How to Make a New City Feel Like Home During a Travel Assignment

The 30 Second Snapshot

Moving somewhere new for a travel healthcare assignment can be exciting, but it can also take time before your temporary city feels comfortable. You don’t have to know every neighborhood or spend every day off exploring.

Building a few routines, finding your regular places, connecting with people, making your housing comfortable, and giving yourself time to adjust can turn an unfamiliar destination into somewhere that starts to feel like home.

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You arrive in a new city.

Your GPS gets you to your temporary housing.

Your bags are still in the car.

You don’t know where the nearest grocery store is, how long the drive to the hospital will actually take during rush hour, or where you’re going to get coffee tomorrow morning.

And in a few days, you’re supposed to walk into a new facility and start learning that environment, too.

Welcome to travel healthcare.

Living somewhere new is one of the most exciting parts of traveling, but the first few days can also feel strange.

You’re not exactly a tourist.

You’re not quite a local.

You’re somewhere in between.

Over the next several weeks, this unfamiliar place will become the backdrop to your everyday life.

You don’t need to force it to feel like home immediately.

A few small choices can help you get there.

Start With the Basics

Before worrying about everything you want to experience in your new city, figure out the places that will make everyday life easier.

• Where’s the grocery store?
• The pharmacy?
• The gas station?
• Where will you go if you need something after a late shift?
• How long does it actually take to get to the facility?
• Is there a gym nearby?
• Where’s the closest place to grab a decent meal when you don’t feel like cooking?

These aren’t the exciting discoveries you’ll post pictures of.

They’re the ones that create familiarity.

Once you know where to buy groceries without checking your phone, which route gets you home, and where to find the things you need, the city starts feeling a little less unfamiliar.

That’s often the first step toward feeling settled.

Give Your Temporary Housing Some Personality

Temporary housing can feel exactly like what it is.

Temporary.

Maybe you’re staying in a furnished apartment.

Maybe it’s an extended-stay property.

Perhaps you’re renting a room or sharing housing with another traveler.

You probably don’t want to haul your entire house across the country every 13 weeks, but bringing a few familiar things can make a big difference.

Your favorite blanket. A framed photo. A candle or familiar scent. Your own coffee mug. A small speaker. A pillow you actually like. A few things that make the space feel like yours can change how it feels when you come home after a long shift.

You don’t need to decorate an entire apartment. Create one or two spaces where you can genuinely relax.

You’re going to spend more time there than you think.

Create a Routine During Your First Week

New assignments involve a lot of change at once.

New facility. New coworkers. New housing. New commute. New community.

Routine gives you something predictable while everything else is unfamiliar.

Try to establish a few simple habits early.

Maybe you stop for coffee at the same place before your first shift each week.

Maybe you go grocery shopping every Sunday.

Perhaps you take a walk after work or find a gym that fits your schedule.

Your routine doesn’t have to look exactly like the one you had at home.

It just needs to give your days a little structure.

Eventually, you stop thinking about where you’re going.

You know.

That familiarity is one of the things that makes somewhere begin to feel like home.

Find Your Places

Most of us have places at home that are simply ours.

The restaurant where you already know what you’re ordering.

The coffee shop where you like to sit.

The walking trail you choose when you need to clear your head.

The grocery store where you know exactly which aisle has what you need.

Find versions of those places in your assignment city.

Try a few coffee shops until you find one you like.

Ask someone where to get the best breakfast.

Find a park or trail you can return to regularly.

Discover the restaurant that becomes your default when someone asks where you want to eat.

You don’t have to experience every business in town.

Having a few favorites can actually make a place feel more familiar than constantly searching for something new.

Ask Your Coworkers Where They Actually Go

Online recommendations are useful.

Locals are better.

Once you start meeting coworkers, ask them where they spend their time.

• Where do they go for tacos?
• Which park is actually worth visiting?
• What’s the restaurant everyone knows but tourists usually miss?
• Is there a farmers market on Saturday?
• What’s something you shouldn’t leave town without doing?

These questions can lead you beyond the obvious attractions.

They also give you an easy way to connect with the people you’re working with.

Your coworkers have lives outside the hospital, too.

Talking about favorite restaurants, neighborhoods, sports, hiking trails, or local traditions can help relationships develop naturally.

Sometimes feeling at home in a city begins with feeling like you know people there.

Say Yes Sometimes

After several shifts, spending your entire day off at home can sound wonderful.

Sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

Other times, someone will invite you to dinner.

Or a coworker will mention a festival.

Another traveler may ask if you want to explore somewhere nearby.

Consider saying yes.

You don’t need to accept every invitation.

You don’t need a packed social calendar.

Simply being open to occasional plans can make an enormous difference in how connected you feel during an assignment.

Some travel healthcare friendships begin because two people happened to work together for a few months.

Others begin because someone said, “We’re grabbing dinner after work. Want to come?”

Find Community Outside the Hospital

Your coworkers don’t have to become your entire social life.

If there’s something you’re interested in, look for ways to continue doing it in your new community.

• Join a gym or fitness class.
• Find a running group.
• Attend a local church or faith community.
• Visit a book club.
• Volunteer.
• Join a recreational sports league.
• Take an art class.
• Look for local events connected to hobbies you already enjoy.

Doing something familiar with new people can make it easier to build connections.

It also gives you an identity in your new city that has nothing to do with your job.

You’re not only the new traveler on the unit.

You’re a person living there.

Stay Connected With Home

Making a new city feel comfortable doesn’t mean distancing yourself from home.

Travel can make you appreciate familiar relationships even more.

• Call your family.
• Keep the group chat active.
• Schedule video calls.
• Share photos from your assignment.
• Plan a visit if someone can come see you.
• If you’re within driving distance, maybe a weekend home makes sense.

The goal isn’t to pretend you don’t miss people.

You probably will.

Staying connected can make the distance easier while you build a life where you currently are.

At the same time, try not to spend the entire assignment counting the days until you leave.

You can miss home and still enjoy where you are.

Both can be true.

Explore Like a Local, Not Just a Tourist

There will probably be attractions you want to see during your assignment.

See them. Take the picture. Buy the ridiculous souvenir if you want it.

Then experience some ordinary days, too.

Walk around a neighborhood. Go to the farmers market. Find a local restaurant. Spend an afternoon at a park. Attend a high school football game, street festival, outdoor concert, or community event. Visit the library. Take the scenic route home.

Travel assignments give you something vacations don’t.

Time.

You don’t have to experience a destination in one weekend.

You get to slowly learn it.

That’s often when a place becomes meaningful.

Don’t Put Pressure on Every Day Off

There’s a temptation in travel healthcare to make every free day count.

You’re living somewhere new.

Shouldn’t you be exploring constantly?

Not necessarily.

Some weekends should be adventures.

Others should involve laundry, groceries, a long nap, and absolutely nothing worth posting online.

You’re living somewhere.

You’re not on vacation for 13 straight weeks.

Ordinary days are part of what turns a destination into a home.

Give yourself permission to have them.

Give Yourself Time to Adjust

Not every assignment location will immediately click.

Your first week might feel lonely.

You may get lost.

Your housing may not feel comfortable yet.

You might wonder whether you made the right choice.

Give it some time.

You’re adapting to a new workplace and a new community simultaneously.

That’s a lot.

Sometimes a city you weren’t sure about during week one becomes difficult to leave by week 13.

And sometimes a place never becomes your favorite.

That’s okay, too.

Every assignment teaches you something about what you want from the next one.

Let the City Become Part of Your Story

Years from now, you probably won’t remember every commute or grocery run from your travel assignments.

You’ll remember pieces.

The coffee shop where they started recognizing your order.

The coworker who became a close friend.

The trail you walked after difficult shifts.

The restaurant you still talk about.

The weekend someone came to visit.

The neighborhood you learned well enough to stop using GPS.

Those small moments are what transform a destination from somewhere you were assigned to somewhere you actually lived.

That’s one of the most meaningful parts of travel healthcare.

You get to build a collection of places that, for a little while, became yours.

At Thrive Staffing, we know choosing an assignment means choosing more than a facility. You’re also choosing where you’ll wake up, spend your days off, build routines, meet people, and live for the next several weeks.

That’s why we want to understand what you’re looking for both inside and outside of work.

Wherever your next assignment takes you, give yourself time to settle in.

Find your places. Build your routines. Meet your people. And somewhere along the way, you may realize you stopped calling it “my assignment city.” You simply started calling it home.