Top Tips to Alleviate Travel Anxiety
Travelling is a fantastic experience that can improve anyone's life at any time for a myriad of reasons. However, travel, while an amazingly positive experience, can be highly stressful for some and anxiety-inducing. This can be especially true for those who struggle with mental health, change and the unknown.
Being able to relax and explore your destination without worry can enhance your travel experience. Knowing what you can do to alleviate your worries makes this a joyful experience, not a stressful one that can change the trajectory of your trip.
So, what can you do to make your travel experience a positive one, not something you dread and wish was over before it starts?
Research Your Destination
Recent research has found that around 25% of the population has travel anxiety, as cited in CNTraveler, and many worry about the unknown of their destination.
Researching your destination, what it has to offer, local transport links, languages spoken, food consumed, cultures, customs, weather, amenities, etc, can help you understand what you're likely to experience when you arrive. This can help you to prepare for what you might encounter and help you plan for what you need to do. The more prepared you are, the more relaxed you can be, as you will have some idea of what to expect. This sense of control and preparedness can empower you to manage your travel anxiety effectively.
Make Life Easier
Arriving in a new city in the morning but can't check in until 3 p.m. makes you feel anxious. Not a problem. For example, luggage storage at southern cross station enables you to leave your luggage at the station and acclimatise yourself with the area before checking in. You simply collect your luggage when you are ready, or even do your shopping if you have no luggage, and then make your way back to your accommodation.
Finding resources like this can simplify your trip and give you one less thing to worry about in a completely new place.
Make Plans
While scheduling every single second of your trip isn't always recommended, making some plans is especially important if you're worried about timings, transfers, and missing must-see activities. Book things like transfers, connections, accommodation, and important trips beforehand. But when you make the bookings, check that your timings are more realistic so you're not stressed and pushing unnecessarily.
If you can book a transfer within 15 minutes of landing or 45, choose the latter option, so you're not worried you're going to miss it, for example. If you need to travel to a must-see attraction show or event, plan the route from your hotel and how you will get there. Allow more time than you feel will be necessary to give yourself breathing space and ensure you arrange your day's plans around this. I.e., it could be that you book a taxi 45 minutes before a show starts despite it being 15 minutes in the cab to where you need to be. This accounts for unexpected traffic and longer-than-anticipated queues when you arrive, giving you peace of mind that you're not going to miss it.
Give Yourself Downtime
If you know you're the kind of person who can get really overwhelmed, worried, stressed or anxious in new environments, scheduling downtime during your trip is essential. This allows you to stop, relax, and do nothing, giving you time to enjoy where you are and what you are doing at that moment. Whether it's an afternoon in the hotel spa, an early night in your Airbnb, sunbathing around the pool in your all-inclusive resort, or reading a book in a coffee shop in a small town, schedule it and, most importantly, enjoy it.
Location Tracking
If one of your concerns is getting lost or not knowing where you are, having your location tracing services turned on on your devices can give you access to directions when you need them and get you to where you need to be. These services can provide you with real-time location updates, suggest nearby landmarks or transportation options, and even share your location with trusted contacts for added safety.
Share this information with others if you feel you need it for added safety. This way, they can help from afar if they know where you are.
Be Prepared
Packing everything but the kitchen sink can be tiresome and cumbersome to carry with you. However, having a few supplies for those just in case moments can help you not to fret too much if you are concerned about something going wrong. Take security devices like a whistle or a personal alarm, over-the-counter medications for common travel ailments such as motion sickness, allergies, or headaches, know how to use Google Translate if required, or even learn common phrases in the native language of the area you're visiting if it's different from your native tongue.
Having a few tools in your emergency kit can be a great relief if you need them. This preparedness can provide a sense of reassurance and security, knowing that you have what you need to handle unexpected situations, thereby reducing your travel anxiety.
Positive, not Negative Mindset
When you worry about something, it's natural to think of everything that could go wrong. Some people experience the trip from hell and have everything go wrong, while others are having the time of their lives.
What will be will be and going into your trip with a negative mindset can put a downer on the whole experience and make it more likely you won't enjoy yourself as you'll be too concerned with the "what ifs".
Instead, look at what you can experience, the good things you are aiming to do and the fun you can have. Seeing things half full rather than half empty can make you less stressed and the trip much more enjoyable. A positive mindset can open you up to new experiences and make your trip more enjoyable.
Reducing travel stress and worry is all about finding fixes to your triggers so you can reduce concerns and enable yourself to relax and enjoy the experience ahead of you. While easier said than done, these tips will allow you to prepare thoroughly for your next adventure.
