We quit our science careers in the spring of 2018 and set off on an 18 month honeymoon around the world. Two weeks later in a cafe in Cordoba, Spain we decided that we had to start a travel blog. Fast forward 6 years to early 2024, we run our own travel business, we’ve only just stopped traveling full time and we’re putting roots down in North Carolina.
We’ll still travel to plenty of new places each year, but it’s nice to have a home base and it’s even nicer to get our clothes out of a closet rather than a suitcase! Over the last 6 years we’ve grown enormously and learned so much about life, so in this personal guide we’re going to talk about the 10 major benefits to long term travel, based on our extensive experiences.
1. See The World
When we met we immediately bonded over our shared dreams and ambitions to climb the Eiffel Tower, stand inside the Colosseum of Rome, see less visited places like Seoul, explore Angkor Wat, hike the Inca Trail, see the Grand Canyon and be full-blown tourists in New York City. And now we’ve done all those things.
It sounds pretty obvious, but the whole point of traveling long term is to see the cities, countries, continents and cultures on your bucket list. We took a huge risk quitting our careers (against all advice) because we wanted to see the world. We didn’t expect traveling to lead us on an entirely new path in life, but in the process we managed to see pretty much all the places we were desperate to visit.
2. Broaden Horizons
The most cliche of all travel benefits is that old expression you’ve heard about broadening your horizons. But it’s real and it’s so true. We can’t even begin to explain how much we’ve grown intellectually, emotionally and socially. We’ve gained entirely new perspectives about life, and we’ve seen places and things we never knew existed.
Travel has undoubtably fueled our creativity and it’s shown us how much more there is out there in the world. People, jobs, ways of life. We’re both methodical and analytical by nature, so who knew we’d be able to build a successful travel blog which requires so much creativity? We would never have known ourselves if we didn’t take a chance and broaden our horizons.
3. It’s Exciting
Travel brings new experiences every single day. One of our favorite things about traveling long term is the thrill of waking up each morning in a new national park or city and saying “right, what are we going to do today?”. There’s just something so deeply liberating about being on the road long term, which inevitably made us feel positive even on days when we were tired or craving a bit of normality.
We loved the perpetual buzz of seeing major attractions for the first time, eating outrageously good local food and pushing hard to complete incredibly multi-day treks in the mountains. The constant nervous-but-excited butterflies feeling of going somewhere new is the reason why travel is so addictive to so many people.
4. It’s Fulfilling
Do you ever sit at work and think “I’d love to visit South America” or “Take me to a Thai Island beach!”? We did too, every day. And we didn’t feel fulfilled at the end of each day. But now our travel bucket list is almost filled with ticked boxes, and we feel so content that we’ve seen most of the places we need to.
When we were on the road full time and even now when we go on a short break, we end every single day feeling completely fulfilled because we’ve hiked a new trail, seen a new attraction or walked around a new neighborhood. Every trip we take edges us closer to completing our very extensive bucket list.
5. Meet Interesting People
One of our favorite by-products of visiting new places around the world is having the chance to meet seriously amazing like-minded people. We’ve been lucky enough to build some truly wonderful relationships with people of all ages, from all backgrounds and who live all across the planet. And we’d never have met any of them if we didn’t travel.
It’s so easy to meet other travelers when you’re on the road because everyone’s in the same boat, they usually have similar outlooks on life and they almost always want to make connections. So without question, one of the major benefits to long term travel is meeting people and learning about their countries, cultures and lives.
6. Appreciate Home More
Another cliche but another one that’s so true, we both genuinely appreciate things about home far more than we did before we traveled the world. A lot of people feel like they absolutely at all costs must leave the place they grew up in order to develop and get out of their comfort zones. Now, we both had great upbringings in nice places, but we also had a burning desire to leave.
And after years of exploring the world, we’ve come to miss some of things we used to hate! It’s human nature. We feel so differently about the places we grew up because we’ve gained a whole new perspective on life. Now, we have reference points to compare places, personalities mindsets, outlooks on life and so much more.
7. Hiking
When we visit new countries, the first thing we do is look for the top hikes in the area. And traveling the world has given us the opportunity to hike many amazing trails into forests, mountains, deserts and canyons. It’s one of our favorite things to do anyway, so it’s pretty awesome that we get paid to write about the trails we’ve done.
Some of our best memories are from the W Trek in Patagonia, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Rim-to-River in Grand Canyon South Rim, The Enchantments in Washington, too many to count in US national parks and the Tour du Mont Blanc in Europe. Head over to our hiking page to see the trails we’ve written about so far.
8. Travel Photography
Before we set off on our honeymoon in 2018, neither of us had a clue how to take travel photos. We started with our phones, then we bought a basic camera and not long after we upgraded to top spec equipment. In a very short time we took our travel photography skills from non-existent to pretty damn good. Today, we have photos published in books and we sell our own travel photos in our shop.
Photography has become one of our big passions in life. Eventually we’d love to travel exclusively for photography and videography purposes. And the beauty is that we wouldn’t have known how much we love making photos and videos if we never traveled the world. It’s just one more reason we’re grateful we took the leap.
9. Food
What’s your favorite cuisine? Italian? Thai? Japanese? Well, traveling directly to those places means you get to eat authentic dishes straight from grandma’s kitchen. Eating ramen in Osaka, pizza in Naples or masaman curry in Bangkok is so different to visiting your local westernized restaurant.
We love food, and being able to eat traditional meals in countries all around the world is one of the major reasons we stayed on the road for so long! It’s also one of the reasons it’s so hard to stay in shape when you travel long term. The downside is that you need to have a big enough budget to eat well, consistently, for years on end.
10. Doing It All Together
Saving the best for last, the thing we love most about traveling the world is being able to do it together. Long term travel means endless decision making, problem solving, planning and packing. So it can be stressful, tiring and tedious. But every experience we’ve had has been shared, and that includes too many highs and lows to count.
It’s been a life changing journey of self discovery on both an individual and team level. We managed to explore the world almost non-stop for 6 years (and we’re still married!) so we know we can get through anything together.
More Personal Guides
Want to learn more about us? Head over to our about Where Are Those Morgans page to meet Mark and Kristen.
We hope you enjoyed our take on the benefits of long term travel!
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments below.
Happy Travels,
Mark and Kristen
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Mark and Kristen Morgan are travel, hiking and photography experts. Over the last 6 years traveling full time, they have explored more than 40 countries and 30 US states.
Where Are Those Morgans has been featured in USA Today, Gestalten, Get Your Guide, CityPASS and Condé Nast Traveler along with various other publications. Read more about us.