How I organise my trips to reduce travel anxiety

Traveling can be daunting when you're a generally anxious person, here's how I reduce my travel anxiety

If you're a control freak like me, you probably look for any organisational tips and tricks you can to help you try and prevent any potential anxiety wobbly moments. There's nothing worse than not feeling 100% when your not in you're natural environment. Something that's helped me majorly feel more at ease with my travel experience is planning ahead.

From an itinerary and price list to a packing list and pre-printed documents, this is how I plan my travels.

This blog post shows how I prepared for traveling across parts of the east coast of America on a recent trip.

Keeping track of your money

There's a lot of pressure when traveling to have the time of your life, especially when you spend so much money. This really encourages me to keep on top of my finances both before and during my travels, so I avoid going too much over budget. For my trip to America, I wrote down all of my expected expenses before I left, in terms of hotels and traveling. I first estimate how much roughly these expenses will be judging by their websites, and then how much they actually cost closer to the time when I actually pay for them. I then record the amount I have paid, if there was an upfront payment or deposit required and how much is still due when actually out traveling. Another thing I found helpful was keeping track of what card I was using for each payment so that nothing is left uncertain.

Have an Itinerary

An itinerary is the most important thing for me when traveling in terms of organisation. I will keep a PDF copy of this on my phone, so it is easily accessible. On my itinerary I record down the dates of my travels and a vague plan day-by-day, so I can see a simple breakdown of my trip. I'll record down brief information about where I will be each day and whether it will be a rest day or a day of traveling. It is important to put times of any important information like flight departs or checkout times, this is simply so there is no need to last minute google and panic about double checking information. Including important addresses on my itinerary is an easy was for me to know where I'm going all in one document, by having the copy of this on my phone entering dresses into Uber's or googling directions is made easy.

Packing Checklists

Who doesn't love a good list? To avoid the inevitable pre-holiday panic, I make sure that I write a list of all the important things I need to do and pack before my day of travel. Something as simple as this can save me so much worry during the days counting down to your holiday.

These simple steps have helped me take control of my pre-travel anxiety and allow me to fully relax when aboard. Even if you're not an anxious traveler, these tips and tricks will make your travel experience much more pleasurable, so why not give it a try?