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Anxiety
Do You Get Pre-Trip Anxiety?
If you're a bundle of nerves before traveling, here's what the experts suggest.
Posted December 2, 2021 Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Key points
- Anxiety before traveling is very common.
- The mind floods with things to worry about.
- Travel journalists are not immune from pre-trip anxiety.
I was walking with my friend Harriet the other day, and she told me that she and her family were meeting in two weeks on St. John’s Island in the Caribbean. “Ahhh…” I said, smiling, "I can imagine what you are looking forward to. Sunshine. Warmth. Swimming. Sailing…” “No,” she responded. “I’m so nervous I can hardly focus on anything else.”
“What are you nervous about?”
“Making sure I get my negative COVID test in time. What if my flights are changed or even canceled? Not packing the right things or forgetting important things. Getting all my important papers together…”
“You have pre-trip anxiety,” I offered.
“What?”
“Yes,” I continued. “Take it from someone who knows about it from the inside. It is common before traveling. Make that very common.”
‘You mean I’m not alone?” Harriet asked. “I thought it was just me.”
“You know about the countless times I have hit the road as a travel journalist. You probably think it’s second nature to me. Well, the truth is that I am always nervous before leaving. I invariably pack the wrong clothes. If it’s hot at the destination, I’ve packed for cool weather. If it’s cold, I have to buy warm clothes when I get there. And that’s just the beginning,” I added, laughing. “I have a packing list that is five pages long where I include anything I could possibly need in case I get stranded somewhere because of a strike, terrorist attack, or coup d’état.”
I could see Harriet’s face relax. “It’s a big comfort to know I’m not alone. And it even has a name.”
That night, I got an email from her. “Today I went from 'Oy!' to laughter from knowing I’m the only one with this ‘condition’ or ‘dis-order.’ Maybe it’s PTAD (pre-trip anxiety dis-order)! Whatever, I feel better and a little less anxious.”
Dealing With Snafus
One of the biggest sources of agita occurs when travelers have made extensive plans in advance and there are snafus. A restaurant never received their reservations. A special museum exhibit has reached the maximum number of viewers and they can’t get in. A private tour has been canceled. They can’t find the confirmation email for a private car to pick them up at the airport.
I have a very easy solution to that, although it might not suit everyone. Except for where I’m staying, I don’t plan anything. That eliminates all the stress of worrying about whether or not I will see and do everything at the destination. Instead, I show up, meet people, listen to local recommendations, and let the place reveal itself to me on its own terms. By traveling this way, I have had fabulous, funny, educational, touching, bonding, surprising, sometimes life-changing experiences wherever I go.
Over the years, I have asked the experts — seasoned professional travel journalists — if they get pre-trip anxiety. Karen Lupine (pseudonym) said, “Before trips, I feel the need to clear my to-do list, no matter how long. It’s like wanting to prepare for a perfect life when I return, all caught up. I never get it all done and it’s stressful, but every trip it’s like this.”
Traveling With Medical and Physical Challenges
Jorie Gavin (pseudonym) confided: “Ever since I became a type 1 diabetic seven years ago, I have to pack a week in advance to make sure I have everything. Forget my insulin? I'll die. Forget candy when my blood sugar gets too low? I'll die. Forget test strips and blood meter? Won't know my blood sugar. I need to bring doubles and triples of everything. It takes up half my suitcase. But, still, that does not stop me from traveling. I just take fewer clothes.”
My colleague Barbara Wysocki shared her way of dealing with anxiety that results from a physical challenge. “In the years since my eyesight dimmed, my best strategy to avoid anxiety is to ‘depend on the kindness of strangers.’ That includes asking flight attendants to fill in customs forms and relying on doormen and concierges at any convenient hotel for everything from taxis to show tickets. I repay my travel karma by reaching out to new faces when I'm back home.”
Travel writer Lina Zeldovich says she gets anxiety every time she travels. “I worry about missing the plane, bags getting lost, flights being canceled, missing connections, canceled hotel reservations (happened more than once), and losing passports. And I am a nervous flyer, too, LOL. So, basically, everything. But I will still travel, dammit! I proudly wear the badge of a nervous travel writer.”
And my award-winning travel photojournalist husband, Paul, is not immune from pre-trip anxiety. He is concerned that he’ll get an urgent assignment and need photos and article information he doesn’t have with him. As it’s impossible to take every file, it’s already happened a few times.
Some of the strategies mentioned may help or give you ideas for calming your anxiety monster. Or maybe, like Harriet, you’re just relieved to know you are definitely not alone!
