I'm not a professional traveler. I do not make a living from taking trips around the world. For a long time, I was not location-independent, either — I was just your average recent-college-graduate, trying to figure out how to balance a small paycheck with my desire to travel as much as possible.
And yet, people often tell me how jealous they are of all my travels. They tell me how “lucky” I am. They say they wish they could travel like I do.
But you know what?
They absolutely can. YOU can, too.
So many of those out there who are writing about travel are professional nomads. Many of them lack a home address, and can fit most of their worldly possessions into a backpack. They flit from London to Bangkok to Sydney and back again, and we “ordinary” people think this is all so terribly romantic and awesome that we convince ourselves that we can't possibly do the same.
We psyche ourselves out and buy into a lot of misconceptions about living a life full of travel. We begin to believe things like:
- You must be rich to travel.
- You must be single to travel.
- You must be brave and outgoing to travel.
- You must be free from responsibility to travel.
We convince ourselves that we can never be one of “those people” because we have a job and debt and a family, and we enjoy having a stable address that people can send Christmas cards to.
But guess what? These misconceptions are just that — misconceptions. You can travel without being rich and single. You can travel without being particularly adventurous. And, most of all, you can travel without completely setting aside responsibility.
Yes, I'm here to tell you that you can, in fact, travel and live a “normal” life, too!
Travel does not have to be a lifestyle for everyone. You can be a businessman or career woman and still be passionate about travel. You can work a 9-5 and still see the world if that's what you're passionate about.
The key is what YOU want.
If you want to quit your job to travel the world, great. Go for it.
But if you like owning a car and your own bed and having a permanent place to call “home,” that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your travel dream. It doesn't have to be an either-or scenario. Believe it or not, you CAN have both!
I'm not going to lie and say it's easy, though. Because it's not. If you have a strict work schedule or a young family or a lot of debt to pay off, it may be challenging to live your “ordinary” life and still manage to fit in travel. But just because something is challenging doesn't mean it's impossible.
Here are some tips for how you, too, can fit travel into your ordinary life:
- Start saving now. It's never too early to start saving for a trip. Even just setting aside $20 per week can go a long way quickly.
- Plan your dream vacation. Even if you won't be able to take it right away, planning a vacation can keep you upbeat about traveling and give you something to look forward to. I start planning some of my big trips up to a year ahead of time.
- Keep an eye on travel deals. Especially if you start planning and saving for a big trip early, you can keep an eye on things like airline and hotel deals. You never know when the perfect one will come along! Signing up for mailing lists from specific airlines, or from travel aggregators like TravelZoo, is a great idea, too, and can alert you to big savings opportunities.
- Make the most of vacation time and holidays. We Americans get a raw deal in my opinion when it comes to vacation time. If your employer isn't cool about letting you work overtime or giving you unpaid days off, you'll have to get creative in order to make the most of the vacation time you have. You can stretch your 2 weeks much further if you plan travel around paid holidays, or if you can elect to work your holidays and save them up for later.
- Don't wait for someone to travel with. Especially if you're working full-time and have friends and family members who are also working full-time, it might be difficult to coordinate a vacation. But that doesn't mean you should forego travel. It just means you may need to consider adding “solo travel” to your vocabulary.
- Pick up new hobbies. For me, starting a travel blog has opened many doors in terms of travel. I've made a lot of contacts, and even picked up some freelance gigs here and there that have helped feed my travel addiction (and my travel fund). But if starting a blog isn't right for you, consider other hobbies that might allow you to get closer to your travel goals. Perhaps volunteering or joining a club could be an option for you.
- Take advantage of all opportunities. Right along with picking up new hobbies, be sure to take advantage of any travel opportunities that those hobbies might afford you. For example, I traveled a lot during college because I joined the marching band. We went to places like Italy and China on performance tours at prices that a college student could afford.
And, at the end of the day…
- Don't make excuses. Any excuse you can make about why you can't/don't travel can be overcome. If you truly want to travel more without giving up your current lifestyle, the first step is setting aside the misconceptions and excuses and going after what you want in any way that you can.
And, who am I to preach all this to you, you ask? Well, currently I'm a freelancer who works from a fixed address in Ohio. Before that, I was a graduate student working my butt off to get my Master's degree. And before that, I was a copy editor working 40 hours per week at a small newspaper. I probably don't have to tell you that I have most certainly NOT been rolling in cash since graduating college. I have to work hard to save up money and make time to travel just like everybody else. But, in the past four years, I've traveled to more than 30 countries.
And I'm doing it all while still living a “normal” life.
If I can do it, so can you.
Are you also a person who lives a “normal” life but still manages to travel? Tell me about it in the comments!
Amanda Williams is the award-winning blogger behind A Dangerous Business Travel Blog. She has traveled to more than 60 countries on 6 continents from her home base in Ohio, specializing in experiential and thoughtful travel through the US, Europe, and rest of the world. Amanda only shares tips based on her personal experiences and places she's actually traveled!
I love this post! When I had an office job, I was a master at hoarding my vacation time and convincing my employer to let me work for a few days at our office on the other side of the country. It definitely made travel affordable and realistic for me.
Thanks, Scott! Glad you liked it. And good for you for being able to get creative with those vacation days! I tell people it’s not that difficult… but they very rarely believe me!
Great post. I think I a lot of people get intimidated by travel, or think that they have to go all in if they’re going to go at all.
I think you’re absolutely right. Especially if you’re confronted with traveling solo, it can be a really daunting thing to take on if you’ve never done it before.
LOVE this post. So much of what we see online is from single people who travel full time, and you’re right – people get discouraged because that seems SO far from reality. The travel industry, especially the travel WRITING industry, thrives on promoting aspirational travel, and the result is often actually DISCOURAGING travel, I think.
Really good point. The travel writing industry (what you see in magazines and newspapers) does indeed tend to focus on “dream trip”-type travel that isn’t really feasible for the Average Joe. Sure, people like to read about that fancy resort in the Maldives, but most of them stop there. But I think bloggers fill a great niche, writing about travel that’s actually within the realm of reality for most “normal” people!
Thanks so much for reading!
I guess I live a “normal” life and still travel in the process. I have an apartment I call home and just travel when I can as freelance travel writing is my source of income. If I am not traveling, I have nothing to write about and thus can’t make a living. Obviously this is not everyone’s “normal” career but in order to make travel happen I do have to sacrifice paying rent on an apartment when I’m not home half the month and all of those expenses. I think the important thing is not to put off travel too long.
I agree with you that it’s important to not put travel off for too long. Many of those excuses people make for not traveling hinder them so much that they’re never able to see/do the things they really want to.
Your career is definitely a unique one, but, like you said, you have to make sacrifices to make it work, too!
Great Post! I get so tired of people telling me how fortunate I am to be seeing the world. It’s a personal choice to travel, and one that can be made easily if it’s what you really (and actually) want.
People hide behind excuses far too much.
People definitely do hide behind the excuses a lot. Which is sad, really, because they’re missing out on so much!
Wonderful post! You are exactly right – if someone really really wants to get out there and see the world, they can do it. It’s not always handed to you on a plate and can take some belt-tightening in one area to be able to go the extra week/destination/wonder. A great inspiration to those on the cusp of planning their first or next adventure.
Thanks for the kind words, Sherry! I feel like a lot of people these days are so full of excuses about everything that they hardly ever actually go after the things that they really want. They stick to the “safe” path and end up miserable. Who wants to live like that??
I always tell people it’s like anything in life- If you want to do it there will be sacrifices involved. I’ve always found those to be worth it, but it’s a personal decision.
I love how you tell people- If I can do it, so can you. I try that, and I’m surprised at how many perplexed looks I get.
You’re right that almost everything we want in life comes with sacrifices attached. But, like you, the sacrifices I make in order to travel often are totally worth it in my opinion!
And, if you’re getting perplexed looks by telling people they can do it, too, perhaps they’re just not cut out for traveling! Lol.
I guess I would be what you term as “abnormal” 🙂
I work on a cruise ship and although I get to travel, I’m not always traveling. I guess in a way, I’m the complete opposite to your scenario!
Well I don’t think I’d call you “abnormal,” Roy! But yes, your situation is quite different than the average 9-5’er. Though I’m sure people just assume that you’re traveling and having fun all the time in your job, when I’m sure the reality is much different sometimes!
Great article! I hope it inspires some people to get out of the 9 – 5 and try something different for a while
Thanks, Jade – I hope so, too!
Great article! I’m in the early throes of planning a RTW trip with my partner – he’s worried about the lack of “normality” that would come with travelling, so we’ve agreed a compromise: travel for 5 to 6 months, then go and do a working holiday visa somewhere (we’re thinking Germany – he can do it as a Korean, and as an EU citizen I don’t need to go through any visa formalities), with the idea that the working holiday visa will give a sense of “normality” whilst travelling, due to having a home base for a little while.
I’ve been working for a year in South Korea solely to pay off my debt so that I can up and travel in 2013 (next year will be all about saving money for the trip!) I haven’t been rolling in cash since university either – a call centre job, and a teaching job in S Korea so I can pay off my debt – so I agree totally when you say that you don’t need to be super rich in order to pursue your travel dreams.
Well it’s great that you two have worked out a compromise that sounds like it might work for both of you. I think half of year of travel and half a year of a working holiday would be great! Good for you for pursuing your travel dreams!
You are right, it’s about priorities. It’s easy to make excuses for not traveling, but that just means that traveling really isn’t a priority for you, even if you are saying it is. I’ve made traveling a priority for me, I took a sabatical from my work just to travel for a year. And it really isn’t as expensive as people think it is. But even when I am working, I do travel extensively, it really is just a matter of prioritizing and deciding what you want.
Yup, it’s all a matter of whether you’re willing to make travel a priority or not. If you are, then you’ll find ways to travel. If you aren’t, then you’ll just be left with those excuses.
Amen sister! Preach it =) I’m a 9-5 40 hour a week girl which is probably why I can’t dedicate too much time to making money from my blog but I save like crazy, prioritise my spending and try and sell a few bits here and there to make the money.
In the past two years I’ve taken 3 months off to travel around Asia solo and did 6 weeks around Africa this year, not having to quit my job – I guess they realised that I was ‘too’ valuable to lose. There are ways around it and actually, my employer says that I’m a better employee now that I’ve returned because I can ‘handle anything’. However, I think they realise now that they’re eventually going to lose me to the open road =D
You obviously have an awesome employer!! I wish more employers were willing to do that! My former employer let me take 2 weeks of unpaid time off to go to New Zealand earlier this year, which was awesome of them. But I’m not sure they would have been okay with 3 months!
And you definitely don’t have to make a ton of money to be able to save if you can also spend wisely. I have a “travel fund” that I constantly put money into, and I don’t let myself spend any of it unless it’s on something travel-related!
Good article. I recently came to the realization that when I say something is impossible for me what I really meant was it was inconvenient or scary so I was choosing to do something else. That realization has changed my life. Some people say I have just gone crazy. 🙂
I’m almost 64 years old and always wanted to be a nomad traveler so I just recently sold my house and everything else I own. What wouldn’t sell I gave away or threw away. All except what will fit in one 46 liter backpack. I leave next week on my perpetual, around the world trip. Naturally, I’ll be blogging all the way.
Wow! Good for you, Gar! It certainly takes guts to choose a life of permanent travel. But if it’s what you truly want to do, then you can’t go wrong!
Great message. What you say is absolutely true. If you want to travel, you can make it happen.
I often have people tell me the same thing they tell you: “You’re so lucky.” It’s true, I am. I travel as much as I can. But part of my luck is luck I have made. I chose a profession (Training & Development) that requires business travel. And then I maximize any trip I take, tacking on vacation time and exploring the surrounding regions.
I also find travel opportunities through volunteering and naturally – vacations! Those are the best trips of all. I look for opportunities to travel anytime, anywhere. Even if it’s only to a town in Ohio that I haven’t been to. A new experience? Sights to see? Count me in!
Thanks for reading, Juliann! I feel the same way you do — that I am indeed very lucky, but that I’ve worked very hard for that luck. I’ve made travel a priority, and have grabbed at every opportunity that’s come by. Yes, I’m “lucky” to be able to travel so much, but it’s not like all those experiences just fall into my lap!
I really liked your article, and I think it should be useful to many many people! I think its especially important to get into the ‘Solo Travel’ mindset. Also because your writing is so smooth, I think this post may inspire many to plan their dream vacation soon, solo or otherwise 🙂
Thanks so much for the kind words! If this post inspires even just one person to start planning their dream vacation, I’ll consider it a success!