Ahhh travel.  Is there anything better than the feeling you get when you’re headed to a new place?  Or that exploration of a foreign spot or coming home after and feeling like you’ve truly changed from the inside out?  There are hundreds of reasons to fall in love with travel but when I really sat down and thought about it, there are 5 reasons to fall in love with travel that stand out to me, that I keep coming back to over and over, and why I keep on seeing the world, why I keep traveling and why traveling will always be a huge love of my life.

1.  The lead up.

There is no better feeling than the excitement before a trip somewhere.  That excitement that just beams out of us.  For me, it hits me mid-flight when I think about what’s on the other end.  That lead up makes me fall in love with travel over and over again, no matter if it’s a place I’ve been before or somewhere new and foreign, it’s an incredible part of this crazy wonderful thing we call travel.

2.  Opening up your eyes and mind.

There is no better way to open your mind, heart and eyes than to travel.  Traveling shows you how millions of other people out there live and breathe and love.  It shows us that we have more in common than different and that we really don’t know everything or the best way to do anything.  When you travel, you let yourself be opened up to new experiences, new people, new places.  It opens our hearts, it opens our minds, it opens our eyes.

3.  Exploration.

There is something about wandering a foreign place, exploring, getting lost, finding hidden gems and finding your way back again.  That exploration is good for the soul, it’s good for our minds.  Exploring this planet we call home is not only a necessity in my opinion, it’s also an exercise in strength, in curiosity, in learning.  Exploring a place that you don’t know is an incredible feeling and it opens us up to a literal world full of exploration.

4.  Growing as a person.

I truly believe that you can’t learn what you get from traveling any way else.  There are some things in this world that are just meant to be seen with our own eyes, touched with our own fingers or explored with our own feet.  Whether it’s been the Angkor temples of Cambodia or the colorful cities of India, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris or wandering the Thames in London, there are countless places on this Earth that have made me grow, that add to your experience as a person.  Seeing those things, feeling them, exploring them, and coming back home after teaches you to grow as a person more than perhaps anything else in the world.  I am forever changed after each trip I take no matter how close or far I go, because travel moves us, it envelops us and teaches us lessons we can not learn any other way.

5.  Memories made.

I can’t even tell you how many memories I’ve made around the world in different places, unique experiences that have shaped me, that have created stories in me that I will forever remember.  Moments like seeing the Eiffel Tower from our balcony in Paris on our honeymoon, like riding in the back of a tuk tuk through the streets of Udaipur with Hindi music blaring and the world flying past us, like standing in the middle of the Icelandic wilderness without another human for miles, like watching the sun set over the Manhattan skyline, like hiking through a slot canyon in the middle of New Mexico.  I could go on and on.  But the truth is that travel creates incredible stories within us, each different, each unique and those memories made will forever shape us as we go forward.

As travelers, we’re a different breed of people.  We’ve seen how people live around the world, we’ve missed connections and slept on airport floors.  We’ve gone hours without eating and battled sleep deprivation in countless  countries around the world.  Travelers have had to experience a lot and we’ve seen a lot, so there are some things in life that travelers just do better.

(PS – this post is merely meant to be fun, not to say anyone else doesn’t do any of these things better!)

1.  Just go with it.

When you’re relying on other people to get you places or airlines to be on time and then aren’t, you learn really quickly as a traveler to just go with it.  Going with the flow is essential to our success as a traveler and you learn very soon that letting go of much of that control is essential to the whole process of travel.

2.  Embrace the insignificant moments.

I can’t tell you how many memories I have from my travels when it wasn’t something very significant, but I remember it as such.  The insignificant moments end up becoming incredible because you’re out there in the world, you’re exploring, you’re living.  All too often we pass over those insignificant moments in our every day lives because we’re too busy with our daily routines.  But travelers learn to embrace those moments that are small and insignificant, but maybe the most important.

3.  Make the most of every day.

Traveling has taught me to really take in the moment, even when at home.  And even though it’s harder, travelers are often more present in their daily lives and make the most of every day we have.  We know that life is meant to be lived and experienced, so it’s essential to make the most of each and every second we have!

4.  Take care of the planet.

When you see how people in India are living with barely a roof over their head or how people in Cambodia have to bathe in the rivers, you realize really quickly that we are very lucky to have what we have in the West.  This also makes us think about how we can better take care of the planet, both environmentally and humanitarian-ly.  We’re all in this together, we need to help each other.

5.  Understand what’s really important.

I’ve seen children begging on the streets of Marrakech and kids and babies wandering the dirty streets of Agra, India.  And as travelers as we see such sights as these, we realize that it’s not about our giant houses and our giant cars and our fancy outfits that make us happy.  As humans we don’t need all that much to be happy, but often we let all those material things define our success and our happiness.  As travelers, we realize that those are nice, but it’s truly ourselves and those around us that make us happy and it’s about understanding what’s really important.

Travel costs money, there’s really no way around that.  Even when using credit card points or miles to your advantage (which is fantastic), you still have to have money to spend at your location or on other travel related items.  The key to traveling often is being able to save for those trips you want to take and having the cash to pay for them.  So if you want to travel more and you’re not sure where to start in terms of saving money, here are 5 simples ways to save for travel to get you going!

Eat at home.

The first thing I look at when I need to save money are my food expenses.  Most of the time you can save a lot of money by cooking and eating at home instead of going out to restaurants.  Take a look at your schedule and your habits and try to be economical in what types of food you buy at the grocery store and how you eat.  This can actually cut a huge amount of money out of your normal budget which can help you save long term.

Share meals or do happy hour when you go out.

One of the things that Nick and I do often when we do end up going out to teat is sharing meals or working it into our schedule to make happy hour where food is a lot cheaper.  This saves us a lot of money instead of both ordering full meals.

Sell clothes or extra items.

I’m adamant about going through my closet and apartment every month or two and selling anything laying around that we don’t need or use.  I sell clothes almost monthly if I haven’t worn them lately or extra technology that isn’t being used any more.  I know this doesn’t sound like you’ll make a ton of extra cash, but you’d be amazed how fast it adds up.

Cut out Coffee.

A huge one for many of us, think about how much money you’re spending on Starbucks or whatever place you frequent for your daily fix.  I don’t even have coffee every day (maybe 2-3 times per week) and even that really adds up.  Your $4 drink every day ends up being around $20 per week, which ends up being $80 per month, which ends up being almost $1000 per year!!!  There’s your airfare right there.

Cut out Alcohol/Desserts.

We have friends that complain a lot about not being able to travel but then will spend $30 at dinner on alcohol and extra things like dessert.  If you drink alcohol, look at the cost that is adding to your grocery and restaurant bills.  It ends up being a huge amount and something that we spend hardly any money on.  It’s all about what’s a priority!