In my younger days, I believed certain travel myths which caused me not to prioritise travelling. It wasn’t that I was uninterested in travel. But it was only in my mid-twenties that I saw that my beliefs in those myths were misconceived.
And what exactly were these travel myths? I’ll take you through them and show you how my own experiences have proved them wrong.
Myth 1: travel is expensive
Ok, maybe I’ve been caught out early on in debunking these travel myths. I admit that you do need to spend at least some money if you want to go on a trip.
However, that is not to say that travel always has to be expensive. As long as you’re not too fussy, you can:
- choose cheaper travel methods, such as budget airlines and buses
- travel off peak
- stay in hostels rather than hotels
In terms of choosing a destination, pick one where your currency is going to stretch further. This does mean that you might have to forgo destinations you want to visit. You’re not going to be able to do very much in New York on £50 a day, for example. But on the flipside that same amount would stretch much further in Vietnam or Thailand. If you can find a cheap flight there, then so much the better.
Obviously the more money you have to spend on travel, the more options you have. But there are numerous ways to travel on a strict budget. Travel doesn’t have to be expensive and there’s so much more flexibility on this than I initially realised.
Myth 2: travel is difficult to plan
The second travel myth I believed was that it is difficult to plan. My main problem was that I wanted to think of everything upfront. It seemed daunting to plan flights, accommodation, transport and a comprehensive day-by-day itinerary of interesting activities all at once.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Yes, it’s good to have at least some idea of what you want to do on your trip. I think it’s also good to have your transport and accommodation booked in, not least because, the earlier you research these, the more options you’ll have in terms of price (see above).
But you don’t need to plan every last detail in advance. Plan the main things and go with the flow for everything else. Or, if you still don’t want to plan, sign up for a group trip…
Myth 3: I can’t travel solo
Until my mid-twenties, all my holidays had been with friends or family. There was absolutely no way I would ever have contemplated travelling (or doing literally anything) by myself. The very idea of it made me cringe – I thought people would think I was a total loser. Honestly I thought the same of other people who travelled alone. Group trips ranked even further down my estimations.
But, in my opinion, thinking you can’t travel solo is one of the most misguided travel myths.
In my mid-twenties, I experienced several disruptions in quick succession to my carefully-curated life plan. Such was my resulting despondency that one evening my friend suggested that I get away from it all by signing up for a group trip. I immediately rejected this idea (see above for my then-thoughts on solo travellers and group trips). But after a few weeks I decided I had nothing to lose. I signed up as a solo traveller for a three-week GAdventures tour to East Africa. If everyone in the group is weird, I thought, at least I’ll be in a beautiful place.
To my great surprise, I had the time of my life on this trip. The people in my group were kindred spirits. I found I could be completely myself because none of them had any preconceptions of me. The combination of this and the fact that I hadn’t had to plan the details of the trip made me feel freer than I ever had before.
This trip gave me the confidence to travel by myself. This has quite literally opened up a world of experiences for me that I never would have had if I had insisted that I needed someone to travel with every time. This is one of the most important travel myths I’ve stopped believing.
Myth 4: travel is less important than studying or getting a job
Going back a bit to my university days, at that time I was completely focused on the end goal of getting my foot on a successful career ladder. In my summer holidays, I focused on temporary jobs, work experience and volunteering in an effort to improve my CV. Alongside that, I didn’t think it was worth spending my hard-earned savings on travelling.
I look back at that time and I regret that I wasn’t more broad-minded. I felt that I had to be productive all the time, and I didn’t think it was productive to waste time on unimportant things such as gallivanting around the world when I could have been focusing my efforts on my quest for a high-flying graduate job.
But travel is important. I firmly believe that travel broadens the mind. Every new place you visit will teach you something new. Just because it’s not directly applicable to your degree or your desired job does not mean it has no value. If someone had explained to me that travel does look good on your CV, maybe I’d have had a different mindset.
And what’s the rush? Taking a few months out will hardly affect your career, either before you start it or in the middle of it.
Myth 5: once you’ve done one big trip, you don’t need to do another one
Going back even further, I believed the myth that once you’ve done one big trip you don’t need to do another one.
I had actually done a few big trips with my family as a child and teenager, to South Africa, Australia and Singapore. I’d also covered a fair amount of western and central Europe. But my first trip that took me truly out of my comfort zone was a month in Nepal at age 17. I trekked the Annapurna Circuit, reaching an altitude of 5,416 metres, and spent time in Kathmandu visiting temples, navigating the gridlocked traffic and getting a privilege check when I saw poverty and disease on the city’s streets.
But once I returned to England, I didn’t feel a need to do another big trip. I thought I had “done” travelling so there was no real need to go again. This fed into my attitude about using my spare time to focus on getting a good degree and job (see above). I also thought it was a bit indulgent to go on lots of big trips.
So after Nepal, I didn’t leave Europe for another nine years. The next time I left the continent was for my GAdventures tour to East Africa. And I’ve never looked back. I see and learn something new in every place I visit (including Europe). And that’s the joy of our planet – you’ll never see everything it has to offer. It’s not indulgent to travel for these reasons, and I don’t plan to ever stop travelling.
Myth 6: travel isn’t for people like me
Finally, let’s debunk the personality travel myth. When I was younger, the people I knew who travelled were confident and cool. They went in groups and returned with a litany of in-jokes. They made it look effortless to organise a trip. I didn’t think I was that sort of person, and I thought this meant I wasn’t suited to travelling.
I’ve now travelled widely – I’ve been to over 50 countries on six continents – and I can categorically say that there’s something in the world for everyone. I’ve accepted that I’m not going to feel my most comfortable at a full moon party on a beach in Thailand or at a party hostel in Malaga – so I don’t have to do that. My favourite sorts of trips involve being outdoors and seeing the best nature the planet has to offer. Whether it’s the Bolivian Salt Flats, hiking along the Cornish coast or feeling tiny standing under giant redwoods in California, those kinds of trips are for people like me.
And you can find your niche too. You just have to ignore the travel myths, and go out and explore.