How to handle last few days of long vacation
 

I am in the last two days of my home-exchange in Amsterdam and it's terrible. I've been hear three weeks already and I just want to go home. Is that usual? I can go out and probably make another day trip but the idea doesn't appeal to me. I am doing all the small details in making sure my apartment is clean..no small task. But I have lost the spark. Is it a common feeling to just want to leave after a long and successful vacation? Any similar feelings.

I'm not sure what to say. I stay in Europe from 2 to 5 months at a time, and I've never really been ready to go home. I haven't stayed in one place for quite three weeks, but I don't suppose it is really the length of time. Did you just love everything for the first week or two, or did the reality after arrival never match the anticipation?

Yet you say "long and successful vacation", so it doesn't sound like you hated it. Maybe you're just ready to go home.

Sorry but I can't relate to that feeling. I have just the opposite problem. I am sick about going home! I just want to stay!

I understand this feeling, I think. I love to travel but I love my home and everyday routine, too. I've never been away longer than a week but when I know that I'm scheduled to leave soon, I guess I just want to get that over with. Even though when I leave Europe I'm usually leaving behind family and other people I love, I think I'm already gearing up for the homeward trip by the last day or so.

I like to spend these last days just doing really relaxing things. For me, this is hanging out at cafes, spending time in a favorite park (reading, writing). Day trips and sightseeing don't appeal to me by the end of my trip.

When we spent a month in Paris (in an apartment) in the 16th, we didn't want to leave, but our bank account said it was time to go...
Did you tire of Amsterdam in particular or Europe in general?

Go out for some ice cream. That's my best suggestion. If you wish to substitute "beer" for "ice cream," that'll be OK too.

I can't relate either. I have been away for up to 3 weeks and get very depressed about going home the last few days. I just want to stay, not go back to work and my real life.

Our quandary is trying to split up time off work, so that it isn't all expended in spring, for example, and then there is no travel for the rest of the year. Therefore, we are not able to spend more than two weeks at a time on our trips (more often 10 days). But I always wish we had more time to spend at our destinations, and there is always some site or activity we weren't able to fit into our plans because time didn't allow.

So no we don't share your feelings about tiring of a place we are visiting and wishing to go home.

I only get like that after I've been at my final airport for about an hour. Then I just want to tell Scotty to beam me up :-)

Before then I'm still on holiday and want to make the most of every single minute.

In support of the initial poster -- what happens to me is that I start thinking about what needs to be done at home the last couple of days -- also if the return arrangements are complex, I think through the options. For some of us it's perfectly normal to anticipate the transition. It works best for me when I don't have a lot to do the last couple of days -- it's almost like "wind-down" time.

I can definitley relate.

I love travel, but I also love my daily routine at home. By the end of a long trip, I'm ready to eat a cheeseburger, play with my dog, and sleep in my own bed. In short, I crave the familiar. Of course, this also depends on the destination...sometimes, if I spend enough time in one place it becomes the familiar and I don't crave home.

My advice is to pamper yourself. Lounge around your room with a good book or stroll around the neighborhood, eat at your favorite restaurant again and again...with no pressure to do the next daytrip, or see the last museum etc. Try to just enjoy the time you have left, and really soak it all in.

Trust me, by the time you get home you'll be wishing for Amsterdam again. I always am.

Thanks for the varied responses. I do love Amsterdam and I have a fun home exchange three weeks, visiting about seven or eight cities in Holland and there are many facets of Amsterdam which I've tried to see. I suspect that in a week after back in NYC, I might think that I should have taken another day trip.

Is it just homesickness in an adult? I really don't know. Also, I am not escaping the stress of a job. I am retired.
Again, thanks for your input, this is a good formu for travellers and home exchangers.

I understand perfectly what you feel, Uncle Art, and I think it's very normal. I'm sort of surprised more people aren't expressing feelings of the same way. First, being constantly on "vacation" is tiring compared to daily routine. You just have things to do, sights to see, more traveling and walking to take advantage of things, etc.

Secondly, I really agree mainly because no matter where you are, it is not nearly as comfortable as home. At least, that's certainly my feelings. YOu don't have your things around you, and there isn't any rental apt. or hotel that is as comfortable as my home. I don't have my things around me (such as my piano, library, etc) or my usual routine. Aside from that, I happen to like my job very much and miss the work and my coworkers. Perhaps it's unusual, but I do enjoy my job and get a lot of satisfaction from it. I also have a lot of regular activities at home I can't do when on vacation (friends, regular book groups, classes, etc.)

I would think it very normal to kind of run out of steam at the end of three weeks in someone else's home when you are on a vacation.

Hi, Uncle Art - I have the same problem - every vacation is just one day too long. That last bit, when looking at departure, makes the end sort of fall apart. I have tried many things on that last day, including just walking around with a camera but without a plan, but Mr_Go had also had a good suggestion (ice cream or beer). I also spend probably too much time reviewing the departure scenario, packing what items I can, laying everything out for the last morning. I don't think homesickness is just for adults; my first trip to Europe - 3 weeks at age 23 - I was so happy to be going home. I missed my family and friends (I went alone) and wanted an American cheeseburger!! Now, I find a longing for the lovely home I worked so hard to create, the beautiful yard after years of laboring in it, two cats who love their mum and will spend that first night home sleeping with me. It may be that we should congratulate ourselves if our lives at home are something we want to come back to. Going back to jobs - well, that's a different matter altogether. If you keep a journal, you might want to spend the last day updating it; or write up the things you did each day so you can remember when, where, how much, etc. I know we'd all be interested in knowing how you liked the home-exchange. Going home is good; it's where we keep our stuff and where life is easier because we know where all the stuff is. Welcome home!

Shanna and Christina

Stuff! I suspect that's part of it. You go away to leave all the stuff behind you. The work, the obligations, how your room smells, how the pictures of your family are a comfort, and how easy it is to do the dishes....when there isn't any dishwasher here.

The getting away is great but the sense of home no matter what is greater. Right now, its the night before I go home and all I can think about is sitting in my ALL IN THE FAMILY barca lounger, having a cup of coffee at my side and reading the NY Times as a newspaper where Pop Up ads do not appear.

The vacation was important to me, having it over is also important to me.
I get the sense that many agree with me and its the sense of 'going home again'.

Thanks...you all made me feel not so alone and guilty in my feeling of just wanting to get back to..

Dad don't forget you miss your kids! We can't wait for you to be home tomorrow. I will have the NY Times & Chinese food ready for you.

Hiya Daughter. I cant access the phone card at a public phone and I found a public online service. I will hang in for a reply. I'm at Amsterdam airport and ready to go to Heathrow. I won a lot of money at the Holland Casino and now my daughter wants me to buy CANDY at the airport, but I dont want to change my euros to pounds. Perplexed. LOL

Is there such a thing as a vacation that's too long? I sure think so. Do we start itching to be home in the final days? You bet, and sometimes in the first days, too. On a big 4-month sabbatical a few years ago, we spent the last three weeks on a frieghter crossing the Pacific. While we <b>loved</b> the experience, by the last week we started feeling like we were on the Santa Maria and Capt. Columbus was off his nut. O for a seagull.... By that time we were obsessing about our own beds, coffee pots, <i>washing machine</i> and all the other things we had left behind.

Getting home isn't the end of the vacation experience. It's the beginning of the time in which to reflect, recount, and start planning for the next one.

We arrived home on July 4 once, coming in through Raleigh, NC. Groups were being held at the top of the escalators so that the Customs lines didn't get too long, and a Customs official called up to us, &quot;Happy Fourth of July.&quot; People responded and started telling him reasons they were glad to be home, such as they missed their own pillows, wanted a TV where they could understand the language, wanted to crash on their own sofas, etc. Everyone was laughing because it was all so true.