I've been on TravelBlog for a few weeks now and I can't help but wonder how all of your manage to travel as much as you do?
Most people I know are either still in school or they work Monday-Fridays, 9 am to 5 pm (or later). Still in school means they only travel during certain months and usually for only a few weeks. Working means they only really have two weeks of vacation.
But on TravelBlog, it seems that people are always traveling! But that might just be because this is a travel blog so obviously people mostly talk about travel, which in the end makes it look like they travel a lot more than they really do.
So what's the reality of it all? How does traveling fit in with your life and job commitments? How many times a year do you really travel (business and/or leisure)?
Reply to this So I guess I should probably tell you all about myself first, since I've been nosy enough to ask about you.
I am a university student (Canadian university), going into my third year of study in business. I usually travel once to twice a year, mainly during my summer and winter holidays. During the summer, I can go away for about two months. During the winter, I only have a two week vacation. Most of the trips I take are with my family since I can't afford to travel by myself as I make a yearly income of $0. I've taken some random short trips during Reading Week (which is like spring break) with friends to nearby places like Montreal, Quebec City, and NYC.
I'd like to have a career that allows me to travel to different countries at least four times a year!
Reply to this There is a different answer for this, for the different stages of my life. But travel has always been made to fit in somehow since I was 19.
When I was 19, I just quite my jobs and put off going to university to take time out to travel.
While I was a student, I used to take advantage of the student work visas for various countries, and go there during the 4 free months of every Summer.
When I was working in my late 20s, I used to do overtime in exchange for more time off rather than more money and then used the time to travel. I used to work for around 10 to 12 hours per day and for every hours of overtime I got 2 hours off. So every 4 hours of overtime was a day off. I got more time off for working at times like New Years day. Then just 2 hours of work gave a day off. I travelled every 2 to 3 months for 1 to 3 weeks at a time.
Now I fit my travelling in with the time my boyfriend can get off work(around 40 days per year) and my daughers school time off.
It has always been about juggling really. These days I travel 2 to 5 times per year. When I was working it was 4 to 6 times per year. When I was a student it was every Summer. Before that it was a long period of time in which I moved to another country, worked there and then travelled for 4 months. In between all of this there was a year here and there that I spent living and working in another country.
Reply to this Sometimes it feels a bit like a cult on here - people encouraging each other to ditch their jobs, roam the world and how to do it! But thats only because we're doing something we all enjoy and have found fellow wandering souls.
I never realised I had done so much travelling until I started writing it down - I never considered the snowboarding trips, the weekends walking in the hills, days to the beach, the jobs away from home, the visits to friends in foreign cities, or family members strewn around the world. Travel is all in the mind - it doesnt matter where you go, so long as you can explore your own area/mind/life...
If you want to go, you'll find a way - money or not. Don't let anyone hold you back, break away and find your own horizons! (I'm sounding like a cult again!)
Reply to this Sometimes it feels a bit like a cult on here - people encouraging each other to ditch their jobs, roam the world and how to do it! But thats only because we're doing something we all enjoy and have found fellow wandering souls.
That might be the reason we need to come here. I dont know anyone in my neighbourhood who would understand why I like to travel. I meet an occasional one who understands when I hang out in the middle of the city or go out at night there, but that is an occasional person only. Most, I dont even bother to tell about it. Never thought of us as a cult before!
Reply to this If you want to go, you'll find a way - money or not. Don't let anyone hold you back, break away and find your own horizons!
I'll take your word for it. I've actually been wanting to take a trip with some friends in August...get one of those last minute package deals to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. Maybe somewhere in the Caribbeans as that's where a lost of cheap deals are during that time...If my mother wakes up one day and finds me missing, I'll leave her a note to tell her to take it up with you fellow travelbloggers to figure out where on this huge planet I may be. FYI, crashpacker and Mell, my mother can be scary 😉.
On a serious note, I know what you mean by not having anyone around you understand your travel passions. A lot of my friends are like that too...born and raised in Canada and have rarely ever left the country. As big as Canada may be, the world is bigger. There's so much more out there, people really should learn to broaden their horizons and open themselves to different experiences. I would probably be a hermit if my parents didn't travel so much with me. My parents actually hate North America and we leave the CONTINENT every opportunity we get haha. Immersing yourself in a different culture in another part of the world really is something...it's like learning and having fun at the same time! I'm thinking about going on an exchange in my fourth year (next next year)...maybe to France or Spain?
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