Strategies for a Stress-Free Vacation

While we all love travelling and vacations, planning for it can be stressful at times. ‘Pre-holiday anxiety’ includes last-minute itinerary planning, travel insurance, paranoid about leaving your passport at home or only packing your luggage the night before. Yet when we look back, we wonder why we had all these worries since most of our vacations went amazingly well. To prevent any future pre-holiday drama, here are some strategies to help you create a low-stress travel experience.

1.  Arrive early

Give yourself plenty of time to account for any unforeseen circumstances. This can be a traffic jam on the road during rush-hour, a car break-down or an unusually long queue at the immigration. If you are prone to arriving late at the airport and do not want the risk of missing your flight, checking-in online might do the trick. Without the huge queues in airports stressing you, check in before and relax at a cafe to put yourself in the holiday mood.

2.  Pick your flight seat while booking your air tickets

There is nothing worse than being stuck in a seat you wished you didn’t have, so the best way to mitigate this is to book your seat before you travel. Choose your favourite to ensure you have a comfortable journey – aisle or window seat, nearer to the toilet or far from potential crying babies. Do check back a day or two before your flight to make sure flight plans have not changed.

3.  Buy travel insurance

Getting a travel insurance can give you a peace of mind since it can mitigate some costs of unexpected incidents. Disruptions to your holiday can come in many forms, including trip cancellations, loss of personal belongings or sudden illness. So why stress over these when you can have access to a 24-hour helpline in a foreign land when you need help the most?

4.  Keep your itinerary handy

Keep all your reference documents in a neat folder within your reach – flight numbers and departure time, accommodation bookings, emergency contact numbers and your travel insurance. You can also draw up a brief holiday itinerary that you keep in this folder so that you know where to look for some inspiration if you run out of places to visit.

5.  Chill

It sounds intuitive but many travellers are very nervous prior to their trip! Between rushing to the airport, getting through the queues and checking down your to-do lists, anxiety levels run higher than average. The best way to relax is to give yourself enough time for a drink or coffee before you board the plane to get yourself to start slowing down.

Make sure your electronic gadgets are fully-charged so that you can play games, listen to music and watch your favourite movies before and during your flight to relax.

6.  Pack an ‘Essentials’ package

Having a small ziplock bag of important essentials – medications and painkillers, plasters, moisturisers, power bank, mints – can be comforting. It should be within easy reach on the plane and on the road so that you can turn to it during an emergency. Some candies and chocolates can help cure anxiety too!

So the next time you travel, make it pleasant from the moment you reach the airport. Travel shouldn’t be stressful at all!