Top Signs You Are a Travel Addict
By NomadicMatt | Published: March 17, 2009
Got the travel bug? Looking to explore the world? Always think about distant places? Think of everything in terms of how much travel time it takes away? Well, chances are you are a travel addict. Once the travel bug infects you, there is no going back- you are a traveler for life. Everything I do revolves around travel. I have the bug. I’m addicted. Here are some signs you might be a travel addict too:
You start all your stories with “When I was in…”
You only TIVO the travel channel.
You read guidebooks for fun.
You plan trips you will never take.
You always ask “where people are from?” even when you know.
You wear flip flops in the shower.
You take toilet paper everywhere you go out of habit.
You have more than one currency in your wallet, just in case.
You keep a packed suitcase handy.
Your iPod only has songs related to traveling.
You run multiple travel websites.
You don’t have paintings on the wall, you have maps.
If you haven’t been anywhere in a few months, you get the shakes.
You spend two hours each day reading travel blogs and travel websites.
When you think of prices, you value things in terms how many days in your next destination it costs. “That TV is 10 days in Paris! Let’s get this one- it’s only 5 days!”
You pretend you are a travel writer.
Some people voted for Barack Obama, you voted for Anthony Bourdain.
When people ask you about your hobbies, all your answers contain the word “travel.”
Some people cry when they leave home. You cry when you have to go back.
When people ask you your profession, you say vagabond.
You filled your first passport before the first year was over.
Boots N All is your homepage.
You plan trips for next decade.
You have Lonely Planet tattooed on your lower back.
You write a travel addict post.
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Favorite one: “When you write a travel addict post.”
Ha!
Valuing things in terms of how many days in your next destination it costs:
Funny! And I totally agree. My living room needs an overhaul but it costs the same as a trip to Antarctica for the whole family – South Georgia included! Who cares if the paint is beginning to peel
I agree with all of the above! Not one point is out-of-place! Seems like there are plenty of travel addicts out there. I just got back from Israel and I (almost) cried when the plane at Tel Aviv took off the tarmac! And to think, I have a 2-yr-old at home waiting for me.
Definitely got the multiple currencies (three to be exact!) in the wallet. Currently got the shakes as well. Haven’t traveled in 2 months (even though I just landed in Sweden two months ago)
I’ve got seven reais in my wallet right now, and I’m not even in Brazil… yet.
Last border crossing on previous trip, entered occupation as: viajero. Traveler in spanish.
What was that? Did you say Travel Channel and you have the bug; http://www.ihavethebug.com/ …couldn’t resist
Awesome list. Each one makes me laugh and think, “yep, that sounds about right.”
Right now I’m definitely focused in on spending 2 hours per day reading travel blogs. I think I spend more time than that, actually. It beats doing real work!
And when you read a book. whatever genre it is, you read it like a travel book.
Mea Culpa! Definitely guilty of spending more than 2 hours per day on travel sites n blogs…….
I’m still a healthy man! The bug has only started to infect me, I should run while I still can (back to the US, then to Mexico, then to Brazil, then to ….)
I gots the bug but I don’t want to be cured!
@quick: neither do i
@matt: embrace the bug!
@graham: reading blogs is better than working!
@travel channel: great site!
@Anthony: 7 is impressive!
@lola: i’m antsy after 1 month1!
@alan: for sure!
Wait till you get on in years and you are constantly thinking ……I only have so many years to fit in all these places I have yet to travel to………as a couple of similar age we met said”We realised we only had 10 good summers! Ouch………..that isn’t anywhere long enough for all I have planned!
And yes……….your list rang many bells!
Hilarious post! I especially recognize myself in
You start all your stories with “When I was in…” and “Some people cry when they leave home. You cry when you have to go back.”
@gail: thanks!!
@erica: two of my favorites
Yes. Sounds a little depressing, but yes: Some people cry when the leave home. You cry when you have to go back.
Last week’s episode of Private Practice had a line about being addicted to online “resort porn.” Laughed until I cried. For me it’s not limited to resorts. It’s travel of all kind. I could spend hours searching the net for trips. Unfortunately I have to find time to work for the money to support my habit.
I loved this post! How about: You wake up and have to ask yourself, “where am I today?” I seriously have to take a few moments to figure it out sometimes.
hey brilliant stuff! Definitely got the shakes now, havent travelled in 1.5 months. :X At least crossing the causeway to Malaysia can feed my withdrawal symptoms temporarily.
Yeh I vote for Anthony Bourdain!
Definitely addicted! Great list.
That sounds exactly like me to a T
Matt,
I have been so busy BEING a travel addict that I have not been around for a few months to visit your site.
Diving in Indonesia, wildlife tours in the Yucatan, sailing along the Pacific coast of Mexico for a month.
Hmmmm. Maybe one to add to your list:
You carry notes and pictures from all your travels that you INTEND to put into stories. (Nat’l. Geo. Mag…here I come!)
Oh, just one more: your nom de plume contains the words “travel writer!”
Hysterical! It was just what i needed today really. I think I have driven my boyfriend crazy saying things like
“Well that is equal to about 10 days in Cambodia.” and so forth…
I bought some new pants for work and all i could think about was how long I could’ve stretched the money on the road.
Good to see I’m not alone!
Most of these apply to me. I have more foreign currency than local in my wallet. I’ve been subjected to questioning at immigration because “no-one normal travels as much as you”. I’ve written signs you are a travel addict posts on more than one site. I try not to go more than a week or so without travel.
Love the list — they’re all true! I found that when I shop for toiletries, that I only will look at items that come in 3 oz or less, or those that I can open to fill up small bottles. And when clothes shopping, it’s “is it wrinkle-free” and “can I wash this out in the hotel sink and have it dried overnight?”
awesome list… i’m sad that cant say they all apply to me though
I would add that when you buy any new clothing you think about whether its crushable, will dry quickly, and will go with all your other travel clothes…
i do read guide books for fun & check out travel sites make plans that i may never take!!
That’s me ! and i’m at work now checking out ur site!!! ::)))
This just gave me a private “traveler’s only” inside joke to laugh at while plugging away at work. Along very similar lines this satirical post on a blog called “Stuff White People Like” hits pretty close to home.
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/23/19-travelling/
LOL…. I loved it especially the part about reading travel guide books. Now I actually ask for my birthday gifts to be travel books or money for my travel fund.
“You run multiple travel websites.” – guilty as charged
Love this! I was nodding along to so many…especially this one:
“When you thinking of prices, you value things in terms how many days in your next destination it costs. (That T.V. is 10 days in Paris! Let’s get this one- it’s only 5 days!”
I liked the toilet paper one and asking people where they are from. On that note, I PRIDE myself in never, ever having used a squat toilet.
Regarding planning, I’ve never read a guide book and don’t plan anything, not even this trip. I like to travel 1900’s style. I have so much respect for the people who go into the unknown and find it awesome to choose a destination and then find all the cool stuff there.
That said, I have nothing I *need* or want to see. I just like unknown.
Cool post.
A hopeless addict. I do so many of these things, it’s not even funny. Oh my gosh, what is life without travel? Thank you for a fantastic and creative post….! I have seen this concept applied to other topics but this is the best one yet
!
Thanks for the kind words
Favorite post ever!
“When you think of prices, you value things in terms how many days in your next destination it cost”
HAHA! That’s so true! Whenever I go shopping I calculate how far this money would take me.
‘Prada bag for $500?! Dude that’s a week in Central America’ I told my friend once hahahah
Of course when I am planning my next trip (Turkey, Israel: again, Cairo and Morocco) I came across your Blog and WOW. ( i get so excited that I begin to pack almost months in advance. I mean I have wrinkles in my undies when I land they have been packed for so long. I have Brittish Pounds, Israel “schekels”, Eros and Jordanian Dinari. I would follow Anthony Bourdain anywhere. Any book or magazine about travel, I drool over thinking, maybe, just maybe this is my next adventure. And what can I say about the people you meet on the way. Great bunch of humans. And don’t cha just love the “Street Food”? I get this look from people when I tell them “I eat off the streets”. Great Site