I have an adventurous soul, and travel is necessary for me. The love of art, architecture, and history fills me with a passion and spurs my need for travel. Some people call it Wanderlust. That need to see, learn and experience things drives me to travel as often as I can.
My husband and I are definitely not rich. Finding extra money in our budget for our travels can be a challenge. So I put in a lot of work and planning into getting the best deals in order to stretch our travel budget. When there is a plan in the works, I find all kinds of ways to save money.
A lot of people say they are waiting to travel until they retire, or until they think they can afford it or 1,000 other reasons. Some people have excuse lists longer than the list of places they actually want to visit! For us though…. No excuses, No regrets-we travel NOW.
NO GUARANTEES
Previous generations had it in their heads that you vacationed regularly, but waited to do any real travel until you retired. People nested away money and just waited. But those days are changing and more and more frequently people are beginning to put travel on their to do list long before they retire.
There is no guarantee that we will make it through today, let alone tomorrow. Life is fragile and anything could happen that prevents us from travelling later on. This is not something we should spend your life worrying about, but it is my number one reason for travelling today. No guarantees.
Without being too much of a downer, I have known people who had a dream that didn’t end up happening. They planned that big retirement trip, they dreamed and saved and waited. But life sometimes presents a curve ball that keeps them from going. I don’t want regrets someday about “what if I’d just taken that trip sooner.”
When we take big trips, we usually walk between 4 to 9 miles per day just exploring. It isn’t a problem for us now, but it might be down the road. On a trip my husband and I took a few years ago, we found ourselves in Assisi, Italy. It is a city built on a hill with a steep climb to get into the town. We were travelling with a tour group where quite a few of the people were older than us. Some people really struggled, and I felt bad that this impeded their ability to enjoy their time in Assisi. We ran into a similar thing a few years later when visiting a castle with many steep steps in Heidelberg, Germany. It was really a hard climb. Due to the heat of the day and my asthma, even I was huffing and puffing on my way to the top.
Final Thoughts
I am so glad we found a way to start taking the bigger trips as early as we did. There are so many places that I want to see and explore and only so much time to fit them all in. For me there is no turning back and I am always planning our next big adventure.
Stop making excuses, don’t wait for tomorrow, just pack your bag, grab your dreams and go now! You wont regret it.
Dream, Plan, Save, Adventure!
The World According to Dev 