How we slipped into travel burnout before the summer of 2022

Looking back, I am proud and excited about all the trips and experiences we had so far in 2022. Looking forward, things are rather uncertain and blunt. Somehow we want to go and explore the world and see the things we haven’t seen so far. But at the same time, we feel tired and lack the thrill of planning and anticipating a new journey. We feel anxious and tired, afraid and lazy.

We’ve been away 95 days out of 151 from January 1st till June 1st. Not to mention that we were traveling before January 1st as well, namely in Antarctica. The rest of the days, from 95 to 151, we spent mainly planning journeys, booking planes, accommodations, renting cars, laundry, packing, and unpacking. We’ve seen: Antarctica, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, UAE, Seychelles, Germany, Ireland, and Northern Ireland:

Our Travel Timeline

Our travel history starts quite shy, but since 2019 we’ve been spending more than 50% of our time away from home.

Travelfoss

In January 2022, we were a bit upset that there were fewer places that you could travel to during winter than during summer. We were thrilled to plan one trip each month, and we could hardly wait for the summer. Then summer came, but our travel energy went to a very low level.

Travel became a routine. Nothing we see or do is exciting anymore. All forests are just forests, beaches are all the same, castles are just buildings, cities are all crowded and noisy, and the list can go on.

Travel gives you freedom, but at the same time, it limits you.

The limit is your backpack or suitcase. That’s everything you have, and you get tired of living out of your suitcase. Accommodations rarely feel like being home. You might not enjoy cooking, but you wish you could experiment with some crazy recipe if the kitchen you have at your disposal would only allow you to.

Waking up early to beat the crowds is a matter of the past. We no longer have the motivation to put in the effort to wake up early in the morning. We tend to stay up till late just because we want more time for ourselves. We’re too tired in the morning to even wake up at 8.

We took June off, but we had a lot of family events to attend, and maintenance to do at the apartment we live in. We barely had time for ourselves and our routines. We dedicated July to living in Germany, in a brand new, high-quality Airbnb, which feels almost like home. We had time to charge a bit our batteries, enough to make us dream about traveling to Canada and the USA for a month and a half. But now we realize that we still don’t have enough travel energy for this kind of trip.

Maybe the covid pandemic left a scar on us as well. We were in New Zealand when it all started, and we had to cancel and try to get refunds for 2 more months of accommodations in New Zealand, Hawaii, and New York and the flights between these places. Back then, a pandemic was explicitly not covered by any travel insurance.

All in all, travel burnout is real and we can deeply feel it. It’s depressing but real. We can’t stay home for too long because we get extremely bored and don’t have enough energy and excitement to plan and go on a new adventure. Living for almost a month in Germany and experiencing the german lifestyle and culture has helped a lot. It is slow-paced travel that we need, and we’ll probably be seeking in the near future until we’re up and running again at our full potential.

Slow-paced travel is a hard thing to do for us. We always feel the rush of going places when we’re in a new environment, but that’s what gets us exhausted. We’ve learned our lesson, and now we are healing.