Do you get homesick when on holiday?

[BlueButterflyHome]

I have always struggled with travel and being away from home. Even as a child I hated sleepovers as I just wanted to be in my bed.

All holidays I go on (good and bad) I struggle with homesickness. I just feel so sad at night time and long to be home.

It’s annoying because I do like travel and it’s not like I have an amazing home to get back to! It just seems to be something that’s a part of me.

I can remember sobbing all night on a school trip abroad aged 13. I had a good time during the day but dread came over me at night. It’s the same now I am an adult although I manage not to sob.

Is anyone else like this?

I love my home, but also love holidays, and never get homesick. Would love to do the type of really long - 6 months plus - I did in my youth, but real life won't permit. But no. Never ever homesick. Even though I have a really nice house and a nice life. I think it is personality rather than any feature of your home life.

Yes me too.

I got homesick when in hospital having dd1 🙈 I had to stay in the night before she was born as I had to be induced. I cried when dh left me. He had to pop back as he'd forgotten change for parking and found me sobbing 😂 I totally feel you op!

Yes I really struggle to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. But I just sort of acknowledge it and carry on. Otherwise I'd never go anywhere. I love to travel but I'm always looking forward to getting home.

No. What exactly is it that you’re so homesick for over the course of a fortnight or so? I understand it in a small child who’s coming to terms with strange food and different ways and panicking about the stiff bathroom lock on a sleepover somewhere new, when they have little control over their circumstances, but you can choose whether, where and when you go away, surely?

I mean, if I cried myself to sleep regularly while doing something I wouldn’t do it simply because it was ‘supposed to be fun’.

I’m on my second destination on this holiday, arrived just in time at this rental house to explore the house and grounds a bit, make dinner with friends who joined me and DH from Paris. We came so far today, and have plans for a long hike tomorrow, and there’s a big storm and a power cut, so we washed up by candlelight, and all collapsed into bed. The air is different, the plumbing is strange, the thunder is right overhead, there’s an entire floor of the house we haven’t even gone up to, plus a lizard just ran across the bedroom wall —I’m having a ball! I wouldn’t be here if it made me homesick. Why not stay in the UK?

I get this too. Have been to lots of great places which I’ve really enjoyed, looking back on the experience - but I always remember at the time having that feeling of counting down the days till I get back home. And that includes times when I was living in a not particularly nice flat etc.

Weird.

Yes. And I'm always anxious that something has gone wrong in the house whilst we are away.

When I was small, I sucked my fingers and even now in my late 40s when I'm feeling sad or tired or homesick I want to curl up and sick my fingers to soothe myself.

Thing is I love holidays, I've travelled solo and with my family and I'm great at travelling!

Me too!

I start counting down the hours about 30 mins after I check into the hotel or BNB.

I've been away since last sunday and.will be home again in 22 hours, all being well.

@BikesIHaveLost is having such an utterly amazing time while really being so bored she’s on MN.

Thanks all, I wish I wasn’t like this but it’s a comfort knowing I am not the only one.

The air is different, the plumbing is strange, the thunder is right overhead, there’s an entire floor of the house we haven’t even gone up to, plus a lizard just ran across the bedroom wall
On your behalf I won't be sleeping tonight!!

I think it's just the unfamiliarity of it. You don't know the streets/directions/public transport. You can't just be as relaxed as your are in your own home.
I'm better in English speaking countries but I do still feel homesick.
I'm just a homebody! But I do like travelling so the feeling doesn't put me off per se.

Could've written this word for word myself. This is exactly me!!

I must be weird because I never have been homesick. Before holidays I have lists done, cases packed and I'm like a giddy child waiting to go away.

When I get there I rarely think of home, in fact by the time the 2nd week starts I'm dreading coming home, I'm so down on the plane and when I get in it takes me days to settle back in, I keep saying "oh this time 2 nights ago we were doing..."

Last year we did 3 weeks at our favourite destination, absolute game changer, it was so brilliant having the extra week and I wasn't as down coming home. Only problem is, cost and dhs job getting the 3rd week off.

It depends.
We have stared going to the same place on holiday so I don't get homesick. However, I used to hate been on holiday and counted down the days till we went home. We now borrow a family apartment abroad and I feel at home there now I have been a few times.

No. Never. I never miss home when I'm on holiday.

I am always glad to be back home though!

I’m in bed on my phone because it’s thundering so loudly I can’t sleep, and the candlelight is too faint to read by. Plus it’s 2 am here.

I didn't use to like going on holiday - being in a different bed with strange bedding and the temperature was never right and I wouldn't sleep well and it all just felt unfamiliar.

Now I have a motorhome so I can take my second home wherever I can park it.

@BlueButterflyHome do you have any other anxieties or ocd like behaviors? I can totally relate to this. On my first girls holiday aged 18 I was desperately homesick and cried a lot. I think I annoyed everyone, they were all so carefree and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t like that for me! But I am angsty about a lot of things (including flying) and have touches of ocd. I haven’t met anyone else IRL that is like this! I was a stroppy teen on family holidays too as I was anxious and just wanted to be in my own home. Although there were things that I kind of enjoyed - like sitting in the sun with a good book.

it has got a lot better and through trial and error I’ve found it has to be a real WOW holiday - somewhere with excellent service and top reviews as I find this makes me calmer and more able to enjoy it (not 100% sure if this is a genuine anxiety thing or just me being a holiday snob lol) I’d never ever be one for a cheapie / camping type holiday… even on a lovely holiday it’s hard to turn my brain off, I’d say it’s moved from homesickness thoughts to generally anxious thoughts as I’ve gotten older.

Nope. Never.

As a child, I was the opposite, I'd come home from holidays and be "homesick" for the holiday place for the first week or so. This doesn't happen now, possibly because I know I can always choose to go back to that place again.. I don't miss home while I'm on holiday, but when we get back after being away DH and I always say to one another, "Here's nice too," and, "THIS is the most comfortable bed in the world."

Hahha, I was going to say the same. My holiday anxiety is significantly less if I know the place we are going so we now do a week in a familiar place followed by a week of exploring and it helps. I've always been keen to get home though. When I was a kid I hated sleepovers. I just wanted to be in my own space.

No. I am a complete homebody but I never get homesick. Not even when I moved across countries for work by myself as a single person. I enjoy my own company wherever I am.

I’m always jealous when I see someone from my town move to America or Australia but then I think of that sick feeling I’d have as I got on the plane and I don’t think I’d go 😂 It almost feels like you are more free to do that if you don’t like your house/life that much and don’t have any pets.

As I’ve got older and maybe since having kids I do care less about the physical building we live in. We’ve moved already since my toddler was born and might move again but I now just care about the fact we’d all be there (and the dog) and less about where we actually stay