10 Secrets about Traveling Long Term that No One Tells You
Learn about the ins and outs of long term travel, including the things no one ever tells you!
Traveling long term comes with a lot of new experiences, from the expected to the unexpected. From the time you start planning your long term travels to the day you get back, and honestly every day afterwards, your trip will continue to impact your life.
You’ll find some of the lingering effects to be awesome while others may leave something to be desired, but knowing what to expect when traveling long term will help you enjoy your trip and eventually return back to reality.
10 Things to Know about Traveling Long Term
If you’re planning a long term trip, you likely know a lot of the basics. But, are you ready to find out what you don’t know about long term travel? Let’s take a look!
Quitting your job comes with mixed reactions.
If you’re planning to quit your job to travel, there’s a lot of emotions that come with it. This is especially true if you know way before you can put in your notice. The excitement of keeping it to yourself is hard to handle!
Then there’s the actually process of putting in your 2 – 3 week notice before its time for you to leave. This too will raise a lot of emotions. It will come with a mixture of excitement and perhaps apprehension.
Not to mention that others will likely want to share their thoughts on it. Everything from how excited they are for you to a bit more condescending about how they can’t believe you’re “taking a break from your career”.
No matter what reactions or feelings you get about leaving your job for long term travel or an around the world trip, just keep your eye on the prize! Soon you’ll be on the road, headed for bigger and brighter things!
Time passes so quickly when you’re having fun.
No matter how much time you have for your long term travel adventure, it will never seem like enough! Suddenly it will have been one month, then two. It will tick by faster than expected and somehow it will already be time to go home!
For many, this means extending the length of the trip. For others it could mean never fully returning to your previous life.
Long term travel provides luxuries, like free time, that you might not have when working full time, and going to school, and going to the gym, and cooking, and and and… It’s a break from the daily grind for a much more enlightening adventure.
You will miss life events.
Unfortunately, its not practical to come home frequently while you’re out traveling around the world. This means you’ll miss birthdays, weddings, holidays, new babies, and potentially even funerals.
It is just part of traveling, particularly if you are traveling on a budget. You cannot fly back and forth for every life event that someone has, and hopefully your friends and family won’t expect you to!
If you have an event or two you need to be at, try to plan your travels around them, or make it your opportunity to go home and visit. Just keep in mind that traveling the long distances to and from home will eat up your travel time and travel budget!
Traveling long term can be exhausting.
Constantly handling the logistics of travel and navigating the unknown is tiring. Pair that with new languages, cultures, foods, etc. and you will often be overstimulated, and it can be exhausting!
Basics that you take for granted at home, like having a kitchen, a clean bathroom, and a simple way to do laundry, suddenly become something to think about. You may even need to strategically plan them into your travels!
Not to mention, what do you want to do with the day? How are you going to get there? What do you need to take? Where do you leave your bag? Everyday you need to come up with a new plan, and it can be a bit overwhelming day in and day out.
Take care of yourself and travel at a pace that you will enjoy. If you need to spend a day lounging at the beach or the pool, or binging Netflix, it’s okay. You want to enjoy each and every moment on the road. And, sometimes that simply means you need to recharge when traveling long term.
Just to be clear though, no one will have sympathy towards you being busy or tired from living the dream life. In fact, they will not even understand how having all the time in the world can be exhausting – even if you are maximizing that time!
Being healthy on the road is hard.
If you’re used to keeping a strict diet or really regimented with your exercise plan, it can be surprisingly difficult to maintain it on the road. Every day will be different and there will always be competing priorities knocking your health endeavors down in importance.
Do you want to cook a meal, or go out with friends and try the local delicacies? What’s another beer with new friends – especially if its only costs 50 cents?
Additionally, chances are you’ll be eating out all of the time. That or you’ll be planning meals one or two days at a time when you have a place to cook. It can make it really difficult to stay on track. That being said, you will probably also be far more active in your daily life as you get out and explore.
Don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s a small part of your life. Try to keep balance as best you can, but one day you will return to the daily grind and that healthier lifestyle! Check out some key ways to stay healthy on the road.
You will be surprised at what becomes normal.
When I think of some of the things that just seemed typical on the road, I wonder what in the world I was thinking. Long days of transportation hopping from one remote island to another across 10 types of transportation. Crossing borders on foot with no place to stay at my end destination. It all just becomes second nature.
No adventure seems too big or overwhelming when traveling long term. You become such a pro at negotiating for taxis and accommodation and navigating through even the most confusing cities.
Booking flights and getting visas in order is super easy suddenly! Talking to people from 12 different countries per day is the new norm. You do what it takes to stay safe while traveling and to make things work – even if you’re on a strict budget.
Not to mention that when money is scarcer than time, you opt for different modes of transportation or more indirect routes to save money while on the road.
You’ll make amazing friends along the way.
Making new friends is one of the perks of traveling, especially if you’re traveling alone. There are so many easy ways to make friends on the road whether it be in a hostel or on a tour.
No matter where you meet someone, its such low commitment to grab dinner, a drink, or even make it an all day event with a tour or outing to a local activity. You’ll get to know so many people from other walks of life that you would never get to interact with in your typical daily life.
Traveling long term also offers the opportunity to make much deeper friendships than you can on shorter trips. If you really connect with someone, you can travel to the next city together, or maybe even for months together.
It’s not uncommon to link up with travelers who are headed the same way you are, but its also really easy to bow out if they just aren’t your type of people.
Returning home is difficult.
Are you familiar with the 5 stages of culture shock? You might have even heard about it as the four stages of culture shock because often times the last part – Re-entry Travel Shock – is left off. It shouldn’t be though, as it is very real.
- Honeymoon Stage
- Hostility and Irritability
- Gradual Adjustment
- Adaptation
- Re-entry Travel Shock
Re-entering your every day life will be a big challenge. Sometimes people refer to this as reverse culture shock. Returning to everyday life as though your long term travel didn’t even happen is a shock to the system.
Time once meant so much and held so much possibility but now it means looking for jobs or sitting at a desk all day. Your exercise levels will drop back down. Those clothes that you wore on repeat will likely go by the way side.
It’s a huge change to your daily life and it can be really difficult to adjust. Not to mention to become satisfied with again. Somehow working for “the man” becomes a bit less invigorating when you know what its like to stand at the base of Mount Everest or watch the stars shine so brightly above the Sahara Desert.
Nobody cares about your travels.
This might seem harsh, but no one cares what wild adventures you have been on. You will get asked a couple of key questions repeatedly, like what was your favorite place, and then conversation will return to the mundane things like what television show someone watched or what the latest fashions are. No one is as interested in your travels as you are, partially because they can not relate.
It can be seriously soul crushing, but know that you have had the most amazing of experiences and made friends along the way.
When you connect with other travel friends is the time to really dive into the adventures and tell stories. They will more clearly understand and be able to have a conversation around it. And we all know that once you get travelers started, they can talk for hours!
Think about finding a job before you return.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality is you’ve likely worked your way through some of your savings and will need to find a job upon return.
To give yourself the best opportunity of re-entering the workforce as seamlessly as possible, consider what you are looking for while you’re traveling. Those long plane, bus, and train rides are great times to soul search.
Take time to identify what you want to do, and of course, what you are qualified to do. Then work on building any additional skills you may need during your travels. If you need a new certification, you can pursue it, one course at a time. If you need experience in writing, you can spend your time on transportation working on it.
As your trip slowly comes to an end, you can even rework your resume and start applying for jobs before you touch down back at home.
BONUS: You’ll start dreaming about your next trip immediately.
Going from all day adventures to daily routines is great for some people, but for many others, it is a huge shock to the system. You’ll be ready to take your next trip as soon as possible!
In fact, you’ll likely start day dreaming about how you could spend those hours at work more productively hiking through the grandiose Torres del Paine National Park or searching for the Big 5 on safari in Kruger National Park.
In the meantime, take joy in reuniting with family and friends and the ease of having your own car and familiar comfort foods. The luxury of being back home with your kitchen, television, and your own bed may quickly wear off, and you’ll soon start wondering what’s next.
Be Ready for the Unexpected when Traveling Long Term
Preparing to travel long term will bring out all of the feels. From excitement and anticipation to apprehension, it really is as exhilarating as you might imagine. You get to live your wildest dreams in any lifestyle, and any place that you want. Start planning for traveling long term with these additional posts:
- The True Cost of Travel: How much does it cost to travel the world?
- Quitting Your Job to Travel: Is it a good idea or not?
- Master Long Term Travel Packing List for Your Next Big Adventure
- How to Do Laundry While Traveling: 4 Practical Options
- How to Pack in a Carry-On – No Matter the Trip Length
- Is Travel Insurance Worth It? An Inside Look from an Avid Traveler
- 9 Essential Things to Do Before Traveling Abroad
- The 5 Stages of Culture Shock and How They Impact Travelers
Have you traveled long term? What surprised you most? Let me know in the comments.
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I can relate to the re-entry travel shock. I get it after being away for only a couple of weeks. I can’t even imagine what it would be like after travelling for a long period.
Definitely – it’s always surprising how “returning home” is such an adjustment!
I never though about some of these points. I’ve never done a long trip like this, but it must be amazing to do it. Super important to think about looking for a job before going back, specially considering the budget situation.
Completely – budgeting is for sure one of the bigger challenges and finding your next job is a bit of a necessity to help balance out all the expenses! 🙂
These are such insightful tips I have often pondered myself. I love how you are truthful about no one having sympathy for you from being exhausted from traveling and living your dream life. It’s good to know…I will definitely find ways to recharge and find some balance! I can’t wait to dive into more of your blog! Thanks for sharing your secrets and amazing photos!
Anytime! It’s 100% worth traveling long term, but it’s also so good to know what to expect along the way and return. I think it catches a lot of people off guard!
Yess being healthy is really hard on the road! So much cuisines to try and a routine is out of question!
It’s honestly one of the biggest challenges to me! A lot of places barely have fresh fruit or vegetables available it seems – especially in restaurants!
I’d consider myself a quite experienced solo traveler but I’ve never been on the road for longer than a month at a time. Long-term travel is something that I know I want to do in the future, and depending on how things go, I might also migrate to another country. Thank you for this insightful article.
There are soooo many ways to travel! And I would say long term travel was something I always wanted to do, and now that I have, I just want to keep doing it 🙂 but in some ways a month on the road at a time also allows you to fully appreciate every moment a bit deeper! It’s always nice to have options for the future!
great insights and I agree with all of them especially about missing life events and making friends along the way
The concept that there is no “perfect time” to go is a bit challenging – so many parts of life can be missed, but hopefully family and friends understand!
So happy to have found this! We are planning on at least a year long travel. I had not heard of the 4/5 stages of culture shock. Thanks for all the great info!
How exciting! Definitely, you’ll probably experience all 5 stages. It’s actually a pretty cool thing to be able to recognize when you hit them!
Love these secrets that you revealed . I definitely want to share my experiences with everyone but most people don’t care .
Agreed – it’s finding the friends that do care, or in many cases the strangers who you meet and they instantly become friends because you have so much in common and can talk for hours about your travels and experiences!
Yup, I can definitely relate to these when i went long term travelling for over a year.. even now as an expat away from home. I found it really hard when I got home as the corporate career I had dreamed of no longer appealed. I was like, now what?! I wouldnt change a thing though as I have ended up happier and more fulfilled, with lots of travel friends in my life!
Going back into the corporate world is really difficult after long term travel. It’s like trying to mesh two very different people and priorities into one. Glad it has worked out well for you!
I’ve heard from a lot of people that they hated their jobs, but sometimes -especially in low travel days- they missed it. I can’t relate to this one, but it was funny reading it, remembering how much I’ve heard it. Everything else is also quite true! I was disheartened the first time I went back home for a visit, after almost two years abroad, and no one really cared about my adventures. But I learnt that it’s ok. When people can’t relate, they’ll just ignore it. I meet plenty of people on the road that are happy to share travel stories with me, which is more than enough 🙂
Agreed – there is a great travel community, and they are always ready to talk adventures, destinations, misadventures, whatever! But it can be hard when years abroad help shape you and your outlook on life and those that have always been closest to you struggle to understand that part of you.