, but when I’m in the Chester, I’m a lump who stays in on her computer all day and spends her nights watching multiple episodes of awesome TV shows. It’s a habit I need to break….
I agree on the double-edged sword — I’m the same way in Paris. Don’t think it’s a terrible thing, you can’t be go-go-go all the time. Sometimes you just need a couple weeks of Arrested Development and couch-potatoing!
A couple of weeks of Arrested Development sounds perfect!
I think the danger is when people become slaves to travel. You definitely have to listen to your instincts so that you don’t get burned out. Totally acceptable to just chill for a bit.
We were about 10 minutes just south of Makarska. Went there once a week for some better produce. It was so beautiful and quiet since it was before the summer rush.
I’m the EXACT same way. When i’m on the go, I love to see and do stuff. But at home? Totally home body who loves to crack a beer and just watch amazing tv shows all day. Travel confession… Meg just got me hooked on Vampire Diaries. Great show to watch while traveling…
You think it’s a bad habit? Sounds like you have the perfect life!
what a great post! im not really a long term traveler by any means, but i completely sympathize with what youre saying and ive only been traveling one month in asia. im not tired of it by any means, but im eager to get home. ill never be one that can take the road for a year…but stopping and relaxing at a new place can take off so much of that stress and those feelings…and you actually learn a place through and through in the process without even realizing it.
Sometimes just traveling for shorter periods of time can be even worse! If you only have two weeks, you force yourself to see everything you can. You tolerate it because you know you only have two weeks, but there is a definite risk of burnout.
The best part about stopping in one place for awhile is the people. You feel like you become a part of the community. I actually got a skype request from the bartender we lived above the other day… although that might actually say something more about my drinking habits
Love the travel tips.
The ultimate sick travel story though has gotta be Tony’s Rooster story . . .
Sorry, I confused this with the recent post about actually getting sick while traveling. Like . . . you know.
hahahaha yeah… I know. I’m disgusting.
Wow… you just launched croatia to the top of my visit list.
It really should be…. same incredible food and wine as italy at half the price and 1/3 the tourists… You have to go!
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