As St Augustine said: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
We wholeheartedly agree! There is one huge wonderful world out there just waiting to be explored. If you need any more inspiration to pack your bags and head out on an adventure, here are 10 unarguable reasons why you should go now!We wholeheartedly agree! There is one huge wonderful world out there just waiting to be explored. If you need any more inspiration to pack your bags and head out on an adventure, here are 10 unarguable reasons why you should go now!
1. Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer
Travellers have always known that the best thing to spend your money on is not clothes or cars or couches – it’s the experiences that change your life. Now scientific research backs this idea – researchers have proved that it makes you happier overall to spend your money on things like travel – non-material experiences – than on material goods, which give you a burst of happiness which is only superficial and short-lived.
2. Travel opens your eyes to the world
There’s nothing like travel to give you perspective on this massive, fascinatingly complex world we live in. It’s one thing to read about Egypt in the news, and it’s quite another to visit Egypt, drinking tea with locals, riding camels, seeing thousands of years of ancient history in the form of temples and pyramids. You learn more about history and culture and how people on the other side of the world live so much better than you ever could in a book or newspaper.
3. Travel creates memories that last a lifetime
All we are is a collection of all our memories, and what memories are better than the ones you create when you go travelling? Going camping on the rim of the Grand Canyon, partying the night away in Berlin, going on a walking safari with elephants in Zambia, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, eating sushi in Japan, seeing a tiger in India, learning to tango in Argentina, walking the Great Wall of China or scaling the Eiffel Tower… these are the experiences that could form the movie of your life, which you get to watch over and over (and can keep adding to).
4. We must take adventures so we can know where we belong
Travel is all about finding yourself. If you’re stuck in routine – doing the same things every day for years – you can easily get entrenched in a rut. When you travel, the possibilities for living your life in different ways open up. You get new perspective on yourself and your culture and can get more of a sense of how you fit into the world. Travel helps build your sense of your own identity and provides you with the life-changing experiences – the challenging and exciting adventures – that create who you are.
5. Take risks and conquer your fears
Sometimes travel can feel extremely daunting. The thought of travelling solo to a country you’ve never been to before, where you don’t know the language or anyone, and you’re not sure what it’s going to be like can put people off going. But travel is about taking risks – it’s about heading into the unknown and embracing uncertainty. It’s about realizing the fears that you have and conquering by facing them, whether it’s learning to scuba dive or ride a horse or just surviving in a totally foreign place on your own. Maybe it’s about facing your anxiety about having to confront the unknown – whatever it is, travel will help you overcome the fears that may be holding you back in life.
6. The skills you learn travelling will stay with you forever
You’ll learn that you have skills that you didn’t know you possessed, and you’ll also learn tons of new skills when you go travelling. Everything from working out a foreign subway system to bartering in a few broken words of a foreign language teaches you new skills that you can bring back into your daily life back home. Travel teaches you flexibility, it can help you to be more creative, it can help you to learn how to strategise and plan, and it can help you communicate better.
7. It’s better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times
You can see photos of the Amazon or watch videos of people climbing the dunes of the Namib Desert, but nothing compares to experiencing these places first hand. It’s hard to comprehend the sublime beauty of Patagonia’s snow-capped peaks, or the humbling interaction you have coming face to face with a wild mountain gorilla until you actually get out there and do them. There’s no substitute for seeing the numerous and awe-inspiring wonders of the world for yourself.
8. In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take and the experiences we didn’t have
Travel is unlikely to be something you’ll ever regret. Even if you blow a huge hole in your savings by going backpacking in South America for six months, in twenty years time you’ll have forgotten about the money but you’ll have those wonderful memories and experiences that have shaped who you are.
9. Life is a journey – make the most of it
There’s just this one chance at life, so doesn’t it make sense to cram as much adventure, excitement, experience and learnings into it as possible? Make the most of this long and wonderful journey of life by going on as many journeys as you can – starting now!
10. If not now, when?
Don’t put off travel for some future time. Your life is happening every day, right now. If you put off travel for some indeterminate time in the future, you might not ever get around to going out and exploring – there are always things that can keep you tied down. Now is always the best time to be making travel plans.