For me, and for I’m sure most travelers, travel is something I feel I can never get enough of. If I’m in the airport on the way to Paris, and I see departing flights to Berlin, I do get disappointed that I have to say no to Berlin because I’m literally already going to Paris. It’s a struggle! So, for the first few months of my life abroad, I packed all the travel I possibly could into my life. While I won’t say I regret it, there were some definite signs that I was pushing myself too far. Now when I talk to other travel friends and they complain about the following symptoms, I can easily diagnose it as “chill out man, you’re allowed to stay in one place!”
Fatigue
Travel is exhausting. Even if you take it easy, and don’t necessarily go skydiving every day, travel will still take a toll on your energy level. What you don’t realize is that not only is long-distance transportation exhausting, but when you’re constantly uprooting your home base, never totally aware of where you are, and experiencing some, even minor, sort of cultural shock, your body gets tired.
If you don’t pay attention to your energy level, be prepared to live off the travel high for a little while, and then crash hard enough that thoughts like “should I really be traveling? I want to go home, travel isn’t worth it without mom/dad/Jenny/Spot” start invading your brain. If this happens, you can absolutely stick through it and continue on your way, but it makes the travel lifestyle that much harder.
Sickness
Riding on the back of fatigue is sickness. Not only are some travelers constantly on the go which stifles their immune systems, but exposing your body to new elements introduces bacteria that maybe your body doesn’t have the ability to combat. Therefore, what happens is your body falls victim to these new elements in order to build up the protection it needs to survive in this new atmosphere.
The problem is, when you’re constantly traveling from place to place, not only does your body not get a chance to rest, but you’re constantly throwing new elements at it. In the first few months of my life abroad, I was getting sick every month; though it was always just a cold, it was a very bad cold that kept me in bed for a week. Lesson learned.
Monotony
The thing that makes the travel lifestyle so wonderful is that you’re not seeing and doing the same things every day. While your friends are sitting at a desk 9-5, you went and climbed Mount Everest! However, when travel becomes everyday, you find yourself unhappy with the same monotonous lifestyle that inspired you to travel in the first place. Eventually, all cathedrals, mountains, and beaches mesh together and become the same experience. Amazing things become boring because you grow accustomed to them. While you may have amazing memories to go with each place, the memories all blur into one general memory.
Your Bank Account
Travel is expensive. There is no doubt about that. There are tons of budget travel blogs out there that explain how to travel on a budget (what a thought, huh?), and a very common topic is to travel slowly. When you travel too quickly, you find yourself paying for bus tickets, flights, restaurants on the go, and last-minute hotel rooms. Eventually, you’ll run out of cash. Slower travel means you can hang out, maybe make some money on the side, and plan your expenses in advance, usually at a discount.