As 2021 drew to a close, I took a walk down memory lane. I pulled out all of the photo albums I created since I started traveling, wanting to reminisce and think about all of the lessons I learned along my traveling journey.
When I moved to Utah in 2009 and started traveling, I found myself creating a photo album for each trip I took, prioritizing pictures over souvenirs for myself. Not only was it a fun, creative outlet, but it generated a wonderful keepsake.
When I talk about the trips I’ve taken and how my travel journey began, I always attribute the conception of my wanderlust to my 2013 girl’s trip to New Orleans. I often leave out another pivotal trip: a holiday weekend to Lake Tahoe back in 2010.
I never consciously intend to leave out my Lake Tahoe trip, but it never felt like the start of my journey. I was just happily following along with some friends who happened to plan a trip, and reaped the benefits.
But now as I look back, there were some key moments during my visit to Tahoe that helped to build my travel foundation.
And I started to think a little deeper. What were some of the key lessons I learned after a decade of travel? What else might I have missed because I was too busy living in the moment?
I love reading blog posts and articles from well-established travel bloggers, where they chronicle the things they’ve learned over their hundreds of flights, trips, hotel rooms, etc. It’s such a great insight into not only their lives, but gives me tips and tricks to enrich my own personal travel journey.
These are people who have made travel their living. Their livelihood. And they succeed at it, to which I contribute when I can by purchasing swag, merch, courses, and clicking on their affiliate links.
But how relatable are they in reality to my position in life? I have a full-time job that keeps me in an office. Travel is their full-time job.
Their lessons learned after a decade of travel are different than mine. As someone who has a full-time job, I tend to think I could be more relatable to the general public. Right? Does that even make sense? Most people work for a living – not travel (although it is work).
Regardless, I thought it would be fun to stop for a minute and get deep.
Write down the key lessons I’ve learned after a decade of travel as someone who has that full-time job and has to navigate time off, bosses, and responsibilities.
Grab a snack and let’s get to it!
Top lesson I learned: People are generally kind
When you’re traveling around and someone offers you help, a place to crash, a meal to share, or some general directions or advice, you don’t take that for granted. It wasn’t until I got out into the world that I realized how limited my views were.
I assumed that everyone acted and behaved like those I was constantly around. We see the world as we are, and as our sphere of influence dictates. Especially pre-social media and the explosion of the internet.
But then something magical happened. I saw how kind people were.
The hostel manager in New Orleans that went above and beyond to make our experience a good one. The family in Germany that made sure I always had a place for Sunday dinner and games. The train attendant who remembered that I was getting off at a different stop than everyone in my carriage and came to get me so I could sleep a little longer.
The news always shares the bad stories. The shocks. The headlines to get the clicks. It’s rare to find the genuine stories of actual people being kind.
When you travel, especially to a foreign place, you’re constantly surrounded by the new and different, and sometimes a kind gesture is all you need to keep going.
travel is different for everyone
Not all of us have the same travel style. Not all of us can afford the same types of adventures. People are built differently and can do physical activities while others can’t.
Some people love to travel for the sake of discovery and seeing new places. These are the people who crave adventure. Who delight in the unknown. Challenge themselves over and over, simply for the thrill of it.
Others are creatures of habit, returning to the same 2 destinations over and over. These are the people who have fallen in love with a place and have made it a second or even third home. These are the travelers who like comfort and familiarity.
When I first started to travel, I had a hard time with this. I couldn’t understand why people would return to the same place over and over again. And not just a handful of times, but return to the same place for years and years.
And while I still don’t understand this type of travel, I understand that people have different tastes. Different styles. And that’s okay. It would be such a boring world if we all were the same.
things will inevitably go wrong
Even if you plan out your travels down to the minute, things will go wrong, especially when Murphy is involved. I’ve learned to roll with the punches when traveling, even when they’re super uncomfortable. Which has been a hard learning curve when you’re a perfectionist at heart and closet-control-freak.
Driving through an unplanned blizzard in the Tetons.
Almost running out of gas in the middle of Nevada, and then again in the Alaskan Frontier.
Missed flights. Stranded in a foreign location.
We can plan and prepare as much as possible, but sometimes it’s just not in the cards.
I like to think of it this way: the best stories are found when things don’t go the way we planned. And they tend to make us more relatable to other people. How boring would life be if it was predictable?
Intuition is one of the best tools
As a predominantly solo female traveler, I’ve had to learn to trust my instinct, my gut, my intuition, whatever you want to call it. One of the greatest lessons I learned early on was to trust my feelings while traveling. If something doesn’t feel right, change my circumstance. Immediately.
Intuition is one of those things that can’t be bought – it has to be earned. People can offer advice, guidance, warnings, and other forms of usually unwanted caution, but we’re all different. Even if we do the same things, we’ll have different experiences and outcomes because we can’t control nature and the actions of others.
Learning to trust my intuition and my own knowledge and experience has led me to some amazing adventures, but has also helped me steer clear of some sticky situations.
I only trust primary sources
Maybe this comes from being a historian, but I only trust primary sources…in researching for papers and for trip-planning.
A primary source is “first-hand” information, sources as close as possible to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources are contrasted with secondary sources, works that provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on the primary source. Examples of commonly used primary sources include government documents, memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts.
Pepperdine University
In a nutshell, I only trust information from the location I’m visiting and the first-person accounts of people who have actually been to a place I’m going, or done the things I’m wanting to do.
As a traveler, I get so many unwanted and unasked for opinions. If you’ve traveled anywhere “different,” I’m sure you’ve been there too.
When I was getting ready to head out to Romania, I had so many people “concerned for my safety.” After asking why, I found out that they not only had never been to that part of the world, but they were going off of outdated information and still believed the country to be under the rule of a dictator. Le sigh.
Related: How to Deal with the “You-have-to-visit” Recommendations
People like to talk, share whatever nugget of information they have, regardless of its actual impact on you. And many times, that information will be incorrect or out of date. I learned to do my own research, and thank people for their opinions, whether or not I agree with them or will heed them. Simple as that.
Travel doesn’t have to be expensive
People tend to have the misconception that travel is expensive all the time.
One of the best lessons I learned over the years is that travel can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be.
If you travel during peak times, such as the summer and holidays, chances are high that you’re going to pay a premium for everything. If you take a road trip and sleep in your car and pack snacks, you’re going to pay a lot less.
Walking and taking public transportation might take a little longer to get around, but costs a mere fraction as a rental car.
Staying in a hostel or a private room in a house will cost less than an all-inclusive resort.
It’s all about your priorities. If you want to spend your time being pampered with little-to-no inconvenience, you’ll most likely pay more than if you’re more…adventurous. Neither choice is better than the other. But the lesson I learned was that there was a choice.
I grew up thinking that travel was this unattainable luxury, because that was all I was exposed to. Pre-social media and the internet, all I had to go on were commercials for all-inclusive resorts and cruises.
As I started to gain experience in the travel world, I learned how much I didn’t know.
I learned to travel in the off-season or shoulder season. I learned to sign up for flight deals. I found adventures closer to home. I learned to love public transportation.
Don’t get me wrong – there are times I choose comfort. But that’s the lesson I learned. It’s a choice. Travel doesn’t have to be expensive.
The general population will never understand my decisions
This was and continues to be the toughest lesson I learned and continue to learn. I can’t tell you how many times people ask me when I’m going to buy a house. Or if I’m done renting. Or if I am going to buy a new car.
Or some other stereotypical question directed at a single person my age.
I had to learn that this was going to be the norm – that people weren’t going to understand me. I had to learn that this was okay. That I didn’t need other people to get it.
I had to learn that people just didn’t know how to talk to me about travel and what I did. So, I decided to teach them.
Why didn’t I just wait for someone to come with me to that new spot? Why did I have to go by myself? Isn’t it dangerous? Yadda-yadda-yadda. It never stops.
But I’ve learned to just take it all in stride. Other people’s opinions of me are just that – their opinions.
They’re not my business.
And because I don’t let them bother me, I’ve had some pretty amazing trips. I don’t need to be understood.
What do you think about the lessons I learned while traveling? Have you learned any lessons of your own?
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