I am about to depart for Italy tomorrow--visiting Florence and hiking in the hilltowns for a week. My husband and I've been planning this trip for almost a year and I'm very excited to return to this area of Italia. But I just realized that for the past several days, I've been jittery and anxious. I'm worrying about leaving my dog behind, looking at my house and thinking "gee the garden looks so fantastic, too bad I have to leave it right now", and wondering if we will have a good time on our trip. Does this happen to anyone else?

Yes, Spanky, it is more common than what you think. Just take a deep breath, keep yourself busy, make sure things are taken care off. Before you know it you will be back home with great memories worth leaving the dog, the cat, and the garden behind for a week!!

My husband and I are leaving for Italy on Saturday for four weeks and I am definitely experiencing the pre-travel jitters/anxieties. My clothes are already packed, hotels are confirmed, cars are reserved, and itineraries planned. Last night, I told my husband that we still need more time to go through the travel books! These anxieties feel weird because we have already been in England, Thailand, Philippines, etc, so it's not like I haven't been anywhere but still....

Oh yeah I check everything 300 times.. passport, $$$, tickets, confirmation slips etc. I make copies of *everything.* I redo the info sheet for the cat sitter nine times [once for each life!] I've already made a packing list and stowed odds and ends in a certain drawer. And then I worry whether I will forget which drawer it is! In other words I drive myself and my Virgo husband NUTS! <BR>And I have also learned that if you forget something Europe has stores! <BR>But when I get on the plane I relax <BR>

Er... <BR> <BR>And we kind of pack a day or two before, I swear a lot as I realise half my clothes are in the wash and I have forgotten toc hange any currency, and then we throw eveything into the case and have a chinese takeaway..! <BR>

I always go through several days of pre-flying jitters as well. Get a terrible feeling in my stomach. I also let someone know where to find copies of my passport and birth certificate, just in case. Always expecting the worst!

My grandmother (whose travel dna was passed on directly to ME) would plan her trips, then about a week before she was to leave, she'd think "what have I done I don't want to go what if I get sick, etc, etc". She said it all went away as soon as she closed and locked her front door as she left for the airport. <BR>I get my travel dreams (does anybody else?): about a month before I leave, I have the "lost in Paris but it looks like Back Bay Boston and everyone is very very tall" dream...then I have the "on the Riverside train at night in the rain all alone on the way to Riverside station" dream... about a week before I leave, I'm convinced that I've forgotten something really important (I'm with you, sfowler, I too check and recheck EVERYTHING...if I take a cab to the airport, I get in the cab and look in my bag to make sure I have tickets, money, passport...eventhough I looked just before I walked out the door!)

The jitters are a normal occurence. I suggest some relaxing mediation or a one hour professional massage to help you relax. <BR> <BR>Your trip will be terrific.

Spanky, <BR> I always get the jitters every time I travel. I'm leaving for Amsterdam, Great Britain, and Ireland in two weeks and I'm already feeling the jitters. I think it's more that I get overly excited though. Have a great trip1

oh yes! jittery is putting it mildly. we were leaving for italy for two weeks (after planning the trip for a year also) and cried about having to leave my 2 cats and upset that i may miss the blooming tulips! after we landed, and got settled i was much better... <BR>spent time in venice, florence, and rome, but the most amazing 5 days were the hill towns of tuscany and umbria! how can you not relax sitting in a small cafe in cortona, sipping wine and eating the best food in the world (my opinion it's just the fear of leaving the normal everyday "routine" once there you will be fine, and will not want to leave when it's time to come home!

This thread is so reassuring! I'm leaving for Europe on Saturday, and going through my usual pre-trip obsessing and worrying, and thinking that I'm the only one who gets like this before a trip. But it turns out I'm just like the rest of you, especially like SFowler, only without the cats and husband! <BR> <BR>I should add that this is something like my 14th trip to Europe, that I'm going to be staying with European friends a lot of the time, and that I'll mostly be in Belgium and the Netherlands, which are not exactly difficult countries to travel in. So clearly these jitters are not rational. I've come to view them as part of the routine. You know, buy the ticket, read the guidebooks, do the packing, get sick to my stomach....

I used to think I was crazy... Couldn't, I mean COULD NOT sleep the night before an overseas flight. This was usually in an airport motel because I live 4.5 hrs. drive from major airport. Worry about the hows of the trip would transmogrify into fears about the Whys... Why am I leaving my family, my pets, my garden? And you know what? Now that I know that I ALWAYS worry prior to departure, I ask my doctor for a little medication to help me sleep. And then I do, and it helps to alleviate the worry about worrying.

Elvira and others: I always have pre-travel dreams and they always follow a predicable course. When all the plans are made, and it is too late to change reservations, I dream that we check into our hotels and they are terrible. Not only are there no bathrooms in the rooms, but there are no bathrooms in the entire hotel! The rooms are either stifling hot or freezing cold, and there is usually a sinister character at the front desk. <BR> <BR>One or two days before the trip, I have my "missed the plane/left a child behind" dreams. It's amazing how consistent these dreams are. <BR> <BR>And yes, I also experience pre-travel jitters, kind of a non-definable sense of vague malaise. Maybe it stems from the time that my mother, at age 78 and still trying to modify her daughter's behavior, said to me before a trip "Oh don't go on that trip. I have a terrible feeling about it." Went anyway and had a great time! <BR>

You'll probably all get a kick out of this. I don't get nervous, just excited. This usually takes the form of getting everything done far in advance. Three years ago, before our first trip to Europe, I was completely packed and had cleaned the house top to bottom the day before we left. As our flight wasn't until 7 pm, we went to work as usual, but left early because we were so excited and because no one could believe we didn't need to leave early do finish preparing for the trip. When we got home, we realized we still had a couple of hours before we needed to leave for the airport and we had absolutely nothing to do. So rather than sit and stare at each other, we went to the planetarium show at the science museum on the way to the airport. It was the strangest beginning for our trip, and I've still never heard of anyone else doing anything like this! <BR> <BR>For our upcoming trip I'll have to pack on Friday for a Monday eve departure because we have houseguests for the weekend! And my husband has 70 final exams to grade between friday pm and monday before we leave. After writing this, I'm beginning to think that maybe we're just too busy to get nervous!

This was so interesting! Thought it was just me! But it's funny - for the same two weeks or whatever you'll be gone, if you were home it would pass like a flash, so I imagine the vacation will too. I imagine the dogs won't miss me half as much as I think they will - their sitter will be spoiling them rotten...