Some people don’t care to travel, and that’s fine. But, more often than not, I hear people say that they want to travel, but they are waiting for the right time. They are waiting until they have more money. Until they are older. Until the children are older. Until the children have left the nest. Until they’ve found a new job. Until the car is paid for. Until the mortgage is paid for. Until retirement. Until retirement. Until retirement.
Don’t wait. Start now. Cultivate the travel bug now.
Traveling isn’t only for the rich and it isn’t only for the $10-a-day backpackers. You can travel with children. You can travel on a budget. You can travel with disabilities. You can travel in groups. You can travel solo.
I sometimes do wacky things like go to Hong Kong for one day or India for four days. That’s certainly not for everyone. I often say that, with the help of credit cards, and savvy research, my travel style is affordable luxury or traveling on the highest level on the least amount of money. But that’s my style and it need not be yours.
As many of you know, I’ve had to curtail some of my travel recently because my parents have been having many medical issues. Yes, I still found time to travel, but other plans were canceled due to family medical emergencies. Vacation days were spent not on planes, but on trains and taxis going to the suburbs to visit or stay with my family.
This is not meant as a woe-is-me-I-can’t-travel-because-mom-or-dad-is-sick but more as a message: Go and travel now! Don’t wait for the perfect time to travel or the perfect place to travel to or even the perfect person to travel with! Don’t wait! No one knows what tomorrow will bring!
If travel isn’t your thing, go and do whatever it is that you enjoy now. Find your passion, and don’t be afraid to invest in it. It’s your life and you’re worth it!
Don’t wait.
You are allowed and entitled to find your happiness.
Even on dark days and even on days of reflection.
p.s. Won’t Run says that he approves of this message.
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A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
YES! I love this. I’ve stopped waiting for the right time or the right person to travel with. I go when I can and where I want. I get that question sooooo often, “but wouldn’t you rather wait for…” . No. You are 100% right, go now, let tomorrow bring what it will.
I totally agree. As the daughter of a TWA employee, I grew up knowing that there was a big world out there to see.
I’ve traveled solo, as part of a couple, with groups, with babies as young as 11 weeks, with a couple of kids, with teenagers, and with my now young adult children. I hope I’ll soon be traveling with a grandchild. I took my first coast-to-coast trip as a little girl, a 10 hour flight on a constellation. In later years, as an adult and then a young parent myself, I traveled with three generations.
My newest experience will be next month, when my husband and I will take an organized 2 week tour in Eastern Europe in the middle of a one month trip. We did once travel for a week with 5 others, on a cultural tour though remote autonomous regions in mainland China, since it was the only reasonable way to see that area. But we’ve never been on a more traditional tour. We’ve picked this one carefully – lots of free time and no shopping, from a well reviewed company that caters to university groups – and we’ll see how it goes. If well, we may add this option to our travel tool box too.
Each experience is different. Each has its own joys. Each has its own challenges. But managing to figure out how to fit travel into your life is so, so worth it. Just do it!