Long Term travel isn’t something to take on easily but really opens up your eyes to how you can live with a free-er spirit! When I first decided to take off into the blue yonder and travel for a long period of time solo, I had many of my friends and family tell me “I was crazy” and “won’t you get lonely?”. After traveling for two years almost non-stop (I did take off 8 weeks in the middle to recharge back at my parent’s in AU) there were definite times when I was crazy and I definitely got lonely but gee the feeling of liberation… No need to get out of bed when the alarm clock chimes to go to work, no need to eat three meals a day (if you don’t want), no sitting in peak hour traffic, a new vista to see each and every day and all the friends I met along the way. There is nothing like travelling for a long period of time!
The first thing to understand about travelling for more than 6 weeks (my definition for a long time) is that at about the 10 to 12 week mark (maybe earlier if you get really homesick) you’ll start to get sick and tired of travelling and start to think about going home. I met many people on my travels who all reported something similar, at about the three month mark, you’ll start to think you shouldn’t keep going and you’ll start to think about going home. This is when you start to realise that long term travel is actually quite different to travelling for the usual “two or four week annual holiday”.
The usual annual vacation normally comprises of “ok, we’ve got two weeks, we’re going to XX country/ city and I want to do twenty things each day so that I make the most of my time away”. Long term travel isn’t like this! Firstly, I’ve always treated my long term travel time like a job, with a job, you work 8-5 (or whatever) and you work 5 days a week. This therefore means that you need to make sure you have downtime from your holiday! If you don’t, you will get burnt out very quickly and probably will come home at the 10- 12 week mark because you will be exhausted!!
The way I combat the travel burn out is that I make sure that I alternate between really lux/ nice hotels and “somewhere to sleep” accommodation. When I stay in the nicer hotels I know I’ll get a good nights sleep and I try not to do too much sight seeing on the day after staying in the accommodation (so make the most of a late check out for example). I recommend also keeping to any standard routines- if you go for a thirty minute run every day, then keep to the thirty minute run. Also try to do “normal” things a few times a week- sit down and catch up on my favourite tv show, do my laundry at the laundromat, go and watch a movie, just sit and read a book. You need to balance your travel lust with a sense of normality.
My other key trick to “keeping on travellin'” is to take a proper break from the travel every few months. As an example, I travelled the US and Canada with my parents for almost six months (you can read more about the epic road trip @ Weary Feet Treks the Globe) Neither of my parents had any experience at long term travel but had lived vicariously through some of my other adventures so they knew that we had to have some downtime. What we decided to do was do a house swap (my parent’s house in Australia for house in Florida) for a week. We spent that week doing totally normal household things and got back into some sort of routine. Dad played golf, Mum read her book, I caught up my travel blog etc. Other things I’ve employed over the years is to just base myself in a city for two weeks and just live like a local. Airbnb makes this super easy to do these days, or you could house sit or couch surf or whatever takes your fancy. Just remember to allow yourself decent downtime every other month to give yourself a chance to recharge the batteries and dream about the next part of your adventure!