How to Make It Happen (Finding Opportunities to Travel, Even as You Get Older)

Always a Traveler, Never an Ex-Pat

Rome with my then boyfriend, now husband (2012). Our first big trip!

One thing I learned about myself, through my time in the Peace Corps and my longer trips (one month or more) is that while I love live on the road and would like to have more time to travel, I do not want to be a nomad or an ex-pat.  I have always loved the idea of an ex-pat life and of traveling with no end date in sight, but if I wanted those things in life I would make it happen.  As I said, I love my job and my life with my husband.  I love having a home and a community.  I truly admire those nomads who wander the world for years on their own, and/or those who manage to make their home aboard, but that life is not for me.  Knowing that about myself, I am able to focus on what I want, my next trip!

Note: I consider myself to be a traveller, not a tourist. 

Travel Companions

I have also found as I have gotten into my 30s that it is difficult to find others to travel with.  This is for many reasons 1) the older we get the more responsibilities we have and demands on our time and money, 2) even if you have friends or a partner that have the time and money to travel your schedules may not align, 3) even if your schedules align they may not want to go the places you want to go or travel in the same style you like to travel in.

My husband is not a great lover of rough and tumble travel and not a huge fan of being off the grid.  We love to visit cities, renting an apartment and wandering the back alleys together, eating street food and stopping for a drink whenever the mood strikes.  But he would have hated the hut I stayed at on the beach in Colombia (no electricy, no running water, and no door!), even though I loved it.  I love being off the grid and travelling in all different ways (from home stays to hosteling to fancy hotels), and I love having a husband who is supportive of me taking time do things that I love, even when they do not include him. 

Loving Uruguay. 2015.

Work

Being in my mid thirties, I do have a career that I love.  I have worked hard to achieve this career, but it does not include much travel and certainly no international travel. But I found opportunities to travel, for longer than two weeks, none the less! I have taken a trip every time I changed jobs.  That is my first and best recommendation for finding time to travel.  When you life is in transition, grab your passport and head to the airport! 

I also save up all my vacation to take at once, using existing holidays to make my time last longer.  I am often planning a trip over Thanksgiving or the Christmas/New Years Holidays (though not both because I do want to spend time with my family) to get more time and miss the least amount of work.  I also have taken time off with our pay or used different companies policies to get more time, even if costs me some money. 

I also have to enlist the cooperation of my manager and coworkers. I always support them when they are away to garner good will.  But my main recommendation is not to ask for permission (no one wants  you to be out of the office for 5 weeks even if it is technically allowed).  Instead of asking permission, I simply tell them my plan and give them a list of everything I will complete before I leave.  Assuring your office that you will not leave them hanging makes everyone feel much more cooperative.  It can be very stressful to get ready for a big trips, but I do what I can to make it work  so that to spend my time off the way I want to! 

Setting Your Priorities

If you make travel a priority in your life, you will make it happen. Maybe not as often as you might like, but you will make it happen. For me travel is my great joy and one of the greatest pleasures of my life.  There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of some incredible place or wonderful moment I experienced on the road.  My head and my heart are full of with these great experiences (the Albanian man who drove 20 miles out of his way to take me where I wanted to go and would not except a dime from me, the incredible meal my husband and I shared looking at the twinkling lights of Buenos Aires from across the Rio de la Plata, the view from the fortress in Bled, Slovenia with a landscape so beautiful it made me laugh uncontrollably, sleeping on the Sahara Desert sand under the stars, watching the band at a Gypsy music festival in Istanbul interrupt their set to pray).  I want more of these memories, this is where I choose to spend my time and money.  I am not an extravagant person, I save my money, I am responsible, this is where I choose to treat myself.  

I am also fully aware that I am able to make these choices because we do not have kids.  Although many people find a way to travel, and travel far, even when they have children.  I admire them; I hope to be them some day.