1.2. "I couldn't take a big trip like that, because..."
by Edward Hasbrouck
You say want to travel around the world, but you haven’t done it? What’s your excuse
for not fulfilling your travel dreams?
- “I couldn’t get that much time.” If you think, “No one in my
situation could get six months
off,” you’re wrong. Whatever your age, occupation, and stage in your career, people
like
you are finding time to travel. Once you really resolve to travel, you’ll find a way
to
make the time.
- “I have a job and a career.” Your job and career may be the best reasons for
world
travel: There’s no better investment in your skills and future earning potential than
a
year or two of international travel.
- “I have children.” Children are another great reason to take a
trip around the world. Few
other gifts you could give your children could match the lifelong value of
international
experience and exposure to global diversity as a child. No one I know who has
traveled
abroad as a child would think of trading a year of world travel for a year of
conventional
schooling. Experience living abroad as a child is the single best predictor of success
in
international business as an adult.
- “I don’t have that much money.” You can’t extrapolate from short
vacations to long- term
travel, or from package tours to independent travel. Most people find that their
total
costs, including airfare, for an extended international trip are less than their
living
costs were at home. If you can afford to spend a summer or a year sitting around your
back yard doing nothing, you could afford to spend the same amount of time traveling
around the world — for less than the cost of staying home.
- “The places you talk about are too far away.” Europe isn’t the
closest other continent to
North America. From San Francisco or Seattle, Tokyo is closer than London. From
Miami,
Sao Paulo or Santiago de Chile are closer than Madrid. From New York, Senegal is
closer
and a shorter flight than Switzerland. And the Third World is, of course, right next
door
to the USA in Mexico and much of the Caribbean.
- “It would be too difficult and uncomfortable.” Because services
are so much cheaper in
poorer places, independent budget travel in the Third World can be much easier and
more
comfortable than in the First World. It’s travel in wealthy, expensive places like
the
USA or Western Europe that’s most difficult on a budget and takes the most travel
savvy.
- “I don’t speak a foreign language.” Never before has any
language had the truly global
hegemony that English has today. You’ll learn much more if you know more languages,
but
there is almost nowhere that you can’t get around on English. You speak English:
you’re
lucky and privileged. Make the most of it: you can go wherever in the world you
want.
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"Don't believe anything just because you read it on the Internet. Anyone can say anything on the Internet, and they do.
The Internet is the most effective medium in history for the rapid global propagation of rumor, myth, and false information."
(From The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace, 2001)
This page published or republished here 1 January 2001; most recently modified 18 October 2020. Copyright © 1991-2024 Edward Hasbrouck, except as noted.
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