8 Ways Travelling Changed My Life For The Better

Last Updated on 14th December 2020

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Travelling changed my life in so many more ways than I could have ever imagined. It helped shape me into the person I am today and without those 11 months of backpacking Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, I wouldn’t be equipped with even half the life lessons I have now.

I’ve always been one to look for ways to save money on travel, in order to make my travelling experiences last for as long as possible so when we had to head back to the UK in March 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it was so difficult to comprehend that a life we were striving to build for ourselves had to be put on a temporary, albeit indefinite hold.

Despite the pandemic and having very little travel experiences since it started, my wanderlust has only intensified further and my yearning to see the world even more is just one of the things that travel itself has taught me over the years.

Here are a few more ways that my obsession with travel has impacted my life and changed me as a person.

It taught me to love so many different kinds of cuisines – how travelling changed my life

I think one of my favourite ways that travelling changed me for the better is that it showed me just how many incredible different cuisines there are in the world and I bet I haven’t even tried 1% of the delicacies available!

On our travels in Italy, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam (just to name a few), I’ve eaten some of the most incredible dishes of my life and travel taught me to be braver in my culinary decisions and to be open to new and exotic flavours.

It showed me that a life of routine isn’t for me

One fact that travel cemented for me, rather than just taught me, is that a life of routine really isn’t for me.

Don’t get me wrong; some days life on the road could be unfathomably exhausting and mentally draining at times, but I would much prefer that rather than a life of routine and doing the same thing day in, day out.

Being back in the UK over the last 9 months has been impossibly difficult for so many reasons, but one of the hardest changes we’ve had to make is to succumb to some kind of ‘routine’ again.

Of course, nothing has been ‘normal’ this year due to the pandemic, but doing the same menial tasks every single day has been exhausting and I crave for the time where each day offers something new and different again.

It showed me that there’s so much beauty in the world

Whether you travel far and wide, or much closer to home, it’s easy to see that there’s so much beauty in the world and I’m eternally grateful for the ability to travel in order to see such immense landscapes, wondrous sights and diverse cultures as part of my excursions.

It helped me realise what my priorities are in life

I think one of the most valuable things I’ve learned over the years thanks to travelling is that I now know exactly what my priorities are.

Aside from the obvious of nurturing friendships and relationships with my family (and of course, Matt), I’ve realised that the majority of my priorities in life fall within my desire to travel for as long as possible.

Travel means more to me than I could ever express and it’s something that I always want to be a huge part of my life, so almost every decision I make is surrounded by my desire to travel. Whether that’s with regards to my family life (they obviously come first but I endeavour to live a life where I can combine the two) or my career (as a travel blogger and writer, I’m free to work pretty much anywhere with a WiFi connection).

It gave me more wanderlust than ever – ways travelling changed my life

You would have thought that travelling full time for 11 solid months, plus visiting over 25 countries in the last three years alone would be enough to sate my travel needs (at least for now), but it’s actually done the opposite.

While many people would be pretty happy with their share of travels that I’ve experienced so far (don’t get me wrong, I obviously am too), I still constantly crave more and as I’ve discovered that the world really is such a vastly enormously place, I know there’s so many more amazing things to see, do, eat and experience.

It forced me out of my comfort zone so many times

The concept of travel in general is one that often forces people out of their comfort zones, whether that’s hopping on a plane for the first time, heading to a new country with a language barrier or eating food that they wouldn’t usually try.

But for me, the biggest steps I took out of my comfort zone when travelling involved things like jumping off a crane in New Zealand as part of a bungy jump, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef (I was terrified of the ocean), riding a motorbike in the Philippines and even driving a huge campervan on foreign roads in NZ and Australia.

The summation of these grand events and experiences taught me so much about myself and made me realise the pride I could feel when I experienced something so vastly out of my comfort zone.

It taught me to go with the flow as much as possible

This is actually something that I’m still working on and it’s probably something I’ll have to work at for the rest of my life but travel definitely taught me to try and go with the flow where possible.

As a self-confessed Type A major control freak, I really struggle when things are out of my control and the pandemic this year has only heightened those emotions for me.

When we were travelling however, even right down to the fact that our return home was beyond my control, I had very little choice but to accept things for what they were and to take each day as it came.

When you’re travelling, there are so many instances where the situation is beyond your control and most of the time, you either have a choice to just accept it, or to try and fight it and inevitably end up failing and becoming even more disappointed.

So many things can go wrong when you’re on the road, but I’ve found that those difficult times have now turned into funny stories; if you can try and see them as that at the time, you’ll certainly be thankful.

It made me appreciate my family even more

Yet another thing that travel taught me was to appreciate my family even more.

I’ve always been someone who can manage quite well away from home. It’s not that I don’t miss my family (quite the opposite, in fact), but I’ve always been brought up to seek out adventure so even when I was a young teenager and went to America for three weeks at a time to stay with my aunty, uncle and cousins, homesickness never truly hit me very hard.

However, when we started “properly” travelling in April 2019 and knew that we’d be away from our homes and families in the UK for an indefinite period of time, the reality of homesickness started to settle in when I realised I didn’t know how long it would be until I saw my beloved family and friends again.

This homesickness really showed me just how important my family really are to me and even though the fear of leaving them and gallivanting around the world again at some point in the future scares me somewhat, I also know now that I’m better equipped with the skills and means of coping with feelings of homesickness.

And there we have it! Just a few of the ways travelling changed my life for the better; I sincerely can’t wait for the future lessons that I’m yet to learn from travelling and I’ll be sure to update this post as and when I do!