Comments on: The Downside to Long Term Travel

By: Russ Mease

Russ Mease — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:22:28 +0000

It sounds like most people commenting here about “travel-fatigue” are visiting the big cities in the regular backpacking travel circuits, staying in hostels and meeting “exotic” fellow travelers (probably australians and Britains for the most part!) over drinks of the national beer of the country in the hostel’s common room.

Of course this would be fatiguing and tiresome because you are basically going to the the same experience just in a different country each time you travel to a new place. I’m not saying this isn’t a good time (I did just this for 4 months around Europe back in 2004) but it has it’s limits.

Why not go to a place where there are no other travelers like yourself, where you’re forced to meet the locals, where the culture is unknown and locals do not immediately think of you as money on two legs, where perhaps you are the only white man they have seen.

I think if more people put down their lost planet travel guides and took a chance on these types of places, they would have no time for fatigue. Of course I can see how this type of traveler would have a fatigue of new experiences and desire something familiar for a while. In this case, head out to nature for a few months (go hike a national trail…). Nature is the perfect rejuvenation for a weary traveler. =)

Happy traveling and thanks for the great site
Russ

By: NomadicMatt

NomadicMatt — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:46:50 +0000

Why didn’t go home? There’s always that option.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:07:34 +0000

I think another important point to remember is what you are sacrificing at home to travel. I spent 14 months traveling new zealand and SE Asia. While I was away I missed the birth of my friends baby, My best friends wedding, my brothers graduation, and the death of my Nana. I never go to see or talk to her before she passed away and that will always be difficult for me to cope with. While I was dealing with her loss on the other side of the world with no family for support I wondered if it was worth it. Sometimes I’m still not sure.

By: NomadicMatt

NomadicMatt — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:33:26 +0000

I’ll never be a suburb guy. I’m city all the way.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:11:59 +0000

Hey Matt,
Its funny because several years ago I would have said the same thing. My travels weren’t quite as long as yours (2-3 months every 2-3months) but now I am settled down. I have a great wife and son but I still long for those travel days. Just last night I had a conversation with my wife about it. She supports me selling my biz and everything else to take the family on the road. I am seriously considering it. I cringe every time I see a minivan, I can name 25 strollers off the top of my head, none of my neighbors have ever had a passport, I am dying a slow death in the suburbs! I guess all I am saying is that you can take the traveler out of a chicken bus but you can’t take the chicken bus out of the traveler. Enjoy your journeys while you can.

By: Lima Peru Travel

Lima Peru Travel — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 02:49:33 +0000

Short term travel is basically residency. You get so accustomed to the culture that it is no longer travel.

By: WithMarco

WithMarco — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:11:44 +0000

Fully agree with this article.

I reached the conclusion for myself the best way is to travel no more than 6 months in a row, after that i only feel tired and need time and in the wrong mood to enjoy the whole experience.
People around you instead will be usually overexcited and enthusiastic and will hardly enjoy your company when you’re simply sick of seeing the 1000th buddha temple or yet another ethnic market.

I don’t think many people can travel for years and years, it’s doable but as long as you keep changing destination and you take long breaks, months, doing something else.

And of course as you said personal relationships are hit or miss, that’s why you better have a “base” to go back after traveling.

By: NomadicMatt

NomadicMatt — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:21:53 +0000

Lately, I take frequent vacations from my vacation!

By: Shim

Shim — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:13:11 +0000

I couldn’t have said it better myself, though you were saying it back when we were just getting started! 24 hours friends. Not wanting to tell people what we do. Having the same conversations again and again and again. The ‘one-of’ phenomenon.

Thankfully, I do have someone to share it all with. We were on the road for about a year and a half before we decided to settle for a bit for the same reasons above. We were finally tired of traveling and all the stresses that come with it. We took 6 months and spent them in one place (Roatan, Honduras), then went to Mexico for a few months and then back to Roatan when we realized what a gem we’d found. We really slowed down our pace, stayed put, and enjoyed the friends and familiarity we built up.

After almost 9 months in Honduras in a space of 14 months we felt rejuvenated and were ready to head back out on the road with a fresh outlook. Sometimes you need a vacation from the permanent vacation.

By: bruin

bruin — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:26:34 +0000

your perception will change when you travel with a significant other (not the kind you meet on the road but the kind where you meet after you have settled and then the both of you unsettling together to go abroad). rinse, repeat. you can never repeat the same water twice