If there is one thing in this world that we never regret spending money on, it’s travel. Even if you have a bad experience – the hotel is not good, your luggage gets lost, or it rains the entire trip – you still come back from a trip with insight into yourself or the world that you didn’t have before.
Travel is the only thing in this world that makes you richer despite spending money. Of course in this case, richer doesn’t mean monetary wealth. It means in experiences, friendships, and knowledge.
6 Reasons Why You Should Spend More of Your Money on Travel
1. You will reconnect with yourself
Travelling naturally pushes you out of your comfort zone. You are in a place you’ve never been with a culture and often times a language that is different from your own. You have to rely on yourself and strangers to help you get to where you are going and figure out the intricacies of the country. Especially if you are travelling alone, you will have plenty of time to reflect on yourself, your values and your life. Travelling forces you to confront all of your strengths and weaknesses and the positive and negative traits of your character.
2. Make friends with people from different cultures and places
When you travel, unless you exclusively keep to yourself and the people you are travelling with, you will make friends. These bonds are often made quickly and are quite strong, because you share memories and rely on each other that is out of the norm of everyday life. You’ll get the local perspective and get to do and see things that most tourists don’t. Now, with social media, it is easy to stay connected with these friends, and you’ll always have a place to stay whenever you want to go back for a visit (and vice versa).
3. You’ll learn about different cultures and customs
You can read about different places and watch documentaries on them, but until you actually get your feet on the ground and visit them yourself, you can’t truly know a place. Walking the streets and talking to the people helps you learn not just how things are, but why, and most importantly how people feel about it. It opens your own perspective and teaches you to be more accepting and understanding of others.
4. Travelling makes you more adventurous
It’s hard not to become braver while travelling. You are constantly putting yourself in unfamiliar situations and being asked to try things that you’ve never tried before. As a result, you become more daring – things don’t scare you the way they used to, or at the very least you are more apt to try them despite your fears. You become more of a “yes man/woman” and end up having incredible experiences because of it.
5. You learn to take the right risks
Travelling doesn’t just make you a bigger risk-taker, but a smarter one. You become more in-tune with your gut instincts. The difference between an exciting adventure and a dangerous decision becomes increasingly clear. You also learn how far you can push yourself out of your comfort zone before the risk no longer outweighs the reward and you stop actually having fun.
6. Travelling makes you a more interesting person
The more you travel, the more stories you have to tell. The experiences you have and lessons you learn while travelling make you a more interesting person to talk to, can help you more easily connect with others, and can even give you a leg up in the corporate world. William Langeweische could not have been more correct when he said “So much of who we are is where we’ve been.” You will become more well-rounded, open, and of course, have memories that will last a lifetime.
You can reinvent yourself over and over again while travelling. You can learn new skills, meet interesting people, and have a blast while doing it. Though travelling can have some true low-points and difficult moments, the highs that come along with it are always worth the challenges you will face. Both the amazing and the hard parts about travelling will ultimately make you a better person, so what are you waiting for? Get out there and start exploring.