What do you find stressful about traveling?

Oh you find that stressful do you? I have to say that's the part I find exciting, that moment when you're ready to take-off and the plane starts to fly...I always find it exhilarating and I get goose bumps on my arms. :)

My last few jobs I was called a road warrior and I flew all over the USA and Mexico! The travel was fun but the take offs and landings are when most major plane wrecks happen! So This was the most stressful,some days I'd it 3 or 4 times! I found a little Brandy would help! tdemex

gcorp09, I get stressed out planning the itinerary also, because let's face it, you've spent lots of money on your trip and you want to make sure that you see everything possible in the time frame that you have. You know I get even more stressed when we're driving in a car in our new destination, because my husband will do the driving which means that I'm the navigator, and quite often we've missed exits and have circled over and over. When we were trying to drive out of Frankfurt towards Austria, we missed our exit and wound up at the Netherlands border. You must have been freaked out over that typoon!!! I've never been in a place with a natural disaster going on like that, and hope I never will either. Well, fortunately you made it back sound and safe. At least you had fun doing your shopping right? ;)

Yes, I agree with you. It's really hard to plan the itinerary, considering that there's lots of places we can go, but due to the restriction of time, we can only go to some places. Well, I agree that it's even worse when you drive in a foreign country. We had recently tried to drive to our neighboring country (my husband is the driver too, as I don't know how to drive ), and it's really an experience... We got lost too at the highway, and miss the exit, and end up driving up to the next town. We had to exit at the next exit, and take a u-turn back to our destination. Well, as for the typhoon, it was unexpected, although I do know that that few months (Jul - Sep) is the typhoon months in Taiwan. I don't really thought that we will be so "lucky" to encounter one, and I hope that that's also the last one I will encounter too. (We don't have any natural disaster here in Singapore...) I'm really happy that we did made it back safe and sound, although we experienced some strong turbulence in the return flight. Thinking back, it's quite frightening to be in that return plane, while we fly "near" the typhoon area on the way back home. I guess that was the most stressful plane ride I had taken in my whole life!

Hey thea09! It does help if you're the organized type. I try to organize by making one of those to-do lists and check them off as I go along, that way I don't miss anything. Yeah, it's stressful worrying about making your flight on time, especially if you're driving in rush hour traffic or if there's an accident somewhere. That's awful that you missed one day especially as traveling isn't cheap! I had something similar happen to me once.

Hey sblossom, Oh I hear ya!! I freak out about the same thing, if I can take my medication on my carry-on, is it too big, will the plane be early, will it be a safe flight, will I lose my money, etc. I don't worry about getting sick because I always buy travel insurance, and even then I always wind up getting sick anyway with some kind of stomach bug, even in Europe for heaven's sake. You'd think that would just happen in a second world country or something, where standards of cleanliness & hygiene aren't the same? I also worry about missing my flight because some airports are huge and not very user friendly, like Heathrow for example. The worst for me is when I have to navigate around and use one of those trains or buses at the airport, to get to your plane, because if you miss that you're screwed! If I travel by myself I'm a "stress basket" but if I'm with the husband I'm calm.

Oh yeah it is difficult sitting in one spot for extended periods of time, plus your feet really swell up. I just thought of another thing: When you're stuck in an airport waiting for extended periods, perhaps in the middle of the night and you can't stay awake, but heaven forbid you might fall asleep and wake up with no luggage. I always worry about someone taking off with my luggage or purse and trust no-one at airports.

I just thought of something else that can be quite stressful when traveling: language barriers. In fact I had a crazy travel moment that happened while in Austria. Ok, well I was traveling through Europe with my husband & Mom, anyway we had hired a rental car in Graz, Austria. Well, we were needing gas and had stopped at this gas station. My Mom insisted on paying for the gas so she went inside to pay and my husband was tanking his gas outside. My Mom speaks broken German and had told the cashier that we were paying for gas at tank 3 for eg) Apparently, it was tank 4 so she paid for someone else's gas. Meanwhile, the cashier just went ballistic behind the counter. He jumped over the counter was yelling at us in German, shaking his fists at us. There was quite a long line up and everyone was laughing or smiling about it. The guy who's gas we paid for just told us he'd refund us the amount, and we paid for the proper amount with the surly cashier. OMG I was so glad to leave.

malpoa, I also have wheels on my bags because really, who wants to carry luggage? You know I've never traveled on a bus, but I've heard many horror stories from people that have. I think that would probably drive me crazy. I guess my gripe would be traveling on a bus for a long trip, without a restroom facility on the bus, now that would stress me out! It's good to paranoid about where you eat, because let's just say that standards of cleanliness are not the same everywhere. In fact when I travel oversees I quite often get sick because I've eaten something questionable...:(

Travelling by bus for long distance can be a pain not just because they do not have the facility of freshning up but also their lack of space to stretch ourselves. I often find it difficult to stretch my legsin the limited space in between seats, aslo after a few hours, they start acking. not to mention the back pain associated with it, also the body pain which is going to come with a bang the next day after travel. I really get exhausted.

Oh right I'd forgotten about some of those things you mentioned like having enough time set aside because sometimes your plane can be delayed or on time. I love the landing part so no not a problem. Well, there's always turbulence if you're flying over the UK :) As for the luggage part, well my luggage is always the last to come out of the shoot, if it isn't missing that is. I also hate the part where you have to catch one of those little buses to take you to your plane, because if you miss that you're screwed! :(

Yes I hate the packing part and always get the husband to pack it for me since he's the expert. :) My baggage for some reason always goes missing though, or is last to arrive so that's a source of stress for me. :) Just not fair...

The part about the water really annoys me I have to say. I'm one of those people that consume 2 litres of water per day and hate having to pay for my own water in one of those overpriced duty shops. I forgot but I also get stressed out carrying my medications in my suitcase for fear that they're going to confiscate them from me or something from the "security nazi's" ha!

mikeysmom, Have you found bugs before in your hotel room or bed bugs? I did find bugs once however it was because I had bought a large bag of fruit that I just left on the floor. Anyway by the time we woke up in the morning, the bag was crawling with what appeared to be hundreds of ants. I'm thinking where on earth did they come from? I hate getting lost in traffic too, which sometimes happens when the husband is driving so I'm stuck being the navigator. I get really annoyed too at the lack of prominent street signage in certain countries, so you circle all over the place trying to get out of it. I freak out too if we're driving somewhere and we're "dismissed" by the locals or we're having a communication barrier.

I was on my one and only cruise about 8 yrs ago, so I don't remember much about it, but that's really a long process if you're going through security that long? That would be very stressful though hoping that your luggage arrives on the ship, because if not you're stuck buying everything from their gift shop. The only thing I remember about it is that I kept getting lost and losing my way around the ship, by the time I had my bearings it was time to leave.

I also obsess about what I'm going to wear on the plane, well can't be too warm or cold, shoes have to be easy to take off for going through security so no stilettos or anything:) Plus, I'm one of those people that freeze on the plane, so even if it's summer I like to take along a warm scarf, sweater or something like that. I remember that one year that they had the heat wave in England, because that's not something that happens every day there.