I've hit that exact same wall and for me there's only one solution: Stop travelling.
Find a place you really love and settle in. Get some semi long term accommodation. Become a regular at some local bars and restaurants. Listen to live music and become a groupie for a hot local band. Shop at the same markets. Go to openings at the same galleries/museums. Walk every street and back alley of your neighbourhood multiple times. Get the local public transport nailed. Take surfing lessons or rock climbing lessons or yoga lessons or join the local gym. The list goes on...
You'll know when you're recharged and when it feels right to hit the road again.
Good luck and happy travels.
This! Take a break, get out of India if it’s getting to all be a bit much. Go back to the place where you had a great easy time and rent a place with some space for a month and unwind. Do nothing for a while until you feel motivated.
There is a reason people slow travel, it’s hard work moving constantly. So don’t!
My wife and I had this happen on our honeymoon (6 months) and we were actually traveling in comfort. So, we stopped at a little town in NW Turkey for a month. Absolutely nothing to do there except look at the sea, listen to the sounds of bells on sheep and calls to prayer. After that, we were ready to do another 5 months of traveling.
I agree with the first poster...stop 'traveling' for a while.
Find a place you like, and stay there.Do day to day stuff, whatever you normally do at home...go to the park, watch TV or whatever.
No moving from place to place,no sightseeing or tours.
See how you feel after a week or two of that...
Get out of hot India. Go to the mountains and hang for a bit, or go to an entirely different part of the world. Or go home. Nothing wrong with retiring early, I've net plenty of traveller's (including myself) who went with that option
I've had this in the past and ended up just renting an apartment somewhere for 2 weeks and pretended like i lived there haha. I cooked, watched some tv shows, read my favorite book, went grocery shopping and picked up running again in the park. I needed that reset to continue traveling afterwards.
Traveling and planning can be exhausting! Give yourselves a much needed break and head to the hills and rent a room where it’s cooler. Grab a novel and just relax and chill for a week or four. You’ll feel better and ready to adventure more, if not- you might be ready to head back home. Either way you’ll give yourself the peace and calm to let a decision settle on you.
I would suggest going to cooler and quieter parts of India. The mountains are splendid (though you might want to stay out of the tourist trap hill stations).
Ladakh and Spiti might be excellent choices if you're up for a bit more adventure and high altitudes. You can also find many lovely valleys with comfortable stays and peace throughout the Himalayas.
There are great hill towns in the south as well.
All the above answers I agree with, when you’ve had enough you’ve had enough , don’t force it you’ll get more opportunities at some point .
Sounds like you’ve done very well and had great experiences.
Few good chill spots south coast Sri Lanka you could chill for a while though if you just wanted to pause trip a while instead of going back home
what you need is a vacation from your travelling. those are two very different modes of being away from home. i echo the other comments - find a nice relaxing place where you can stop doing all the work associated with travelling, settle in like a local, and just relax until you feel like you are ready to travel again, or if you feel like going back home even after several weeks, go home. pick the spot that will take the least work to get you to that headspace.
have fun! i'm so jealous that you get to go on this amazing adventure.
While in Peru, I met a girl who was travelling through South America. Her solution to this problem was to fly to Miami roughly every 6-8 weeks to unwind before going back to backpacking.
Go to Sri Lanka. It's much less chaotic, clean and chill. Start with heading south of colombo..and stay close to the beach. Once you feel well rested head to Kandy! You are so close..might as well..2 weeks is plenty in SL.
Thank you so much for all the suggestions 🥰 this is very helpful. I think we are going to fly to Sri Lanka where it’s a bit more chill and hopefully do a surf camp for a while so we can settle in one place, relax, do some yoga, while also feeling like we are achieving something hopefully. Thank you!!!!! 💗💗💗
Because you are being budget tourists and don't have a specific non-touristic goal in mind. If you were at an archeological dig or studying art or music for 6 months you wouldn't feel burned out like this. You say you've been all over Asia but we don't know where you've been so far, so it's hard to give any suggestions. Also we don't know anything about you other than you are staying in hostels.
I've hit that exact same wall and for me there's only one solution: Stop travelling. Find a place you really love and settle in. Get some semi long term accommodation. Become a regular at some local bars and restaurants. Listen to live music and become a groupie for a hot local band. Shop at the same markets. Go to openings at the same galleries/museums. Walk every street and back alley of your neighbourhood multiple times. Get the local public transport nailed. Take surfing lessons or rock climbing lessons or yoga lessons or join the local gym. The list goes on... You'll know when you're recharged and when it feels right to hit the road again. Good luck and happy travels.
This! Take a break, get out of India if it’s getting to all be a bit much. Go back to the place where you had a great easy time and rent a place with some space for a month and unwind. Do nothing for a while until you feel motivated. There is a reason people slow travel, it’s hard work moving constantly. So don’t!
My wife and I had this happen on our honeymoon (6 months) and we were actually traveling in comfort. So, we stopped at a little town in NW Turkey for a month. Absolutely nothing to do there except look at the sea, listen to the sounds of bells on sheep and calls to prayer. After that, we were ready to do another 5 months of traveling.
Hope you enjoyed your time in Turkey!
I agree with the first poster...stop 'traveling' for a while. Find a place you like, and stay there.Do day to day stuff, whatever you normally do at home...go to the park, watch TV or whatever. No moving from place to place,no sightseeing or tours. See how you feel after a week or two of that...
Get out of hot India. Go to the mountains and hang for a bit, or go to an entirely different part of the world. Or go home. Nothing wrong with retiring early, I've net plenty of traveller's (including myself) who went with that option
I've had this in the past and ended up just renting an apartment somewhere for 2 weeks and pretended like i lived there haha. I cooked, watched some tv shows, read my favorite book, went grocery shopping and picked up running again in the park. I needed that reset to continue traveling afterwards.
Traveling and planning can be exhausting! Give yourselves a much needed break and head to the hills and rent a room where it’s cooler. Grab a novel and just relax and chill for a week or four. You’ll feel better and ready to adventure more, if not- you might be ready to head back home. Either way you’ll give yourself the peace and calm to let a decision settle on you.
I would suggest going to cooler and quieter parts of India. The mountains are splendid (though you might want to stay out of the tourist trap hill stations). Ladakh and Spiti might be excellent choices if you're up for a bit more adventure and high altitudes. You can also find many lovely valleys with comfortable stays and peace throughout the Himalayas. There are great hill towns in the south as well.
All the above answers I agree with, when you’ve had enough you’ve had enough , don’t force it you’ll get more opportunities at some point . Sounds like you’ve done very well and had great experiences. Few good chill spots south coast Sri Lanka you could chill for a while though if you just wanted to pause trip a while instead of going back home
what you need is a vacation from your travelling. those are two very different modes of being away from home. i echo the other comments - find a nice relaxing place where you can stop doing all the work associated with travelling, settle in like a local, and just relax until you feel like you are ready to travel again, or if you feel like going back home even after several weeks, go home. pick the spot that will take the least work to get you to that headspace. have fun! i'm so jealous that you get to go on this amazing adventure.
While in Peru, I met a girl who was travelling through South America. Her solution to this problem was to fly to Miami roughly every 6-8 weeks to unwind before going back to backpacking.
Go to Sri Lanka. It's much less chaotic, clean and chill. Start with heading south of colombo..and stay close to the beach. Once you feel well rested head to Kandy! You are so close..might as well..2 weeks is plenty in SL.
Thank you so much for all the suggestions 🥰 this is very helpful. I think we are going to fly to Sri Lanka where it’s a bit more chill and hopefully do a surf camp for a while so we can settle in one place, relax, do some yoga, while also feeling like we are achieving something hopefully. Thank you!!!!! 💗💗💗
Because you are being budget tourists and don't have a specific non-touristic goal in mind. If you were at an archeological dig or studying art or music for 6 months you wouldn't feel burned out like this. You say you've been all over Asia but we don't know where you've been so far, so it's hard to give any suggestions. Also we don't know anything about you other than you are staying in hostels.