How to Stay Sane While Traveling

This summer, a record number of people are expected to travel – some for the first time. With all the overcrowding, delays, restrictions, and liberties that TSA takes, how is one supposed to stay sane while traveling, let alone travel with dignity? Follow these helpful tips to make your trips this summer as pleasant as can be.

1) Arrive earlier than usual

This is helpful for everyone. If you’re a newbie traveler who’s just breaking in her new suitcases’ shiny wheels on the cold concrete of the airport, you should show up before the rush to figure out how everything’s done. Finding your gate number, getting your boarding pass, and subjecting yourself to the circus that is the security line all take time. Especially as you’ll find that you’re inevitably carrying something forbidden and you’ll be whisked away to a private room for your ‘’screening.’’

For the veteran traveler who just wishes everyone would get out of her way, it’s good to show up early to deal with all the amateurs who congregate at the tops of escalators or wonder if you can buy aspirin at the bookstore. You’ll want to allow yourself plenty of time to get stuck behind the people in the security line who are loudly exclaiming, ‘’Excuse me! Are we supposed to take off our shoes? Excuse me!’’ when everyone around them is already barefoot.

2) Come seriously prepared

Headphones, sleeping pills, eye mask, entertainment, food – there’s no such thing as being over prepared for a flight. I was recently on a short flight and as I sat in the aisle, I watched couple after couple board the plane with newborns, until it seemed like all the rows around me were filled with babies. Now, babies are cute, but nothing makes people on an airplane lose their minds faster than a crying baby. Incidentally, it was a loud man sitting behind me who was the most annoying – yelling to his buddies seated nearby – but I was happy with my headphones plugged into my ears, watching some old sitcom reruns and feeling bad for all the poor souls around me who didn’t come prepared.

You’re going to get stuck in a bad situation. Make the best of it.

3) Stay zen

With thousands of people flooding every mode of transportation you could take, there will be delays due to these people not knowing what to do around said transportation. I’m not saying they’ll be jumping in front of trains or anything, but they’ll be holding up flights with their inability to understand that they need to put their phones away, or their confusion about what exactly happens in case of emergency.

You’ll need your zen hat for this. Are you ready? Put it on. Imagine yourself melting away into a mellow, happy state, where you do not hear bickering in three different languages from the row in front and where you don’t register the kid kicking your seat. Remember, there was once a time when you were new to flying and you were probably pretty intimidated by it too. Try not to fantasize about going Rambo on your fellow passengers, unless that’s what helps you stay zen – in which case, you do you.

4) Expect the worst

As I said, you’re going to get stuck in a bad situation. Imagine yourself sitting next to someone with terrible body odor, cramped into a middle seat, while the people on either side of you rest their weary, drooling heads on your shoulders. Now, the odds that that exact scenario play out are slim (but, sorry if it happens!), so if you end up with anything less unpleasant, that’ll already be an improvement. You won’t be thinking about how terrible it is that the person next to you is trying to convert you, but rather how nice it is that they’re not getting drool on your new shirt. See? Improvement!

5) Go rogue

If being around so many people sounds like your own personal Hell, try doing the unexpected (or the unpopular). Take red-eye flights, travel on Mondays, and visit the lesser-famous but equally beautiful European capitals like Prague and Lisbon. Save the Louvre for a fall or spring trip, and visit Berlin instead. Or if you insist on traipsing through Rome in full July scorch-mode (how foolish), visit lesser-known museums or churches that often house some incredible art and haven’t fallen prey to the Eat, Pray, Love crowd.

And travel on your own or in a small group. You’re going to be extremely aware of the quantity of tourists around you if you’re packing into a tour bus, waiting in traffic behind another packed tour bus, as you all make your way to the packed Vatican, where you’ll be herded from room to room with so many people that you’ll only see glimpses of the art in between hundreds of moving bodies.

Other than that, stay strong and travel safe, my friends.

Tatiana Sundeyeva has gotten into the terrible habit of thinking too much about everything. She enjoys fantasizing about traveling, compulsively buying literature, laughing at her own puns, and consuming anything (and everything) that can be found in a bakery. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley where she got a degree in English with a minor in Italian. She can be found celebrating awesome female friendships on LadyBromance.com.

by Tatiana Sundeyeva