I have been dreamed about this trip for three years, literally! Its full of practical tips, logistical nuances that took me ages to figure out, and plenty of stories from our disastrous year-long honeymoon. Honestly, if you were gainfully employed before you left, chances are youll be able to find a job again when you return those skills havent vanished into thin air. Even the disasters! Heres Everything You Need to Know, 25 Things We Never Asked for from Traveling the World for a Year, 30 Things Nobody Tells You About Long Term Travel as a Couple, Our Year-Long Honeymoon: What Happened & How Much It Cost, Digital Nomad Essentials for Working From Home or Anywhere, Why 2017 Was the Year that Everything Changed for Us, Copyright 2023, Practical Wanderlust. Yes, but it takes a bit. It was so good to read this post! Its the best! We went traveling. I was the same. Yet, on the other hand, I have no idea what I want to do or where Im supposed to be going. Your friends will have 0 sympathy for you. So, thanks, but no thanks. came back to england and one of the first things i realised, wow, i could actually understand the road signs! For some reason, as soon as we realized that we couldnt get it in stores abroad apparently sugary breakfast cereals are way more of a thing in the USA than anywhere else we craved it like 2 pregnant ladies on a diet. You cant turn back. YES! Well also send our favorite travel tips straight to your inbox! Something I realized about myself during our trip is that I actually enjoy working. Our biggest fear is are we doing the right thing for our son? Sure the things he will learn that year trump anything he will see or do or learn in school, but we are removing him from a stable environment where he has friends and the constant change makes us nervous. Travelling is not easy. I wrote a best-selling book called How to Quit Your Job & Travel with absolutely everything you need to know to make your dream a reality. Now that were 2 years out from returning, it feels like weve spent TOO much time planning. Need some help planning your escape? So don't let it hold you back! . I often joke with those who have experience travelling that it might have broke my brain. 3. Where it's a solo adventure or a girlfriends' getaway, take the time for a reset. Quit my job, flew to NZ, worked and travelled for the best part of two years across a dozen countries, met my girlfriend, moved country, learned a new language and got settled. Where have you been? will get really old after a while. I have been debating on quitting my job and traveling for a year to finally get all those bucket list items done. Was a necessity for a while. 13. Yes, quit your job (or take a career break ). ESPECIALLY when you escaped it once and know what life can bring when you jump and take that risk. (Also, I was planning a wedding at the same time which I strongly recommend NOT doing.). It can be harder to find common ground! On a related side note, we havent even looked through our beautiful, expensive wedding photos yet. This one sucks. It worked a lot better for me than just straight travel. Its really scary making that final decision to give our jobs up but feel like i have to do it. 6. It WAS ironically. Shortly after leaving, we found ourselves wistfully reminiscing about everything from our old desks to our old bosses to our old commutes (Wtf? Theres no right or wrong way to feel about something like this, and your comment illustrates that perfectly! There are so many options out there that Im completely confused .. Any suggestions? It feels AUTHENTIC. Youre definitely not alone! The year before I got on that plane and left was a whirlwind of trip planning, packing, coordinating logistics, and difficult conversations. Thats basically how long it took us, too . I just shared this article with my fiance because we just returned (yesterday) from three months of backpacking around Europe after quitting our jobs and everything in this is SO ACCURATE. 23. Id never think I could relate to anything on your list but they all hit home 100%!! You will be a singularly-minded machine of focus, planning, and obsession. But I kept working, and then I burned out more and more, until one day I spontaneously put in my notice and quit my job at age 35. Contreras documents their travels on their Instagram account, @doesthiscountasvanlife. For seven years, I was living the glamorous and not-so-glamorous life of a litigator in a midsized firm. I'm Kat and in February 2018 I quit my job as an air-traffic controller. You know that feeling when you have a vacation coming up and youre SO excited about it? Oh my god, house sitting is AMAZING. This is just a wonderfully written article and honestly, quite comforting to us right now. Im so glad that our post was comforting the adjustment back into real life is ROUGH, but we absolutely love our lives post-trip. We dont feel obligated to abide by arbitrary rules about societal norms or obligations, and we question things that we used to take for granted (like that paper towels and trash-bags are necessary, and not just completely wasteful and pointless and easily replicated with rags and soapy water. 11. This is a universally terrible idea and we highly advise against it. Not at all. Very convenient. I remember the night before my trip, I was just terrified. It's romantic, but it's not realistic. You get bit bored more easily that way I think. So living abroad permanently never really had sway for us. Thank you for this wonderful write-up! Congrats! Maybe mindlessly scroll around on the internet for a good 8 hours. Oh absolutely. Months later, as a weathered, experienced traveler, youll back at that nervous, scared selfie you took at the airport and smile at how naive and carefree you were. How young you were. As of the moment, I am at phase 1: planning and daydreaming about my future travels and how I would like to change my career. I think Ive finally reached the point again where I can stop, breath, look around and realise life needs a shake up again. Ive tried getting freelance jobs to support my travel ambitions but none have worked out. This will be like a 3-4 months of sabbatical and I was kind of worried but your posts left me feeling positive about my decision. By Lia Garcia | Updated on: March 20, 2023. Unsubscribe anytime. And welcome back to the Bay Area. We were gone for 2.5 yrs and EVERYTHING you mention here, literally everything, happened. So instead of actually doing it, we just complained about our dwindling muscle and increasing waistlines while happily eating croissants for dinner. My wife misses hers even less. Dreaming of quitting your job to travel? I speak from personal experience. We want to INSPIRE. Dont bother complaining to your friends about how exhausted you are and how much you miss boring sh**. It happened to us. As Rebecca Knight says, this should . Wed love to hear about it! Glad to see you get to live your passion. It took us totally by surprise. My commute was 2 hours long. Thats total museum overload, even for nerds like us. Very nice read. hahahah thank you so much! It took us about 3 months before we finally felt comfortable and recognized that maybe we arent completely crazy. More than you might think. At that point I had wished I could just drive it myself. Youll learn how to tackle each of the challenges of long-term travel, from finances to fear to returning to reality and all the nitty-gritty logistics along the way. Weve got a few pieces of information some useful, some completely useless to pass along to anyone considering quitting their jobs and taking a grown-up gap year to travel. We woke up whenever we felt like it, and sometimes like in the dead of, Youll think back to where you were a day, a week, or a month ago and it will feel like. Thank you. You. It feels like a waste at times. Binge watch a TV show or something. Written by Ravi Raman. If your not enjoying it, theres no point. Ive been asking myself whether advocating for others to look beyond their desks, while I sit back down to one, makes me a fraud or a hypocrite. I Quit My Job to Travel (for realz) Uh, hi. Weve created a Long Term Travel Checklist with everything you need to plan your adventure. Youll realize that youve grown and changed during your trip. Appreciate your truths to it. Another thing people dont realize is that if youre on the road & working remotely or blogging, youre still working full time. Did you just low-key ruin your own life?! And were diving deeper into responsible and ethical tourism, ensuring that our travels and our blog have a positive social impact. Best of luck! I love the youll miss your job part. 18. Create a separate "travel account.". Youll spend a whole year away and come back a new, different person with all these amazing experiences only to realize that for everyone else, you were barely gone at all and nothings changed a bit. All that stuff you carefully packed up and put into storage before you left now kinda just seems like junk. 10. Its actually crazy as we are living the life and complaining on a high level but everything you wrote about is so true. Youll be desperately seeking a job because youre likely flat broke by now. I interviewed for some awesome jobs (and the job I had before I left did seek me out to hire me back) but then I ultimately decided to devote myself to blogging full time to see if that could actually be a job, and thats what Im still doing today . 4 days to acclimate come on. I did a brief stint in an office and hated it so much that I decided to focus on blogging full-time, instead. Wish you could quit your job & travel? Im self-employed so I didnt have to quit per se as in I just went back to it 3 months later but the point about being exhausted Im like you, I cant sit still when I travel serious FOMO! Something about leading a totally different life than the one you were leading before just seems to result in some otherwise great friendships unexpectedly ending. No one tells you that you will have culture shock returning to your own country. Waiting for the next phase in our career, or our love lives, or our bank account balances. Ive never been a relaxed traveler. But after hitting a museum a week for a month, we were like um, can we just Google the local history?. Now I am trying to not focus too much on that part. What a great read! Plus, having the knowledge that I can save money and go travel for an extended period of time lifts a huge weight off my shoulders I will never be trapped in a bad job or a bad relationship because I dont believe I can walk away and do something different. Normal life can no longer compete. What kind of idiot attempts to do both at the same time? We only did 6 months last time and want to do a year this next time. 16. haha! Youll start to crave & miss familiarity. Thanks! After you complete the challenging task of quitting, however, the search for or start of your new job begins. But the flat broke thing wasnt a problem. Personally, I saved up for 5 years to pay for my trip, and I was still incredibly fortunate to even be able to save that much. Eerie! We wrote this when we had first returned from our trip, and its well overdue for some updating.