5 Ways Travel Will Change Your Life
Why Every Woman Should Travel Solo At Least Once
Buy A Plane Ticket and Begin Your Life
I could go on with this list, but I think you get the point. They’re the articles that pop up in our newsfeed and have us sighing with wanderlust, the articles that give us the drive and courage to take the plunge into travel, and the articles that we repost to show our friends and family that, see, we’re not crazy, we will be fine, and our lives are awesome!
But they’re also the articles that can make us doubt ourselves during those times when travel isn’t so fun, life changing, or exciting. The low times. When we wonder… are we doing it wrong?
Yesterday I received the 753rd (or maybe just the third) email from a person telling me that reading blogs like mine inspired them to travel, but now that they’re on their big adventure they’re feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, and then guilty for those feelings because it means they’re not making the most of their travel time.
You know who else feels guilty? Me, for ever suggesting that travel is only ups without any downs.
While I do sometimes write about bad travel experiences, I usually try to remain positive about my experiences because the last thing I want to do is discourage someone from traveling. But the truth is, there are always lows, and I think that’s perfectly fine.
Especially when traveling long-term, it’s normal to go through periods where you’re not as excited or energetic, or just aren’t enjoying a place as much as usual, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not getting anything out of your travels.
But what’s more, I experienced low points even during my all-time best travel experiences. These are things that I quickly forgot in retrospect because overall my time was so amazing, but maybe it’s good to sometimes be reminded of the bad because chances are, if you’re going to have a truly life changing experience, something about it is going to be difficult.
Iran
Anyone who’s ever read my blog is probably sick of me going on about Iran – I just can’t shut up about how much I loved my time there! Funny then how I’ve had no problem shutting up about the fact that smack dab in the middle of my Best Trip Ever I canceled my plans to go to Yazd and instead booked a night in a hotel room in Tehran to unwind.
I was sad to miss out on Yazd, but I knew that two straight weeks of Couchsurfing and socializing would be too much for this introvert. I needed 24 hours by myself to gather my thoughts and recharge, even if that meant “wasting” a precious day of my visa.
Central Asia
Another trip that I annoyingly bring up again and again, Central Asia quickly became my favorite region in the world to travel through. I tell everyone that they need to go (especially to Kyrygzstan and Tajikistan!), and it’s number one on my list of places I want to return.
I seem to have forgotten that while on this amazing backpacking trip I fought with the two girls I was traveling with nearly every day. Three can be a tough number to travel in and as the only Russian speaker in our group, I felt constantly overwhelmed by having to do all the communication. I think either Danielle or I cried just about every day we were in Tajikistan – a country that I now list among my top three places I’ve ever visited.
I remember responding with skepticism when Sasha told me that we would probably forget all the fighting when looking back on our time in Central Asia, but it turns out she was right!
Lake Baikal
It’s difficult to describe the feeling of standing on the frozen surface of the deepest lake in the world. The water was crystal clear, meaning I could see deep into the lake – something that had my legs wobbling just a bit (a lot).
Visiting Lake Baikal was definitely one of my top travel experiences, but I wasn’t sure I could include it here because there weren’t any lows. I asked Dan and he agreed that nothing bad happened there, “Well, except for the fact that you couldn’t breathe.”
Oh right, I was deathly ill at Lake Baikal! In fact, I left with a cough that would plague me for the rest of my month in Russia, yet now when I look back on that trip all I remember is that Russia was amazing.
Shaky from the view or because I’m about to faint?
Albania
It’s no secret that I adore the Balkans, and Albania might just be my favorite place there. But in between lying on the beach and swimming in the Albanian Riviera’s gorgeous turquoise waters there’s a chance you would have found me sobbing into my burek.
The truth is, I was freaking out over Dan and my five month backpacking trip coming to an end. I was nervous about trying to start a “normal” life in Norway, worried that Dan wouldn’t even like Norway, and, well, just plain scared. They say travel changes you, but change can be scary! Backpacking felt familiar and safe, so even though I knew it was time for something new, a huge part of me was dreading the change.
The Norwegian Mountains
Every time you hear me go on about an amazing trip into the Norwegian mountains – which is going to be often, because I do love the mountains here – you can be sure that what I’m not mentioning is that I was also horribly carsick. I don’t do well with winding mountain roads, and for some reason Norway’s seem to be the worst for me. But it’s a pain I’ll go through for those views!
Basically what I’m trying to say is, sometimes travel sucks or I just have to indulge and be super lazy for a day or two, but that doesn’t mean I should have stayed home!
How do you deal with low points during your travels?
PIN IT!
Megan says
i never ever got carsick in my entire life until i moved to norway. i couldnt go anywhere in the west without a bit of carsickness. oslo area was fine, but the west had such notoriously windy and small roads and i always had to sit up front and roll the window down or id get ill!
i totally feel you on the iran bit. i can only couchsurf for one night or two max before needing a hostel/hotel/somewhere else just to get away from it all. there have been so many times ive even been in a hostel and people invite me out and i say i have some work to finish in a cafe or somewhere just to be by myself. im the worst social traveler sometimes. and other times im the best. it is really strange but im glad you can sympathize <3
hope all is well in norge!
Silvia says
Seriously, Norwegian roads destroy me every time! And I have definitely used that same excuse to avoid hanging out with people, haha. Sometimes I just need some time alone!
Terry says
Sometimes you just got to take the lows with the highs. Its never going to be none stop amazing! What I’ve found is that no matter how bad the travel experience is you will never regret doing it! No-one ever regrets travelling, and sometimes its the worst experiences that make for the best stories.
Silvia says
It’s so true! I think travel lows can be really disconcerting if you haven’t traveled much before, but you soon come to learn that there are always going to be low points.
Kaelene @ Unlocking Kiki says
It really is so true, you only ever hear the positive stories of travel and when it doesn’t go that way on your trip you feel like you are doing something wrong. And being sick when traveling, it really is just no fun, but something I always forget about when reminiscing later on.
Silvia says
Right? My friend and I were reminiscing about how fun it was to stay in a yurt in Mongolia and about five minutes into our conversation we remember that, oh hey, we were actually soooo sick the entire time we were there! Haha it’s funny how we forget things like that.
Isabel says
Oh wow, thank you for your honesty! Yesterday I was actually thinking that sometimes our best of times come with our worst of times too. Looking back, I wouldn’t change them for a thing. Because now I realized that I became happier, and stronger too. Really, I love this!
Silvia says
I think that’s really true – you can’t have a truly amazing experience without something about it being hard.
Charlie Beatty says
I totally forgot all the bad things that happened on my backpacking trip! At the time, it always seems like the worst, but it’s true that those memories fade when you think of the overall picture. Also, your header pic is gorgeous!
Silvia says
Right? It’s funny how we forget the bad parts, but I guess it just means that those low points really don’t matter!
Danielle says
This is so true! The things we blog about and post on Facebook are always the highlights, but traveling is just like the rest of life: there are going to be lows along with the highs. For me that’s true of my “Eurotrip” last year with my sister. The trip was amazing, but in Amsterdam I was in pain on and off, and by the time we were even halfway through our four week trip I missed my boyfriend like crazy!
Reading about all the places you’ve been makes me really want to break out of my comfortable European travel environment. I’ve traveled quite a bit but it’s always been in developed countries in western Europe, and that really needs to change. I would love to go to Russia and Central Asia, and also to Australia. Some day…
Silvia says
I always want to encourage people to travel so I shy away from writing about low points, but I realized that sometimes it’s good to hear that that’s normal. You should definitely go to Russia and Central Asia – two of my favorite places ever! I mean, Australis is cool too, haha.
Diana Maria says
I’m so glad you wrote this post! I couldn’t agree more. It’s very easy to look back at a trip and remember the best memories and to downplay the difficult times but I’ve experienced this too! While backpacking Europe this past summer I experienced my first burnout in Italy after four weeks of travel. I felt so guilty for not wanting to see any more but also knew that I could come back and truly enjoy Italy on a different scale.
Lovely post!
Diana xo | http://mylovelierdays.com
Silvia says
I think it’s very telling that we forget our travel lows, as it shows that it really doesn’t matter at all if you have some difficult times, but at the same time it’s good to remember them sometimes so you don’t feel that guilt when it happens again!
Jennifer says
It’s funny, I started long term travelling in early 2000’s (eek, I’m old!) Back then ‘blogs’ weren’t really a thing and there wasn’t nearly as much information as there is now. I had no idea what to expect, or perhaps more accurately, I expected travel to be challenging. There were amazing and difficult times and they were all part of the package.
Things are so different now – not just with travel, but with everything in life. Blogs (and the Internet in general) have definitely raised everyone’s expectations. It’s great that you’re sharing this side of things because it’s normal and part of the whole ‘change your life’ thing that comes with travelling. It’s the tears and the challenges that teach and enrich your life.
Thanks for sharing!
Silvia says
It is something that makes me a little wary of being so involved in blogging and social media – those mediums really do paint an unrealistic view of life, and I hate to think that someone would feel bad about their travels because it doesn’t seem as exciting or glamorous as it does on blogs.
Laura says
Sooo well written! And it sums up all the feelings I’ve had myself – and also have had lately when we’ve faced to many problems that needed to be solved before we could move on in our travels.
Silvia says
Travel can be really hard! But worth it, for sure 🙂
Meghan says
This is such a wonderful post. Thank you for your honesty – not only with regards to your omissions – but on the topic of not feeling enthusiastic about a place or about traveling in general at certain times. I have on a number of occasions completely sidestepped the fact that I didn’t really enjoy or even like the place or that I wasn’t feeling well or I was going through a tired period etc. because I didn’t want to be negative. I also didn’t want to sound ungrateful because of the amazing opportunity I have to live my dream. But each time I felt slightly dishonest so really, thank you for this amazing post, and thank you for making me feel less guilty about the not-so-awesome parts.
Silvia says
It is a tough line to walk – we want to remember the highlights and be grateful for our opportunities, but at the same time you don’t want to pretend that travel is easier and more glamorous than it is. It’s a touch thing about blogging, I guess.
Van (@snowintromso) says
Travel can definitely turn into a nightmare, especially when you get sick abroad or things you paid a whole lot of money for just don’t turn out as expected. These are the things we can’t plan or foresee so I guess that’s why travel can also be scary sometimes. But you should always remember to appreciate the good days because they always make up for the bad ones!
Silvia says
It’s so true – the good days always seem to make all those bad things worth it in the end 🙂 At least hopefully, ha.
Hanne Hellvik says
Great article! I love when others also admit that there are two sides of travel, and also point out the not so great ones. I have experience many of them as well. And getting sick is the worst! I am from Norway, and I can understand you got carsick!
I remember ones I got really sick in Nigeria. We had no toliet, and everytime I had to go to it, like every five min, I had to first to out and get water and carry it in to spill down. It was a nightmare with fever and everything. But still I am happy I went trough it – I am so happy to have toilet and running water now. And when I am sick when out travel it is never as bad anymore thinking about that experience.
Silvia says
It’s true – dealing with tough situations abroad definitely makes you appreciate the comforts of home! And it makes for a more unique experience.
Lauren Lalicon says
Wow, it’s great to hear the other side of traveling! You summed up my feelings about my own trip abroad so well! I studied abroad in Taiwan for five months, and while in retrospect, I miss the country so very much, I had a hard time getting used to the culture, so I was constantly in a state of guilt and anxiety, which made me angry, which made me feel like I couldn’t appreciate my time there as much. I agree, there’s an influx of articles on the internet that practically inject wanderlust into your bloodstream. It’s great to see an article that gives a more realistic approach to traveling!
Silvia says
That sounds so much like my time in Japan! I felt very guilty and anxious, and sometimes sooo angry, haha.
Mary B says
Life has ups and downs, boring days and exciting ones – and that doesn’t go away when you’re traveling. The highs are higher, and sometimes the lows are lower, and some days you start crying in the post office in Tbilisi because something that should be so simple is made ridiculously hard by cultural/language barriers.
Thanks for sharing about the lows, but in a non-negative way! It’s easy in the moment to write an angry post about how much you hate a place and no one should ever go there because this taxi driver ripped you off or a hostel owner was a creep. This retrospective is a great way to acknowledge that the traveling life is no more perfect than the real one – but also that the good memories outweigh the bad and make it worth the effort!
Silvia says
I have cried in SO many public places while on my travels, ha. But you’re right – at least the highs are higher too!
Audrey says
Thanks for your honestly with this post! When I am having a bad time traveling, I think about what I would rather being doing. And, well, the answer is using traveling! It helps me relativize a bad moment, day, week and accept that regardless of where we are, there will be ups and downs.
Silvia says
That’s so true – even on the worst days I would rather be traveling, haha.
Victoria@ The British Berliner says
‘Love your post Silvia! It’s perfectly normal to feel jaded, sad, down or plain old fed up! Why not? It just shows that we’re human!
Whenever I do a long term travel journey, I pretty much fall sick. Every single time! When I went to Vietnam, I picked up a cold on the Areoflot Russian plane (air-conditioning) and I could never shake it off! I was in Vietnam for 30 days and I floated between fever, shivering, coughing, sore throats and feeling like hell. I was on a travel-around-Vietnam-and then-off-to-Bangkok jaunt and I certaintly didn’t want to go to a hospital there so I had aspirin for breakfast, lunch and dinner! When I returned to Berlin, I went to my own doctor who described me as “a silly girl” for not going to a doctor sooner and was on bedrest for a week!
I still had a great time though!
Silvia says
It sounds like you need to take better care of yourself on the road – stop all you’re partying, Victoria! lol
Victoria@ The British Berliner says
YOLO! Life is too short LOL!
Silvia says
haha true!
Patricia says
It’s so easy to forget all the bad things, however bad they were. I have this problem (or is it a good thing?) too. This summer in Greenland, I’ve been constantly cold, skin on my fingers was peeling off because my skin is not adapted to cold, I constantly had a running nose, I hate cold wind, but would I go back next summer? Sure, because I mostly remember the beautiful landscape, arctic foxes and all the other good things 🙂
Sarah says
Thank you so much for writing such a sincere post. I am studying abroad right now in Paris, and the only thing I ever see on the internet and on pinterst is only positives about traveling. I was having a rough past two weeks with (yes it actually does happen) culture shock. Before I studied abroad people would talk about culture shock and how I might experience that, and I just brushed it off thinking “of course! I’m in a different country but I’ll totally be alright, I can handle it”. And turns out it was much harder than I thought, but that doesn’t mean I would ever regret studying abroad. Thank you so much for your post.
Richelle says
I totally get this! One of my all-time favorite travel days was in Koh Rong, Cambodia where we hiked across the island to Long Beach that had white sand so soft and fine it crunched like snow! The water was absolutely beautiful, and we watched one of the most stunning sunsets of my life, and then hopped on a boat to swim with sparkling plankton! However, that was also the day I stepped on a sea urchin which led to me getting minor surgery and blood poisoning!!! In that case, I wrote a post about the sea urchin situation, and then when I wrote about Koh Rong and how much I loved that day, I made sure to mention the sea urchin situation and link to it. Sometimes your best days and your best trips also have major downsides, but in your mind you forget about it.
Silvia says
Whoa, that sounds like a nightmare – it says a lot about the joys of travel that it still managed to be one of your favorite travel days! But that is how it seems to go 🙂
Zascha says
You are so right. Travel isn’t always rainbows and unicorns. There are bad times as well and I definitely think it’s important to focus on the bad sides occasionally. As long as we remember the awesome moments the best! 😀
Silvia says
Exactly! At least it’s worth it in the end 🙂
Erica says
I’m late to the party, but this post was really fun to read! As a speaker of terrible-but-useful-in-an-emergency level Russian, I did alright in Central Asia (LOVED Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan). But I cannot imagine traveling in that region with other people relying on me to plan and communicate everything. In fact I would have killed my travel companions by the end of it under those circumstances. I think it’s totally fair to leave that stuff out of your posts because it feels like personal drama at the time of writing, but I really like hearing about the kinds of relationship dynamics backpackers go through.
Lake Baikal has been on my bucket list forever and ever– Amazing photo!
FeetDoTravel says
It’s true – it’s so easy to blog about the good parts because you don’t want to sound negative or put anyone off travelling but the fact is, there are always some lows – it’s just how you deal with it and how you rise from it. When I re-read my journal from my first couple of months backpacking through Africa when I was young, I wonder why I ever travelled again and I recall thinking at the time that I wouldn’t! Thankfully the wanderlust gene in me is too strong and I took what I could from the bad to make me a stronger traveller. Embrace the bad, laugh it off (later though, it took me years to do that when I was robbed in Thailand!) but at the end of the day, ALL travelling experiences will grow you as a person 🙂 Thanks for this post, I will endeavour to always add the not-so-good on my blogs in the future to try and give a more “rounded” account of my time 🙂
Myrissa says
This comment is a little late to the party, as I just found your blog, but I am so glad you wrote this. As someone who travels a bit I’ve definately had those days where I just need to catch up with myself or is just freezing cold or I miss speaking to other people in my own language and I sort of give up and “waste” a day in a hotel or reading or watching videos. No one likes to talk about the difficult side of travel life because most of it is so terrifuc. But it’s nice to know that I’m not alone when the bad days hit.
david says
great post with amazing prrof of lowest budget travel. i think if you travelled nepal that may be listed in this rank 😉 . thank for sharing!
Melissa says
“How do you deal with low points during your travels?”
What i’d say to anybody on this is ‘don’t try too hard’.
Some of my strongest and best travel memories have been of just hanging out and soaking up the atmosphere. Sit on a sunny step, have a drink under a tree at an outdoor cafe, watch the flames in a log fire, loiter at hot springs….
Just be there and be open to other people too because conversations make great memories. You don’t need to try too hard with this either. Just do things like make eye contact, smile, comment about something, move a little so people can sit next to you or whatever seems right at the time.
As regards tourist attractions, only go to ones that you feel interested in and if there are a lot of those choose one per day. Doing a long list of things you “should” do will not make great travel memories and your list and video coverage of these things will bore your friends and family to death if they dutifully put up with watching them.
I do say though, get off your hostel bed and switch off your phone, get out of the internet cafe, and go just about anyplace else and your travel experience will already become more worthwhile.
If you lighten up there will be fewer travel lows but there will be some. I think of them as part of the experience. Every silver lining has a cloud.