Silly but Fun Things I Miss about Travelling

As a frequent traveller, there are so many silly but fun things I miss about travelling and over the last few months I have been experiencing withdraw symptoms. It has been a whole 169 days since I stepped off the British Airways flight from Venice Marco Polo International Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 5 and its the longest time I have gone without traveling since I started participating in the Take 12 Trips Travel Challenge in Dec-2015. I thought the first lockdown would be the longest stretch (165 days) but I was proven wrong and I am having serious withdraw symptoms.

Because I know we can’t travel for a while longer, I thought I counteract my current cabin fever symptoms by sharing some of the silly but fun things I miss about travelling. I remember the day I made a brave decision to start solo travelling, I was absolutely petrified and my anxiety went through the roof. Even to this day I think about how that true was a make or break trip and I am glad I didn’t give into my anxiety and gave solo travel my full attention and it paid off big time. Whilst I do not think I will forget everything I learned 6 years ago but I felt like some of the anxiety and excitement might collide.

Disclaimer – Just because I am reminiscing doesn’t mean I will ignore government guidelines. I will wait it out until we are permitted to travel.

Silly but Fun Things I Miss about Travelling

When I was 21, I asked my then BF if we could go to Paris, I had this ideology that Paris is a place you visited only with your love (excuse my stupidity). We didn’t go because of something or other and this ‘something or other’ continued for a long time until one day I made a decision to travel to my home country all-by-my-good-self. Even though I was going to a country I was born in and spent at that time over half of my life, I was still petrified of something going wrong. When I returned from the trip, I wanted to do it again.

That was a trip back in 2014 to my home country Zambia and a few months later, I took the EuroStar to Brussels and was still petrified but I was slowly coming out of my shell. It is this trip that affirmed by decision to start solo travelling and I am glad I did not back out because it was the start of an amazing adventure. Fast forward to today where we are confined to our towns and travelling abroad is back to being only a dream of tomorrow. I am not one to wallow forever so I thought it would be cool to share some of the silly but fun things I miss about travelling and maybe you too can relate.

Groupon Deals

I used to literally check groupon more than I checked my work e-mails on a day off and I check it a lot. One of my favourite things about Groupon is you didn’t always know what you might find and often when you found a great deal it was for days you couldn’t really travel. This is why I loved it as it meant most couldn’t snatch it ups quickly because they had to arrange time off. Whereas I had Flexi-work and could work anywhere with WIFI and I did my full hours. Groupon deals fuelled my spontaneity and I miss exploring new locations and restaurants thanks to the deals that they had.

Surfing SkyScanner

Another website I checked on the daily and still look over it once in a blue moon (every other day) is skyscanner. Whilst some people like Google Flights, I am all about SkyScanner because its where the best flights are. I was able to find more affordable flights that any other flight search engines I had ever tried. It was on Skyscanner where I found the £15 return flight to Poland, £7.99 one-way to Ljubljana, Slovenia and £330 flight to Seoul with a 2-hour layover in Shanghai. I also loved that Skyscanner had the ‘explore’ section where it would give you ideas of where you could go and I loved for that.

Airport Lounges

Thinking about my first time in an airport lounge always makes me smile so much because it experience was surreal. I had a business trip to the USA and my company booked me a business class ticket which for bumped to premier first and that was where the love started. The entire experience made me feel speaking and appreciated, sure the flight cost £3000 instead of £330 for economy on the same flight. I loved the types of facilities they had, free massages, unlimited alcohol and way too much food but whose complaining. Since that experience I have made sure every airport I am flying from (unless with other people) has a lounge where I can relax and will pay a little extra for the little luxuries of the airport world.

Take Off and Landing

The first time I got on a plane was in 2004 when we moved from Zambia to the UK and I was both excited and scared of flying. I have a fear of heights and would much rather have my feet planted firmly on the ground than up in the air. For many years after that, I struggled with flying but I never stopped. Every single time the plane would take off I would have that sinking feeling where my heart felt like it dropped into my stomach and when landing my legs felt like I rode the spin bike for too long and too hard. Fast forward to now, I live for that sensation, even now I feel it but I actually enjoy it all.

The ‘no work’ for a week feeling

When I started working in corporate, I quickly figured out I am a workaholic and it suited me just fine until the amazing fatigue and burn found me. It still took me many years to find a balance between working all the time and working smarter for shorter periods of time. As a young adult I would take both my work phone and laptop (in case I need to download important docs) with me on vacation. Then I told myself this had to stop so I started leaving my laptop but taking my phone and checking it constantly and answering emails on my vacation. Now, I miss that feeling when I found the right balance between work and personal life and being able to travel for vacation without once checking my phone or answering every ping or phone call I got.

There are so many silly but fun things I miss about travelling including a screaming baby next to me for a 10-hour flight, the fellow AA members who went off the deep end, the loud mouth (fellow talkers) and the drinks chart wheeling down the aisle to top us your drinks or realising on intercontinental flights you can ask for as many snacks as you want, there is no limit and ending movies.

Fellow travellers, what do you miss most about travelling?