What is travel fatigue and how to overcome them?

Have you ever felt constantly tired after a period of travelling? The initial excitement of going on a particular trip has worn off and you cannot bring yourself to explore yet another must-go touristic site? Do you suddenly feel that all the places you are visiting looked more or less the same and cannot help but wonder why you want to visit all of them in the first place? Are you puzzled over how much you preferred sleeping in over going for the walking tour that you had signed up for with much enthusiasm at the start of the trip? Are you already sick and tired of the local foods and delicacies whose photos had never fail to make you drool while you were planning the trip? Do you just wish that you are back at home now? Well, all these could be signs of travel fatigue, a point in time during your travel when your mind is suffering from information overload coupled with the physical exhaustion of the travel which eventually leads to the body shutting down emotionally.

I, for one, have fallen victim to travel fatigue several times. Believe me when I say that I love to travel, to explore and experience the different cultures all over the world, to taste the local delicacies, to see the many wonderful man-made architectural wonders as well as to immerse in the beauty of Mother Nature. However, despite my love for travelling, I too, am not spared from the clutches of travel fatigue.

So, are there any remedies for travel fatigue? Well, as travel fatigue affects everyone in many different ways, with its onset and duration varying among different individuals, it is important to slow down and observe when and how one starts to feel its onset. Targeted approaches can then be applied to overcome it. For me, my strategies to overcome travel fatigue can be expressed by the acronym P.R.E.S.S.:

Prevent the possibilities of developing travel fatigue

I have always believed in the notion “prevention is better than cure”. Hence, after a few episodes of struggling with travel fatigue, I figured out there is a need to identify my triggers for travel fatigue and to prevent them from occurring. For one, I noticed that I tend to fall prey to travel fatigue with an increase in the duration of my trip. After a few trial and error, I finally figured out that a short trip covering only one location might be better for me as compared to a two weeks long trip covering multiple destinations. The need to adjust and adapt to different systems in different countries over and over again in the same trip proved that it could get quite overwhelming for me at times. This often resulted in me seeing things in a blur and not enjoying the trip at all! Hence, for now, my husband and I have opted to do weekend trips to just one particular location each time more frequently. We found ourselves enjoying our trips much more after making this change.

Other than shortening the duration of our trip, we also looked at other aspects that would aid us in preventing the onset of travel fatigue. The two most prominent aspects were making sure we had proper rest and ensuring we had adequate nutrition prior to the trip. In the past, I used to spend quite a bit of time trying to perfect my trip itinerary (often at the expense of my sleeping and meal timings) and I would end up feeling mentally and physically exhausted at the start of the trip. The exhaustion coupled with the sudden influx of external stimuli and having to rapidly adapting to changes during the trip often resulted in two scenarios: (1) my body slowing shutting down emotionally in response to all these stimuli = onset of travel fatigue; and (2) my immune system cracking under all these pressure = me falling sick during the trip = instant trigger for travel fatigue! Hence, in order to prevent all these from happening, I have learnt to take things easy and to give priority to good rest and good nutrition prior to a trip!

Relax

So what happens when we still suffer from travel fatigue despite all the preventive measures taken prior to the trip? Relax is the key! What better way to overcome the mental stress of trying to figure out how things works, navigating our way around in a foreign land and struggling with language barrier during a trip than to take it easy and learn to relax? As a perfectionist, I tend to want to make sure that I covered all the places that I had identify prior to a trip and this has undeniably caused me much unnecessary mental stress. Over time (and with constant reminder from my dear husband), I soon start to learn to relax and to go with the flow of things without getting all fussed up and obsessed over my itinerary. By learning to take things easy, not only have I reduced the probability of a bout of travel fatigue, I have also had the time to really observe and immerse myself in the culture and way of life of the places that I am visiting. That, to me, is without a doubt how travelling should be!

Eat

Food is an important element of a society and in order to learn more about the culture of a place, we often made it a point to try out the local delicacies during our travels. However, food preference is still after all very subjective and undeniably, there were instances when the local foods were not to our liking or we became quite blasé to the local cuisine after a while. So, when that happens, do we not eat at all? Well, it is definitely not wise to do so. Travelling itself can be quite strenuous and food is important to provide us with the energy to continue with our exploration. Without proper nutrition, physical exhaustion would soon be joined by travel fatigue. Worse still, when I suffer from travel fatigue, my appetite drops further and soon, a vicious cycle starts to form and the fatigue would just worsen with time. In the past, whenever we got sick of trying out the local cuisines coupled with the fact that we needed more time to cover all the places that we had planned for the day, my husband and I would just forgo lunch just so that we make it to all the various touristic sites. However, we did find that this arrangement usually get us down in no time. We have since made it a point to have proper meals during our trips and are enjoying ourselves more than ever! We have also now made it a point to always bring some familiar snacks or instant foods with us to satisfy our picky taste buds for instances when the local food is not to our liking. To us, a trip can only be truly enjoyable when our tummies are filled and body fuelled with the energy and nourishment from food!

Sleep

Sleep is very important to my husband and I. Poor sleep often resulted in our brains not being alert enough to react promptly when required and causes a lot of mental stress over time and this coupled with the physical exhaustion from inadequate rest often triggers the onset of travel fatigue for us! Hence, for all our travels, we usually opt for travel accommodations that can allow us to sleep comfortably at night to prepare ourselves for the long day of exploration the next day. For travels where jet lag is unavoidable, we also try not to pack too much into our itinerary for the first few days as priority is always given for our body to have the proper rest that it needs!

Slow down your itinerary

What good will come out of sticking to a fully packed and rushed itinerary when one is starting to feel the onset of a travel fatigue? We have figured out (the hard way) that there is no point in doing so as we will only be going through the motion of checking off places on the list and not enjoying the sightseeing at all! Slowing down on our itinerary seems to have a positive effect on overcoming travel fatigue for us. At the very onset of a travel fatigue, we will usually slow down our pace, put aside our itinerary and find a nice cafe to just sit and chill (sometimes even at the expense of having to give up visiting one or more of the touristic sites on our list). We found this method to be very effective as we will be ready and more enthusiastic for more exploration after that and the sense of enjoyment for the rest of the trip actually increases as well!

So, for me, “P.R.E.S.S.” is the way to overcome travel fatigue. How about you? What are some of the methods that you found useful in combating travel fatigue? Feel free to share with all of us in the comment section below! :)


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