Travel can be exciting, whether you’re primarily traveling for business or are taking a luxurious vacation. Once you’re at your destination, you’ll get to experience new sights and, perhaps, a new culture, and you can decompress from the stresses of daily living.
In the days and hours leading up to your travel, however, some significant challenges can interfere with your enjoyment. Fortunately, with the right strategies and the right mindset, all of them can be overcome.
The Biggest Challenges
These are some of the most annoying challenges that tend to come with traveling:
- Packing.
Packing is always a pain. You have to decide what to bring, sort through all your belongings to find what you’re looking for, and cram everything into a couple of bags. Then, no matter how well-prepared you are for your trip, you almost always end up forgetting something crucial. It’s a stressful experience, and it rarely goes as well as you had hoped.
What to Do
So what can you do instead? For starters, you can subscribe to a service like Ben Lido, which provides you with all the travel necessities you need for regular travel (such as soaps, shampoo, and carrying bags). Then, you can supplement your packing experience with a thorough checklist-so you never forget another important item at home.
- Travel comfort.
No matter what type of transportation you’re relying on, you’ll probably run into at least one issue with personal comfort. The seats on your airplane may be too small or too stiff, or you might have trouble sleeping on long car rides. Few people truly enjoy the process of traveling; most of them just want to get to their destination.
What to Do
So what can you do to make things more comfortable? First, you can invest in comfortable items for traveling, like the Trtl Pillow. You can also try certain anti-nausea medications if you struggle with feeling sick. But most importantly, optimize your style of travel; consider trying a new mode of transportation, like a train, to see if it’s more comfortable. If you can afford it, you can always travel in comfort and style by using a private jet company like Jettly.com, meaning you will have bigger seats and all the legroom you could wish for.
- Costs.
Travel gets expensive fast. You’ll often pay hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket, hundreds of dollars to stay at a hotel, and hundreds of dollars to access the most important areas of your travel destination. Fortunately, there are several ways you can travel more affordably.
What to Do
Try to be more flexible with your destinations; you may find that cities and countries off the beaten path offer far more affordable travel accommodations to attract new visitors. Keep an eye out for special deals and packages that can help you vacation for less money. You should also consider utilizing Airbnb instead of staying in a fancy hotel, and saving money by not eating out as frequently.
- Crowds.
Even people-loving extroverts sometimes get intimidated by crowds. If you’re heading somewhere popular during a holiday weekend in the summer, you can expect it to be packed. Wait times in lines at amusement parks can last hours or longer, and you might not be able to get a spot at your favorite restaurant.
What to Do
The best ways to compensate for this pain point are to change your plans. You can start by choosing a destination that isn’t as popular; tourist-heavy locations are crowded no matter what. You can also choose to travel during off periods, such as in the dead of winter.
- Stress and timing.
Most people get stressed out when planning out the timing of their trip. They have a finite number of days to work with, and a long list of sights to see. The pressure of getting to the right places at the right time can really suck the fun out of a vacation.
What to Do
It takes a long time to cultivate this habit and be comfortable with it, but try to spend less time micromanaging your schedule. Instead, give yourself long stretches of time you can use to explore your surroundings freely, and don’t worry about missing out.
Finding Your Own Zen
These specific challenges might not be annoying to everybody, and not everyone will find that the same collection of tactics works equally effectively in remedying them. If you want to get the most out of your travel time, and keep taking trips that genuinely improve your health and outlook on life, you’ll need to make a concentrated effort to find your own Zen; recognize the unique challenges that get in the way of your happiness, and experiment until you find a collection of strategies that can overcome them. Even if you can’t get rid of them entirely, you’ll eventually find something that can minimize them.
