6 Ways to Feel At Home While Traveling
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We all love to travel occasionally. It is eye-opening and exciting to leave the safety of your comfort zone and venture out into the unknown. But a common drawback to traveling is that you miss feeling at home. There are times when your new surroundings can be a bit overbearing and overwhelming, and you have a need to feel grounded.
While I am not the biggest homebody, I struggle every once in a while with feeling out of place when traveling. For example, I studied abroad in Rome for a semester a few years ago, and one of our class trips was a road trip through Greece. I did not set myself up for success and spent ten days in my head—instead of in the moment—feeling anxious and stressed. Overall, I made cool memories, but the experience was tainted, because I didn’t follow some of the guidelines that I now know are crucial.
6 Ways to Feel At Home While Traveling
Photo credit: Maura Bielinski
In order for you to avoid similar circumstances, here are some tips for you to handle travel like a pro and feel right at home while on the road. Soon, you will be roaming the globe like you were born to do it!
Pick the right travel companions
It is critical to pick travel companions that you trust and feel comfortable around. When you travel, you spend a lot of time together. Of course, it is possible to find personal time, but more than likely, you will be doing most everything together. So pick travel buddies that you really want to explore the world with! It is so exhausting to travel with someone you don’t get along with. It leads to frustration, tension, and dampened spirits.
Ernest Hemingway once said, “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.” He ruefully said this after hitching a ride from Paris to Lyon with Scott Fitzgerald, which had ended in disaster, and he had sworn to never relive a similar debacle. I can’t say I would ever turn down a chance to hang out with Scott Fitzgerald, but to each his own!
Travel is also a great opportunity to strengthen friendships and relationships by creating exciting memories together, so choose carefully the people you want to spend these precious moments with! Great travel buddies are the people that you already feel at home with, for they will be your home and keep you at ease throughout all your adventures.
““Great travel buddies are the people that you already feel at home with, for they will be your home and keep you at ease throughout all your adventures.””
Set aside quiet time to just relax
We know, there is so much out there to do! How do you narrow it down?! While it is admirable to want to experience as much as possible, there is a danger in wearing yourself out too soon. Travel is exhausting! If you get up early to hike or sightsee, by 1 or 2 pm, you may be wiped out, and nobody will blame you. A big mistake of many travelers is to overbook their days and have the tightly-wound mindset of GO, GO, GO. Take a chill pill, and start to treat travel like a marathon, not a sprint.
A few ways to make this happen:
Make a list and put your priorities at the forefront of your schedule.
Set aside quiet time mid-day at the hotel if you start your day off early, or have a quiet morning, sit outside with a cup of coffee and book, and plan for an afternoon activity. You’re only doing yourself a favor.
Don’t force yourself to check every single box off your bucket list for that destination, because you will be too tired and stressed to truly enjoy any of them.
Photo credit: Maura Bielinski
Pamper yourself once in a while
Whatever stress relief system you have going on at home, take that with you! Catch a movie, get a massage, shop, call a special someone from home, watch a movie in bed, or have pizza instead of the fancy and strange cuisine you’ve been eating for every other meal.
This is vacation and you’ve worked hard to get there! Pamper yourself and splurge once on your trip, in whatever form calms and comforts you. Make yourself right at home.
Research your destination beforehand
Awareness is your friend; ignorance your enemy. It is a mistake, and potentially dangerous, to wander around a foreign city if you have no prior awareness of its lifestyle, cultural traditions, or people. There are tourist traps littered over every major travel destination and getting suckered is always a buzzkill on vacation.
We want you to have a safe trip as you explore the world, and that is done by b-e-i-n-g a-w-a-r-e. Research your destination, and arrive with street-smarts!
Research these things before your trip:
What neighborhoods to avoid
Common tourist traps and pitfalls
The best mode of transportation of the area (biking, walking, renting a car)
The worst places to exchange currency
The traditions of the place in order to respect the locals’ culture (the last one is very important)
Have (and stick to) a plan
If you make a loose schedule, you remove a lot of potential for disaster on your travels (We know not all of it, though). A loose plan can provide direction and motivation for the day ahead, helping to avoid not feeling at home. You also have no obligation to actually follow through with this schedule if you are feeling spontaneous, but it doesn’t hurt to plan.
““A loose plan can provide direction and motivation for the day ahead, helping to avoid not feeling at home. You also have no obligation to actually follow through with this schedule if you are feeling spontaneous, but it doesn’t hurt to plan.””
On the opposite end of the spectrum, winging it has its advantages, but there are a lot of risky factors. If you don’t know the train schedule beforehand, you could be stranded far longer than desired in a remote village. If you don’t book a hostel or hotel, and arrive at your destination late at night, you could be in for a sleepless—or just highly expensive—night.
I was—stingy? bold? stupid?—enough to pass many a night in train stations as I traversed over Europe. Even worse than that, it was often by myself. I do not necessarily condone this anymore, but for a 19 year old’s sadly light purse and questionable decision-making skills, this struck me as a good idea at the time. I did not set myself up for success and there were some negative experiences (shocker).
Even beyond safety, just making a schedule and sticking to it will organize a potentially very hectic day, and make you feel more at ease as you explore the world.
Photo credit: Maura Bielinski
Bring home with you
Don’t underestimate the power of your homey necessities and items while on the road. It is recommended to make a packing list of all the little comforts and pieces of home you know you will miss.
Bring a Kindle, your favorite book, a creative outlet like a notebook or coloring book, favorite beauty products, or camera. Whatever little hobby or entertainment system you spend time on at home, bring it with! My go-to is my guitar and journal; they have been my most constant travel companions for years, and writing keeps me grounded as I move.
These guidelines will set you up for success on your travels, and make you feel right at home as you wander far and wide. We are excited for you to take on the world and experience it for yourself like a pro!