What? That you don’t have to quit your job to travel ?
In the past few years it seems like traveling is a biological imperative for all millenials. Don’t get me wrong, there are very few things in this world that I enjoy more than being with my backpack in a remote and unknown location. I know that I would enjoy a life on the road. I do not need a lot to live. And, of course, writing about travel, it’s been a while since the first time that I was asked: why don’t you quit your job to travel full time?
Appreciate the small things
Travel is one of my greatest passions, but I’m not sure I’ll appreciate it the same way if I were doing it full-time. I have a crazy job. Like really crazy. I can have 30h weeks and others of 80h. In occasions, I work for a couple of months without a single break day. And some times, I show up there very little. With all its ups and downs, it’s a demanding job, but I love it. Yes, some times I need to escape and disconnect, and I often do it. And do you know why I can do it? Exactly because I have this job.
On one of my last trips, I went to Thailand. I spent a month wandering around through the country and enjoying like a child. Also, I was cooked in Bangkok and I bathed in the amazing beaches of the south. Besides that, I spent a week between trucks and lost trails to reach the biggest set of waterfalls in all South-East Asia. And I slept in a floating cabin on a lake and in a tree house in the middle of the forest. Everything, or almost everything, was an unforgettable experience. Then, why don’t I think about quitting my job to travel? Simple, without a stable job I couldn’t have afforded to pay for many of these adventures.
Money isn’t it all
So yes, it’s true. Money doesn’t buy happiness. But it buys plane tickets without never ending stopovers. It allows you to spend the night in picturesque hotels that most likely you wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. And to have lunch in that great restaurant. Or book that amazing daytrip…
I’m well aware that there are many different ways to travel. I personally don’t spend a lot of money on trivial things (unless it’s food), but tbh, travel is not the cheapest of the hobbies. You can travel on a shoestring (thanks LP) and spend 15 euros a day, but unless you have some income, after a month you would have spent an important amount of money.
To this point, the answer of many people would be, why don’t you try to get some money while on the road? It’s true that you can you can get some temp jobs here and there to survive a little longer. On the same line, a few months ago I read this article about a couple of lawyers who left their 9-17 job behind to live the nomad life. All through that article they would describe what was real life behind those amazing pictures. Behind those great posts. They have left behind a day job in court to scrub toilets clean and to clear rice fields for barely no money. Even though these jobs are equally honorable and worthy of respect, for them, after having invested so many years of their lives to become lawyers, scrubbing bathrooms was not their dream job.
Those big instagram and blog stars
Yep. It’s true. What about these amazing instagrammers or bloggers that are paid for traveling? I am talking about this small group of people with thousands of hundreds or even millions of followers that receive more or less money for traveling. They take these amazing shots of impressive places and get everybody green with envy. They are so good at it that inspire people to actually follow them IRL to the places and promoting that place/product/whatever that they are sharing. Now let’s be honest for a second. There are millions of bloggers out there trying to get some money out of their sponsors. While some people may even get a bit of income from them, most people (and I’m talking about the vast majority here) will not get paid enough as to follow the life of these guys.
You don’t need to quit your job to travel
Leaving aside the neverending debate between tourist and traveler, it is possible to see the world and combine it with a stable job. It’s true that some times we don’t have enough holidays… You can always ask for unpaid days. You don’t have enough money… well, most likely quitting you job won’t improve that. While keeping a job while seeing the world has some limitations, it also implicates (most of the time) being able to have more relaxed trips. Besides, leaving for a week, or a couple of months won’t turn your adventure into routine and you may even enjoy it more. To finish, if you really want to quit your job, do it because you want to do it, not because you want to escape your monotony.
What are your thoughts about it? Please, let me know in the comment section!
So true! I’ve managed so much travel in between work. I had a night job and a weekend job, so I’d jet off mid-week and get cheap flights and hotel accommodation and it was great! It’s a bit more difficult in America though – there aren’t so many holidays or days off here.
I guess that it is just the need to find a balance between what you do during your holidays and what you do while working. And I know that you don’t have many holidays, it is one of the main reasons why I am not sure about ever moving there!
I agree, I’ve traveled to the most distant lands while I was working like crazy and planning those “couple of weeks” abroad. 🙂 You cannot travel all the time, or 10 times a year when having a steady job, but at least you treat yourself with one swell journey from time to time. You don’t have to quit your job to travel, it just became so popular for some reason. But I have a lot of respect for those who do, of course, it’s a big step! 🙂
It is indeed a huge step, but I think you can get to live the best of both worlds, the freedom to travel and the stabilty of having a “more normal” job. And I am sure you appreaciate more these 10 days if you are working all year long that if you are always on the road!
I agree, you don’t have to quit your job to travel. I love working as an architect and travel is just something I love to do. So I work during the week and the weekends are my escapes to new places =o)
https://dreamofadventures.com/
I completely agree, not all travel has to be long termed, visiting all the small towns and cities at a few hours away is also a great way to just wander around and enjoy new experiences. I am personally someone who can’t be home for more than 2 days in a row 😉
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a job I love (as a journalist) for more than a decade and it affords me a lot of travel (50 states, 120+ countries), but I’m in total agreement with you that I’d never want to travel full time. I’m just too attached to “stuff” (sorry I’m not sorry…) and LOVE having a home base, a house, a dog and a husband. Full-time travel is a great option for some, just not me. I’m with you that I like making a healthy salary in a career, all of which I can choose to put toward luxury travel if I choose.
I don’t think it is about being attached to stuff, it is about wanting some sort of stability in life. I guess that for some people the complete unknown in front of them sounds like a fantastic plan but for me knowing that I have something (and some people) that are the skeleton of my life makes it all much better. And yes, of course, it is nice when your career allows you to indulge in nicer experiences….
Great points but besides quitting your job and spending your savings on cheap travel, theres another option. Getting decent or even high paying jobs fellowships or contract abroad and being effectively paid to travel. Think this is worth considering as well, including links to jobs across South Africa, Thailand, South America here as examples lol. https://www.internationality.me/magazine/articles/jet-setting2/
But again, you may apply for a fellowship that will allow you to work for a few days or weeks, maybe a few months, but after that you will be applying again to a new one. It is a possibility, but I don’t think it is a realistic one…
We have no where near that amount of followers and we have quite a bit of free travel. If you want to earn that you can for sure, even on a small and new blog
That is interesting, would you mind maybe sharing a bit more information on how?
Really great post! I totally agree, I think I would take it for granted if travelling was my life. I could definitely do with more though 🙂
Who would not enjoy always a few more days of travel, or an extra week at the end of your trip? there’s a goal right there, isn’t it?
I agree that you can travel with little money, I used to do that. I must disagree with you on one thing though about the big bloggers. You are a blogger too and you know that if you are paid to travel is not as simple as it sounds. It is actually hard work and sometimes it’s just easier to travel without the blogger label and the assignment.
I know that being paid to travel as a blogger is not simple, there’s often a lot of work behind the scenes, but at the same time, often these “sponsored” trips are nothing else than a circus journey where people are picked up here and dropped there to do this or that, end – repeat. And of course one of the most complicated things out there it is actually to get enough traffic to be even considered for these assignments. That is an insane amount of work let me tell you… But yeah… I think we got lost somehow somewhere between quitting your job and the hard life of a blogger =)