Why Long Backpacking Trips Stopped Making Me Happy (Travel Burn-Out)

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That time has arrived. Long term backpacking stopped making me happy. I feel burnt-out. Many people keep telling me that it´s because of my age. I just celebrated 30. However, I am telling them the age is not the reason. The reason for my burning out is a fact that I have been travelling for so many years and started at a really young age. That I have already experienced so much that I cannot keep going like that forever.

In this article I will sum up reasons why I feel burnt out and why long term backpacking trips stopped making me happy.

1 EXHAUSTION

Spending months backpacking with a heavy backpack on your shoulders can be super exhausting. Not knowing where you will spend a night. How to get to that place. Your back hurting like hell. A bed you are sleeping in is super uncomfortable. No privacy at all. After many years of travelling and backpacking I feel truly tired. Recently I have felt many times that I miss my bedroom, my own bed, privacy, certain amount of comfort. Backpacking stopped making me happy because I started to feel exhausted …

2 REPLETE WITH BEAUTIFUL PLACES

In all those years of travelling I got very lucky visiting places that blew my mind. Took my breath away. They were simply ineffable. From astonishing Alaskan glaciers, through mind blowing Canadian lakes, erupting Guatemalan volcanoes, green Costa Rican jungle, spellbound Peruvian Machu Picchu, beautiful Philippine beaches, architectonical gems of Rome, … I have set the bar too high. I don´t get easily fascinated by any places that often any more. Because I have seen so many of them, more beautiful ones.

3 UNPLEASANT SITUATIONS WHILE BACKPACKING

I have experienced so much while backpacking. Good moments, bad moments. Sometimes I feel so unlucky when it gets to accidents and travel injuries. I suffered from altitude sickness in Bolivia and from frequent stomach issues in many parts of the world. I experienced aggressive protest of Mexican taxi drivers. I was arrested by Nicaraguan police for a while. I was bitten by a spider in the Philippines. By bees in Honduras. By red ants in Guatemala. I almost got drown in the waves of the Atlantic ocean in Brazil. Almost fell into the deep chasm of Amazon jungle in Ecuador. I burnt myself by mototaxi in Colombia …

I could continue with this list of travel injuries. Maybe this is another reason why travelling stopped making me happy. I need to be more careful in order to avoid all these unpleasant situations while backpacking. It can get exhausting.

 

4 FEELING OF INSTABILITY

I start to feel I need more stability in my life. The lack of stability during travelling started making me crazy. I need certain amount of stereotype. Monotonous activities. I know I belong to people who are super active and energetic, however, lately I have feel I need a change. More stable change. At least for a while. This while may take my whole life. Or only a year. I have no idea. But what I know now is that I need more stable things in my life.

And backpacking cannot give me such a feeling of stability. Another reason why it stopped making me happy.

5 FEELING OF LOVE AND LONELINESS

You won´t get feeling of love while solo travelling. Maybe some short term love. In some short term travel romances. But when you backpack solo, there is no family or friends who will support you in tough situations. I felt lonely so many times while travelling even though I was surrounded by so many other travellers or locals. That is why I started to miss feeling of love. Being surrounded by people that love me and know me more than 48 hours.

Even though I tried travelling in couple (for more info about this click HERE), it wasn´t enough to feel loved, secured and stable at the same time. Maybe a wrong partner. 😉

CONCLUSION

Travelling has always been my life priority. My drug. My addiction. I don´t want to live without travelling. However, I need that travelling makes me happy. That is why I hope that this feeling of “burnt out” is only temporary. That after a while of relax from travelling I will feel another urge need to experience unexperienced. See unseen. Visit unvisited. I hope my addiction to travelling will go on in my life. That it will come back one day …

What about you guys? Have you ever felt the same way as I do now? Any recommendations? Advice? Help?

I am in a close co-operation with OutdoorVisit, therefore, I would like to share with you their article about similar topic of travel burnout called “Should you be afraif of a travel burnout?“. Don´t hesitate and peruse their web, it is full of other inspiratinoal stories

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5 Responses

  • Tak tomuto úplne rozumiem. Keď som veľa cestovala, mala som potrebu spomaliť, chýbali mi tie malé momenty s rodinou a kamošmi, vtedy začalo mať zmysel si presne nájsť tú rutinu, ktorú spomínaš. A potom o nejaký čas to cestovanie opäť začalo mať čaro a zmysel. 🙂

    Držím palce. 🙂

  • Mili,
    I understand your burn out. You have been traveling many years. If not for your wandering, we would not have met you on Viking! Maybe it is time to refresh and recharge. But what ever your path, be happy and continue with your blog. We love hearing about your life and adventures. Best wishes and Merry Christmas!

    • Thank you Muffy! I will try to keep being happy – that´s my life motto – whatever and wherever I will be doing 🙂 Merry Christmas 🙂

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