Worried About Travel Exhaustion? Here's A Guide to Planning Your Trip

• Travel exhaustion has some physical symptoms but is more about mental fatigue.
• Symptoms include an inability to concentrate and reduced motivation.
• Focusing on wellness and careful planning helps to offer relief.

Travel exhaustion is very common and can occur during business trips or leisure travel, whether it's a two-week holiday or a three-month backpacking tour. Over time, the stresses of travel, like organising schedules and dealing with culture shock, may leave you sapped of energy and feeling listless. The good news is that these problems are manageable with solutions like high-quality sleep, rest days and time spent in nature. Discover more about the causes, as well as solutions to help you avoid travel weariness.

Travel exhaustion can sometimes have physical causes, such as a change of diet that unsettles the stomach and leads to listlessness, or flight-related dehydration that causes lethargy. Even aches and pains from sitting still during journeys can add to a sense of sluggishness.

Longer-lasting travel fatigue, though, is as much about mental exhaustion as physical issues. Stress could begin to creep in even at the start of the trip due to fear of flying, worries about being on time for connections, and packing. During your trip, further anxiety might be caused by organising a complex itinerary, dealing with crowds and adapting to new environments, cultures and languages.
 

Business travel exhaustion can arise when cultural and language barriers become additional factors in high-stakes meetings, and juggling professional responsibilities with long journeys can be draining. Whether you're travelling for business or pleasure, sleep deprivation, a change of time zones and the seemingly simple issue of an unfamiliar bed all potentially contribute to tiredness that's hard to shake off.

Travel fatigue symptoms vary between different people, but many describe brain fog, grogginess and a feeling of being drained. While a lot of people would tell their friends and family they feel frazzled, it can also be described as malaise, a more medical term meaning a general lack of wellness and vitality.

Once these symptoms begin to emerge, you might find you are less able to concentrate on things you normally find engaging, and you may experience a lack of motivation. Children might become emotionally unsettled, but happily, kids are generally very adaptable, and there are solutions to help reduce the impact of travel fatigue, such as sticking to familiar bedtime routines and bringing healthy snacks on your journey.

Basic travel fatigue remedies include staying hydrated, eating nutritious food and spending time in nature, all of which contribute to emotional and physical wellness. Choosing a hotel that offers fitness and wellness facilities, a good restaurant and comfortable beds goes a long way towards meeting these simple goals. Exercise can take the form of walks or a few laps in the pool rather than hammering out 5k on the treadmill.

The concept of sleep tourism, where rest and recuperation are a prominent part of a journey, is becoming more popular. Custom mattresses, soundproof rooms and blackout curtains are a huge help. Daytime naps also pack an amazing amount of recovery into a short space of time, even 20 or 30 minutes. Spa and wellness treatments, such as yoga and meditation, aid sleep and help to restore your balance.

Slower travel can lessen fatigue, so consider trimming your itinerary while you're away. Schedule a rest day during a holiday, or a week off during backpacking. Why not replace a visit to a tourist site with a morning walk on the shore right outside your hotel? Beach hotels in France are ideal for sandy strolls, like Novotel Deauville Plage in Normandy or Novotel Thalassa Le Touquet on the Opal Coast, where spa treatments take inspiration from the sea.

Planning your trip in advance helps to reduce the stress of organising things while you're away, and also allows you to enjoy a digital detox that's so important for mental wellness. If you know in advance what you plan to do (or not do), you won't have to constantly use your phone or tablet to get directions and check opening times.

Along with the ideas above that help to manage travel exhaustion during your trip, there are things you can do after you get home to speed up your recovery. If worrying about a backlog at work is one reason for post-travel fatigue, try to schedule a buffer day or two after you get back, before returning to work. Focus on the positives of your trip, such as sharing photos and memories.

The duration of travel fatigue varies from person to person, but it generally lasts a few days to a week. Fortunately, long-term symptoms are very rare.

Jet lag and travel exhaustion are not quite the same. Jet lag is caused by disruption to the circadian rhythm (the body clock) due to crossing time zones, as well as uncomfortable conditions in the cabin and a lack of good sleep. Jet lag will ease as you get further into your trip, but travel exhaustion may increase towards the end of it.

Jet lag can feel worse when you're coming home because, in contrast, the excitement of the beginning of a trip masks it. Long-haul travel also disrupts your natural body clock.

Travel burnout is more severe than travel exhaustion. It is caused by prolonged, significant stress rather than overstimulation or tiredness. While some symptoms may be similar, they are likely to last longer with burnout.