Travel Anxiety:  How Travel Makes You Appreciate Home Sweet Home

Traveling to new and exotic places is one of life’s greatest joys. As much fun as it is to explore different cultures, cuisines, and landscapes, the travel anxiety that often accompanies the trip excitement also has a way of making you appreciate home that much more when you return.

There are several key reasons why a trip away often leaves you loving home more than ever.  Here are a few:

Familiarity vs. Travel Anxiety

Trips are exhilarating and exhausting, but the travel anxiety can make you appreciate home even more.No matter where your travels take you, there is simply no place like home. After days or weeks of travel stress navigating unfamiliar streets, dealing with language barriers, converting money, and sleeping in strange beds, the comforts and routines of home feel especially welcoming.

From your favorite coffee mug to your well-worn sofa, your home is filled with familiar things you miss while traveling. Knowing exactly where everything is and how things work removes a level of travel stress that comes from navigating unfamiliar environments.

The sounds, smells, tastes, and sights of home provide a sense of ease and relaxation that new places simply cannot replicate.

Even your daily routine at home suddenly becomes something comforting to return to versus a chore. Making your morning coffee just the way you like it, driving your usual commute, or cooking in your own kitchen provides small but meaningful comforts.

When you’ve had to adapt to new customs and languages abroad, it’s rejuvenating to return to the familiar and say goodbye to travel anxiety.

Convenience vs. Travel Stress

After struggling to communicate, get around, and find familiar comforts abroad, the convenience of home feels like a luxury. Tasks and errands that previously seemed boring suddenly don’t feel like such a chore. It’s funny how sometimes having a view of a new perspective can provide a renewed appreciation for what you have.

Driving your own car instead of relying on public transportation or taxis is a welcome convenience most don’t fully appreciate until they travel somewhere that requires getting around predominantly by foot, bike, or mass transit. Grocery shopping at your local store for your favorite brands, as opposed to scanning labels in foreign languages, is a relief.

Even laundry and chores feel simpler when you don’t have the travel stress of figuring  out how machines and appliances work abroad.

Safety vs. Travel Anxiety

While travel inevitably requires you to get outside your comfort zone, facing so many new risks and uncertainties can make you crave the safety and security of home. No matter how much you plan and prepare, travel anxiety is to be expected because it comes with inherent unpredictability. From missing a train or flight to losing your luggage, obstacles are bound to arise.

Navigating unfamiliar places also makes you more aware of your surroundings and potential dangers, all of which contribute to travel anxiety. Whether it’s pickpockets, less reliable infrastructure, or simply getting lost, travel forces you into increased vigilance. It’s easy to take for granted how at home you can let your guard down.

There’s no place where you feel more protected than in the comfort of your own house, neighborhood, and community.

Travel Helps Appreciate Friends and Family Back Home

While meeting new people can be exciting, nothing truly compares to coming home to family and close friends. After days or weeks without your closest loved ones, returning home allows you to appreciate your history and connection on a deeper level.

Spending time apart makes you cherish the shared experiences, memories, and bonds you have with those closest to you. Your family and friends know you in a more profound way than those you’ve just met while traveling.

The familiar love and support a long-term relationship provides is irreplaceable. Traveling alone and facing travel anxiety without someone you know makes you realize how much you rely on these support networks back home.

There’s also no better feeling than being able to share your travel stories and experiences with those you hold dear. Catching up over coffee, looking through photos together, and swapping entertaining anecdotes with your inner circle are some of the joys of returning home. It reminds you to make time for and nurture these special relationships that matter most.

Overcoming Travel Anxiety and Gaining A Much Needed Perspective

Above all, adventures complete with travel anxiety provide new perspectives that allow you to view home through fresh eyes.  Imagine missing out on sights like this from travel anxiety! Just do it!Being immersed in different cultures, customs, languages, foods, and lifestyles inevitably causes self-reflection and a refreshed mindset about your own environment and routines.

What you take for granted about the modern conveniences, freedoms, safety, and cultural aspects of your home become more obvious when contrasted with somewhere different. Certain comforts like consistent electricity, drinkable tap water, efficient transportation, and access to goods are more apparent after traveling somewhere that lacks these luxuries.

Trying new cuisines and dishes may even give you a desire to cook more international foods and flavors at home. Exposure to different cultural values and lifestyles may allow you to evolve your own perspective on topics like family, work-life balance, and pace of life when you return.

Travel has a way of resetting your sense of wonder and curiosity toward your usual environment. Often it’s easier to appreciate the history, architecture, natural landscapes, and special quirks of a foreign place. Applying that same fascination to your hometown after travel allows you to see it with new eyes. Exploring your own area becomes exciting again when you get back.

Bringing Home Inspiration

While travel stress and lessons learned while being away reminds you of how much you cherish home, it can also inspire small changes and new traditions. Maybe you admired the sense of community in a foreign neighborhood and want to make more effort to bond with your own neighbors. Or perhaps minimalist decor you encountered abroad has motivated you to adopt a simpler style at home.

Trying outdoor adventures on vacation may motivate you to get outside more right in your hometown.

Even starting to cook a foreign cuisine or listening to international music keeps a piece of your travels alive. Just spending more quality time with loved ones after being apart while traveling can become a renewed priority. Travel has a way of sparking personal growth and fresh inspiration that shapes your home life for the better.

The things you learn about yourself and the world when away, including the unanticipated doses of travel anxiety, can lead to positive changes once home. With an open and gracious mindset, home can be just as exciting as your journeys abroad.

Traveling to new places and seeing new people is fun but there is peace and serenity when you’re coming home. You should definitely appreciate that, like the old saying “you never know what you have until it’s gone.” Coming home after a long trip definitely makes you realize this, it makes you realize why important it is to have a home that you feel safe and comfortable in.

So don’t forget this when you’re in the middle of a trip and you may be feeling homesick, because the longer you stay away from home makes you appreciate it all the more.

Appreciating the Familiar

While travel is full of excitement and new discoveries, as well as travel anxiety as well, it also makes you appreciate the comforts of familiar home surroundings. Next time you’re feeling bored or stuck in a daily grind, remember that a trip away will reset your gratitude for the conveniences and connections of home.

New places will always beckon, but coming back to the familiar will be sweeter than ever before.

What New Mindset I Have Gained After My Recent Trip Abroad

I conquered my travel anxiety and am ready to plan my next outing.Travel has changed my mind set for the better; I met some new people and talked about what they believe and value. This has opened my mind to how other people around the world think and made me wonder if I should have some of those same values.

This has inspired me to go on more trips to meet others around my age I can talk with and see what I can learn from them.

I am planning another trip with a travel group in 2024 overseas as well and may go on another adventure as well stateside. While trips can cause some travel anxiety overall because of the unknown factors, I am ready to explore the world. That means I have to have the right perspective and stay calm and be assured that it will be worth any travel stress in the short term!

I hope this blog has inspired you to do the same.  If so, I hope to see you around the world!

Contact me at anytime at connor@myautismmind.com and let me know your travel inspirations!

Also, click here if you want to know more about my trip to Iceland with a young adult travel group. 

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Connor McClure

I'm a young adult navigating life with autism. By sharing my experiences and views, I hope to create a better awareness, understanding, and compassion for those on the spectrum. Let's connect!
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