I'm really pleased to have read the comments on this forum, i am 32 and will be heading of travelling for the first time at the grand old age of 33, i have very little doubts, selling the house, giving up the career and looking forward to starting a new and exciting life around the world. My family found my decision difficult in the beginning but are now happy and accepting.
Reply to this If you think 29 is old...god help you when u hit 35! 29 is young! I went travelling when I was 24 and I headed off again last August when I was 31!! and I have no intentions of going home for another 12 months, have been through Central and South America with my Friend for 4 months, settled and worked here in Wellington and now Im off to Orlando to surprise my sister at her wedding, then back to South Island for 5 weeks and on to Oz, Bali, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia for 8 months... You have one life...you may as well live it!!! what is one or 2 years out of your life..
go for it and enjoy every moment!
Reply to this Dear All,
It is a wounderful experience to travel alone and there is lot to learn. There is no age limit for travelling but the difference comes with the way and means of travelling. Like in India, being comparitively consevative society parents dont allow the kids to travel alone.
Now I am 40 and have spent 15 years of my life working in a travel agency. I am also of the view that sometimes it is better to travel in a organised way. I am running my own small travel agency from my residence therefore, if anybody is looking for any assistance in India, please feel free to contact me at info@narrowstreets.in. It would be my pleasure to be of any help.
All the best.
Raman
Reply to this Yes Vicky, you're definitely too old. Like you, I am also a 29 year old traveller, and I'm now way past it. At 29, we should be thinking about making babies, exhausting ourselves throughout the working week just to be able to afford a tinpot mortgage, and spending our weekends circling IKEA - not gallavanting around the world.
I am now in Peru and have these overwhelming urges to go visit Inca ruins and other cultural experiences. It's frightening. I remember travelling the proper way when I was in my early twenties - I'd get up at 2pm, spend the afternoon drinking with other gringos, then party the nights away, trying to cop off with whichever girl was too drunk to refuse. Now, at 29, I find I'd rather visit a musuem or read a bit about the history of the places I'm visiting or converse with the locals and immerse myself into their culture. What has become of me?
When you and I return home from our travels, we'll be 30 - ie. pretty much unemployable. Some young upstarts fresh out of a former poly will have taken our jobs, and all we'll have are a whole load of terrific experiences and a more rounded personality to show for it.
I, for one, am planning on taking my dole money, renting a mobile home in Bognor and wiling away those older years (the 30's) watching UK Gold until Bingo starts at 6pm.
And then what? When I reach 39, I'll need to find something else to keep my mind active and my body fresh. I'll probably go travelling.
I hope you make the right decision,
Your fellow mid-to-late-twenty-year old !!!
T
Reply to this Toolman, you make a point. People like to travel to escape from the routine of the every day. However, unless you are wealthy, it will become a door to escape from reality. Even wealthy people use it as a way to escape from the boring life they have. Traveling is good at every age; however, it should be done responsibly. First, we need to look forward for a brighter future. As an immigrant, I have learned that life is not just money, material things, or recognition. By prioritizing certain things, I have also obtained these three things as well in my life with no big effort but as a reward. Life is something deeper inside every one of us. I have travel quit a bit so that I have the opportunity to know many people from all type of cultures. I have found many travelers, who at the end, have ended with many memories about the places they visited and the people they knew. That prospect appeals to many people; however, for some the end of the road is a trip full of experiences and memories, but no money to enjoy a retirement or family to enjoy and share with the last years of their life. Many travelers are selfish people who do not want to share their life with someone else or want to escape from a situation.
The right way to live and travel is to learn how to balance them. We can live and travel at the same time. Though, it takes knowledge, something that not many people understand. Knowledge is power and freedom, which will bring us happiness, money and the opportunity to travel. As a result, frequent travelers spend lots of time trying to discover new horizons, fortunes, and experiences ignoring that the place where they are is full of treasures to explore. We need to face the reality so that we can enjoy both normal lives, with family and friends, and traveling around the world. So that, we can enjoy a prosperous future and the delights of traveling at the same time. Make a plan to make traveling an investment. Face the reality and live a successful life.
Enjoy the trip,
Daniel
Reply to this Daniel, I couldn't agree with you more. The balance is very important - travelling should be a front doorway to new experiences that add to your life, not an rear emergency escape exit from reality.
With this is mind, I'm not going to rent that mobile home in Bognor, but continue to gain fulfillment from the huge variety of people, experiences and cultures I am encountering on a daily basis, and when I do finally retun home, use this to keep a balanced perspective on what is truly important.
I WILL make that plan, I WILL face that reality, and I WILL become powerful with knowledge.
I mean, I've got all but 29 years of my life ahead of me to look forward to.
Enjoying the trip,
T
PS. I cannot promise I won't tune into UK Gold every so often though.
Reply to this Toolman. Thank you for your humour. That had me in stitches, and put everything into perspective beautifully. Circling around IKEA fills me with shivers of horror. Thank you! ;-)
Reply to this Jono or Dahna,
Please don't get me wrong, I have no problem with IKEA. They do a wide range of good quality household products at a very reasonable price. In fact, I'm rather fond of most things Swedish - from their football managers to their weathergirls to their Dancing Queens to their nudist camps.
Very much like IKEA's kitchen tile collection, travelling is an individual lifestyle choice. Some 29 year olds would rather spend their Saturday afternoons down their local sauna discussing Jamie Oliver's latest recipes, whilst others prefer to spend theirs in a Bolivian fish market risking near certain food poisoning. Look, if the shoes fits...... buy the matching handbag.
T
So, rumour has it you should not eat any rinsed food in Bolivia as it has most likely been washed in sewage water. What nonsense. I have just had some lettuce, and if anything, it is even tastier than back home, with a hint of sweetcorn and a slight nutty aftertaste. I'd say possibly even good enough for Jamie's School Dinner campaign.
Now please excuse me, gotta dash, something's up with my stomach........
Reply to this Toolman you are whey too funny man............you forget that now we have the choice of Ilva aswell as IKEA in the uk..................so we can spend a happy afternoon attempting to recreate the cosmoplitan swedish lifestyle with a billy bookcase or the Ilva alternative.
However as you rightly said the is an individual tile in topp's tiles for everyone( if only i was sponsored for product placment id be rich.....lol) and frankly i d like to abandon the quality british TV such as LK today and the Jeremy Kyle show.......................i know how rewarding these shows can be and my daily commute on the metro is great fun..........as the never is enough armpit odour you can soak in it......its glourious.................i know how frivolous i maybe to leave this all behind in the uk.............................but perhaps i like the boring mundaneness of bunging in new zealand and rockclimbing in peru................... i know perhaps if i ever make it back to the uk my giro well only stretch to the living channel (yes i dont think i will be able to afford uk gold) and perhaps one man bivvy in the glorious seaside resort of rhyll ............but hey im 30 now.......................when i come back i wont even be good enough to put those free samples of lilets in the post..................i will be washed up and over the hill..............but least when the council clear away my wee stained body in years to come.......................they can say he smells really rather vile but he lived...................lol
Reply to this MM,
Just as I recover from that bout of "Boli" Belly, you've gone and given me a neck strain trying to work out what's going on in your profile picture - It looks like something from A League Of Gentlemen. I'm guessing you're not the one at the front?
For sure, I don't miss that daily commute on the Northern Line from Clapham South to Waterloo, staring at my feet for 30 minutes, sharing my personal space with an army of other old-before-we're-young professionals, arriving at work stressed and sweating, but for some reason believing my life as a 29 year old corporate monkey is everything I wanted it to be when I was growing up as a carefree kid.
But I do admit to missing my free copy of the Metro newspaper, although it never was quite the same since they replaced the daily crossword for a suduko.
Keep living good and smelling bad
T
Reply to this Toolman.....Stop it you crack me up dude... i'm 25 and i should leave london before i go grey and have a stroke, eh!!! hehe.
Reply to this Hobo...............dont you need a job first to pay for your traveling............or do hobos get paid now?..........lol
Reply to this I did my first overseas trip when I was 27. I'm now 36 and have visited over 50 destinations... all done within my 3-4 weeks annual vacations. Every time I'm back from a trip, I'm energized and full of new ideas.
If you can afford to take a year off: DO IT! and you know, you'll probably do it again in the future.
I've recently started to write some of my souvenirs in a blog
Travelika Blog
Good luck
Reply to this Have had the same worries, but am starting travels in September and am gone 32... nervous, but looking forward to it - and have been going on some cheapo group trips to prepare me for the hostelling experience - just have gone for things am comfortable doing and am alternately looking forward to and scared by experience - but am "feeling the fear and doing it anyway!!"
Reply to this What???? 29? I started travelling when I was 43. I started with Morroco then Jamaica, after that Spain, England, Mexico and now I off to Colombia. It is never too late to make your dreams come true. Trust me
Reply to this Wow, The Metro, you're so right, I damn well miss that read every morning in Leeds, catching up with the quirkiness in life.
But here I am, having been in Asia for nearly 6 months, and every now and then worrying a little that I did the wrong thing leaving a job that made me happy, but not happy enough. I am also 29, but 30 next month, and there is something about approaching 30 that is soothing those worries somehow.
It's almost as if 29 feels like time is running out, but 30 is a new beginning, where I get to be a proper adult, ie a person able to enjoy the world, and not obsess about the intricacies of an insular life in North England!
I travelled when I left school, and a little bit since then, but not for a few years have I travelled for a significant period of time, and it feels good!
My husband is a first time traveller at 35, and he's loving it too, in fact, he's determined to look for ways to sustain our meagre savings so that we dont have to ever go home if we dont want!
Reply to this Well I wish I had met more late 20's, early 30 year olds like the people that are posting on this blog. After 3 months of traveling in Australia and New Zealand with mostly 19-24 year olds, I wish I had some of you to talk to. People who actually were alive in the 80's and didn't just want to go out every night and get drunk. Although that was fun at times too. :-) I need to find a wife that would actually want to travel with me for that long of a period, and I'm not too sure I could marry someone 11 years younger. :-)
Reply to this Wow, I'm amazed you're not meeting more people our age, most people I've met have been 25 plus, but then I tend to steer clear of the top places in the lonely planet, and I havent been to Australia or New Zealand - you're not the first person I've heard say that OZ is full of younguns!
As for a wife, I have been trying to persuade bob to come travelling for 10 years, since I met him. Much of my solo travelling was done while we were going out but he just didnt want to go as he didnt feel compelled like me. This is the first travelling I've done for 5 years, and he's now wishing he would have just believed me when I said he'd love it all those years ago (I am too!)
Reply to this I did meet a few couples traveling together. It seemed it would have been a lot more fun to share the great experiences, amazing sights, the tandem skydives, and unusual food with someone you cared about. It's one thing I've put on my list of musts for my future spouse. If they don't like to travel, they probably won't get to see much of me then. :-)
Reply to this yeah, it is good, but it's also sometimes frustrating. When we want to do totally different things, it can bring on the odd horrible argument. Being together 24/7 can be pretty hard when we're both used to a lot more independence, so there are definitely benefits to being solo, I'm sure you meet more people in general even if they are mostly too young!
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