Burned Out On Travel

[00:00:05] Okay guys, so today I want to talk about something which is a little bit ironic because we have a travel podcast where we talk about our travel adventures. And lately I've been feeling like I don't want to travel at all. Like I'm exhausted from travel. I don't want to go anywhere. I just want to stay in my home. Like going to the airport seems daunting and just a hot mess.

[00:00:28] So like travel burnout, the idea of traveling too much. Is that even like, is that a thing? Is that a thing? Yeah. Yeah. Oh poor you. You have too much vacation travel. Like, oh my God. Like, yeah, I'm having a hard time. You know, when you said that I was kind of like, isn't there such a thing? But, but you know, obviously it is. We're going to validate that today.

[00:00:58] Uh, with you, um, to say, I can't say I'm in solidarity, but what I can say is that I see you. I notice what's going on and we're here to help you talk about it. In all honesty, there's typically when you're in a couple, I think just from her and I speaking, we're the ones, we're the planners.

[00:01:19] So everything falls on the planner and, uh, just like a caregiver would be for someone who, you know, is, is caring for someone who's terminally ill or whatever the circumstances are. It is draining. I mean, it does take time. I am. Uh, so, and, and, you know, let's face it. Does anyone really check on the planner to make sure the planner is having a good time?

[00:01:41] As a person who's not married, who don't plan trips and really do things from a spontaneous aspect. So I'm procrastinator when it comes to traveling. I literally am spontaneous. Like, how does that work? Cause I do, I have to admit sometimes I do feel a little angst or burnt, not burned out. I don't know if that's the right word, but I do feel like, uh, do I have to, you know, and is it the same?

[00:02:10] Well, could that be a reason for your procrastination? It's definitely like a first world problem, but I mean, I feel like traveling, um, whether it's for hobbies, like I had to travel for dance. And then also we were going to a Miami football game. And then, and then I went to pick up my dog. So all of these things are like things that I am choosing to do, but for whatever reason, I, it's like, I'm not planning them.

[00:02:39] They're, they, they happened like three weekends in a row and I was exhausted. So it's like, how can I better plan? How can I avoid having stuff back to back to back things that I want to do? I just, you know, and I, and it just happens. And all of a sudden I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm not home for four weeks in a row. I'm exhausted now because staying in a hotel. It sounds like a spontaneous, it sounds like you're not, you're not planning. It sounds like you're being like me spontaneous.

[00:03:05] Oh no, they were, they were planned. But I think what happened was like, there would be something on the calendar and then I would put something, you know, it was all like, it's like just back to back to back to back. And then I don't actually know how to, because I do like to travel and that's why I put things on the calendar. And then all of a sudden I'm now I'm like gone four weekends in a row. And I'm like, this is not fun anymore. I have the medicine for it. And I think this might sound easy and I would be curious to hear what others may think.

[00:03:34] And it's literally almost going back to, you know, how we do, do work. And one of the, one of the things is, you know, you have your calendar and if you already had stuff that's already on there, it sounds like what we're doing, cause I do it too as well, is that we'll plan stuff out and we'll put it on the calendar. But in between the white space, we still add stuff on there. Adding stuff in there. Cause I don't think you knew you were going to have a goal. There can be no white space. Yeah, you're right though.

[00:04:03] So it's like, Oh, I, this weekend is free. So yes, we can go to the Miami game. Oh, this weekend is, this is the perfect weekend to pick up the dog, you know? Exactly. So you're right. I don't know how to prevent that. Like it's something I really would like to focus on. Just don't do it. 25. Just don't do it. Well, well, the thing is, well, not just, well, not just that, because I mean, I think you should definitely do it. Maybe just where, I mean, just like you would in a business, if you're doing a business plan or anything like that, you know, you, you,

[00:04:32] you plan out your calendar, say six weeks at a time. And then now maybe what you're looking at is you're actually scheduling. Hey, I'm not going to put anything here. This is my weekend or, you know, two weeks in a row. This is my weekend off. We're not doing anything. We're not going anywhere during this time, unless it's absolutely necessary. You know what I mean? Like, well, and I'm, I'm not even trying to balance it with, with any work travel. Cause I don't currently work. So I don't even know how, how did you do that, Paul? Like, how did that even work?

[00:05:01] I changed it. I don't know if I should say this, but what some people like to do is when they travel for work, they try to travel where they're getting their work done. So for example, maybe a Wednesday and you get your work done and then you have after that Friday to give yourself time to recuperate. And that recuperate is your hobby type of travel.

[00:05:31] So the travel location. Exactly. So you piggyback off of each other so you don't feel burned out, but then it doesn't work to your point, B'Nef, because you say you're away from home for so long and all this other stuff. Yeah. I'm really not digging like being away from home, which is interesting. Yeah. Well, how did you do it when we were in the military? I mean, I guess it's a different mindset now. I mean, well, you, well, you had to do it too.

[00:06:00] And not to mention you were also younger, right? So you probably had still that, you know, that explorer in you, I guess, in that sense. And let's talk about the causes of travel burnout. I mean, let's, let's just kind of put some structure into it just because, you know, me, I'm the planner also. But what are some causes of travel burnout? Okay. What are some, what are some symptoms of that? Okay. Overpacking, right? That's probably, you know, over, or, and when I mean overpacking, I'm not talking about your suitcase.

[00:06:29] I'm talking about, although that could try burnout, but the itinerary is too, is too much. You know, you're trying to fit in too much and, and we tend to do that, especially when we're traveling internationally. We want to, you know, pack it all in, if you will. I, you know, Paula, you and I have a mutual friend from high school. We actually had this discussion, believe it or not.

[00:06:51] And she, she says that if we're going to go and we're going to travel, then yeah, we're doing something every day. We're, we're doing it every day. Which is exhausting. We have stuff to walk to the go and it's an exhausting way to go, but they definitely cover ground. Let's just say that way. Well, I think the assumption is that you may never go back. So I got to get it all in because, you know, I never know what's going to happen. Yeah. But see, here's my remedy to that. Here's, here's part of my remedy to that.

[00:07:21] And I only, again, I am only talking about what I do to make, and you're not going to be able to see everything that you wanted to see. Right. But you're able to do something every day, but within the every day, like I hate to keep going back to it, but I am a 100% or 90% complete spontaneous type of guy. Even when I'm traveling, I don't, I barely have an itinerary. The day of or the day before I will look at the city I'm going to.

[00:07:50] And then I will either make shift and see what they say. And a good, a good rule of thumb for me is I would literally go on YouTube and be like, like, I just traveled to Valencia, which I literally made that plan like three days before going. And when, what I did was I looked on YouTube and I typed in Valencia. And then I saw what people were saying, the top three things to see when you're there. I make sure to get that in.

[00:08:16] And every day that I was there, because I was there for three days, well, three nights, four days. And I could tell you every day I did not overpack, like you said, Tricia, my, my suitcase or my, my to do things. Yeah, my to do things during the day because. But what happens if you, what you want to do requires like a reservation or a ticket months out? You just don't do that?

[00:08:44] So I've not had that, that issue. And I, I, you know, in any travels that I've had, but you're right. There are times that you have to do that. And especially when you have to do reservations, you just have to do that prior to, right. Um, but for me, I, I usually make sure to get the hotel concierge involved, but most people don't stay at concierge. You don't actually use the hotel concierge. Oh, I do. I, I, and I really, I probably should for those types of things. Yeah. Because it helps to relieve the stress.

[00:09:14] I agree. Yeah. So yeah, the concierge or a travel planner would, would certainly alleviate the second thing on the list, which is the constant planning and decision-making that, that a person has to do, especially if you're traveling with other people, with family, with young children. What do you mean travel planner? You mean pay somebody? A travel, yeah. A travel advisor. If you've, if you've got a large group and you know, people, multi-generational group and you're,

[00:09:44] I don't want to be the one that has to figure out what everybody's doing that day. You know, like grandma down to like littles. So you have someone else, you give them the guidelines, they plan it. Yeah. Right. Well, and of course, but, and that's an, that's an added cost, of course, you know, to, to that, especially if you're, you're using a planner. It may, it may, you know, it may, you may incur something else if you're not already using travel. Why, why I tend to plan ahead. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:13] And I know men and women, we pack differently. I literally never, what do you call it? Check bags on a plane. I'll give you an example. Whenever I go back to the States, I usually go back to the States for at least six to seven days. So a week. Okay. Call it. And all of that's fitting in a carry-out?

[00:10:35] So yes, because two things, you, well, no, you, what I normally do is I pack just like for one day of clothes. Wait, just hold for a second. One day of, of, of clothes that I'll wear for the day that I'm traveling. So you'll, you'll wear that all day, no matter what the activity or you'll plan accordingly. That is the intent is that I, that's going to be the clothes that I'm going to wear the day of.

[00:11:02] However, I have enough room in my bag. If I need to buy something, cause I'm always buying something wherever I'm going. So I may buy a t-shirt. I may buy a shirt. So you can wear. Are you ever doing laundry or no? Well, I do sometimes. And then sometimes I don't. It depends on how long, like you said, the stay. Yeah. But if you have a pair of like jeans, obviously work well, where you can wear it more than

[00:11:27] one time and you flip flop and switch shirts, jackets, whatever you wanted to do to make it a new pair outfit. And then I would highly recommend folks to think about, um, vacuum bags. They work wonders. I use vacuum bags. Yeah. The storage. I use storage cubes. Yeah. So it works wonders. And I'm telling you, I was never a fan of it, but now I'm a huge fan of it. And then when you pack light, cause you know, you're going to buy stuff.

[00:11:57] That's why I do. Not necessarily, but yeah, I don't necessarily buy things. I would say 80% of the time you're going to buy an either shirt or pants. I buy something. Yeah. I typically will buy something to commemorate, but you know, I'm, I'm a huge magnet person anyway. Yeah. And the next thing, the cultural overload. Um, I swear like this, like last Christmas or last December, we went to Mexico, um, for

[00:12:25] an event via Vila and I, and that, I think that trip started the cause of the travel burnout because I did it. We had the event planned, but I didn't really have anything else planned because I didn't want to overdo it. But then the event, it got, it was supposed to be two days and we had one day, but then the second day got canceled. So everybody was coming on that one day to see this guy that we went to see. Um, and it was overwhelming. There was too many people.

[00:12:54] It was all in Spanish. I didn't understand Spanish. I didn't understand the instructions that were being spoken, yelled at me in Spanish because I should be, I should speak Spanish. Obviously look at me. And it was just over. I was like too much, you know, and I'm responsible for my child. Right. So all the, it's all on me to get us where we need to go to navigate and walk the streets and Mexico city was, it was fine, but there's a lot of people, you know, it was just a lot. Right.

[00:13:23] Like, I don't want to travel. Like it's, I was like no more international travel for a while because it was very stressful for me to have to figure shit out. Definitely can. Language I don't. Yeah. Yeah. It can definitely be overwhelming in that sense, especially if there's crowds. If we, out of all the stuff that we're talking about right now, the number one thing is, and for me for a hundred percent is the cultural overload because I have to admit just hell,

[00:13:50] I live in France and just alone in France alone, traveling in France. And you have to hear that. And then when I was traveling to another country in Europe, it does get annoying for me that I don't, okay, now I got to turn off French or I got to, now I got to figure out the Spanish. Yeah. That's, that's being taught. So that for me is the. There's an app for that. That is true, but it's still, it is still, it's still a burnout. Meaning you have to get to your phone and be like, okay, hold on, wait, can you do that?

[00:14:20] And then you have to wait for the person to. It's just not really knowing how things go. I think one of the last things that, that would definitely be a cause of travel burnout is, oh my goodness, trying to capture. How do I, how do I take all of what I'm seeing and doing and, you know, putting that in a capsule and bringing that back. And one of the big things is the whole social media thing. That is huge pressure. If you allow it to, I mean, if you feel like. I'm going to say, if you allow it to be.

[00:14:50] You don't need to post it. I feel like I need to be posting. And I know that, but I mean, that is a real issue. I mean, Spain, you know, even France. I mean, some of these places there, they are closing places because people are doing some weird stuff. I mean, even across the United States here. I mean, just to get the right Instagram shot, you know, there are these people that are just, they'll stop traffic. You have content. You have walking traffic. Yeah.

[00:15:19] I'm not going to lie. I've done that before. Yeah. I mean, so, you know, they're standing on, you know, monuments. They're doing all these different things and defacing property because they're trying to get the right Instagram shot. Well, I've never done that. But it's immense pressure to want to take pictures to bring all of that back, you know? Yeah. So I think there's a real demand. It can be. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:48] I mean, I understand that you want to do that. But having a conversation with people, I think that's what people forget also. Yes, it's nice to have the picture. Yeah. But come back home and actually have a conversation with folks about your trip. That'll get them to go too. Yeah.

[00:16:32] Because, you know, people cleaning up their photos. And they've got to. And now I've got to post, post, post, post. I like to take my photos kind of in the moment and whatever I'm doing. But then I don't typically when I'm on vacation. First of all, for the safety reason, I don't post when I'm away. Right. Because that means I'm away. My house is empty, right? So no one needs to know that I'm not home. That's the worst thing you could do. So what you should do is go ahead and take your photos.

[00:17:00] But then when you get back, post your photos. Or if you take your photos, don't put on there. Today we did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just kind of common sense. On the plane right now. Yeah. I see that all the time. And I'm always in my head. The house is empty. It's like, dude, why are you telling us this? Yeah, nine times. I would say eight times out of ten, the house is empty. So you're telling everyone that you're not home.

[00:17:29] So it's not a good idea. Just arrived. I just arrived. Well, thank you for telling me you just arrived. Right. You know? Yeah. Well, yeah, that's why I don't ever check in to any place. I think people still do that. Yeah, people still check in. They still do it. They still do it. I'm like, that's the dumbest thing ever. And I'm sorry. Yeah. Some people are still doing that. Don't do it. Yeah. If you're going to put a location, you can put a location. But, and this is important.

[00:17:56] Like, if you're going to post and you want to post real time, you still can do that. But don't tell us that you're doing it now. Yeah. Right. Exactly. You can just say, you can just say, here's the Mona Lisa. Yeah. Well, and so to recap a little bit, because we talked about like the things that cause travel burnout. Well, how can we avoid it? And I think we sort of covered all those things. Like the itinerary does not need to be jam packed.

[00:18:21] Like you can actually plan rest days, plan days to be by the pool, plan days to just go out and walk. Slow down. I've only said it. I don't know how many times in my answers, but you know, planning helps. It really does help. And even if you want to be spontaneous, there's nothing wrong with at least maybe not doing it as soon as Paul does. I mean, or as late as Paul does on the train ride. Yeah.

[00:18:51] You don't want to be like me because I'm not a good example. But just a little bit before, just kind of, you know, doing a little bit of research ahead of time else. Yeah. If that stresses you out though, if planning is not your thing, because that's some people like you love it and you're, you're good at it, but a lot of people don't enjoy it and it stresses them out. Then that's where you could use the concierge or you could actually hire a travel advisor to plan it for you. Ask a friend to help you. Use the things that is available to you. Another family member.

[00:19:21] Yeah. So try to find. Or do the group travel. Yeah. Because they already have an itinerary planned. Having a little bit of a plan does, it will make things go smoother. But if it stresses you out to plan, then that's just, you've lost the battle. Well, let's see how I do this year with my travel planning. It's really something that I want to be intentional about when I travel and not just have the travel wear me, right?

[00:19:48] I want to be the one that's wearing the travel and deciding how I want to be and how I want it to go. Yeah. Well, friends, I hope that you enjoyed our show. And if you have experienced travel burnout, please do comment, share that with us. If you have any tips or things that you've done to avoid travel burnout or to come back and start to enjoy travel again. We definitely want to hear, I hear those personally so that I can start to enjoy travel again.

[00:20:18] But as always, please like, share and comment. And we appreciate you watching and supporting our show. Woohoo! Go travel! Go travel! Go travel! Go travel! Go travel! Go travel! Go travel! Go travel! Thank you.