Travel Anxiety

European travel can be stressful. What aspect of travel causes you the most anxiety?

Jen.....what kind of anxiety?
Just the stress of travel? Or the anxiety of getting ready to go? The worry something might go wrong? Being in unfamiliar places?
Exhaustion, which can often go hand and hand with anxiety? Or all of the above...and usually it is a combo of many things compounding.

Help us understand, and I am sure many of us will have experienced (and may have some remedies...or at least ways to sometimes lessen) the same type anxiety you may be experiencing.

I have anxiety when I make big travel purchases, i.e., hitting “buy” on something non-refundable like airline tickets. While exciting, I fear making a costly mistake. Once I compete the transaction, I am OK...for awhile.

The week or ten days before a trip I am anxious in a very non-specific way so I check and recheck our itinerary and reservations like a madwoman. That helps a bit.

The minute we get on the plane the anxiety vanishes.

I'm claustrophobic. I have various ways of dealing with it. I don't have problem on "normal" sized planes anymore. I had to fly on a smallish plane from CHicago to Birmingham this year and the last row, too. My headphones were in the entire flight and I did Sudoku the whole flight. I typically can now handle climbs up church towers. When I have an issue, I sing in my head or do math problems. In lines through caves and tight spaces, I try to be at the beginning or end, then mentally I feel like I have more control. I carry ativan pills, which seem helpful, mentally, just to have, but rarely are they used. They just make me feel like if something would become too much, I could cope.

It's hard to know what to suggest, not knowing what aspect you have issues with. Planning can help with travel anxiety.

I think my anxiety is having to spend 24 hours a day with my wife--and a 7 year old. McDonalds gets old for meals.
I still have a little apprehension traveling on my own--after 49 years of European travel and trip #1 being my only guided tour.
We returned this week from Spain and Paris, and every move between 4 cities went off exactly as planned. The internet makes travel so much easier--including figuring out how to get from hotels to train stations and bus stations.
The only thing is that so many tickets to the most popular attractions, like The Louvre, are reserved and purchased online before going. Some don't sell tickets to the public out the front door.
My remedies are planning well, and that includes using GoogleMaps to even scout out the neighborhoods we'll be staying in.

Not knowing your specific issues - here's some general tips. Look for healthy things to do. For instance - minimize or avoid altogether caffeine and alcohol when flying. Stay hydrated by drinking water, juice, or herbal tea. Eat healthy snacks. Remember that your vacation, while exciting, is also about relaxing and savoring. Don't feel like you have to do everything. Pick out the things that interest you most. But, leave some time for a relaxing stroll and sleep. If you are traveling with a group (could be family), allow a few hours to yourself somewhere in the middle of your trip to wander off away from your pack. Enjoy!

Jen, we need more input from you. Are you afraid of flying? Of making complex itineraries? Lack of foreign language ability? Please share more so we can assist you. Travel should be fun and exhilerating.

One of the most anxiety-producing aspects of travel for me is fear of missing the plane, or missing or getting on the wrong train, or getting off at the wrong stop. I'm still working on the train issues; unfortunately I live in a rural area and can't regularly practice using mass transit. But I can reduce preflight anxiety if I can be close to the airport the night before. I have a 2-3 hour drive to a major airport, so although it costs me a bit more, I will book a hotel near the airport.

I always worry about leaving something behind in a hotel room--clothes, souvenirs, etc. I try and be very mindful of what I am doing and check thoroughly around the room, but have still lost stuff. If I make the mistake of packing my bag too full before traveling, it's very stressful figuring out how to get it all back in each time I move--especially when I have picked stuff up along the way. The remedy for that is don't overpack for the bag you bring. Busy airports and especially the security line cause a lot of anxiety. Pull all your stuff out and have it in bins with a lot of other people around who could take it by mistake (or on purpose) or you might forget it. No time to remove all your metal, or forget to remove something, redirect to getting groped on a secondary search. (Note to self: wearing Levi's 501s results in an automatic groping). Verbally abusive security staff at some airports. On the plane, rude or aggressive fellow passengers or even on occasion flight attendants. Just have to gut it out. Making an expensive mistake like missing a flight causes a lot of anxiety. Build in time for making an error that will cost you time. I target to arrive at the airport 2.5 or even three hours before an international flight.

Yes, we need to know exactly what your anxieties are. As you can see from the responses, there are so many different possibilities, and (for example) someone with paralyzing fear of flying may have no problem at all with getting lost.

I'll add two that haven't been mentioned. My mother remains very fearful of airport formalities (security, immigration, customs). This is despite our having been through airports together numerous times with no problems (I just added it up, and we've been through nine departures together - from US, Turkish, German, and Canadian airports - since 2011). I'm still not sure she'd be willing to go through an airport on her own, despite my reminding her that we've never had a problem.

She also has great difficulty on escalators (no problems on stairs or elevators). I've tried to teach her that there are almost always elevators available, but they are hidden and you have to ask for them. She still feels self-conscious taking the elevator sometimes, and she's embarrassed to ask for it since she's not visibly handicapped.

As for me, after almost missing a flight in 1995 (I would definitely have missed that flight today, with changes put in after 9/11), I now get to the airport 3-4 hours early, and just plan to eat a meal there after going through security. That reduces one potential source of stress.

When I went to Italy in March 1989, I arrived with no accommodation reservations. After having great difficulty finding a suitable room in Milan, I now reserve all nights in advance. That eliminates another potential source of stress.

Think through situations that stress you. Then, ask yourself what is the most likely thing or the worst that can happen. Then ask yourself, what are you going to do about it or how will you handle it.
For example - getting overcharged by a cab driver. Do you bicker over it? Do you report the driver? Do you just take it "on the chin" and forget about it and move on? Is it worth the hassle?

Well, the OP posted this in the "Packing" forum, so I assume her anxiety is to do with packing. Rick talks a lot about "packing your fear" - the compulsion to pack everything "just in case," when in reality, Europe is like America in that there are lots of drugstores, etc. where you can pick something up should you need it.

I find the way to overcome packing anxiety is to make an exhaustive list of everything I think I'll need. And then I find a way to make it all fit in one carryon. The main way to do this is to plan to do laundry. So for a 12-day trip, I bring 6 outfits. I am wearing the 7th one, so that gives me one extra outfit to tinker with on laundry day, which I do halfway. Many medicines and such can be consolidated into smaller packs. I only pack two pairs of shoes - one walking shoes and one "middle dressy" shoes, and I match all my dresses, etc. to that pair of shoes. I've done a carryon only four times to Europe without problems and I love traveling light.

Anxiety is about trying to control the uncontrollable.

I have found that the demons of my imagination are always larger than the ones I actually have to face.

My first step with anxiety is telling myself “I can handle this.” when something goes wrong. It’s also giving myself permission to slip up and fail on occasion. Everything doesn’t have to be “perfect” for the trip to be great. Things will happen. And most of the trip will be fine. It’s also important to not really care about those who would judge you and make snarky comments. Nice people don’t do that. So the only people judging you are the nasty ones that you don’t need to impress. Stop trying to impress them.

The other thing I do is run “what if” scenarios. “What if I miss my connection?” Then I come up with plan A, plan B, and plan C. Taking care of the worst case scenarios helps to give me confidence.

But most importantly, give yourself permission to slip up. Sometimes wonderful things come out of the unexpected.

CindyH,
What you wrote was great! You said a lot in a concise manner. Words of Wisdom for life in general. Well Put!

I get what I lovingly call "vacation anxiety" about a week before a big trip. I'm not a uber-planner but I do have all my ducks in row for airlines, lodging, car rental or train tickets and any day trips we have planned - all printed out in my travel folder. I don't know why but something hits me like a light "tummy ache" about a week out and hangs around until I land wherever it is I'm going. I don't have a cure for what ails me but a little more information Jen and we might be able to make recommendations.

This might be useful.
https://adventureswithsarah.net/travel-anxiety-yes-youll-be-ok/

Laurel, I'm exactly the same way! Stress when booking hotels, plane tickets, train tickets etc. And then the morning of I'm incredibly anxious. Not sure why, just in a general sense. It's worse for those early am flights when you have to be out of the house at 3am. Then once I'm through security it all goes away.

Making sure my plans are set help me ease anxiety, for any trip. That begins with making lists of tasks to accomplish well before buying airline tickets. Giving time to make connections in airports, and for trains/busses really eases the 'day of' travel. I print out hard copies of tickets for everything, keep a specific email folder in case I lose the hard copy, and save everything in the cloud we can both access. Keeping a detailed itinerary, etc.

Having said that, we only plan a morning and afternoon activity (if it works, and it generally does). The transition/travel between the two is for general sightseeing and a relaxing lunch. It gives us flexible time in case something happens to either schedule, plus time to get lost and make the usual traveling mistakes.

I have small bits of anxiety because I travel solo--usually along the vague lines of "what if something happens to me and I need help?" Other than that I know I can handle most situations, and the more trips I make the more confidence I gain.

A far worse anxiety is "what if I can't travel every year?" The very thought of not planning and enjoying my usual 2 weeks in May is terribly upsetting, and due to new job duties I may end up having to take just 1 week trips, maybe in May and then later, like September.

Yes, I do have travel anxiety too, sometimes more, sometimes less. I call it the "travel willies. " Once I clear TSA at SFO or OAK a lot of it goes away. The last 3 days prior to departure day are usually the worse in terms of thinking there must be something I forgot to do, in spite of a "to do" list.

Flying into London seems to lessen the travel willies too than going to Frankfurt or Paris, even though you know it should not make any difference since they are the final destinations. I realise too the whole travel willies thing is psychological

I also laugh when travel experts who insist on traveling light are men.

I’m not sure where this comes from. Sara Murdoch has great advice on traveling light. Her Packing list has great advice. Brooke has gone with a 12 liter bag. I have a blog on traveling light - I’ve gone with as little as a 16 liter pack. We are all women who care about how we look!!

I’ve found that washing clothes while you’re in the shower to be the least time consuming method. Go into the shower with your clothes on, soap up, take clothes off and stomp them out. Finish cleaning yourself, step out of shower, get rid of water in clothes. Step into clean clothes, hang up wet clothes to dry. It adds less than 10 minutes to the shower process. It also ensures that all the clothes in your bag are clean.