I am so passionate about travelling that I very rarely want to talk about its negative aspects.  However, the truth is as much as I loved jet setting around the world last year, it was not all rainbows and sunshine; there were things that were not so great on the trip and afterwards. This is the article that no one really writes, the downsides to long term travelling. 

I’m going to skip past obvious disadvantages such as the financial costs involved in travelling (let me know if you want an article about how much my year of travel cost. I have to confess that I have avoided doing those sums!), the opportunity costs when it comes to your career (missing out on a salary, a pay rise or promotion, career advancement etc) and dealing with negative events such as falling sick or having a health emergency. Instead I will  focus on more inconspicuous reasons:

• It will have an impact on your friendships and relationships 

I have waxed lyrical about how wonderful it is to meet new people and form friendships while you travel, however the converse is that long term travelling will have an impact on your relationships at home. I was naive to this. I assumed that I could pick things right where I left them, with friends and family, after a year of having less contact, being less available and less involved in their lives.

I was in for a somewhat rude awakening. 

With some friends, we have eased back into the friendship and it feels like I never left. However, with others I have noticed that our relationship has changed. We don’t speak as often as we used to; it no longer feels weird that we go weeks without speaking, when previously that would’ve been unheard of. Plans to meet up never seem to materialise, it takes them just that little bit longer to respond to my messages or call me back. I am no longer that person on the end of the phone that they would always contact for support. They have gotten used to my absence or found other people to step into that role. I totally understand and don’t lay the blame on any of them. I am the one who left and was too busy/having too much fun to work hard to maintain those relationships. Now I have to do the work to show them that they are important to me, and hope that we can repair our relationship.

• You will miss out on important events

Just as I was about to set off on my trip, one of my brother’s set a date and location for his wedding that totally disrupted my plans. There was not a chance that I would miss his wedding but I have to confess to being very ungracious about it. In hindsight, I’m grateful that I had enough notice to alter my plans and be there on his special day. I was not so lucky with other events and was particularly sad to have missed my other brother’s traditional wedding, and the weddings of a couple of friends. Thankfully everyone was very understanding.

There were other events I missed out on – birthdays, engagements, baby showers, retirement parties etc. These events do add up and when you return you realise that you have missed out on those shared memories and the in-jokes; it makes you feel somehow not part of the life that you had, and this can be isolating. You realise that life (and other people) move on without you; a very humbling feeling. 

• Travel can be exhausting 

Long-term travelling can be terribly exhausting. I was not fully prepared for this. You are constantly researching, planning – sketching out an itinerary often at the last minute, moving to a new place every few days with all your belongings on your back and usually over long distances, navigating a new town/city/country, dealing with language barriers or culture shock while trying to manage your dwindling finances but still have fun, make wonderful memories, meet new people etc. It is a lot to do, especially as a solo traveller. You don’t have anyone else to share these burdens with. 

This hit me about 4 months into my trip. I was in Tulum, Mexico. I felt untethered and was frankly fed up with having to repack my backpack every few days and move to a new place. I was craving some stability. I wanted to unpack and be in a place for a longer period of time,  I wanted to be with people who knew me so I didn’t have to make an effort to be friendly and interesting, I wanted my home comforts (mostly Butterkist sweet and salted popcorn and Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. Lol) and wanted to have days when I didn’t feel pressured to go sightseeing or do x, y and z and I could just ‘be’. 

I was thankful that my next stop (the U.S) involved 4 weeks of hanging out with friends and family, which gave me the opportunity to recharge my batteries. 

• You may become less in awe of the world 

When you have been lucky enough to travel to many wonderful places, to have seen some of the most beautiful vistas or had the most exhilarating experiences, you can become a little jaded. You find that you are less impressed by places that move other people, you have a higher threshold for awe. I don’t want to make judgments about this, it is something that just ‘is’. 

This was my experience on Isla Tintipán (Tintipan Island) in Colombia. I had added it to my itinerary having heard about it from a guy I met in Ecuador, and seen some stunning pictures of the crystal clear waters. It was a perfectly lovely island with some really beautiful views but (to me) nowhere near as amazing as he had described. What drives the point home even more is that I met a lovely Colombian guy, Camilo, while I was there (he was from Medellin and it was his first time holidaying by the sea) and he was totally blown away by the place. It was lovely to experience it through his eyes but also a little disconcerting. It made me realise I had begun to take some of those experiences for granted.

I have met other long term travellers who have felt the same. They talk about feeling underwhelmed and unimpressed by places they’ve been to, and acknowledge that it is the breadth of their travel experience that contributes to this feeling.

• You may find that you hate it

I will never forget meeting a girl when I was in San Francisco (April 2015) who was on month two of a 6-month jaunt around the world. She was German, had just graduated from University and had had all these ideas about how lovely it would be to travel around the world. And she absolutely hated it. She hated backpacking, hated staying in hostels, was struggling with the language barrier, struggling to make friends and was generally having a miserable time. So much so that ultimately she made the decision to cut the trip short and go home. I have met others who have felt the same, or missed family, friends, significant others so much that they abandoned plans and returned home. You may not know until you try it but long term travelling isn’t for everyone. 

The Takeaway

This is not an exhaustive list of the challenges of long term travel but I hope it gives you some ideas of the less positive impact of long term travelling; and helps you make a more informed decision before you book that long voyage. For me, the advantages of long term travel will always outweigh the disadvantages…what about you?

What’s your experience of travel, long term or otherwise? Do any of the above surprise you? Are there other disadvantages I have missed? Let me know in the comments below.