BootsnAll Travel Community

Have any of you been on a long trip and decided to go home just because you were sick of travelling? Did you regret it later on?

I've been travelling since January and was planning on going home in December, but I'm just feeling really tired. The though of another bus is almost too much. But its more than that. I miss my friends and family back home, which I think is the main thing. I walk into a supermarket with lots of food, or go into a music store and hear american music and it reminds me of home and I want to start crying. There have been other times I've wanted to go home on this trip, but it has always before been because of a bad day or some other thing I could pinpoint. Now its just a general want to go home... On and off for a few weeks, well, a month or so now. But it seems to be getting worse everyday even though I've been trying to take things a little slower and treat myself more...

I'm thinking I'll hop on a plane and just head home in a few days, but I think I might regret it if I leave now. There is still so much I had wanted to do on this trip, and I still do in one sense, but at the moment I really feel like I don't care...

Any advice or words of wisdom?

-Jillian

Instead of going home, why don't you book a nice hotel for a few days maybe by the sea (depends on where you are) and pamper yourself, maybe phone home, which may cost a lot, but at the end of the day its only money.

If your still feeling in the same mood as before, go home. You can always stay a few days/weeks at home seeing everyone but set yourself a time limit to go back and carry on travelling, i think you might regret it if you don't.

Rach

Hey Jillian

I had the same problem as you. I spent 7months travelling and could either chose to travel on, (to New Zealand) but that would mean I'd miss out in University this year, or come back for University. Although I didnt really want to, I came home and I'm starting Uni in a few weeks and am already planning my next trip! (to New Zealand!!)

My point is, just because you come home doesn't mean to say you won't have the opportunity to travel again! Just treat it as a well-deserved break before your next trip.
Don't look back - look forward!

I just read your blog (great by the way) and in your FAQ before you left, you said:

quote:

How long will you be gone?
I'm guessing about 6 months, but I'm not sure. I'll come home (what home???)either when my money runs out or when I'm tired of travelling.

So my guess is, that you should come home if you are really tired of travelling!

My biggest fear was silly about returning home, that I didn't want people to think I was a 'quitter', but no-one has even hinted that! Theyre just proud of everything I managed to do in 7months!!

So, if you feel like youre ready to come back, then enjoy your last few days and come home!

You shoudln't regret it because you should be thinking of all the amazing things you DID do!

good luck!

I've felt like wanting to go home, but never more than a couple of days. But if you've been wanting to go home for a month as you say, go home. It would be nicer to do the rest of your trip some time later than do it now and not enjoy it.

I’ve been in this position twice. During my Europe jaunt, my spirit started to go south at about the four month mark. I tried the take-it-easy-for-a-week remedy which only recharged me for a month and then I was just worse off than before. I should mention that I was working (collecting notes and pictures for travel articles) and traveling rather hard simultaneously, trying to squeeze in an insane itinerary and get home by Christmas. I pushed through to the bitter end. I was so exhausted that the last six weeks of the trip are a haze of disjointed memories. If I hadn’t been in such truly awesome destinations (Italy), I’m sure travel apathy would have defeated me. Fortunately at the time, I knew I was losing it and compensated for my failing memory and sorry notes by taking obscene amounts of pictures.

I hit the wall at a about the six month mark during my most recent trip (Australia, New Zealand, Asia). This time my failing spirit was exacerbated by wicked insomnia and a troubling weight lose problem. Fearing for my all-around health, I flew home six weeks early, missing two countries (Vietnam and Cambodia). I don’t regret it at all. I was a mess and laboring on would have just meant misery and probably an unfair under-appreciation for the places I had left to tour.

Try to take a break, but really do it. Not just a few days, a week, minimum. Sleep a lot, don’t drink, stuff your face with yummy, healthy food and don’t over-exert yourself physically (strenuous exercise or even long walks, etc). If that doesn’t do the trick, yes go home.

I was in a slightly similar situation recently. I had been gone a year and a half, teaching english in Japan. Me and some friends quit our jobs at the same time with plans to travel together for three months. I had an injury requiring medical treatment the first week of the trip, but wanted to continue traveling since I was already there, and there was a lot I wanted to see.

I ended up cutting my trip short by one month. My situation is different in that I had already been living abroad for a while before my trip, but after two months on the road, I just had that feeling that it was time to go home. I've already done a lot of traveling and I know I will do more in the future. I just didn't feel like pushing myself. Plus, I had some slight worries about my health, and wanted to see my familiar family doc at home.

I agree with the posters above though. Treat yourself. Eat some great meals. Go to a beach if possible. If you still feel like going home, then go. I don't think its worth it to stick it out if you know you would be happier at home.

Good luck!

Thank you all for the responses. Lots of good advice and even just knowing that there are people out there who have been through the same thing has helped.

What I've decided to do is completely scrap my itinerary and get to Capetown ASAP for some relaxation, rest, and good food. I'm going to find myself a nice hostel and after a few days or a week maybe find some volunteer work or some drumming lessons there and just stay in one place for a while. If I'm not feeling better after a week I'll head home, otherwise I'll be back on the road in a few weeks.

It's normal to feel the way you do man, you have been out there for over half a year. During my one-year long RTW, I had a couple of times when I was ready to go home because I had accomplished already the two goals I had in mind when I first set off. I finally stuck to the trip and finished it, which now I am happy I did, but I reckon I would have been fine too if I had come back too.

My future trips wont be planned to last a whole year. That's way too long in my opinion. Somewhere around 3 or 4 months seems about right.

There will inevitably be times during ur journey that u get tired and want to go home. It's normal to seek the familiar. But why are u about and about? To see all that is unfamiliar and experience the wonders of the world. I was on a 2 year trip from China thru SE Asia and Australia. Whenever I started to miss "home" (I didn't really have one), I would listen to Jimmy Buffett particularly "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" and it would recharge my Spirit. "If it suddenly ended tomorrow, I could somehow adjust to the fall..." I knew I could go home and it would be OK, but I'd miss out on finishing my goals. Listen to the song if u don't know it. It usually recharged my batteries. "There's just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can't go wrong." When that failed, I checked into Club Med for a nice week long break from traveling. Took windsurfing lessons, ate 3-4 meals a day and pampered myself w/ umbrella drinks by the pool.

That said, it also depends on how far (much a ticket costs to get back to what u still want to see) and the likelyhood that u will go back if u do return home. I knew that Asia was clear on the other side of the planet from the US and I probably wouldn't return for a long time since there is so much else to see waiting there in front of me.

Just remember, whatever decision u make, it (probably) won't be the last. There will be other journeys and other adventures as long as u make them a priority in ur life. It's so easy to get caught in a career and the daily routine of "normal" life, if u don't set travel goals and make them happen.

well, it IS a good idea to find a quiet spot without any stress to recharge, and then, after a month or two weeks of recharging, you still feel like you need to return, then by all means return. The point of travelling is to experience something new at your own schedule. That means you have the right to change your schedule when other considerations hold sway. homesickness is definitely another consideration.

It is pretty normal to get burned out 8-9 months into your trip. Take it easy, go to some nice place where you'd enjoy hanging for some time and enjoy. A few months after being home you wish you had seen more otherwise.

Cheers,
Charlie

It's been 6 months for me and I've started having thoughts of heading back home. Not sure why though because there isn't that much there waiting for me anyway. I think I'd like to go home to the US (with its conforts and familiar ways), recharge a bit, and head out to SE Asia (2-3 months in Thailand, 2-3 months in China to learn Kung Fu, yeah!!) Anyway, I've been 1 week in Paris without doing anything, and my stay here in Amsterdam isn't very touristy at all, I was feeling a bit 'lazy' about carrying on with my trip, but I'm getting back into it. (been reading BnA a lot now, it's like 3am here!)

Your trip is for you and you alone! Unless someone else is paying for you to travel (wouldn't that be sweet!), do what ever you want. The whole reason İ'm travelling is to enjoy life and if İ'm no longer enjoying life by travelling, İ'm going home!

The lists of "things to see" gets old quickly and most of the highlights and sights that you planned ahead of time (before your trip) all just blend together. Alot of your most memorable times come from just sitting and drinking Chai (or whatever) , getting "stuck" in some village and loving it, or having magical conversations with amazing people, usually the things that you can't plan on. İf that kind of stuff isn't enjoyable anymore and the grind of travel is burning you out, than go home. İ'm not spending my hard earned money to torture myself.

İ've been sick for a month and a half (parasites and Gastrointestinitis-spl?) and İ just can't shake it. İt's really hard to enjoy those little things when İ feel like shit and İ'm pretty much spent right now, so İ,m going home. İ'll be back on the road next year with no regrets.

Just gotta get to France (flying home from there)...

Bear,

I'm a stranger to you but you are no longer one to me. I discovered your blog yesterday and was up until 3:00am laughing my gut out over your misadventures. The ones about your bathroom runs in Nepal really got me.

To tell the truth, I was worried about you since there were no blog entries since Aug. With your experience on the K2 trail, I thought that all your fun had perhaps caught up to you. Really, I feared you might be no more.

So it was a great relief to find this recent entry of yours. Here's to your full recovery!

I'm planning a RTW next spring. I'll be heading west from Arizona to many of the places you've already been to.

Keep up your writing. You are very talented-a natural!

Jillian > If you've been feeling like this for a month and it's getting worse, just go home. Whatever else that is left on your plan you will not get to appreciate to the fullest.

Don't worry, there will be other times and you've done so much already so it's not like you going home "hungry"

jillian,

poor thing. after three weeks on a three and ahalf month trip i got crazy homesick. i had to swallow it b/c i couldn't go home--my boyfriend was meeting me at the end of my trip and i had a subletter living in my very fabulous nyc apt, and no job. call home a lot--they will prob encourage you to stay. try to make some new friends or spend time with people you meet. i think back to when i was crying in the louvre, thinking, "damn, i wish i could go back when i wasn't depressed!"

don't worry. we're all in this together. do some american things, like prepare mac and cheese, watch american movies, whatever makes you feel comfiest.

good luck!

I got pretty homesick about 9 months in to my last trip. After about a month I decided to go home. I regretted this as soon as I got home. I realized when I got back that I had built up home as being such a great place (because it was comfortable and easy and what I was used to,) but in reality it was just the same old boring place. I remembered then why I had wanted to leave on a trip in first place.
I wish I had just stuck it out, because feelings of homesickness will probably pass like anything else. If it's a matter of just feeling tired/burned out, maybe you need to relax (as people have suggested,) or do the exact opposite, move on from where you are to a different country/different scenery. Maybe you'll find you were just getting tired of where you were. Anyway, that's just my feeling on it, everyone is different.
Anyway, I hope Cape Town offers what you are looking for.
good luck!
-Jer

I'm feeling a little rough around the edges myself, having been on the road for 7 months.
Part of me misses my home and friends and family and all that.....and part of me is dying at the idea of having to go home in a month!!!
I'm very confused on this one.
I would never dream of going home early, because I'm about to fly to New Zealand.
But I can't wait to sleep in my own bed, cook in my kitchen, shower in my own private bathroom...BUT then I freak out that my adventure is almost over!
I'm bouncing back and forth like a tennis ball right now!

My advice would be to stick it out. 1 more month of your life on the road...vs. years of work and stability. I'd take my month while I can.
Everything will still be there in a month.
And in the meantime, yay...get yourself a nice place for a few days and recharge.