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If I'm traveling and enjoying it, I might be on a vacation, trip, adventure, or excursion.

But what if the journey is difficult, annoying, and altogether unpleasant? I'm thinking of trek, but that seems to imply difficult yet perhaps exciting. I'm looking for a word which represents the kind of travel that's a necessary but annoying chore.

For example, this might be used to describe a business trip which involves lots of boring meetings in a country where you can't stand the weather, or spending a day transferring between buses in order to meet a defense attorney.

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    If you're traveling and not enjoying it, you could be on a vacation, trip, adventure, or excursion. – pazzo Dec 2 '14 at 5:37
  • A commuting, the travel of a commuter, is usually an annoying trip. – user66974 Dec 2 '14 at 6:21
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    Like a commute (or commuting), an errand suggests a trip made out of duty rather than for pleasure. The saving grace is that errands are usually short trips of brief duration. – Erik Kowal Dec 2 '14 at 6:27
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    I have no single word to offer, only phrases. One is "I have to drag my ass up/down/over to ____________." Another, on Hamlet's principle of "nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so," is "travel to which I have a bad attitude." The latter has the advantage of not merely making a complaint but pointing to a remedy. – Brian Donovan Dec 2 '14 at 7:21
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    @BrianDonovan Yes, drag or drudge might be suitable words to include with an indication of movement; e.g. 'Travelling to work everyday on the London Underground can be a drudge. 'Drudge' has the added advantage that it rhymes with 'trudge', which is a manner of walking wearily through, for example, snow or deep mud. – WS2 Dec 2 '14 at 8:41
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That's a schlep.

A tedious or difficult journey:

  • a rush hour schlep to the airport and back

  • And the Hamptons are fun to visit, but it's a schlepp to get out there and it's more than we want to spend.

  • You'll find a half-dozen of the best dive sites a short boat ride away, which lets you avoid the tiresome schleps to and from the city.

  • And we said well yes, but it's such a long schlepp.

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A slog refers to unpleasantly difficult or tiring travel.

From Merriam-Webster.com:

a long, difficult walk

and

a hard dogged march or journey

In one of Merriam-Webster's examples,

It was a long slog up the mountain.

This can have the connotation of difficult work vs. simple annoyance, but it can still be used in contexts in which the difficult work isn't strictly physical.

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Drag or drudge might be suitable words to include with an indication of movement; e.g. 'Travelling to work everyday on the London Underground can be a drudge.

Drudge is used in other circumstances than travelling, however. 'Washing-up the saucepans is a drudge'.

But as regards travelling drudge does have the advantage that it rhymes with trudge, which is a manner of walking wearily through, for example, snow or deep mud.

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ordeal

an experience that is very unpleasant or difficult

rigmarole

a long, complicated, and annoying process, description, etc.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rigmarole

Some examples: It was an ordeal to get to their location.

It was such a rigmarole to attend their conference.

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I'd suggest trudge (either noun or verb).

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unmanageable travel. hurtful travel or unpalatable travel.

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