How to Feel at Home While on Vacation
Travel – whether it’s vacation, vacation or business trip – is a double-edged experience. Visiting new places can be exciting, comforting with family, or pursuing professional goals, but travel can also be stressful , especially when you’re on vacation . In addition to the crazy nature associated with getting to your destination, there is also the anxiety associated with being in an unfamiliar room.
Hotel rooms can be beautiful, but also a little impersonal, and every moment spent in them reminds you that you are in a strange place. And your sister-in-law’s guest room may be cozy, but it’s not your room. Everything is not the way you like it, and it’s easy to feel shackled when you’re in someone else’s space. This contributes to travel stress because you can never fully relax and calm down while sailing off-road.
The trick is to find ways to make your hotel room or the musty guest room at your cousin’s house feel more like your own personal space. Luckily, it’s actually not that hard to do.
Unpack
Step one: Actually unpack. I used to be one of those grumpy travelers who left everything in my carefully packed suitcase—I never even opened the drawer in my hotel room. But recently I made the decision to unpack and it makes a big difference. Keeping your clothes in suitcases not only makes them wrinkled and sad, but also constantly reminds you that you live on suitcases. Arranging clothes in drawers and closets and putting the suitcase away will psychologically make the room more like home.
Bring more of your stuff
A hotel room or guest room usually includes everything you need, from bedding to shampoo. And it’s nice! Except that it won’t be something you normally use, and it will serve as a constant reminder that you’re not in your personal space, but someone else’s.
Putting aside concerns that hotels might not clean their bedding with the same, uh, enthusiasm they do at home, bringing your own sheets and pillows will instantly make the bed feel more like your own, and thus in it. it will be easier to relax and fall asleep. If you bring your own toiletries with you, your hygiene and other daily routines will remain the same, ensuring you don’t end up with dry skin or coarse hair or just smell like a completely different person. And by bringing along some souvenirs, like photos or little trinkets you keep on your desk, they serve as visual anchors that signal that the space is your private property, even if it isn’t.
Keep your routine
One of the benefits of traveling is the opportunity to break out of your routine and live a different life for a while. But there are routines worth breaking and routines worth keeping. Travel anxiety is often caused by a feeling of losing control of one’s life . When you’re in an unfamiliar place, sticking to your regular sleep cycle, meal times, and exercise habits will go a long way in maintaining your physical and mental health and making you feel at home.
Bring Your Content
Many people have little rituals around the content they consume – for example, couples often watch certain shows at certain times. If you have certain shows you like to watch after dinner or before bed, or while doing yoga in your living room, take that content with you to a hotel or a relative’s guest room. You can bring a tablet, laptop, or just a phone with a streaming app installed, and many hotels allow you to temporarily log into Netflix or other platforms on in-room TVs (don’t forget to log out!). If not, grab your own Roku or Chromecast, plug it into your TV’s HDMI port like a boss , and experience the soothing joy of watching The Office for the 500th time.
use your nose
Finally, one of the subtlest signs that hotels and other people’s houses seem alien to us is their smell. Every home has a smell, although we tend to be “blind” to our own smell. It can be hard to feel at home when entering a hotel because it doesn’t smell like our house. And the guest room will always smell like someone else’s house, that’s obvious. This is not necessarily bad, but it can be subconsciously unsettling. If there are certain aspects to the smell of your home — like the air fresheners you use or the scented candles you always light — take them with you. You might want to ask permission from your host first if you’re going to stink in a guest room, but creating a familiar smell in the room will go a long way in making it feel comfortable.