10 Ways to Get Over Travel Blues During Coronavirus

Are You Suffering from Some Serious Travel Blues Because You’re Being Responsible and Staying at Home During the Coronavirus Pandemic? Here Are Some Productive Travel Related Things You Can Do at Home to Circumvent Tripophobia.

According to the urban dictionary, tripophobia is “the fear of not having any travel trips currently booked.” I “suffer” from this condition and whilst we are all in self-isolation and self-quarantine during COVID-19, my travel blues have really set in. Our Australian borders are currently closed and the idea that I can’t leave my country makes me feel oddly claustrophobic. For now, we are being ultra-responsible and we are not leaving the house. We are only heading out to get essentials. No walks on the beach, no visits to country towns and no road trips.

Staying at home for long periods of time however means that I am presented with a new perspective of how to make this time productive. And in the last couple of weeks, I have been able to achieve quite a bit around the house, my online work and travel related tasks. I may not be able to physically travel, but I seem to have created a travel related routine at home to get rid of my travel blues. Here is what you can do to get over your travel blues during Coronavirus.

#01 – RE-ASSESS TRAVEL BUCKET LIST ADVENTURES

People always ask me what’s high on my travel bucket list. I have always found that difficult to answer because it is loooonnnnggggg! I find it almost impossible to narrow it down to a top 10 list. And in most cases when I finally decide to book a trip, it doesn’t always end up being a bucket list adventure.

While you’re stuck at home, take this time to re-assess your bucket list. When this pandemic is finally over and it’s safe to travel, where would you go?

A lot has changed in our world today which will affect that travel bucket list. You may have budget constraints now, you may fear visiting developing countries, the exchange rate may be dismal, you may not be ready to fly yet or your perspective of what you want out of a trip may be different.

Sit down and really think about your bucket list. As your children grow up, their needs change too. Ask your partner what they would like to do in the future. Just dreaming and having conversations about travel makes me happy.

#02 – MORE DOMESTIC TRAVEL

Your domestic borders will open before international borders will. So, if you’re itching to go on a trip when all this over, you may want to travel within your own country first.

The Australian countryside has been hit hard. Towards the end of 2019 and start of 2020, we saw the worst bushfires the world had ever seen. The statistics indicated that over 10 million hectares were burnt and 1 billion animals were killed.

The smaller communities that relied on tourism suffered so much with no one able to visit these areas. Local businesses had to shut down as they simply couldn’t survive. Luckily, the rains came and the fires stopped. And just when things were looking up, coronavirus hit.

For us personally, we would love nothing more than to support these local businesses and allow tourism to thrive again. We have already thought about a few places we could visit when it is safe to do so.

Let’s not forget that where we live is no doubt on someone else’s bucket list. Your backyard is someone else’s dream destination. So, when the time comes, perhaps plan a domestic trip first. Do all those things you always wanted to do like backroads touring, camping or simply parking yourself on a farmstead with a fabulous fireplace. Start planning!

#03 – SPRING CLEAN

This is the perfect time to do some spring cleaning. We live in a very small house so all our travel related accessories and items are everywhere! From our boogie boards and wetsuits, to bags and luggage of all shapes and sizes to digital and electrical accessories, it’s so messy!

Even our physical currency is in one big pile. Some of those coins I have, I’m not sure what country they belong to. This is going to be a great exercise to do with Hannah. We can organise them properly so next time we can just grab and run. And perhaps even think about what we want to do with a currency we know we may never use again or not for a very long time anyway.

We need to re-organise our garage and create better storage space. I know for a fact that if I am better organised, I would have so much more room. I would also like to be more organised in terms of not having to do so much when packing. It would allow us to be more spontaneous. For example, if we decided to go boogie boarding for the day, I can simply grab everything from the one storage box or bag, chuck it in the car and off we go.

#04 – ORGANISING YOUR TRAVEL IMAGES

I’m sure that you have a ton of travel photos that need sorting through. Come on, admit it!

I have a ridiculous amount. In my small family of 3, we have 3 smartphones, 1 DLSR, 1 mirrorless camera and a go pro. We travel with all of these all the time. So, you can just imagine how many photos and videos we have! And they are all over the shop.

If you don’t already have one, perhaps you can look into getting a digital photo organizer like Zoner, digiCam, Google photos or Magix Photo Manager. I personally use Smugmug and have done so for over a decade and I love it. It’s easy to use and I’m able to share my photos with my friends and family.

I’m at a point where I haven’t even downloaded them from my devices! And sometimes when I do a mass clean up, I actually even forget what the photo is about. I downloaded everything, put them in proper folders, added captions to help me remember what we were doing, deleted pictures and videos I knew I didn’t need and most importantly, backed it all up on an external hard drive.

Surely, you can spend some time doing this whilst locked away at home?

#05 – TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

After you’ve spent hours and hours sorting through your photos, you may at some point think “wish I took a better photo of that” or “wish I knew how to use the camera better”.

Well, there is not better time than now to brush up on those skills! Get onto those You Tube videos and learn how to take better photos.

For me, I am always interested in learning how to take better photos with my iPhone. With the smartphones nowadays, you can take some great shots. There are always so many tips and tricks and with the newer iPhones, they are new features too.

I also wished I could take better family selfies. I have started learning that and looking at some new accessories.

Andrew is all about learning to use that GoPro better, especially when we’re boogie boarding and skiing.

What do you wish you could be better at?

#06 – CREATE A TRAVEL MEMOIR

I am sure there are many of you out there that sometimes wish you have a better travel log. Well, there is no time like the present to start that journal, memoir or even a blog. You can write in a traditional travel diary, do some bullet journaling like my daughter does or write in a blog like I do.

It can be image heavy; it can be about your actual experiences and/or you can write about your feelings and emotions. The sky’s the limit.

Documenting your travels is a great way to reminisce and be nostalgic. It’s also a wonderful way to remember the things you did. Having travelled so much in my lifetime, I always remember the big things like how I felt when I first saw the Eiffel Tower or when I first laid eyes on the Statue of David in Florence. But it’s the little things that sometimes I remember that triggers emotions.

Hannah has an incredible memory and she sees things differently. She will sometimes mention things which I have totally forgotten and love that it was so much part of our trip. It’s those things that are worth writing down.

Are you suffering from travel blues because of COVID-19? Here are tips on how to stay travel productive while being at home. #travelblues #coronavirus #covid19 Click To Tweet

#07 – PLAN THE NEXT BIG TRIP

Just because we can’t travel now doesn’t mean we can’t start planning! It may be difficult to get accurate prices for flights and accommodation now, but you can plan your itinerary.

This is best time to be doing research and you can even do it slowly. Really work out some of the best things to do, see, eat at whatever destination you wish to go. Read those travel blogs, buy those magazines and look through social media.

Heck, plan the next 2 trips whilst you’re in isolation! And when it’s ok to travel again, bang! You’re all set to go.

If you were planning a big group holiday like I was, you can still continue the planning with your friends. It would be nice to have something else to talk about when you’re all on your virtual chats.

It’s also nice to be able to have something to look forward to. I don’t know about you but listening to the news constantly about the current state of affairs is so depressing and stressful. This is just my way of “detoxing” from COVID 19.

#08 – TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ONLINE SALES

Online sales have now started worldwide and there are some seriously good bargains out there that you can take advantage of if you can afford to do so.

This is a great time to get all those travel accessories you have always wanted to but never got around to because they were either too expensive or you simply just didn’t have the time.

The family needs a new set of luggage, you want to upgrade your camera, you need a more secure backpack, better walking shoes, more packing cubes etc.

I know when I travel, I always say “ah! I wish I had this or I must remember to get that next time” but never really get around to it.

Or perhaps you want to try something a bit different next time but don’t have the equipment for it. For example, you have decided it’s time to take the family skiing but don’t have all the accessories. You can now sit down and do some research and start purchasing a few things online and on the cheap.

#09 – ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF TRAVEL DUE TO BUDGET

As a travel blogger in this current environment, my income has taken a nosedive. We’re a little stressed but not 100% dire straits yet. This however doesn’t deter us from still dreaming about travel. We just have to adjust our expectations and look at alternative types of travel to suit our budget.

We are not big road trippers but have recently wanted to do a drive holiday around the South Island of New Zealand. Doing some quick research on the prices of motor homes and caravan park costs, it was really affordable! I was so excited to know that we could still possibly have something to look forward to later on.

Camping is another great budget alternative. I have many friends who camp 3 or 4 time is in a year and mostly it’s not even about budget. Their families just love it. Even if you don’t camp, you can always head to camping sites and grab a cabin. A much cheaper option than those luxury hotels that’s for sure! And in most cases, the activities surrounding camping are mostly free. Go on those walks through the forest, swims in the river or bike rides along those trails.

Start looking at travel to less expensive countries. If you have always travelled to expensive destinations, you might like to start looking at cheaper alternatives. If a beach holiday to the Maldives was your normal, you may have to adjust it slightly and head to the beaches in Thailand instead.

#10 – BUDGETING PLAN

For those of us who are affected financially because of Coronavirus, this is a good time to look at your finances. I am being realistic and I don’t reckon we would be travelling internationally for another 12 months, at a minimum. In light of that, I am able to re-adjust my budget and re-deploy that somewhere else.

Even though my income has reduced, staying at home does also mean a lot of my other expenses have reduced so everything kind of balances out a little here and there. With school out, I’m hardly driving so lots of petrol savings, we’re not eating out so saving heaps by cooking at home, no social activities so no associated costs and with interest rates in Australia at next to nothing, those costs are also recuperated.

Re-think that budget. A good exercise not only for travel related expenses but an overall scrutiny on your entire household budget.

I have started doing all of these things and it has truly lifted my travel blues. Not in its entirety of course but it has made me feel a whole load better.

Just keeping busy and distracted makes staying at home in isolation so much more bearable. Once I worked out what I wanted to do, there is actually so much on the cards! I’m just getting through them slowly and spreading out the workload to stretch out the time.

I dream of travel every single day and that’s when I could actually travel. I don’t see why I can’t continue to do so just because I can’t. Surely these tips will help you get over travel blues during Coronavirus. Dream away my travel friends. Stay travel productive. Stay safe. Most importantly for now, stay home.

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