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How to Prepare yourself for Long Term Travel
One of the most life changing activities is Long Term Travel. Everyone dreams of traveling to far off adventurous places living a carefree lifestyle were budgets aren’t a concern, responsibilities are temporary and fun is the only focus point. The allure of sipping Mai Thai’s on a beach in Thailand or surfing waves in Maui create this romantic stereotype of Long Term Travel. The movie “The Beach”, “Call of the Wild” or my all time favorite “A Map for Saturday” ignite this soulful lust to pack a bag and head out into the world to see all its magnificent beauty, diverse cultures & unlimited challenges.
The excitement this thought process brings to us is undeniably motivating. Then you get the text message from your boss reminding you to turn off the lights in the bathrooms at the dental office when you lock up at night ……….uuuuuuuuuuuurkkkkkk reality pops your daydream bubble. Long term travel is one of the most intimidating concepts out there. How are you going to afford long term travel when you can barely afford car insurance? How are you going to get time off from work when you get written up for being 5 minutes late? You don’t even own a passport, and your last vacation amounted to spring cleaning & hosting a garage sale. The time before that you spent a months salary on a rental cabin in the middle of the woods while drinking copious amounts of alcohol around a fire! How could you afford to travel the world if it costs that much for one weekend getaway? Its unfair, unobtainable & irresponsible! Right?
Long Term Travel is this mythical unicorn that only a friend of a friend of a friend heard another friend say to a friend they know a guy that has been travelling the world for years. You always hear about it, read about it, but you never actually meet someone who can tell you about it. You never meet that individual that can tell you while long term travel seems intimidating its one of the easiest things you can do. And the easiest part of long term travel is funding it especially if your adaptable. Sure you can take the “old guard” approach to stay at your job and save up $20,000, buy your around the world ticket, put all your things in storage and see what happens. There is no right or wrong way to fund your travels. Some will save up, some will get a credit card, some will take a loan out, others will sell all their belongings, and some will get very creative. There is no right or wrong way to obtain your happiness. Your either going to live your dreams or your going to fund someone else’s.
Every time I meet someone or tell them how long I have been travelling for ….the typical response is: “Oh my God”, “WOW”, “Sounds rough”, “Do it while your young”, “I wish I could do something like that”, “Your so lucky”, “That is so amazing.” To most I have the best life in the world, but just like everything else in life there is a price. I’m not talking rent or groceries here. I’m talking about the trade off you have to be willing to make to be a perpetual traveler. So while the allure of exotic destinations, foreign languages, eclectic cultures, adrenaline pumping adventures & foreign tavern times may seem very appealing there is also down side to Long Term Travel. Friends and family are always in another time zone, solo occupancy at a hostel in a foreign country on a rainy day isn’t so exciting, saying goodbye more times in one year than anyone should say in a lifetime has its challenges, loneliness, constant travel planning, becoming numb & detached (insert 100th waterfall, 600th bus ride, 200th historical church, 800th mountain, etc etc). These are just some of the things you will encounter on your trip, and whenever anyone asks me whats the one piece of advice everyone should have when getting ready for a big trip I always give the same answer: “Make sure your ready for it mentally above anything else.” Money comes and goes. Electronics get lost, stolen or broken. Friends wander in and out of your trip. Bars become your living room, buses/plains/trains become your daily transportation, lobbies & terminals become your office, and anonymity becomes your default. How do you prepare for all of this? You can’t prepare 100% for life on the road, but you can get a glimpse of it or some exposure to what life would be like as a Long Term Traveler.
One of the most beneficial things you could do for yourself to prepare for Long Term Travel is sign up for Couchsurfing which was founded in 2004 and one of the first hospitality networks to really take advantage of all the web had to offer. Couchsurfing is a peer to peer portal made of hosts and surfers meant to connect travelers with hosts willing to provide a free place to stay (couch, bed, guesthouse, room, floor, backyard, etc), and get a local perspective on the vibe and pulse of a destination. Hosts are individuals willing to accommodate travelers for FREE & surfers are individuals looking for places to stay. How can couchsurfing help you prepare for Long Term Travel? Thats a great question,
Nothing is impossible, but life has a very creative way at throwing you curve balls to deter your dreams. I’ve been travelling the world for 22 years which all that means is Im an expert problem solver because a life of travel will test your problem solving skills daily! Knowing that lets examine a scenario…….You make “X”
Before I show you how to fund your own dreams I want to tell a story about an ex girlfriend who owned her own in home care company making 6 figures a month. Never having to go into the office, never having to see a patient, never having to do payroll, never write a schedule, never answer a phone, never having to do anything but provide a bank account the state could deposit payments into. She had the car, the boat, house & freedom to travel across the world every other week when the kids were at their dad’s. One day she came home in a fitful rage because one of her staff was always late, on her cell phone, too many cigarette breaks yadda yadda yadda. I asked her how much are you paying her? I was floored by her response when she told me $9.50/hour. So while that could be considered a livable wage somewhere I guess and “industry standard pay” for that position I asked her, “How serious would you take a job that pays roughly $1200/month after taxes and seeing your boss drop $20,000 to go on a date with her boyfriend every other week to some far off place? What can you do $300,000 that you can’t do with $298,000/month???? Give her an incentive to earn an extra $2,000/month and I bet her attitude will dramatically improve, or better yet how much is it worth to you to have all this freedom & money for this employee to go do their job correctly?? What paycheck would you need to feel appreciated for running a 3.6 million dollar a year company for someone??? This employee had been working there for 3 years and supporting and adult life on teenage wages. How long do you think it would have taken her to save up $20,000? Think about all the sacrifices she would have had to make over that time period to achieve her saving’s goal. Not impossible, but the dedication needed for a lifestyle she has no exposure to isn’t the most motivational. What am I saying & why am I telling you this?? First get some exposure to the lifestyle. Then go find out if you like long term travel on someone else’s dime!
You’ve been scouring the internet for all the information you can find on long term travel to prepare for your big trip but you still feel lost. STOP! Stop what you are doing right now, and look at what you have done. How many excel spreadsheets have you created? How many sticky notes are hanging up? How many times have you packed & unpacked your bag? bags? suitcases? How many times have gone to the embassy website? How many storage locker places have you called for rates? How many times have you called the bank to get exchange rates? How many hostels, hotels or airbnb listings have you called to make reservations?? How many “travel blog” newsletters have you signed up for, and now have an inbox full of spam asking you to buy this or buy that???Stop right now! Forget everything you know about to travelling because Im sure your getting frustrated. Ask yourself –” Why are you travelling?” So stop what you are doing right now go sign up at couchsurfing
Before I answer that let me tell you about a friend who was planning a 10 day trip to Hawaii with her dog. I was also going to Hawaii around the same time with my little midget so we decided to meet up at a hostel after arrival. Now Hawaii has some pretty strict pet regulations you need to follow in order to bring your pet to the islands. My friend, lets call her Casey, is a researcher at a prestigious law firm in New York so when she emailed her flight details she also emailed me her travel plans which came in the form of 2 word documents, 3 spreadsheets & covered everything from bathroom breaks to cell phone charging times!?!?!?!
When you first start out you get lost in the details, and excitement of planning turns into trepidation, anticipation turns into anxiety, ambition turns into procrastination & self-discipline turns into floodgates & euphoria turns into loneliness.
