Want to Travel but scared of flying

[SeeBiscuit]

As the title says, I’d love to travel. I’d love to take my kids on holiday somewhere warm and sunny. And I’d absolutely love to go to New York City but I am terrified of flying.

I know flying is very safe but I can’t get past the fear of someone hijacking/crashing the plane.

Has anyone else gotten over this? I know the odds of anything like this happening are minuscule but I feel like odds don’t really matter when it does happen to you!

I'm not keen on flying, for the reasons you state, but I do it because I love travelling. I keep telling myself I'm safer on the plane than jn the car on the way to the airport. Also the planes themselves have all the technology so if there's something wrong they don't fly and the pilots are highly skilled to deal with any issue that happens. Airport security is extremely tight - I love how thorough it is, with the full body scanners now too. Looking at a flight radar site can out it into perspective as there are thousands of planes up there all the time but how often does something happen?

Have you ever flown at all? I wouldn't start with NYC but you can get fairly short flights to lovely European destinations to start you off.

There are a few options

Slow and expensive, but an adventure, you could go by train to the Costa Brava/Dorada around the Barcelona area in northern Spain. Or the south of France.

Or you could go on a 'fear of flying' course.

Or you could take a sedative when flying. No idea if this is something you get from your GP, or if it is appropriate if you're flying alone with DC, but some people do.

Agree about using flight radar to see how many planes are up there and then remember how rare commercial passenger plane crashes are. Maybe also go to an airport and watch the planes land and take off (there's usually somewhere on the outskirts of most airports where people congregate - with pubs and cafes that do a good trade from plane spotters).

seat61.com has lots of advice about how to travel to all sorts of places by train.

This was me. We spent years sailing/driving/railing down to Spain. Then something switched inside me and I decided I needed to get on a plane. Booked flights to LA and have flown multiple times since no bother. I still absolutely hate it but there tends to be more to do on a long haul flight to occupy me.

Failing that fear of flying course or medication.

Good luck OP.