{"id":98885085,"date":"2016-08-10T15:10:40","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T19:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/?p=98885085"},"modified":"2021-07-30T05:33:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T09:33:59","slug":"dont-let-travel-fomo-ruin-your-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/dont-let-travel-fomo-ruin-your-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Let Travel FOMO Ruin Your Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

My husband and I have been planning our trip to Cambodia<\/a> and Thailand for almost a year, and it seemed everyone I told had input on what we<\/span> had <\/span><\/i>to do. \u201cEat at George\u2019s if it\u2019s the last thing you do.\u201d \u201cGet a massage at Blue Spa. No one else does it right.\u201d \u201cYou haven\u2019t lived until you\u2019ve had Dash\u2019s Pad Thai.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Every traveler’s been there, even if the details aren\u2019t quite the same. Someone somehow insists that your trip to wherever just won’t be a “true visit to wherever” unless you see X or experience Y, so you rush around on your vacation to fit X and Y on top of<\/span>\u00a0your<\/span>\u00a0own set of plans and expectations. <\/span><\/p>\n

That fear of missing out (also known as FOMO) on some “quintessential” moments, activities, or sites on a trip (as gathered from a friend or anonymous poster on a travel review site) is why so many travelers, including myself, make decisions that they otherwise wouldn’t and do things that they just don’t enjoy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

FOMO is how I found myself fighting back tears as a swarm of Garra rufa fish ate the dead skin off my feet. It\u2019s also why I agreed to take an anxiety-fueled tuk-tuk ride in Bangkok to a tailor after my husband asked: \u201cWhen else will I get the chance to get a custom suit made?\u201d Spoiler: We didn’t buy the suit.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I\u2019m over it. In fact, I\u2019m rejecting the notion publicly<\/span>\u00a0because the anxiety to do all things I’m\u00a0supposed<\/em> to do will ruin my\u00a0trip if I\u00a0let it. After all, this is <\/span>my\u00a0<\/span><\/i>vacation. Oh, and I’m not alone in my refusal to let FOMO dictate what I do while traveling, plenty of others have as well…and you can join us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some real tips from real people who\u2019ve rejected travel FOMO on how you too can, you know, enjoy your trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relax and Read\"shutterstock_239055601\"<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s tempting to see the sites and dive into the culture of where you\u2019re visiting, but all that running around and making sure you hit all the right \u201cmust-see locations\u201d can be daunting and even a ton of work. So ditch the itinerary and just chill … with a good book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always bring a paperback book about the place I\u2019m visiting,\u201d says 28-year-old Melissa Kohlman, who explains that her travel reading doesn’t have to be informative, like a guide book, but just has to simply feature her destination in some way. \u201cFor example, I read<\/span> A Moveable Feast<\/span><\/i> on our trip to Paris last spring,\u201d the software account manager said. \u201cWhenever I saw a nice place to sit, whether it was on a bench or against an old wall or along the banks of the Seine, I would sit down and pull out my book.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading may seem like something you can do any time when you’re home, but reading a great book set in or about a city you\u2019re visiting can be a fantastic and restful way to get a sense of where you are. \u201cMaybe I didn\u2019t see all of the paintings and museums I was expected to see there,\u201d \u00a0Kohlman muses, \u201cbut I actually enjoyed myself, and saved my feet the ache of walking just to walk because that\u2019s what other people do in Paris. I felt like I really took control of my vacation that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep It Local\"italy<\/h2>\n

Sure, you could expend\u00a0your energy attempting to see and do everything in every place you visit. When you only have a few days in a\u00a0foreign city you might feel the need to spend your trip visiting every possible site until you get blisters and body aches. Or, you could keep it local. And by local, I mean LOCAL.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben Kartchner, an accountant from Indiana says, \u201cMy partner and I discovered on our most recent trip to Tuscany that it was more enjoyable to stay in a small vicinity for the majority of the day. Literally, three to five blocks.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Kartchner says that their morning routine meant sleeping in, a small caf\u00e9 for breakfast, walks, shopping, and sometimes a venture to see a site, but never for the entire day. \u201cWe find that wears us out,\u201d he says, \u201cand we\u2019re less likely to enjoy what we\u2019re actually seeing. Moving slow makes us feel like we were really there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Try the Ordinary
\n\"shutterstock_364859375\"<\/h2>\n

Obviously, a big part of traveling is trying and doing new things, but as Elizabeth Nazden, mother of three, point outs \u2013 you can do that without stretching yourself or your budget thin. Nazden says that she and her family always make a point to visit a grocery store when they visit a foreign country in lieu of eating out every meal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always kooky produce and candy,\u201d she explains. They then take their food back to a nearby park instead of their hotel or inn and people-watch while they eat. \u201cIt\u2019s always a highlight of the trip for the kids. We ask them what their favorite part was, and they say, \u2018Eating the banana cereal at the pigeon park!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Other activities that aren\u2019t out of the ordinary are long walks, visits to the mall, and even riding on public transportation. Every place does things a little bit differently, and especially when traveling with kids, keeping some sense of normalcy can help them (and you) adjust to your new surroundings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unplug…Really
\n\"shutterstock_229838299\"<\/h2>\n

While family and friends are probably looking forward to your travel posts, staying connected online can be a surefire way to experience major FOMO. \u201cI try to stay off social media whenever I\u2019m on vacation,\u201d says Sarah Keller, age 27. \u201cSometimes I\u2019ll post updates on Facebook or Instagram but I never scroll through. It makes me think about what I\u2019m missing … when <\/span>I\u2019m<\/span><\/i> the one on vacation!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Keller suggests bringing a small notebook on trips and recording thoughts and impressions throughout your\u00a0travels there. \u201cThat way when I get home I have all of my memories recorded and I didn\u2019t waste my time on my phone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And if none of these ideas appeal to you, don\u2019t forget Ray Bradbury\u2019s famous words about travel:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWe travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

So ease up on the FOMO and get lost. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband and I have been planning our trip to Cambodia and Thailand for almost a year, and it seemed everyone I told had input on what we had to do. \u201cEat at George\u2019s if it\u2019s the last thing you do.\u201d \u201cGet a massage at Blue Spa. No one else does it right.\u201d \u201cYou haven\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":98885102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98885085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-tips-intel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98885085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98885085"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98885085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98908151,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98885085\/revisions\/98908151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98885102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98885085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98885085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98885085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}