Travel Realistically In Your 20’s

I honestly can’t stand all of the articles I read that are like “You’re in your 20’s! Quit your job and open up an ice cream shack in the Bahamas!” or “Don’t worry about getting a job – backpack through Europe and find yourself!”

Come on, in my early 20s I lived with my parents and barely saved any money in college. I needed a job and couldn’t just up and go anywhere without money therefore I need that job. Also, I really like where I live – why do I need to go live somewhere completely foreign to me just because I’m in my 20’s?

Most of the things I read are so unrealistic. They make me feel bad because I’m not a free spirit obsessed with wanderlust.

But there are some realistic things you can do and should do in your 20’s and travel is one of them! Just not to that extreme.

You’re working your first real job and living at home. You’re saving more money than you’ve ever saved and spend a majority of your time at work. You don’t live with your friends anymore and only see them on occasion. The time after graduating college is your first real and true taste of monotony.

So you need to break it up. Chances are, you don’t have a party planned every weekend. Chances are, you spend a lot of weekends alone doing nothing. It’s just the circumstances. I don’t think you need to fill every weekend to the brim with fun and friends – but you should take advantage of this open time.

You can travel locally. Go to a different state you’ve never been to before, you don’t even have to stay overnight if you don’t have the cash! Or go to a different country – Canada and Mexico border the United States and you’re probably not too far from either. Go for a weekend, do some research, and make it cheap!

Go on a road trip, you’ve probably never even seen your own country! You get paid vacation time now, you need to take advantage of it. Yea, you could take off a week around the holidays to hang out with your family. Or you could go on a kick ass vacation. And if you plan it right, you can totally afford it!

Even if you can’t travel – you need to do something new. Jump in the ocean in the winter. Run a marathon. Learn a new hobby – bake or knit or paint! Don’t let your life become the 9-5 bore that you dreaded all four years of college.

Everyone always says “do it while you’re young.” Well, now’s that time! Sure – a lot of things seem impossible. Up and moving to Hawaii or traveling through Australia for months. They’re fun ideas, but way out of reach. Find the things that are within your reach and grasp them. Instead of blowing $50 or more at the bar you always go to, put it towards a new experience. You’re in your 20’s, you’re resourceful and able, take advantage of it.