Travel days—the days where you’re going to or coming home from your destination—can be stressful. Navigating public transit, long lines through security, getting through the airport and finding out your airline has declared bankruptcy (RIP Spirit Airlines!)… it can be a lot, especially if you’re an anxious person. If you’re looking at reducing travel anxiety, check out these practical tips for a calm travel day:

Get a good night’s sleep the night before travel

It’s hard to have a calm travel day when you feel frazzled, foggy-brained, and irritable—which is what happens every time I’m tired. Try to go to bed early the night before travel, and make sure there’s at least 6 hours between when you go to sleep and need to wake up. Set two alarms, if you need to—I have one on my fitness tracker and one on my phone, just to ensure I get up on time (a habit I picked up when I used to work the open shift at a Starbucks)—it’s annoying waking up early, but double alarms beat missing a flight!

Ensure your gadgets are fully charged

Not just your phone, but your airpods, your laptop, your camera, and most importantly, your spare battery (which should be in an easy-to-access location!). It’s easy to spiral when gadgets die, especially when they have your travel information on them!

Create a list of things to do morning-of you can consult

If I have an early flight, I make a list on my phone the night before of the things that I need to do, but can’t until the day-of. Things like plugging the drains (so bugs don’t get into the flat), packing the earplugs I sleep in, taking my packed lunch out of the fridge. In the morning, I’m groggy, and not at my sharpest thought-wise—so having a list of things to do means I have direction on what the next thing to do is.

Find a “travel day routine” that puts you in a calm, happy mood

My ideal morning routine involves getting up early, having a healthy breakfast, and journalling before taking a walk around the block. I come back and stretch before I start my day.

When I’m travelling, I don’t have time for all that, and trying to get all of that done would add too much pressure to an already pressure-filled day. So I shorten it: I eat a pre-made breakfast (usually overnight oats), write down three things I’m looking forward to today, and stretch. Sometimes I listen to upbeat music to feel more awake. These are things I like doing, but it could be completely different for you—find what will energize you without stressing you out!

Eat enough, but go easy on the liquids

Fully bellies are great; full bladders cause problems, especially if you’re stuck in traffic or somewhere a bathroom isn’t accessible.

Make sure you’ve got essentials packed for any mood

I know that I want to avoid irritation—so I always make sure that I have a water bottle/snack, painkillers, and band-aids in an easy-to-access place, in case I get hungry, get a headache, or I get any blisters. But this could mean different things to you; I have a friend who always packs under-eye retinol patches so she can relax on the plane. So ask yourself: what would make today more relaxing, either by knowing I can deal with emergencies, or because I just want to unwind?

Map your route the night before

This includes checking any news about your travel destination and airline (such as, are they having weather that might reroute your flight? Has falling debris on train tracks causing train journeys to be cancelled? Is there any civil unrest in an area you’re not familiar with?). If you’re travelling to the station or airport by taxi, you might consider pre-booking; if you’re taking public transit, search that the route is clear, and that there aren’t planned maintenance works or worker’s strikes happening.

Give yourself more than enough time

I like getting to places early, and could never do the 20-minute airport “hack” from TikTok. So I like to plan to get to places early, and I also add about 30 minutes of “padding” to the route to get there Google or CityMapper gives me. The best case is, I get there early; the worst case is that a subway getting re-routed or traffic en route means I really need that extra time. It’s better to plan to be early than miss a flight!

If you know you’ll get anxious, plan a distracting activity

Something you can do while sitting and/or travelling is ideal; like a sudoku puzzle app, a book you’re into, or even watching TikToks (remember that you might lose internet access, so non-internet-based distractions might be best!).

Remember­—a calm plan for a hectic day will make the good things feel great, and the annoying things more palatable. So what do you do to avoid travel anxiety? I hope you’ll let me know in the comments; and as always, happy travels!