Author: Sean Keener

FAQ – On The Road

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Do People Get Tired Of Traveling?

Yes, and if you go on a long RTW, the infamous travel burnout will happen to you, too. This isn’t a vacation, this is a lifestyle. When traveling becomes your everyday life as opposed to a quick escape from your everyday life, it can lose some of its luster at times. Just keeping this in mind before you begin should help you deal with travel burnout when it happens to you. We’ll discuss some ways to deal with it in the On the Road section.

How Will I Do My Laundry?


Like most all RTW travelers, you will most likely start off by doing most of your laundry in a sink with some detergent or soap of some kind and a sink plug. You’ll weave some string around your room and attach it to whatever you can, and hang your clothes to dry. This is a relatively easy and obviously cheap way to do it. Then you’ll realize at some point that your clothes don’t get quite as clean, so you’ll send your laundry out to one of the many laundry services available. If you’re in a developing region, you’ll be shocked to get a $5 bill and decide to do this from now on. In more expensive regions, you can sometimes find hostels and hotels with self serve laundry machines, and if not, there should be some in whatever city you’re in. You’ll most likely employ many different laundry tactics during your trip.
Read more about daily tasks RTW travelers have to deal with.

Should I Plan Some Days Off?

You don’t have to necessarily plan them, but as stated earlier, you will suffer from travel burnout at some point along the way. After a while travel becomes your life, your routine, and like any routine, you start getting tired and annoyed at certain things. The key when you start feeling this way is to accept it and not beat yourself up over it. Everyone who travels long-term, even the most experienced of travelers, suffers from travel burnout. There are going to be plenty of days where you will want to just sit in your hostel with a book, or watch movies all day in the common room, or head to the park, or do whatever makes you relax. It’s impossible to sight-see and travel every single day and not eventually need some down time.

Do People Often Get Homesick?

Yes, it’s perfectly natural. Even though you are on the trip of a lifetime, there are going to be plenty of times where you yearn for home, and family, and friends, and familiar food. It’s just part of it. When you’re really feeling it, set up some Skype calls with family and friends back home so you can see and chat with them. Because of the nature of a trip like this, it’s easy to switch gears and head somewhere that might be more relaxing or put you in better spirits. Head somewhere else that might be more like home or just more relaxing. If you’re in an in-your-face city like Hanoi, head south to a beach town. If you’re in a sleepy village in Thailand and just aren’t feeling it, head back to Bangkok and get yourself a nice, big western meal somewhere. Either familiarity, rest and relaxation, or a combination of both tends to do the trick.

Do Solo Travelers Often Get Lonely?

Most solo travelers are pretty strong people. They wouldn’t be traveling solo if they weren’t. And while it’s extremely easy to meet people on the road, especially if you stay in hostels, it still gets lonely as it’s hard to develop long friendships with travelers since everyone is always going their separate ways. Just as homesickness and travel burnout hits everyone at some point during a trip, loneliness will hit the solo traveler at some point. Trying to convince friends and family members to visit during different parts of your trip helps tremendously and can really give you a boost. If you’re staying at hotels or in private rooms, consider moving to a hostel dorm for a few nights in order to meet other travelers. And if you meet someone you click with, don’t be afraid to travel with him or her for a while to change it up.
Be sure to read Top Tips for Solo Travel from Those Who Have Done It for more inspiration for traveling alone.

How can I refresh myself?


There are several tactics to dealing with travel burnout, homesickness, and loneliness. While some down days here and there are both nice and necessary, sometimes you just need to take a vacation from your trip. For those who have never done a trip like this, it might sound ridiculous, but when you are constantly on the move, packing and unpacking, taking long bus and train rides, wandering new cities looking for places to stay, it gets exhausting. When we were feeling homesick and had travel burnout in Laos, we decided to cut our losses and head to a Thai island for a week to recuperate and get our travel legs back. How often do you have the chance to just pick up and head to a Thai island for a week? Take advantage of it. A vacation from your trip like that is sure to cure whatever ails you.

Return to FAQ Home

While you are still in the planning stages of this whole trip, the last thing you want to think about is coming home, but it is necessary to plan for a few things upon your return. The next FAQ deals with what you need to think about regarding coming home from your trip.
For more in depth information about travel burnout, loneliness, and other on the road things you’ll have to deal with, be sure to read this article.
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