Comfort Zone

My hubby and I are quite different in our comfort zones when travelling. He gets quite anxious with the travel part, getting through airports and the transfer at the other end. I think he is really nervous about missing flights or transport and how would we fix that in another country.

I have absolutly no concerns about that and love the feeling of not really having a backup plan and lets see where it takes us. But i do get nervous about the safety of things especially in 3rd world countries. When you see in some locations they create buildings with bamboo scaffolding and there seems to be minimal work saftey or OSH it worries me that this giant roller coaster could fall apart very easily if someone didnt put the right screw in the right place, or whats the procedure if a 2 year old falls overboard on a little dingy right above a tank full of 6 foot sharks.

I noticed in one of the other discussions someone saying to make an effort to do things outside of your comfort zone when travelling so just wondered if people were aware of them and what youve done? Reply to this

Good question Tam

I agree with both you and Ezra that there are many ways to interpret this question. It looks like you want to discuss the things that makes us comfortable and uncomfortable.

Dave and I have extreme comfort as soon as we get on the plane. We have jobs that are stressful and require us to be available 24 hours on call. We love to go away because for a few days we no longer have that responsibility. No phones, no beepers, no midnight questions. We often go to the airport two or three hours early because it calms us down. We love to sit in the airport, read a book and people watch. Often we fall asleep before the plane takes off the ground.

Our jobs require us to be planners and most of our past trips have been planned events. In 2007, when we took off around the world we only had an airline ticket and the first three nights in Singapore planned. We found that we can be comfortable winging it.
I imagine we'll always be a bit more comfortable when things are planned but we had several months of travel that we "enjoyed" that was unplanned. It was a good experience for us. We look forward to the next unplanned trip.

I'm not afraid of heights but I'm afraid of falling. I have been very comfortable in hot air balloons, roller coasters, some tall buildings. Other buildings (when I can feel the motion) hiking on a narrow path or driving on a road with no guard rails make me uneasy.

Dave and I have some anxiety about missing connections. If we are given a choice we will take a 4 or 5 hour layover in between flights rather than a 1 or 2 hour. We like to have the cushion and don't want the stress. With that said when we returned from Morocco we had a 5 hour layover in NYC--- we didn't make it. It is a long story but we left Casablanca 6 hours late. bummer.

We have some mild anxiety about misplacing the passports and money so we keep them on our bodies at all times. We keep our cameras and computers with us at all time in the backpack. When seated we are seated we have the strap of the backpack hooked around our leg. If someone tries to take it they will have a surprise -- they will get us with the backpack.

After this last around the world trip..... we now have some concerns about oversees health care. Dave had a nasty fall in Nepal and we both had food poisoning. This aging thing is a bummer.

When we are doing budget travel we worry a bit about being able to get a room with a private bath and the noise level.



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In response to: Msg #174112
There are many times when worry is a very good thing, as long as people understand how to handle it. For example, worrying about a long hike can help remind people of what they need to prepare beforehand. Many people have just wandered down interesting trails and ended up in a hospital 😞
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Andrew and I are usually 'uncomfortable' about different things when we travel, so at least one of us is usually happy/calm/sane enough to make the situation ok. However there have been rare times when we've both been uncomfortable and that's when the alarm bells ring and we get the hell out of there! 😊

My most common (but quite low grade really) comfort zone issues are usually with using public toilets on road trips, people who happily rest their thigh or arm against you on public transport, loud talkers in small spaces, and close-standers in queues (who are also sometimes mouth-breathers)... ew! Reply to this