The Pros and Cons of Long-term Travel

In “proper” travelling terms, I haven’t been on the road for all that long.  We left the UK in December. I haven’t been skipping around the globe for years and years, but it has been long enough for me to appreciate some of the incredible things that long-term travel offers – and also some of the not-so great aspects moving from place to place brings with it.

I’m sure I’ll learn more along the way, but these are the pros and cons I’ve found 4.5 months in! How many would you agree with?!  

The Cons of Long-term Travel  

Money – or lack of it.

Travelling is expensive, you don’t need me to tell you that. If you’re not careful, you’ll haemorrhage money on your adventures around the globe. Unless you’ve got pretty hefty savings, at some point you need to start pinching the pennies or finding a way to make money on the side. Constantly evaluating costs and converting currencies isn’t my favourite.

Being in a different “place” to your friends and family.

Being away from friends and family can suck. You probably won’t see them for months and months (apart from on a grainy FaceTime call) and trying to find a suitable time to chat can feel impossible.

But you can work around being in different time-zones pretty easily. The trickier problem is how long-term travel can place a wedge between where you are in your life compared to friends and family. A lot of people I know are buying houses, having babies and advancing professionally. Which is amazing. But at the moment, I find it difficult to relate, just as they probably don’t really get it when I tell them I’ll be living out of a van this summer. Not having much in common can make you feel a bit alienated.

Niggling doubt.

In the same way, you sometimes start to ask yourself: “if everyone else is settling down and doing these grown-up things, why aren’t I?” Doubt can start to settle in, especially when you’ve been travelling for a long time. It’s common for people to ask you what you’re doing with your life, and that can be hard to answer. Luckily for me, I’m a travel writer, so don’t need to worry too much about my career falling by the wayside. But still – you question things.

Living out of a backpack.

This is a biggie. It’s not my favourite thing to admit, but god I miss having a wardrobe! A BIG wardrobe. Full of nice clothes. As it is, I live in the same pair of jeans and rotation of 4 t-shirts day in, day out. I didn’t think it would, but it kinda takes a little bit of your identity and sense of self away when you can’t dress to express yourself. I find myself envying the girls on Pinterest with their stylish, perfectly put together outfits and impractical shoes. Bah.

The Pros of Long-term Travel

Waking up somewhere different every day.

We all have that moment when we first wake up in the morning. When your brain starts to transition from sleeping to waking, and preparing you for the day ahead. How am I feeling? What am I doing today? When you travel for a long time, this slowly shifts to just one question: where am I?

That excitement of waking up somewhere new everyday – whether that’s in a tent by a river, a log cabin in the woods, or a hut on the beach – doesn’t get old. In the past few months, I’ve woken up to snow falling outside the window in Colorado, sunlight warming my face in San Diego, and to a view of the mountains in Whistler. There’s no such thing as routine or monotony, because you’re never in the same place for long.

Experiencing new ways of life.

The more you travel and the more you see, the more you begin to realise just how many ways there are to live a life. There is so much more than living in the town you grew up in and going to work every day. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, if it’s what you want. But I think it’s worth experiencing as much as physically possible, in order to find out the kind of life you really want. I think you should

choose

your life, not just accept it.

You could be a surfing instructor in Australia. A teacher in Thailand. A wilderness guide in the middle of the jungle somewhere. You could be anything.

Incredible memories.

I revisit a new memory every time I look back through my America photos. You almost don’t realise how much you’re doing and experiencing until you look back. When you travel long-term, this just continues the more you do and the more places you see. Your life becomes a scrapbook of incredible memories.

When you travel long-term, you’ll be the kind of person who looks back when they’re old says: “I lived with locals in Bali for six months. Trekked South America for a year. Spent the summer in Hawaii.” That’s pretty cool.

What responsibilities?

When you travel long-term, you don’t have a steady job. You don’t have pets, or a house, or bills. You don’t need to worry about turning up to work on time or big presentations or promotions. Your biggest worry on any given day is probably going to be what you want to eat. There’s something incredibly liberating about that. 

For me, the pros of long-term travel definitely outweigh the cons. For now, I’m loving life on the road. What are your pros and cons of long-term travel? Let me know!