Sometimes Travel Sucks

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It’s true, sometimes travel sucks. Don’t get me wrong, travel is a wonderful thing, I go crazy when I have too much time between trips, and I will always encourage people to get out there and experience the world. But it’s not all wonderful. As much as I love telling you about the great destinations I’m traveling to and how amazing travel itself is, I think it’s important for you to know the other side of it as well.

Travel brings a lot of decisions

Forget the decisions about when and where to go. I’m talking about once I’m on the trip. At home, if Andy and I want to eat out, we have a good idea of what restaurants are available to us. We run down the list of places we like and pick one based on what we want to eat and what type of atmosphere we’re in the mood for. But when we’re traveling, we have no idea what the options are. It’s fine for a few days, even for a week or so, but eventually I get sick of constantly having to figure out not only what restaurant to eat at, but where the restaurants even are.

sometimes travel sucks

Aside from food, we’re always having to decide what to do that day. When you think about it, in our every day lives, we don’t often have to make decisions about what to do on a particular day. Most of us get up and go to work or school, and we follow our routines until bedtime. Traveling usually means we don’t have any routine, so every day we’re deciding where to go and what to do. It’s great to have that freedom, but the constant decision-making can get exhausting.

Travel can mean bad beds

I’ve written about bad beds before, and while I have slept in a few amazing hotel beds, it’s rare to find a bed I like as much as my own. Throughout our Beyond Vacation kick-off trip, Andy and I spent the night in 13 different places: hostels, hotels, apartments, and even a canal boat and an overnight train. Some beds were definitely better than others, but none even came close to being as comfy as our bed at home.

sometimes travel sucks

I panicked about this while we were traveling. If I’m constantly dealing with bad beds (and bad pillows!) and I can’t sleep well night after night, I get cranky. I actually started thinking, can I really do this? Can I keep traveling if I can’t sleep well when I’m somewhere other than my own bed?

Um…I forgot why else…

I started this post on the tail end of our trip and the first day or so back home. But after just a few days, I couldn’t remember the other reasons I had in my head. Certainly there are other reasons why travel sometimes sucks, but if I’ve already forgotten them, I think that speaks volumes. I’m already looking at flight prices for the next trip.

Ultimately I know I won’t stop traveling. We will continue to look back on mistakes we’ve made and try to do better next time. Andy and I are going to do things like find out more about the neighborhoods were looking at before we even book a place, that way we know more about the restaurant situation. We also know we need to travel slower. There isn’t much I can do about the bad beds, but I can’t let something like that keep me home.

sometimes travel sucks

It will never be perfect. There will always be stressful days on the road in between the good ones. For me, the good outweighs the bad. So much so that I’ve already blocked out most of the reasons why travel sometimes sucks! Travel is such an amazing, rewarding experience, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

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