Traveling As A High-Maintenance Homebody

Having just gotten back from a week-long vacation in Colorado with my family, I thought it was apropos to articulate my internal paradox surrounding the experience of travel. Whether for a vacation or some other event, I find traveling to be simultaneously invigorating and exhausting, wonderful and horrible, exciting and panicking (…or is it panicking-ing?). Do you feel ever feel the same?

I’ll cut to the chase and outline a few life things that tend to naturally interrupt a peaceful travel experience for me. These are all fairly basic, but my particularities about them may sound kinda… well, *high-maintenance*. You can’t say I didn’t warn you with the title! My intention is not to moan and groan about “how hard I have it” (because I don’t!), but rather to be honest about the realities of traveling when you’re not a naturally “chill” person. Just keeping it real here, folks. I also have some thoughts to share on how I navigate these things to make traveling more enjoyable and less of a hassle! But first, the struggles ;)

Starting with the obvious: Unfamiliar Territory. It’s par for the course that going on a vacation generally means visiting a new, and often unfamiliar, place. But the reality of being away from home is that you’re… away from home. Duh. But do you know what I’m getting at? At home, you probably know your area well enough to navigate without a GPS, or find what you need in your local grocery store. At home, if you’re like me, you’ve curated your environment and schedule to accommodate what you need to be comfortable and happy. Traveling, however, is a whole different matter. You no longer have access to many of those items, routines, and environments that you usually depend on. And whether it’s as small as not having an accessible outlet next to the bed for your phone charger, or as big as not understanding the language of the area you’re visiting, it naturally adds a layer of complication to any travel experience. This may be more impactful for the homebodies like me, but it remains true regardless.

Stuff. Sometimes, I marvel at how much stuff I use in my day-to-day life to feel “normal”. While I generally consider myself more minimal with the products and clothing I have, especially for a woman, that seems a lot less true when faced with fitting it all into a carry-on suitcase. It continues to baffle me, every time I start packing for a trip, just how few things I feel confident leaving behind. I’m sure we all know the sentiments well: “How cold is it gonna be? Better bring an extra pair just in case” or “Well, there might be a chance to swim… it’s better to have it” or “But what if that black chin hair comes back and I need to pluck it?!” (anyone else??) and of course, the classic, “Grab a couple more pairs of underwear… you never know”. The list of possibilities for what you might just need is virtually endless, especially if you’re intent on not purchasing unnecessary duplicates of things you already have at home.

Food. Food can be hard! If you have gut issues and food sensitivities like me, then you know it can be challenging to eat out and still feel good on vacation – especially if you’re traveling anywhere in America. Personally, I’m very sensitive to gluten and have a few other weird, minor sensitivities that I try to avoid as well. When you’re going to an unfamiliar area, it can feel like a big task to find places that are safe to eat but still within reasonable price range. Even if you aren’t burdened with food restrictions, eating out can still come with its consequences from other factors, like the temptation to overindulge. While there can be some improvement to this with access to an AirBnB kitchen, making sure you have all the right supplies to actually make your meals at your temporary home can be a pain in the butt.

Sleep. I don’t know about you, but I don’t function well on bad sleep. On vacation, the risk for this can come from any angle – different mattress, uncomfortable room temperature, having to share space with someone who snores, or simply a packed schedule that interferes with a full 8 hours of shut-eye. At home, my husband and I sleep in a king bed; yes, a king, because someonnne likes to sleep in the middle of the bed ;). We also both have long-standing back issues, so the adjustment to a smaller, crappy mattress on a trip tends to have pretty immediate repercussions. And don’t even get me started on tent camping… it’s all fun and games until you wake up in the middle of the night, freezing cold and stiff as a board in the valley of your rapidly deflating air mattress. I digress.

Feeling Unwell. This is more of an honorable mention, because it’s kind of an obvious one, but worth acknowledging because I’ve rarely been on a family vacation without one of us falling victim to some sort of ailment. Nobody likes to be sick on vacation. Not only does it usually ruin your plans, but you’re away from your regular doctor and likely staying somewhere that’s unequipped to keep you fully comfortable. But even without an actual illness getting you down, the possibility for other bodily discomfort like motion sickness, headaches, unexpected seasonal allergies, or injuries seems to be unfortunately likely. I have major motion sickness, myself, and will literally throw up on planes if I don’t take the proper precautions. We love Dramamine!

Energy. Vacations are supposed to be fun, right?? But I have found that creating the right balance of activity and rest can be challenging. How do you plan enough activities to stave off boredom and make the most of your time, while still finishing the week feeling refreshed? In my experience, all you need is just the wrong mix of things to finish the day feeling totally ragged. Maybe you’ve experienced it, too: an overbooked sight-seeing schedule, poorly planned meal stops, or loud and crowded venues leaving you feeling more exhausted post-trip than when you started. My usual downfalls are forgetting to plan good meal timing (with no available snacks), and ending up in really loud, overstimulating places when I’m already low energy. Both of these traps make me cranky and generally unpleasant to be around, and yet it is surprisingly hard to avoid when you’re trying to make the most of your time away.

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As the title of this post suggests, I believe that I can be described as high-maintenance. I know that’s generally considered a bad thing, but I don’t actually say that in a self-deprecating way. I simply acknowledge that I am rarely “go with the flow” and usually like things to be a certain way if I want to feel normal. So, compared to someone who is go with the flow, sure – you can call me high-maintenance. But as I’ve pondered what that really implies, I’ve come to the conclusion that I think it’s dumb. Just being honest!

Think about it. If any of you have ever traveled with young children, you know that they require a lot of supplies in order to keep them fed, clothed, comfortable, and entertained. You’re likely to bring extra of everything to account for every possibility, just in case they don’t have exactly what your child needs at the local Walmart. You’re also probably going to avoid restaurants that are unsuitable for kids, and plan your daily activities around naptime.

Why is it any different as adults? We would never say that considering your basic needs of sleep, food, and energy is “unreasonable” when you’re keeping up your regular routines in your own house. With that in mind, it’s kind of silly to expect ourselves to “pack light” and bring “only the necessities” if the goal of a vacation is to feel peaceful and have fun. To me, feeling normal is the foundation for having fun – and if that means I need to pack a few extra things or prepare for a trip a bit more meticulously, so be it! I’ve stopped trying to fight this truth about myself, because it will actively inhibit me from having a good time when I’m away from home.

In response to these realizations, here are a couple of preparations that I’ve started doing to help vacation actually feel like vacation.

1. Overpacking! Especially with layers of clothing. As someone who is always cold, I never regret bringing an extra jacket. If you want a good story-time on that, ask me about our honeymoon lol :)
2. Packing comfortable shoes. It’s a no-brainer, but it even applies to a weekend trip for a wedding where we’ll be dressed up the whole time.
3. Bringing my favorite kitchen knife to an AirBnB. Trying to cook your own meals is totally futile if you get stuck with one dull steak knife as your only way to cut an onion. While you’re at it, bring a spatula, tongs, wooden spoon, and any other utensils you feel you can’t cook without. It’s worth it.
4. Planning the day’s activities around meals. Even if the meals themselves are not the focus of the trip, scheduling things around when we plan to eat helps me to avoid being hangry.
5. Doing my restaurant research ahead of time. Finding a gluten free restaurant that sounds appealing can feel impossible if I’m trying to do it when I’m already hungry.
6. Bringing snacks. Always.
7. Prioritizing sleep. If an AirBnB doesn’t have at least a queen-sized bed, it’s automatically eliminated from our list of options. My husband and I usually try to find a place with a king bed, if possible.
8. Bringing my own little med kit. Some Advil, Tylenol, or Dramamine can go a long way for comfort – and it seriously sucks to need any of those at 3 am when nothing is open, or on a stretch of road with no gas station for miles.
9. Honestly, bringing earplugs. I can’t always predict which restaurants or venues will be uncomfortably loud, but even just having one earplug in can majorly reduce my overstimulation!
10. Planning in an extra day off after returning home. It might feel silly to spend a “vacation day” at home instead of having one more day away. But having a full day of margin (that isn’t tainted by any traveling) is a total gamechanger to getting back to real life feeling refreshed and not behind.

The more I realize that it’s actually okay to accommodate myself, the better my life gets. Seriously! None of these things are ground-breaking, but they’ve helped me make the most of my vacations. Now, I can (usually) look ahead to my trips with excitement instead of anxiety, knowing that I’ll be prepared!

Would you consider yourself to be high-maintenance? If you do, and you have another tip that I didn’t include, I’d love to hear it! Leave a comment below so everyone can read it, if you’d like to share :)