Travel Burnout and How To Deal With Homesickness During Long-Term Travel

All photos featured in this story have been taken on my many travels during 2019

It’s been the experience of a lifetime. Visiting family in Japan for the New Year, exploring the Isle of Skye, moving between London and the Peak District, living in Russia and traveling through the winter months. Now, I’m about to leave on a six month placement in the Swiss Alps - and I don’t want to go.

Towards the end of my travels in Russia, I felt my mood drop. I became more anxious, and instead of exploring the area I was living in, started staying inside more and more. Sleeping more but feeling increasingly tired, I identified the problem - I was suffering from travel burnout.

According to Global Goose the term travel burnout:

“describes a certain malaise caused by traveling too long – a melancholy exhaustion with life on the road. Sooner or later, the excitement fades and a long stint of travel can become difficult to endure.”

Essentially, travel burnout is when you get tired of travelling.

Whilst travelling as much as I do is a huge privilege, long term travel without a permanent home to which I can return means that I constantly feel displaced and, to some degree, uncomfortable. Constantly packing and unpacking, moving between houses every few weeks, you can start to feel homesick and miss having a base and more than three pairs of trousers.

It’s an expensive and tiresome routine: fill in paperwork for the visas, buy flights, book accommodation, browse countless travel books and guides, pack your things, get a bus to the airport, get through security, customs and immigration, board a plane, land in a new country, decode the new language, find your way to your accommodation, unpack, figure out where you are in relation to the places you want to see - then, finally, explore.

Oftentimes, once the travel part of a trip is done, all you want to do once you've checked in to the accommodation is sleep. The last thing on your mind is going out and exploring the new city or town you've just arrived in.

This is problematic on many levels:

Firstly, the guilt. If you don't take advantage of the opportunity that you've been afforded, and feel the pressure to have a perfect trip. This can lead to a strong feeling of guilt, that you're not making the most of an experience that you've spent lots of time and money planning.

Secondly, you start to dread packing your bags and getting on another bus or train or aeroplane to get to where you need to be next.

Following a long year of moving around every other week, from city to city, country to country, here's some advice that I'm giving myself ahead of starting a new year of travel.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

For me, travel has become synonymous with feeling uncomfortable - all the damn time. Whether it's struggling to communicate in a foreign language, not being able something vegetarian to eat, or getting lost under because your maps don't work - sometimes travel is just not ideal, and that's okay. Some of the best stories I have from my travels are about when things went a little wrong.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself, and remember that a little stress and discomfort sort of comes with the gig.

Take a bit of home with you

Don't take that extra pair of shoes you're not sure whether or not you'll wear. Instead use the valuable space in your suitcase to pack something that reminds you of something familiar - for me it's my favourite mug and the teas that I drink at home. You can also take your favourite pair of socks or slippers, photos of your family, friends or favourite places - anything that makes you feel a little closer to home.

Facetime / Skype

Modern technology has revolutionised the way that we communicate. Now we can conjure up the faces of our family and friends from thousands of miles away on a little screen.

Whilst I found that sometimes the ability to talk to my loved ones at home made me feel more homesick, overall I think it helped how I felt, being able to tell them about where I'd been and how I was feeling was so beneficial.

Take it slow

There's nothing wrong with taking a slightly slower approach to travel, especially if you're spending a while in one place. Want to sleep in one day? That's fine! Want to just go to one tourist attraction or sit in a coffee shop instead of cramming five locations into one day? That's fine too!

Make sure if you're travelling for more than a week or so that you schedule into your itinerary a day to to nothing. It will help you recharge your batteries and enjoy the rest of your trip a lot more.

Keep up your hobbies

One thing that I began to feel during my four month placement in Russia was a loss of identity. Thankfully, I am a photographer, which means my 'hobby' is very portable. This helped me feel more like myself during a very stressful time, a time that can leave you feeling alienated and unsure of who you are.

My photography gave me a sense of accomplishment, which lifted my mood and made me want to go outside more to capture more moments, which I could come home and spend hours editing, then sending home to family and friends and better share the experiences that I often wished they were experiencing with me.

Other options could be going for a run or doing a class at the local gym, taking a sketchbook with you on the road, doing some writing or painting, it's good wholesome entertainment, especially if your wifi is dodgy.

Make your own food

If you are staying in a place that has an equipped kitchen, why not try to cook your favourite meal? My favourite thing to cook is a big bowl of pasta with garlic, parsley and chilli - all pantry ingredients that are fairly easy to source wherever you are in the world.

Try to build a little recipe book of comforting and familiar foods that are easy enough to rustle up while on the road. Cooking a few meals for yourself can save you some money and make you feel a little more at home.

Travel with people

My friends were the only reason I got through some of my lowest points while living abroad. Having one or two people that are on your team is critically important while travelling. They are there to look out for you and go order food for you when you don't have the energy to go try to speak broken Russian to the waiter. They provide a support network and will happily accompany you to the pharmacy to buy some medicine that you've never heard of.

While travelling with larger groups of people is not ideal, smaller groups of up to three or four can be hugely beneficial to group morale and can take the pressure off a single person to do all the planning.

Life on the road can be incredible but also draining. I’ve learned that if I don’t take care of myself, the lifestyle becomes unsustainable.

I'm about to leave on another placement, this time in Switzerland. I'll be employing all of these tips that I've shared with you here, to make sure that travelling is as easy and enjoyable as it can be.