The Way My Trips Always End
Why coming home never feels quite as good as the trip itself
There’s a part of travel no one really likes to talk about: coming home. This is loosely what inspired me to write a book about Happiness. When we talk about Travel, we share the destination, the highlights, the sunsets and the stories we want to remember. The ending, whether it’s the trek back home or actually coming home, isn’t usually part of that highlight reel.
“Instead of tacky souvenirs, I wanted to take that experience of freedom home with me.” ~Wilko van de Kamp
Trips don’t usually end with a perfect Instagram-worthy moment. The vacation doesn’t fade out on a beach with a drink in your hand and a profound sense of closure. Quite the opposite: it ends with packing, airport transfers, security lines, delays, and a bit of mental fog.
The Quiet Weight of Return Day
The feeling is hard to describe, but I woke up with it on my last day in Mexico. It’s not sadness exactly, just… friction. Nothing was wrong and the trip had been great. Food, beaches, margaritas, everything I wanted it to be, despite the media trying hard to convince me otherwise.1
But at the end of the trip, there can be this subtle shift in energy. For me this is usually somewhere between the last few days and arriving back home. It’s the “travel twilight zone” where the trip is no longer happening, but real life hasn’t quite resumed yet either. You’re in between worlds, and neither one seems to fit.
Reframing the Travel Day
The trick is to be ok with feeling lost or out of place for a little while, without trying to fix it. Instead of seeing the travel day(s) as the end of something, or worse, a failed attempt at rest, I treat it as a decompression buffer.
When looked at it differently, long travel days have a strange quality to them. You’re moving across the planet, but at the same time, you’re completely removed from everything that normally demands your attention. You’re unreachable and no one expects anything from you.2 There’s no productivity to chase, no decisions to make beyond what to watch or whether you want another coffee glass of wine.
You’re just a human being sitting in a seat, simply existing for a few hours between places. There’s something oddly comfortable about that state of existing.
The Re-Entry Phase
The mistake I used to make was expecting to land and feel instantly “back” to normal routines and rhythms. That almost never happens.
Instead, there’s a “re-entry phase” where life feels slightly off. Even the familiar feels unfamiliar for a moment. My own bed doesn’t immediately feel like home again. My usual routine feels a bit forced. It’s temporary, but it’s real.
In my Freedom Project books, I’ve described travel as a catalyst for personal growth. By stripping away everything familiar, you have to figure yourself out again and discover your likes and dislikes in an unfamiliar environment. When done right, returning to everything that once was familiar, isn’t necessarily the same as the person inside that context may have changed, even a little. Travel expands, while coming home is the contraction. And transitions between those two states may cause a bit of turbulence.
So the interesting part isn’t the day I get home, but a day or two later when the experiences I took home from the trip start to settle. It’s when the small details that don’t stand out when I’m in them every day, suddenly feel grounding again. I’m back to my morning runs, a good cup of coffee, and my cats (who once again ensure I can never sleep in).
“Travel isn’t about finding a place to stay. It’s about discovering why you keep moving.”
Get Into Action
If return days tend to throw you off, you’re not alone. It’s not a sign you need a better vacation, it’s a sign you’re actually feeling the contrast. In The Freedom Project: Happiness, I share my blueprint for rediscovering joy and meaning in life. Whether you’re climbing the corporate ladder or running your own business, this book will challenge your assumptions about success and guide you toward a life of true freedom and happiness.
Further Reading
My trip was scheduled to depart only days after the Puerto Vallarta incident in March 2026. Full story here.
I do realize on board Wifi is attempting to change this, but I refuse to connect and rather indulge in downloaded movies and a glass of wine versus trying to stream anything at 30,000 feet.