The Downsides To A Life Filled With Travel

So often I receive messages of envy and lust over the life I lead, or appear to lead. Messages from people yearning to create the same lifestyle that I have created – a life filled with travel.

Essentially, yes, I get paid to travel {find out more about what I actually do here}, and yes there are so many ridiculous perks to the life I have created for myself.

But as with anything, and any job out there {trust me} – it has its downfalls.

Honestly – it really does.

A year ago I embarked on my first trip as a Blogger to Croatia for The Yacht Week, and since then I have explored and adventured through 25 countries, hopping on over 65 flights.

It’s been a whirlwind and only recently, have I had time to process just how crazy it’s been.

In between the palm trees, the sunsets and the sun drenched festivals you may often find plastered on my social media, sometimes it does all just become a bit too much and I begin to crave a much simpler {+ slower} life.

At the end of the day,

all of us on this planet live and breathe for the very same things…

Love, health and happiness.

A life of long term travel can really take it’s toll on all three of the above if you aren’t careful, no matter how much sunshine, cocktails and plane rides your life is saturated by.

Whilst I am by no means going to be taking travel out of my life any time soon, I have travelled so crazily over the last year and I just feel i’m ready to invest in some slower paced travel.

A matter of spending longer in each place, adding in some down time and not arriving home for 12 hours before I set back off to the airport

…for the sake of my body and my sanity.

Downside To A Life Filled With Travel | Where's Mollie? A UK Travel and Lifestyle Blog

So here are some of the

downsides to living a life filled with travel

+ some bits i think it’s important for me to highlight should you consider a life of travel for yourself…

1. It’s Hard Not To Change

A life of travel means a life of new people, new places, new languages and new adventures. With each of these comes trial and error, mistakes, lessons and a growth of character. The growth and evolvement as a human being is something that is also a personal attraction of travel for me, but it also means you are developing and experiencing life at a much quicker rate than friends and family back at home. This can lead to you out growing people, moving on unexpectedly and not requesting the same company you once did, when you arrive home.

For getting over lost relationships, travel can be the perfect tool, but when trying to maintain relationships, travel can be the making or breaking.

2. Unsatisfaction In ‘Normal’ Life

When you’ve bungy jumped off a canyon in New Zealand, got up close and personal on a sunset safari with wild Lions in Africa and swam freely with turtles in the Great Barrier Reef – you’ve really reached some of life’s adrenaline peaks and, well, adrenalin is nothing short of addictive. This can make ‘going shopping’ and ‘wandering around the local park’ at home old news and can make you come across a little ungrateful for what is actually exciting for others.

3. Friendships, Relationships And Family Life Take A Back Seat

Some trips are 2 days, some trips are 2 months and some, should you get the bug and take the plunge to work/live abroad, can be even longer. Once you have the bug, nothing is going to stop you and being away from home can mean you miss important events, important dates, people growing up and growing up with people. You’ll miss family, and friendships / relationships can only operate and last so long on FaceTime and WhatsApp before you start drifting apart.

4. You’re Tired When You Get Home

When you have a life filled with travel it will probably mean flipping between time zones on a regular basis and if you’ve read my {what do travel bloggers actually do?} blog post you’ll know that the trips themselves aren’t exactly relaxing and the work continues way beyond the trip itself.

So coming home actually means, being busy working on content, catching up on sleep, adjusting to the time zone, doing loads of washing and preparing for the next trip. Spare time is not something you have much of.

5. Long distance friends

From my last 10 months on the road, I have honestly met and shared adventures with the most incredible bunch of people. I have said more goodbyes than I could possibly count and not seeing people again, sometimes ever, is just part and parcel of the life i’ve chosen. It means now that I have homes dotted all over the planet ready for me to stay in and return to, but it also means if I want to see any of my new found friends – I have to get on a plane and travel up to 20 hours to see them. That’s an expensive friendship, it’s obviously not always viable… and it sucks.

6. You Notice The Faults In Your Hometown More

From seeing how other people live and experiencing life from many other perspectives, you begin comparing your hometown to those very places. I for one can’t get over how expensive transport is in London compared to any other city i’ve ever been too, and I also can’t stand the unsociable and robot like environment on the London Underground and in the city. It never bothered me before like it does now and I find myself wanting to escape to the calmer, friendlier corners of the world within a week of being home.

7. The Empty Bank Account

Travelling can get you caught up in the moment and have you purchasing spontaneous festival tickets, flights to Fiji and drunken tattoos. It’s all fun and ‘yolo’ when you’re there but when you return and you have bills, alongside an empty bank account to face… you won’t feel so smart. Haha!

8. When It’s All Over… It Sucks

Let’s face it, at some point during your travels you’ll either have to come home or get a job.

You’ll have to trade the lazy beach mornings and strolls to grab a smoothie, for an alarm clock and a schedule of meetings and deadlines. You have to un-do the lifestyle you have become accustomed to and fallen in love with. IT SUCKS and it doesn’t get any easier.

I guess though, it wouldn’t be such a luxury if you got to do it every day… right?

9. You Would Quite Like Some Routine But Life Doesn’t Allow For That

When I used to work at M&S during my A-Levels, there were ladies there that had been working the same 12 hour rotas for over 25 years. I wondered how on earth they did this, how they could know what adventure there was out there in the world and not want to chase it.

But now, more than ever, I am realising that having a 9-5, being able to switch off when you get home and being able to have weekends to literally, relax, is very appealing.

Maybe they did know what was out there, but love, family and relationships took priority.

10. Maintaining A Healthy Lifestyle Is Hard

Whether it’s plane food because you didn’t leave enough time to grab something at the airport, trying the local delicacy because that just what travels about, or trying the signature cocktail because… yeah – calories can be on the up and exercise is most likely on the d-list.

Travelling, particularly as a blogger like me, is very very full on and by the time you return to your hotel room at 10.30pm after a group dinner on a press trip, the last thing you want to do {or have the energy for} is to head to the gym. It means either, you have to work twice as hard during time at home to counteract the calories, OR invest yourself in more active travel.