To always feel like sacking of a holiday just as it's approaching?

[daisysurplus]

Does anyone else ever do this?

Book a holiday, really look forward to it, do sufficient planning to ensure it goes smoothly and then about a week before just think 'I can't be arsed'. It's happened almost every time I go away (and I always end up enjoying myself while still slightly thinking 'I'm not sure if it was worth the money / time / effort')

Not sure if it's a combination of pre annual leave fatigue, mental load / admin before a trip, expectation anxiety....or whether I generally just can't be arsed with the holiday anymore.......

I know I will have a lovely time though!

When I was young and holidays were me and a mate doing exactly what we wanted, for weeks somewhere exotic and different…loved them, the planning, the travelling etc. Also didn’t live in a lovely house with a garden and dog. I could never understand people who took a week off at home.

now I’m old with a nice house, garden and dog, the idea of a week at home seems just lovely.

I'm on holiday at the moment and counting down the days until I go home (still 15 days to go, it seems a LONG time). I was looking forward to getting away so much but it's been really, really stressful for various reasons. Such a shame as it's a beautiful place.

I booked a holiday because others were going away and I was constantly being asked if I was, so I sort of felt like I should go. But now I’m regretting it massively.

I absolutely love travel and get a lot of joy even in the planning process, but my word it is exhausting in the lead-up. I travelled loads in my 20s and remember loving the carefree ‘anything could happen’ feeling. Now in my late 30s with a husband and 3 children in tow, I seem to have developed the sort of travel-related anxiety about things like making airport connections, personal safety, etc that I used to mock in other people. I blame covid. We’ve had several holidays cancelled over the past 2 years and now I just sort of go into things expecting that something massive will go wrong and it will cost us loads. We’re heading to SE Asia for several weeks and I know it will be wonderful once we’re there, but I am having nightmares about the prep and travel connections. I will sleep like a baby once we are there!

I agree! I do absolutely everything and always at least one person doesn’t want to be there and is vocal about it. So upsetting. My money, time, effort spent on things that no-one seems to fully enjoy. So many complaints. And then they tend to say they enjoyed it after - not sure if this makes it worse or better!
I think half of the problem is that we spent ages making our house as nice as we could but now the kids have everything they want there so anywhere else is less appealing / more effort. Next year maybe we will just have lots of friends over instead! And I will go off by myself for a weekend! Bliss.

We’re just back from a week in Spain. We had so much grief with multiple flight changes and all the related nips and tucks to car hire, airport parking, cat feeding etc in the run up that it sucked 50% of the enjoyment out of it before we even left home. It was so damn hot, we were all grumpy unless we were somewhere with aircon. We missed our cat. Our teens told us they’d outgrown pool fun and would rather not stay somewhere similar in future. The flight chaos meant way too much time at the crappy airport.

I booked another trip for a significant celebration in a month or so before the airport chaos hit the news. The flights for that are in flux too. We’ll go because otherwise we’ll lose money, but we are half dreading it.

Pre-COVID I loved travel but our experiences this year have made us question whether it’s worth the expense and effort. We are not planning to leave the UK next year and I told DH I’m not doing self-catering either.

Another here who does that.

We haven't been away for 5/6 years and I've loved it. DH got a bee in his bonnet and INSISTED we go abroad this year (tbf we have had a tough year with close family bereavements and DParents poor health so we've been run ragged) so we booked a 2 weeker; leave in a couple of days. DC (20) and (17) are coming too and we aren't a family that argue/moody or anything so thank god for that! I'm half dreading/half excited. 😩Haven't flown for 12 years so scared to death of getting on a plane and all the 'what if' scenarios have mounted up in my head that I'm very nearly at the point of screaming 'I'm not fucking going!!!!!' (I won't though). 😬

me and DH are both 'followers', as in, we rarely enjoy taking the lead and are like scared little puppies in new places.

And so, we have been on one holiday together thats all. We have children so I suppose that's what's putting us off too.

We haven't missed them to be honest. We stay local, visit local places and I've spent a long time working toward making out home somewhere we don't need a break from. it's not worked so far ha!

I might feel different when I'm older and i have no travel experience but I don't really enjoy it.
What I do enjoy is looking at the history of my local town.

Seeing that you and others don't seem to enjoy it either has made me feel less worried that I'm making a huge mistake.
we are a big family though and the cost is astronomical. I don't want to get into debt for a week away stressed with children.

Oh man I love holidays so much but yes they can be stressful. Must say I don't recognize the wanting to get home part though of some posters here! I always dread it being over and when I get back I'm already planning the next one. Not that we go very often as just costs too much but I would love to be counting down to an overseas trip right now I really would.

Oh I relate to this. We are due to go away tomorrow. DH hasn’t stopped working ( he’s away a lot) for months and gave me the money and dates last month to find something for these two weeks.
I have booked what I think is going to turn out to be a bit shit.
However he was insistent on a break and wanted to go away.
I told him it’s peak school holiday so we be chock full of families and everything is expensive. He seemed surprised …..

I totally agree. It's always me that sorts everything out. Husband just goes along with what I say. He drives then gets massively anxious about driving and being somewhere new. Which means the journey is crap. If there's a problem when we're there then it's my fault obvz. I'm tempted to just leave it now and see what happens. But I feel sorry for my kids

Yes! Definitely anxiety related for me. I generally plan and book our family holidays and until a couple of weeks before the trip I will be very happy and excited about going. Then the week leading up to the holiday I am full of anxiety, snappy, hate packing, wishing I had never booked it. But I just tell myself - I know this happens every time, I know it’s a passing phase, I know it will all be fine. Once I’m on the way to the airport it’s all forgotten and always have a good time! I just plan the bad patch in, knowing it will happen. I ask DH to keep DCs occupied as much as possible so I can just concentrate on packing and not inflict my stress on everyone. We have our next big trip coming up in December to a place we’ve never been before and a long flight away. I’m expecting the pre-trip nerves to be bad but it’s ok, have got through it before and can do it again. Stick with it OP, it’s definitely worth it!

I spent yesterday afternoon looking at holidays. For work reasons we can only ever take four or five night holidays. We looked at lots
Of different permutations of flights, trains, accommodation etc. This morning we decided that we wouldn't bother as neither of us were particularly keen to spend around 2k on a few days away and decided to fill the heating oil tank instead.

This is definitely me. It's just a phase of anxiety and fatigue but the holiday is always worth it.

Kinda sums up life today..

You're definitely not alone.. you could be writing about me..