After the Trip: The Post-Travel Blues

Yes, I feel emotions deeply. Yes, I cry easily, some might say. A beautiful movie, a poignant passage in a book, and wherever I am-cinema, bus seat, or under my duvet-the tears flow, sometimes gently, sometimes in torrents. Yes, I've cried after a trip... And not just once!

The most memorable return for me was from our first long-distance trip as a couple. We were still in the Galapagos Islands, the last stop of our South American journey, and I remember bursting into tears on the seaside promenade. I had more than ten days left on this paradise island. Ten days ahead of me, and more than a month already spent in San Cristobal, with five months already gone in South America. Those ten days felt ridiculously short. I felt like I held them in the palm of my hand, as one holds a handful of sand, hoping the wind won't carry away a single grain... until a gust comes and takes it all away. I cried out of weakness, cried for not having control over this time, for not being able to pause it for a moment. I cried at the thought of losing everything in front of me: the sea lions lounging on the warm sand, the turquoise sea rolling peacefully, the clumsy seagulls crossing the azure sky, the ever-present sun, the warm and peaceful smiles of the locals... Losing it all. And returning to my life, which, compared to this idyllic scene, seemed dull, empty, and so small. And finally, I cried out of shame. Shame for feeling these emotions worthy of a spoiled child. Shame for not fully enjoying these last moments, ruining them with my crocodile tears. Luckily, I was embraced by François's comforting and gentle arms, along with his amused smile. He lovingly told me that everything would be okay. Patiently, he waited for the fountain of tears to dry up, and we sat side by side on that bench, admiring the sun sink into the ocean.

I had not even returned home yet, and I was already experiencing, unknowingly, the shock of the end of the trip and the post-travel blues.

If this question seems obvious to many, I still think it's important to address it candidly: yes, it's normal to feel sad when returning from a trip. Normal does not mean systematic. Normal also doesn't quantify the duration or intensity of the negative feelings experienced by the traveler returning from their journey.

But here it is: feeling sad is normal. Let go of the burden of unnecessary guilt! The end of a trip resembles a phase of mourning. It's a bit like that special feeling, tinged with sadness and nostalgia, when you reach the last page of a book that has accompanied you for days and weeks, which you have adored. Once the last page is turned, the story continues to live on within us, with its characters, landscapes, intrigues... I often take some time before diving into a new book, like one takes time after a breakup to seek out their soulmate again.

In short, feeling sad is normal... and even healthy: listening to our emotions helps us be more in tune with our needs and ultimately aids us in getting out of these negative feelings more serenely and even more quickly. But while almost all travelers have experienced this return blues, the reasons behind this melancholy can be many.

Being in tune with your feelings is good. Digging deeper to see what they have to say, their profound reason, the knot they often reveal, the unfulfilled need they illuminate... is even better!

During a post-travel blues, the feeling of sadness can take various forms, which can be combined or not depending on the traveler, the trip taken, and the context of departure and return. Here are the four main forms of sadness upon returning from a trip.

We play yo-yo with our minds: we experience emotions at their peak intensity and suddenly revert to baseline levels, which often seem even lower than before departure!

During the trip, we feel intense emotions, in a context where everything is new, amid vast spaces, with an unprecedented sense of freedom that allows us to be bold and surpass limitations that we had never imagined crossing, even ones we weren't conscious of!

And amidst this psychological aspect, we mustn't forget the very tangible side of our relationship with money: while traveling, we are in a constant dynamic of spending, whether simply to meet our basic needs or to indulge in beautiful experiences and future memories... all this without having to think about earning money.

Upon returning home: it's the complete opposite! We find ourselves in familiar surroundings, which often seem smaller, like visiting a childhood memory, with no more movement, no budget, no expenditures, no activities, no projects...

Like the last page of a book that you've been immersed in for days, weeks, or even months, the end of a trip can evoke a poignant nostalgic sadness: it's a farewell to the characters of the story that made us dream, to the landscapes we traveled through.

The traveler knows it's the end of an adventure, and that others may follow. But this one is truly over. End of the chapter. The End.

While traveling, we experiment with other ways of living: the life of the country we're passing through, but also the nomadic lifestyle, with the sky as our horizon and the sun as our clock. Leaving this nomadic life means leaving behind a wonderful form of freedom and spontaneity, a life where the unexpected and chance reign supreme.

And most importantly, it means returning to a sedentary life with all it entails in terms of norms, routines, obligations, and schedules. Often, one of the heaviest changes upon returning from a trip!

This transition from a nomadic life to a sedentary life is made even more difficult by the disconnection from nature, the world, living beings... and oneself.

What would be the hardest scenario: the one where nothing in your original life setting has changed since your departure or, on the contrary, the one where everything is different? A sensitive question, because ultimately, regardless of the objective reality, the traveler often feels a little of both in their heart.

After having discovered the vast world, home often seems to have shrunk! Nothing has changed, everything seems too tidy, too tight. But the hardest part is surely that those around us do not perceive the difficulties the traveler faces upon their return, nor their personal journey: how can they be expected to act just as they did before their trip after all they've experienced?

Conversely, returning to a host of new situations can be very unsettling: the traveler realizes that life did not stop during their absence. Their loved ones have had their own adventures... and the traveler missed them all.

While sadness is often the most significant component of the picture >, it's not necessarily the only one: fatigue, drowsiness, insomnia, lack of interest, lack of appetite, difficulty concentrating, irritability, anxiety... The list of these psychological and physical manifestations can be long!

Does this list scare you? Courage, in the following sections, we'll delve into the why of it all!

What if this post-travel depression were part of a larger phenomenon? We talk a lot about >, but little about the >. Like cultural shock, the shock of returning should be seen as a process, divided into different stages. We go through it in a chronology and at our own pace.

The shock of returning could be divided into four stages to complete the process.

The traveler is energized, happy to return and reconnect with loved ones, their familiar surroundings...

This phase is often referred to as the post-travel depression. The traveler experiences a bout of blues, or even clear signs of depression. They are in a phase where they still compare what they've lived, the freedom they had, the sweet rhythm of their days, the breathtaking landscapes they've admired, the wild experiences they've had... to their sedentary daily life, where everything seems to run as smoothly as clockwork, without a hitch, without surprises.

The traveler is stepping up. It's no longer a matter of keeping their gaze nostalgically fixed on the past but anchoring it in the present while thinking about the future. This is the phase where energy returns, and with it, the desire to build new projects. For some travelers, this phase can also be linked to significant internal upheavals, with realizations and desires for profound changes, as well as external, which may influence the traveler's life direction.

The resolution of the reassessment and this return shock is accompanied by peace, a desire to build in a positive and enthusiastic life momentum, here and/or elsewhere. Thus, we clearly see that the post-travel depression is just the second phase of this process, the most >: the crisis. It's not surprising then that this is the one we talk about most often.

This perspective, situating depression as a step in a broader process, allows for some distance from what one is experiencing... and knowing that we won't remain at this stage forever!

They often say: laughter is the best medicine! Being able to laugh at everything, starting with laughing at oneself, and taking life lightly. This helps to get through tougher times, like the post-travel blues.

Here's our special video >, hoping that you'll see yourself a little in these images... but mostly that it will make you laugh!

But it's better to prevent than to cure! Here's the rest of this article with my tips on how to cope with post-travel blues.

If you had to remember just one thing: the post-travel blues is not an end in itself! It is part of a process and is merely a stage, certainly not always easy to get through, but a stage nonetheless. And after it, a promising blue horizon awaits you...

Because yes, being happy even when you aren't traveling is possible (and I discuss more about this in this article).

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