Travel

The Expat’s Guide To Visiting Home For A Month

I love hearing from my fellow expats about their trips home because no matter where you’re from there are three things we all seek on our visits: food, family and tradition. I’ve yet to perfect my planning for trips home but I’ve learnt a lot over the past few years. So if you’re trying to make the most of your holiday in your home country, then I have pointers that might help.

Make a Food List Before Visiting Home

Food has got to be the biggest reason we make the journeys home at all, because…well, it’s never just food, it’s who we are. That first homemade meal surrounded by the people you love most is a feeling all its own, completely unmatched. So, yes, you need to make an actual list of everything you’ve been craving and let the cooks in your family know what they should be preparing for you.

The first few times I came back from South Africa I got so disappointed when a friend would ask if I’d eaten a specific dish because it hadn’t even occurred to me to have it! So now my food lists are the first thing I do when planning a trip to South Africa.

Use Luggage Dividers When Packing

Luggage dividers revolutionised the way I pack and travel especially on long trips. The struggle of a jumbled suitcase where you can’t find a pair of socks or that top you’re certain you packed is completely eliminated. It makes it particularly helpful if you find yourself doing little trips for a night or two to a sibling’s or friend’s house.

Avoid Unnecessary Travel During Your Trip Home

If like me you have family scattered across the country there’s really no way to avoid traveling during your visit. The best thing to do is check off as many people as you can in one place. Don’t be afraid to ask people to come to you—it makes things much easier on you who’s already been moving around a lot.

I started my journey in Port Elizabeth where I spent just under a week with my sister and her family. The added bonus was having my dad—who lives in Durban—there with us, too! It’s always great when we all get to be together like that and it meant I’d already checked off some time with my dad. After PE was Durban for a good few weeks before heading to Joburg for a couple of days.

Spend More Time Where You Have the Most People to Visit

This is an obvious one but worth saying because it becomes the core of your whole trip. You wanna make sure you have an abundance of time so that you can see the people who are most important—parents, siblings and grandparents—as well as the people you’ve missed being around. It feels weird to say but the truth is there is a list of people in order of priority that we mentally make when considering visiting home. That’s not to say people further from the top don’t matter as much to us. We just can’t possibly make the same amount of time for everyone; a harsh truth that many expats have to come to terms with.

My place of priority is always Durban. I can never seem to have enough time in my hometown. The list of people I want to see always manages to continue growing once I’m there.

Make Time for Group Gatherings

Understandably there’ll still be people you want one-on-one time with but I find it much easier to meet as many people over a Sunday lunch or Friday dinner as I can. There isn’t always enough time to have private meet-ups with each person. And let’s be honest groups are more fun plus the food variety is always better.

Ultimately everyone will travel in a way that makes sense to them. I happen to be an introvert who loves structure, planned events and spending time with family and friends. You might not feel the need to prioritise people so much and instead want to get the experience of just being on home ground by yourself. Or you might be perfectly fine with winging your trips and going with the flow. Whatever your reasons might be for visiting home, the most important thing is to leave feeling full—in all the different ways only a home can fill you.