At some point during their adventures, every around the world traveler sits down, opens their laptop, and begins typing: “Why You Should Travel Around the World.” It’s a rite of passage. Expand your perspective. Challenge and test yourself. Meet new and inspiring people. Sightseeing and adventures. Taste exotic foods. Cliché. Cliché. Cliché.
Forget the clichés. Forget the Instagram posts. Forget the cliché advice from the travel-as-a-lifestyle blogs, that sell an exotic online experience. A decision as monumental as traveling around the world shouldn’t be based upon a cliché-laden blog entry on the Huffington Post. The decision shouldn’t be pushed, cajoled, or based upon pressure or jealousy from seeing Instagram or Facebook posts. You are not missing out. You’ve known you were going to travel around the world ever since you first learned it was possible traveling around the world.
Here are several practical reasons to pack your bags and fit all your life travel bucket list items into a single around the world trip, starting with the most practical reason.
Around the world travel offers better financial value than traveling once or twice a year. It’s more cost effective to visit all your bucket list sights in a single trip rather than spreading the trips over multiple years. My average one-week vacations typically cost around $2,000. If you work forty years, that’s forty one-week vacations. The total cost would be $80,000. (This assumes you are traveling solo and no inflation. Once you are married, the costs double. There are no quantity discounts in the pay-by-bed hostel world. Add kids? Double the costs again.) About half the one-week vacation cost is airfare. Another portion of the cost is incurring in-country travel expenses from running around to see more in a shorter period. With around the world travel you can stay in the same location for a week or a month. The longer you are in a location, the better your understanding of local costs. You take buses instead of planes. Spending a year to travel around the world, which is essentially 52 consecutive one-week vacations, costs $25,000. That’s less than $80,000. That’s the most practical reason to travel around the world.
Personal and life travel goals shouldn’t wait for retirement. There’s no need to justify around the world travel to step out of your comfort zone, to gain worldly perspectives, or to discover yourself. Keep it simple: around the world travel a personal life goal. Complete that goal sooner rather than later. I had a goal of backpacking through Patagonia and the Himalayas. Further explanations and justifications aren’t necessary. You could wait until retirement—there are people in their sixties trekking through Patagonia and climbing through the Himalayas. But why? If you have a life goal, accomplish it.
Others pursuing hobbies as life goals aren’t questioned. The 17th best swimmer in the world doesn’t stop practicing at the age of 18 because he isn’t going to be the next Michael Phelps. That person is only a few spots away from being named to the Olympic team. It is no different with around the world travel. Pursuing life goals are a positive. Anyone who undertakes a full commitment to a passion should be commended, not criticized.
Accomplishing lifetime travel goals allows you to focus more intensely on other goals. Prior to traveling around the world, I juggled several competing goals and made little progress on any. Completing my travel-related life goals by the age of thirty-five was a slate-clearing experience. Now I’m better equipped to focus on other life goals. I think I’m a better person, a better husband, a better employee, and I’ll be a better father, not because I have a greater appreciation for life from traveling, but because I’m no longer juggling a difficult, expensive, time-consuming goal. I’m no longer thinking of traveling as a goal, distracting me and taking energy from completing other goals. When I’m helping my wife through college, I’m not thinking “I wish I could spend this desk money on a trip to Argentina,” I’m thinking “I’m glad I helped my wife.”
I’m more committed on my career goals. The average person will spend more than forty years working. Taking a year away from your career to knock out a couple of your life goals is a minor detour. When you return you will be more focused to your career—work hard, work smart, and make up the lost time.
Since returning to normal life, I have not had any “I’d rather be in China” or “I’d rather be in Paris” or “I’d rather be in Australia” thoughts. Prior to traveling around the world, these thoughts crept into my consciousness and held me back from making a full commitment to other goals. Travel remains a hobby, not a goal. Every weekend I take a small trip. I return, upload a few photos, write about my adventures and move on.
Accomplish your life goals by charting your own course. Society has been structured so that our life patterns follow a consistent schedule—go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, go on vacation between June and August, and then retire and see the world. An alternative strategy is to live against that pattern, to live your life in reverse, and engage in traditional leisure-type activities when everyone else is following the standard script. Don’t head to the mountains for President’s Day. Go the weekend before or after. Cheaper rates. Fewer crowds. Less traffic. No stress. The same theory applies to around the world travel. Don’t follow the herd. Don’t wait for retirement to see the world. People stress about saving enough money for retirement. I’m not stressed because I already completed my expensive retirement travel plans.
See the world before it all looks the same. It’s a cruel, ironic twist—travel ultimately destroys the reason for travel. Globalization (or Americanization given the proliferation of Starbucks and McDonalds around the world) and higher incomes that increased leisure travel have resulted in a world that looks more same than different. At an airport’s international departures area travelers are dressed the same, except for Indian women who are still going strong in their saris.
Everybody is roasting coffee. Everybody is selling artisan food at farmer’s markets. Everybody is microbrewing. Everybody is watching The Walking Dead. Pop music is pop music. Modern buildings are modern buildings. Celebrities are celebrities. A Filipino is as likely to know LeBron James’ slash line as an American. There are 10,268 7-Elevens in Thailand, compared to 8,421 in the U.S. Everybody has smartphones. Everybody has Facebook. Everybody has Line. Everybody has Tinder. You can now withdraw cash in Myanmar. It’s all the same now. And that’s fine.
Travel through China today is via high-speed rails. Every visitor wants to see the “real” China. Today high-speed rail is the real China. The economic advancement that occurred over three generations in the U.S. is occurring in twenty years for a Chinese millennial. I wish when I visited a location it was as Mark Twain described in the 1800s. That’s selfish. Globalization has improved billions of lives, literally billions, and it means you don’t see the “real” China. That’s fine. Go now before it becomes samer.
Maybe you were meant to live someplace else. A 2010 report issued by the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center noted that many Americans live within twenty-five miles of their parents. Those who live farther away went off to college, then followed their spouse or a job to a new city. Your environment has a tremendous impact on your life, and yet few experiment with finding an ideal environment that matches their lifestyle.
In Hong Kong I went from Mong Kok, the busiest commercial district in the world, to a secluded beach in less than thirty minutes. There are quiet coffee shops tucked away in corridors of bustling office districts. There’re barbeque restaurants serving $6 lunch specials around the corner from Three-Star Michelin rated restaurants with $100 meals. I loved the compact diversity. Hong Kongers hustle. I am the sort of person who walks up escalators (versus standing on an escalator versus taking the stairs versus waiting for an elevator). Nobody walks up escalators like Hong Kongers. I was meant to live in Hong Kong.
The worst-case scenario? You return home and love where you left even more. Ultimately, I returned to Philadelphia—my parents live 21.6 miles away.
Forget the clichés. Forget the Instagram posts. Forget the cliché advice from the travel-as-a-lifestyle blogs, that sell an exotic online experience. A decision as monumental as traveling around the world shouldn’t be based upon a cliché-laden blog entry on the Huffington Post. The decision shouldn’t be pushed, cajoled, or based upon pressure or jealousy from seeing Instagram or Facebook posts. You are not missing out. You’ve known you were going to travel around the world ever since you first learned it was possible traveling around the world.
Here are several practical reasons to pack your bags and fit all your life travel bucket list items into a single around the world trip, starting with the most practical reason.
Around the world travel offers better financial value than traveling once or twice a year. It’s more cost effective to visit all your bucket list sights in a single trip rather than spreading the trips over multiple years. My average one-week vacations typically cost around $2,000. If you work forty years, that’s forty one-week vacations. The total cost would be $80,000. (This assumes you are traveling solo and no inflation. Once you are married, the costs double. There are no quantity discounts in the pay-by-bed hostel world. Add kids? Double the costs again.) About half the one-week vacation cost is airfare. Another portion of the cost is incurring in-country travel expenses from running around to see more in a shorter period. With around the world travel you can stay in the same location for a week or a month. The longer you are in a location, the better your understanding of local costs. You take buses instead of planes. Spending a year to travel around the world, which is essentially 52 consecutive one-week vacations, costs $25,000. That’s less than $80,000. That’s the most practical reason to travel around the world.
Personal and life travel goals shouldn’t wait for retirement. There’s no need to justify around the world travel to step out of your comfort zone, to gain worldly perspectives, or to discover yourself. Keep it simple: around the world travel a personal life goal. Complete that goal sooner rather than later. I had a goal of backpacking through Patagonia and the Himalayas. Further explanations and justifications aren’t necessary. You could wait until retirement—there are people in their sixties trekking through Patagonia and climbing through the Himalayas. But why? If you have a life goal, accomplish it.
Others pursuing hobbies as life goals aren’t questioned. The 17th best swimmer in the world doesn’t stop practicing at the age of 18 because he isn’t going to be the next Michael Phelps. That person is only a few spots away from being named to the Olympic team. It is no different with around the world travel. Pursuing life goals are a positive. Anyone who undertakes a full commitment to a passion should be commended, not criticized.
Accomplishing lifetime travel goals allows you to focus more intensely on other goals. Prior to traveling around the world, I juggled several competing goals and made little progress on any. Completing my travel-related life goals by the age of thirty-five was a slate-clearing experience. Now I’m better equipped to focus on other life goals. I think I’m a better person, a better husband, a better employee, and I’ll be a better father, not because I have a greater appreciation for life from traveling, but because I’m no longer juggling a difficult, expensive, time-consuming goal. I’m no longer thinking of traveling as a goal, distracting me and taking energy from completing other goals. When I’m helping my wife through college, I’m not thinking “I wish I could spend this desk money on a trip to Argentina,” I’m thinking “I’m glad I helped my wife.”
I’m more committed on my career goals. The average person will spend more than forty years working. Taking a year away from your career to knock out a couple of your life goals is a minor detour. When you return you will be more focused to your career—work hard, work smart, and make up the lost time.
Since returning to normal life, I have not had any “I’d rather be in China” or “I’d rather be in Paris” or “I’d rather be in Australia” thoughts. Prior to traveling around the world, these thoughts crept into my consciousness and held me back from making a full commitment to other goals. Travel remains a hobby, not a goal. Every weekend I take a small trip. I return, upload a few photos, write about my adventures and move on.
Accomplish your life goals by charting your own course. Society has been structured so that our life patterns follow a consistent schedule—go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, go on vacation between June and August, and then retire and see the world. An alternative strategy is to live against that pattern, to live your life in reverse, and engage in traditional leisure-type activities when everyone else is following the standard script. Don’t head to the mountains for President’s Day. Go the weekend before or after. Cheaper rates. Fewer crowds. Less traffic. No stress. The same theory applies to around the world travel. Don’t follow the herd. Don’t wait for retirement to see the world. People stress about saving enough money for retirement. I’m not stressed because I already completed my expensive retirement travel plans.
See the world before it all looks the same. It’s a cruel, ironic twist—travel ultimately destroys the reason for travel. Globalization (or Americanization given the proliferation of Starbucks and McDonalds around the world) and higher incomes that increased leisure travel have resulted in a world that looks more same than different. At an airport’s international departures area travelers are dressed the same, except for Indian women who are still going strong in their saris.
Everybody is roasting coffee. Everybody is selling artisan food at farmer’s markets. Everybody is microbrewing. Everybody is watching The Walking Dead. Pop music is pop music. Modern buildings are modern buildings. Celebrities are celebrities. A Filipino is as likely to know LeBron James’ slash line as an American. There are 10,268 7-Elevens in Thailand, compared to 8,421 in the U.S. Everybody has smartphones. Everybody has Facebook. Everybody has Line. Everybody has Tinder. You can now withdraw cash in Myanmar. It’s all the same now. And that’s fine.
Travel through China today is via high-speed rails. Every visitor wants to see the “real” China. Today high-speed rail is the real China. The economic advancement that occurred over three generations in the U.S. is occurring in twenty years for a Chinese millennial. I wish when I visited a location it was as Mark Twain described in the 1800s. That’s selfish. Globalization has improved billions of lives, literally billions, and it means you don’t see the “real” China. That’s fine. Go now before it becomes samer.
Maybe you were meant to live someplace else. A 2010 report issued by the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center noted that many Americans live within twenty-five miles of their parents. Those who live farther away went off to college, then followed their spouse or a job to a new city. Your environment has a tremendous impact on your life, and yet few experiment with finding an ideal environment that matches their lifestyle.
In Hong Kong I went from Mong Kok, the busiest commercial district in the world, to a secluded beach in less than thirty minutes. There are quiet coffee shops tucked away in corridors of bustling office districts. There’re barbeque restaurants serving $6 lunch specials around the corner from Three-Star Michelin rated restaurants with $100 meals. I loved the compact diversity. Hong Kongers hustle. I am the sort of person who walks up escalators (versus standing on an escalator versus taking the stairs versus waiting for an elevator). Nobody walks up escalators like Hong Kongers. I was meant to live in Hong Kong.
The worst-case scenario? You return home and love where you left even more. Ultimately, I returned to Philadelphia—my parents live 21.6 miles away.