11 Ways to Survive the Post Travel Blues

Ugh. The post travel blues. It’s not a part of travel we like to talk about but it certainly is a reality for many travellers.

The post travel blues are the feelings you have when you get home from a trip and everything is just a little bit dark and gloomy. You’d give anything to be back in a foreign country, trying a new food or strolling around a different neighbourhood right now.

When the post vacation blues hit, getting back to your daily life is a struggle and nothing seems as fun as being on another trip.

I’m an emotional person who definitely feels some very high highs and very low lows (you don’t want to be anywhere near me when I’m hangry). So I definitely suffer from post travel depression.

But I’ve learned that there is a way through the post travel blues! You don’t have to be blue forever.

Check out my 11 tips below for surviving and thriving through your post vacation depression, then let me know if you have any tips of your own.

1. Live in the post travel blues a little while

My first tip for surviving the post travel blues is actually just to accept that this is how you’re feeling and live in it for a moment. Your feelings are your feelings. You can’t feel incorrectly.

So if you’re feeling sad or gloomy, that’s okay! You don’t have to be a ray of sunshine every minute of the day. Give yourself permission to be a little sad and sulky. It’s hard to get over an awesome trip!

If you know that the post vacation blues are a problem for you, fit them into your trip planning. Give yourself an extra day at home before you have to go back to work or don’t make any plans for the weekend if you assume you’ll just want to curl up in bed.

If post travel depression hits you hard, look for some outside support. Chat with a friend, your partner or a therapist if you feel like you’re struggling more than you should be.

2. Have a treat at home to look forward to

When I’m having such a great time on a trip, of course I don’t want to come back to my boring home, same old routine, and mountain of work and chores waiting for me. But since I have to come home eventually, it helps to have something to look forward to.

This can be something as simple as having access to your whole wardrobe again, sleeping in your own bed or using all of your own toiletries (instead of the terrible hotel ones).

A big one for me is coming home to our dog, Ellie, who we always miss when we have to travel without her (luckily, sometimes Ellie gets to come abroad!).

Another one I can count on is food. I always crave my favourite Vancouver foods whenever we’re away from home. When we lived in Prague, we had a list of foods we couldn’t wait to eat when we got back to Vancouver.

3. Write a journal or blog post

Case in point: this blog post right here! As a writer, I’m a big fan of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to work through my feelings.

Often, I don’t know exactly how to explain my feelings. But once I start typing, the words just spill right out of me. I always feel better after I write.

You can journal to work through your feelings or you can use this method to document your trip. Most of us travel bloggers started our blogs to relive trips. I still get that travel rush when I get to write about a place a few weeks or months after I’ve left.

4. Go through your travel photos

If you travelled this century, there’s a good chance you took eight billion photos on your trip. Rather than just posting them to social media or letting them live in a Google folder, take some time to go through them.

A tradition I like to do on the plane ride home is go through all of my photos from the trip. I use this time to edit photos, star ones I might want to print and jog my memory for future blog posts.

But mostly, I look through my photos because I like to relive the trip from start to finish. It’s fun to look back and remember everything we did.

While doing this might actually spark your post vacation blues, since you’ll be reminded of the good time you’re leaving behind, I think it can help you through them if you go in with the right attitude.

It’s the whole “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” thing!

5. Give people gifts from your trip

Buying souvenirs for friends and family abroad brings me both joy and stress. It’s great when I find that one perfect thing that I know someone back home is going to love.

But I get a little stressed when I can’t find something for someone I want to buy for, when the thing I find is really expensive, or when I have no room in my carry-on for souvenirs.

Though if you do happen to come back with a few little gifts, it can really help curb the post travel blues to play Santa Claus and hand those gifts out. Everyone likes getting gifts – and that joy will bounce back on you, the gift giver.

Plus, it’s so fun to share a story about the souvenir you brought back and watch someone else experience the joy of eating lilikoi butter from Hawaii or hanging a painting from China.

6. Send yourself a postcard

I love snail mail! If you’re looking for a pen pal, I’m your girl. And the best kind of snail mail is postcards from abroad.

I love sending (and receiving) international postcards, but I have to admit that I often cheat with this one. I buy the postcard abroad but wait to mail it until I’m back in Canada. I’ll mail them domestically, since postage is cheaper!

But if you’re willing to pay the extra $1 or $2, you can mail your postcards from abroad! And while you’re at it, why not mail one to yourself?

When you’re having an exceptionally good day on your trip, stop to buy a postcard. Choose a scene that reminds you of the day and write on the back about why it was so good. Then, mail it to yourself!

It’ll be a fun surprise when your postcard finally shows up (there’s a good chance you’ll beat your postcard home). By looking at the card, you’ll be able to relive your travel experience and remember exactly how you were feeling on the day.

7. Buy souvenirs you can use

When it comes to souvenirs, my husband, Colin, and I like to buy a magnet for the fridge, a couple of postcards and that’s about it. We don’t collect much and the things we do collect, like magnets and postcards, are both light-weight and low-cost.

But I do like to buy local items that are special and that I couldn’t get back home. I also choose items that I can actually use back home. So I probably won’t opt for a paperweight that says “Iceland” on it – but lava salt collected from an Icelandic volcano? That I might buy.

I actually wish I did more of this. We spent 10 days in Morocco and I wish we could have brought home a leather pouf, Berber rug or one of the gorgeous lamps I saw hanging in the Marrakech medina.

But sadly, our wallets and our carry-on bags were too small. We did buy a scarf and some tagine spices though, which are still great souvenirs to use at home.

When the post travel depression hits, pull out those souvenirs you bought and put them to good use! It will feel like you have a bit of your trip at home with you anytime you put French jam on your bread or use handmade soap from Italy.

8. Make a scrapbook or photo book

Making a scrapbook is a really fun and creative way to document your trip and work through those post vacation blues. I’m not saying you need a dedicated craft room, but it can be fun to flex your creative muscles.

I used to make a ton of scrapbooks. I really enjoyed mapping out pages and creating a scrapbook with our photos and other fun things I’ve brought back from a trip like entrance tickets, maps and brochures.

I made one for my parents’ wedding, one from our wedding and one for our 2018 trip to Ireland. But lately, I’ve pivoted to a more digital version by making photo books.

I’m the biggest fan of photo books! It’s so much nicer to relive your trip memories when you can hold them in your hand, rather than scroll through them on a screen. They’re also a great conversation starter when people come over.

Not sure which photo book company to choose? Check out my review of some of the best online photo books.

9. Do some local travel

A great way to combat post vacation depression is to go on your next vacation! Of course, it’s not always feasible to get home from Iceland and head out to Amsterdam 10 days later like someone I know did in October 2018 (it was lucky me!).

So when you can’t travel far, travel close. Head out of town for the weekend, visit a new park or museum, or even try walking down a new street for your daily dog walk. You don’t have to take time off work or spend a lot of money to have a local travel experience.

Colin and I are always saying we need to explore more of Vancouver. We live in such a beautiful city and really don’t see enough of it. It’s so easy to get bogged down with the routine of regular life, so let this be your reminder (and mine) to explore your own backyard!

10. Share your trip in a travel forum

Travel forums, groups and communities are fantastic. I’m part of a number of travel groups on Facebook, plus an awesome travel community on Twitter (X).

I love reading through the posts to see where other people are going. These groups are also great places to get travel advice and to share some of your own travel wisdom.

So when you’re struggling through the post travel blues, turn to your fellow travel lovers for support. Post photos and stories from your trip, ask questions about where to go next, and share the advice you learned firsthand.

And – let’s be honest – these are the people who actually want to hear about your trip! Your co-workers might not really care how you spent your two days in Paris but strangers on Facebook will!

The best way to survive the post vacation blues? 11. Start planning your next trip!

The best cure for the post travel blues is planning another trip, of course!

I love having another trip on the books. It’s great to be able to throw yourself into planning something new and to learn from your mistakes on your last trip. Plus, it makes coming home so much easier because you know you’ll be back on the road soon.

If you don’t have a trip booked yet, it can still be fun to start planning big future trips.

When we got back from London and Iceland, I started doing a lot of research into a year-long round the world (RTW) trip. I did the same thing when I planned our cross-Canada road trip and journey to see every UNESCO site in Italy.

Are we going on these epic trips this year? Nope! But it was a lot of fun doing research, planning an itinerary and coming up with a budget!

So when all else fails and the post vacation blues get you down, it means it’s time to pull up Google Flights, open your favourite travel blog and get started planning your next adventure.

Yes, it means you’re signing up for another round of post travel depression. But in my opinion, I’d gladly take the post travel blues if it means I get to travel in the first place!

I’d love to know: Do you suffer from post vacation depression? If so, how do you like to handle it? Let me know!