Travelling is such a popular thing to do nowadays, it feels like everyone around you is doing it. Sometimes you regret not doing it yourself, or you feel like you need to go travelling because everyone else is.. right?
No. If you want to go travelling you do it, but if it hasn’t been an interest before, then don’t feel pressured to do it. I love it, but it’s not for everyone. It can be really tough sometimes, but can also be really rewarding. Here’s a few things to consider before making the move to travel.
1. WHAT YOU SEE ON INSTAGRAM/FACEBOOK IS NOT WHAT IT’S LIKE ALL THE TIME:
So you know someone who’s gone travelling, and every few weeks they put up photos of them having a great time, drinking, partying, exploring, probably wearing a wetsuit as they’ve just tried surfing, or feeding an animal. Perfect life right?! But what you don’t see, is that they’ve had to eat nothing but cheap pasta and a tin of chopped tomatoes to be able to afford that surfing lesson, or the fact that they’ve literally sat on Facebook for the past week, missing everyone from home and worrying that everyone at home is having a better time than them. I saw a photo the other day that Millie Mackintosh put on Instagram, of her in a bikini by the sea, captioned ‘Trying to act natural when the sea is bloody freezing’ which I loved. Honestly how many of us have tried to do this?! Why do we all feel the need to compete to get the perfect looking life. No ones life is perfect.
2. ARE YOU ONLY GOING BECAUSE YOU FEEL PRESSURED TO GO BY EVERYONE ELSE?
Some people’s opinions are that if you haven’t gone travelling, you haven’t succeeded in life. This isn’t true. If you have got a degree, or a full time job, or you’re working on your career thats great! They are all great accomplishments, and you are focussing on whats important to you. Don’t let other people try live their life through you. You do what YOU want.(Equally speaking don’t go to uni just to please your parents)
3. CAN YOU GO WITHOUT THE LUXURY THINGS IN LIFE?
There are some things that you really really miss when you’re travelling. For starters, you will have to go without a hair dryer, which if you have bloody long, thick hair like me, that sucks. You will also not be able to afford new clothes. This is because travelling is your passion, so you will probably have to rotate the same two tops for months on end to be able to afford your skydive, it’s just the way it is. You will have to go without things like jewellery too as it will just break in your backpack, this doesn’t bother me but for some people this is everything. You see what i’m saying? You will have to be very basic.
4. ARE YOU PLANNING TO GO TRAVELLING OR ON A HOLIDAY?
A lot of people forget there is a big difference between a holiday and travelling. A holiday is where you plan to sun bathe on the beach, drink cocktails, eat out all the time, and buy lots of things to bring home – money is generally not an issue. Travelling, is where you head to a new place, you plan to work (therefore need to sort a visa) you have to try find suitable accommodation/flatshares (because backpackers can get expensive after a while!!), and you hope to be able to buy a car or afford transport to get to work but also explore. You also need to budget on food, and be as savvy as possible. You get by hoping that the money you have saved up can cover you for that period whilst you try to find your feet.
5. PHOTOGRAPHY IS VERY CLEVER, FULLY RESEARCH AN AREA BEFORE YOU JUDGE IT BY THE PHOTOS
Sometimes, in fact a lot of the time, that lake, is not as blue as it is in the picture. If you don’t know what I mean just type in ‘travel’ on Pinterest. It is filled with perfect pictures, and places that seem to have no one about.. yet you go there and its full of tourists. Im not saying I don’t photoshop my photographs, because I do (some of them). For your image to stand out nowadays, you have to keep up with whats trending, and right now, super perfect photos is the trend. I’m just saying don’t expect your destination to look just like the photo!
6. JUST BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE SAYS IT’S A GREAT PLACE, DOESN’T MEAN YOU NEED TO FEEL THE SAME.
This one is so important to me. I’m currently on the Gold Coast, you know the place? The beautiful place in Australia thats always bathing in sunshine, everyone lives on the beach, and the theme parks are amazing. No, seriously, it is not as great as everyone makes out. Not many people realise this, but the gold coast is actually built on swamp land, so all the rivers/streams are a grotty, muddy colour, and there seems to be no decent walks that are reachable via public transport/bike. The beach is nice, but its just sand and the sea. I personally prefer a different landscape, a rugged coastline, or a place with more culture/authenticity. The rest of the Gold Coast is just made up of lots of built up areas, and new buildings. This is my opinion. You ask someone else, they will say different. But just because someone enjoyed travelling one area/country, doesn’t mean you should too.
I know this probably all seems a bit pessimistic, but I want people to realise it’s ok to not think the same or do the same. I love travelling, and it can really boost your confidence and the way you look at life, but I also know there are lots of people out there who would not enjoy it in the same way, yet they feel as though it should.
The point is, we all have different achievements, don’t think yours needs to be the same as the next persons.
Do you have an area or country you didn’t like but everyone else did?