How much time do you spend dreaming about travel? Am I the only one who plans numerous trips that I never end up taking? What inspires you to travel?
Exploring the Sahara in Morocco
I must admit that I spend a hell of a lot of time dreaming and planning travel. Far more time than I spend actually travelling. The amount of trips that I have planned in word documents and excel far outnumber the amount of trips I have taken, let alone the number of times I have daydreamed about destinations. If you don’t believe me, ask my husband. I drive him crazy with all this travel planning.
What inspires me to travel?
Often, it is other bloggers. I am very inspired to go to Costa Rica and Croatia at the moment thanks to the awesome bloggers I have connected with recently. The media and travel websites also inspire me. I often wish that I did not live so far away from the rest of the world. I try to convince J that we should live in London for awhile, so we can explore more often. I wonder if part of the reason why he refuses is so he isn’t dragged away even more often that he is now?!
Exploring Petra
I am also inspired to travel by life by home. When life is feeling mundane and boring, it is hard for me to not want to look up some flight prices, google some articles about whatever place is currently on my mind or grab a guidebook. Although my primary reason to travel is not about escape, it is hard to not want to escape “normal” (read boring) life occasionally.
My kids also inspire me to travel. I want them to experience new cultures, languages and people. I want them to grow up as global citizens, embracing differences. We hope that they will be trilingual and be able to experience the world in a way that we haven’t. I love the quality family time that travel gives us that we struggle to find at home.
But what mainly inspires me to travel is that I want to live life. I want to experience everything. Ok, maybe not everything, but I do want to experience everywhere. I want to know what it’s like to dance in Carnival in Rio or island hop down the Croatian coast in a yacht or see whales breaching in Iceland. I want to be able to communicate in other languages and dance the tango. I want to look back at my life and know that I experienced everything that I could, that I took every opportunity and, to quote Frank Sinatra, that I did it my way.
Spanish immersion studies in Todos Santos, Guatemala
Travel is not just a hobby or a vacation for me. It is my passion. It is how I want to live my life. I know that when I am on my death bed that I will never regret the fact that we rent our home, that I left a job or that our kids don’t get many toys for their birthdays. But I might regret the fact that I never did the Trans Mongolian.
You may also like to read why we travel with young kids.
What inspires you to travel?
29 Comments
Not to rub in salt in your wounds, but IF you did live in London, Croatia would be so close. And you could even come here via Ryanair on a cheap flight. I am sure J would love that.
In any case, you keep on traveling and you keep doing it your way my darling!
I would definitely be coming to Croatia if I was in London! I am halfway through a bucket list post and Croatia is right near the top 🙂
I do the same thing…. I think I drive my boyfriend nuts coming home every night with a whole new trip planned!
Lol I am glad that I am not the only one!!
London’s great – move to London! Although of course, I am a little biased as it is home 😀 But reading this, it sounds like you will live out your travel dreams regardless of where you are based! Happy travels!
Yes, that is definitely true!! I have always lived in Australia and it hasn’t stopped me yet!
Meeting new people, trying new food and seeing places I have never seen before! 🙂
Not long after we were married, our elderly neighbour caught me at the garden fence and had a very long chat. She was stuck home nursing her aged husband, but she said she didn’t mind because she’d been so many places and done so many things and could spend hours just reminiscing with him about it all. I often think of that conversation when planning new ventures, be they travel or other things.
Aww I love that. It definitely makes me think.
I travel because I just like to BE in the places I love. As I’m getting older I’m starting to realise that it’s not the whole world that interests me, I have places that I love and places that don’t do it for me at all. My husband’s favourite countries differ to mine slightly, so we do those too and for the sake of the kids we’re trying a few new ones, to show them the whole world, give them a feel for it’s intricacies and diversities. But for me, I just want to be in southern Asia somewhere, that’ll do me!
You are lucky you can narrow it down a bit!! I definitely have places I never want to go back to (although very few), but there is nowhere new I don’t want to go, except for a couple I don’t want to go right now (like Afghanistan).
my dad said in his father of the bride speech how lucky my husband and I were to have had, and made, the opportunities we have had to travel. that inspires me to do more – knowing that it is a privilege of our generation to be able to see so much more than my parents can even imagine!
For sure!! We are really very lucky.
I think that, when you are passionate about something, EVERYTHING inspires you to do it. That’s the case for me, at least. Photos, blog, magazines, pins, tweets, sunsets, books, songs…anything and everything makes me want to pack up & go. May be there’s a little gypsy in me ;P Nice thought-provoking post.
Yes, definitely!! I feel that way too. I also wonder if it is in my blood. Being Australian means that basically all my ancestors (I am also part aboriginal) came from far away and travelled a long way to get here to start a new life, mostly by choice.
Travel is a very addictive drug. When you tried it once, you don’t need inspiration. It’s impossible to stop.
I know that feeling!
Love this post! Agree with every word. I recently posted about a similar topic.
Having these experiences with my young family is now as important to me as my own personal growth and exploration.
The opportunity to leave aside the routine for a while, forget about the day to day worries and instead fill your day with new, fun and exciting things. I know I am completely relaxed when I suddenly start thinking ‘how on earth do i manage to fit work into my life’. I also find that when I reach this point I can think clearly and start coming up with some of my better ideas.
The inspiration keeps changing, or evolving, as I grow less young. These days it’s the strong need to have new experiences outside of my day-to-day comfort zone.
For me it’s about food and culture 🙂
When you begin thinking about the next destination before you finish the trip you’re on, you know you have been bitten by the travel bug. When you offer a trip to Europe to your nine year old grandson (who has already been to Switzerland twice, Holland and Germany) and he insists on going to Asia, you know you’ve give the gift of curiosity and travel to another generation. Travel is about learning, bonding and memory making. It is about openness to diversity and acceptance. It is about connecting with others and building links to peace. Can you imagine anything richer than travel?
I completely agree and love how you put that 🙂
It’s hard for me to point particular things that inspire me to travel. I think the best inspiration for me are the photos I took during my other trips. I go back to my trips on my blog and then daydream of going to more places.
I know that experience 🙂 I do the same!
Ruth, from Spain. I love this post! I do the same things!!! I have many documents and excels with information about travels that I haven’t done. I also travel with my kids and I have a blog in spanish about that. I think you are awesome and I love what you do! Carry on!!! (Sorry about my english).
Thanks Ruth 🙂 If only I got $1 for every travel excel sheet I created lol!! And don’t worry about your english, seems perfect to me. And far better than my spanish which I have been trying to learn for too many years :-/
Sharon, I think you should come and live in Dubai as an expat. 6hr direct flight to Zagreb!
We are an Australian family living in Dubai and out of 2 million population there are only 200,000 locals. A city full of mixed culture and respect for one another. Although the driving is insane! I love how my daughter attends school with children from at least 8 different countries. How lucky we are, even on a homesick day there is always something to be thankful for. The lesson of tolerance for other people and places is the best gift we can give ourselves and our children. X
That sounds amazing 🙂 I would love to spend awhile somewhere like that.