Beyond Adventure- A Travel Blog

Monasterio de Santa Catalina/Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa, Peru 2011

Are you one of those people who would love to travel, wish you could travel like I do, but find yourself year after year settling for either “staycations” or going to the same place “ad infinitum”?

When I came across the following article What’s Your Excuse for not Travelling, it rang some bells for me….and for those who don’t have time to read the entire article, a quick summary with some quotes from well-known and not so well known travellers!

You may never look at travelling in quite the same way again…..

So why is it that some people “can” travel and others “can’t”?

This article asked the questions of 71 expert travellers for their opinions, and here is a small sampling. Not everyone wants to travel but among those who do these are their key reasons/ excuses!

• Money -this appears to be simply a matter of priorities—they’ve often chosen to spend their money on other things- on the other hand, there are some people who honestly cannot travel. But many of us could travel if we wanted to- instead we have chosen to spend money on “stuff” instead of experiences…..
• Uncertainty or fear- could be a stalling tactic, could be a lack of awareness of what’s possible, could be a fear of the unknown, of stepping outside your comfort zone.
• Time- again this is a matter of priorities…..people underestimate the restorative and beneficial aspects of being exposed to other cultures and other parts of the world.
• Anxiety concerning leaving/ breaking commitments in our daily lives…..i.e. ties such as family, schedules, personal obligations and so on. The timing will never be perfect, you simply have to take the plunge and DO IT!

Key quote: Money isn’t our truest form of wealth in life; time is!

From Audrey Scott & David Noll (Uncornered Market@UMarket)

“The most common answer people give for why they can’t travel is money. People look at us and think we’re millionaires when that is sooo far from the truth. There are two sides of this coin – the ability to save money and how much it really costs to travel (hint: it might be much less than you think).

Now, for some people money is a very real and valid reason. They are scraping by with very little while living very simply. Or, they have obligations to take care of loved ones. There’s no room to budget for travel.

But for many people, it’s a matter of how they spend their money. Sometimes the money goes into upgrading cars, houses, appliances clothes. Other times it goes into heavy smartphone or Cable TV plans. Or perhaps eating or drinking out all the time.

Take a look at monthly expenses and see where it all goes. Within a few months of adjusting behaviors you might realize you can take that trip to Thailand after all…”

What are your thoughts?  Agree?  Disagree?  As someone who went travelling for the first time as a 17 year old who had saved up her pennies for an air ticket from Toronto to Edmonton to visit a friend, I can tell you that it often is priorities- and an ability to make a decision without being paralyzed by the what ifs, etc.