Anyone spend a lot of time traveling and REGRET it?

I have not spent months traveling, more like weeks, but I have never regretted any trip that I have taken in my entire life. Each one teaches me something about a place that interests me and teaches me about how other people make a living in a place that I have not visited. And because my only worry is getting from place to place, I have a lot of time to relax with my travel mates or with my own thoughts if I am traveling alone.

Regret is useless, anyways. The only thing that eats me up inside are the things I did not do, not the things that I did do.

I think I can answer your question. I haven't time traveled yet, but I did in the future, and it will have caused me nothing but trouble. I went all over the past, but I will find it kind of repetitive in the end, and there wasn't any of the technology that the future will have developed when I went to go back in time.

So all in all, I will eventually decide that time travel isn't an effective way to further your career. Hope this helps.

going away for a while wrote:

For anyone who's spent a significant amount of time (months to years) traveling, do you regret it at all? Do you wish you hadn't spent the time or money? Would you be better or worse off had you focused more on your career instead?

I traveled and lived abroad (some work, some backpacking) basically from 26 to 30.

If I hadn't done that, would I be "better off" in terms of paying off student loans, moving my career forward, buying a house or whatever it is most people worry about? Probably?

Am I "better off" in terms of getting to know several regions of the world, living in and and visiting dozens of countries, meeting the woman of my dreams and having no regrets? Yes.

thanks. Any more?

not at all. Why would you regret spending your time and money on experiences you will remember the rest of your life? Isn't that what life is all about? experiencing the world? Travel is the best way I know to make new memories and experiences. Why would you want to work your entire life and not treat yourself to a vacation from time to time?

The only person I know who traveled a lot was my grandfather when he was in the Marines and he did a Mediterannean cruise and says it was one of the bestp parts of his life, he saw almost the entire region.

Go for it, and enjoy it if you have the opportunity.

This world is massive. Enjoy every minute of it, see every bit of it. "You never know when your going to go" -Nas

Two anecdotal experiences:

1) I traveled and bounced around a lot right after college, up until about 26 (I'm 28 now), and when I initially tried to get a career jump-started, it took some serious work, rejection, and stress (emotional and financial). I wondered if I made the right decision due to how behind I felt compared to my friends who started careers immediately after school.

2) I know a girl who started traveling in her early 20's off of her parents' dime, and has had cool experiences in many different countries. However, she is nearing 30 now, never worked a job longer than 6 months, and can't find a job that pays more than $12/hour to save her life. No employer will take a chance on her. Why would they? She spent her entire 20's traveling and goofing off, all while developing zero skills. The past 2 years been very rough for her, because the money has dried up and she doesn't really have the tools to build a career. all her friends are in stable jobs, making investments for their future, and she can barely scrape enough money together to pay rent. And it looks like that will be the case for quite a while.

You have to decide if the opportunity costs are worth it. For many people they are, and I admire those folks that travel for extensive periods. For me, around my mid-20's I started to worry that I was jeopardizing my future, so I settled down a bit. I still do tons of adventurous things, but those days of taking off months at a time are long gone.

You only get 1 shot at this world, it's better to experience it than to hole up in some corner and never see or do anything other than work.

In the world of sports and entertainment there are thousands of people that forego the traditional route and max out their passions. That's fine as long as you are OK with the consequences of doing so.

There are guys in the minor leagues of baseball barely making enough to pay rent. If life is JUST about math they should quit immediately and go get a real job and start a family get married etc... but they don't they want to know how far their talent can take them.

How many actors are there working as bartenders and waitstaff? They want to know what they have, if they have "it".

There are runners out there doing the same thing. They know they aren't going to Olympics or winning NYC or whatever, but they are maxing it out as long as they can because life isn't math, it's an essay.

The obvious downside is you get to be 30 years old and you haven't worked a job, owned a home, or done any of the stuff society thinks you should do, you are "behind" your peers. However if you consider yourself behind because you were training hard, racing in Europe, playing baseball in the minors, acting way way way off Broadway- then you should have chosen the tradition route in the first place.

Quaid wrote:

I think I can answer your question. I haven't time traveled yet, but I did in the future, and it will have caused me nothing but trouble. I went all over the past, but I will find it kind of repetitive in the end, and there wasn't any of the technology that the future will have developed when I went to go back in time.

So all in all, I will eventually decide that time travel isn't an effective way to further your career. Hope this helps.

I had the same problem when I time traveled. Sure, at first the novelty of seeing different eras of human existence can be charming, but you start to miss your life back home. I don't regret traveling to the past, but the future. Life is a lot different when you know your destiny. I'd advise against time travel.

Time traveling is one of my dreams. I hope I don't have to spend a lot to do it.

No regrets, but I did it differently.

I was unable to travel when I was younger. No parental support. I went straight into college (paid my way) and then into the work force. I was in my mid-30s before I started to travel. Now 47, I travel up to 5 weeks a year. Wish I could have started younger, but I had a career and had to put food on my family. Easier now.

BTW, I will be retired at 55 (at the latest) and plan to travel extensively after that. So I missed the fun "backpack across Europe in your 20s" but get to work less when I'm old. Shrug.

I once time traveled and accidentally saw my conception.

I regret that.

Yes, I definitely regret the amount of time and money I wasted traveling. I feel like I missed out on a lot of life back home. Most people I know now are all about kids. I basically have no friends. I really wish I had only done one year. I wish after that I had gotten a real job and then just done shorter trips whenever I could.

It depends on your situation. Can you afford it financially and time wise? Are you in a situation where things need to be done now and should not wait? I would say if you can afford it and have no other pressing issues then go.

Personally, I have embarked on travel only to book a flight back home because the places were too humid and hot or were totally devoid of any enjoyment. I have however find my region of the world and I take my work with me when I go for months at a time.

I both regret and am glad I did some, mainly the long distance ones. For example we went to Africa recently. Lot of cash, and you learn a lot, great experience, but it's also a lot of time working to pay for it (which isn't such a good experience), when we could have just worked less, and polluted the world less. I'd rather do that than buy a new car though, or some other irrelevant crap. So, I'm mixed about it all!

yesma wrote:

Yes, I definitely regret the amount of time and money I wasted traveling. I feel like I missed out on a lot of life back home. Most people I know now are all about kids. I basically have no friends. I really wish I had only done one year. I wish after that I had gotten a real job and then just done shorter trips whenever I could.

Samesies. I'm not sure my history counts as travelling really, but whatever it is I certainly regret it all (am a pretty regretful person in general though). I left the USA about ten years ago now. I've never dug travelling for travelling's sake, but I've lived for long periods in an embarrassing number of wide-ranging places across the americas, europe, and asia. Am 38 now and while it hasn't left me in any disaster situation (I'm healthy and fit, have zero debt, and am paid to do work which most people find enviable), neither am I anywhere near where I'd otherwise prefer to be in life right now. I definitely regret leaving the USA to go live abroad at this point. The degradation and loss of friendships due to distance has been and continues to be seriously soul-destroying. I've made and lost other friends abroad for same reasons and that too hurts nearly as bad.

I don't own a home and am unmarried with no children which I understand in today's world is likely an asset, but some niggling biological thing inside me fills me with shame for these holes in my life. The constant fight for legal immigration status has taken years off my life for the stress of it all. Certainly gives you a good perspective on what immigrants go through when you are one yourself. I'm now 6 months away from being able to apply for 'permanent' resident status in the european country where I'm living, and even if they grant me it, I'm still trying to return to the USA now. Flying back tomorrow actually for work which I hope to lead into a more permanent situation.

That's another factor. After you've got sick of being always a foreigner, it's trickier than you think to reverse it and go back home. I've been ten years away, so it's not like I can just book a flight back to my apartment. It's like starting over from scratch, and the USA is not a friendly place these days toward someone looking to ease back into a residential situation there. It's pretty much '2 year lease or nothing.' Finding a job is tricky when you've a long history of living and working abroad (if you were able to find work as a foreigner, which is nearly impossible). And then the culture shock. After a certain extended absence, the place you called home isn't the same as you remember it, neither the people the same as you left them. You have a whole lot of experiences they don't, and probably vice versa, and that drives a wedge between people.

So yes it's all quite tricky and at this point I do regret it. But no going back now. Back in time I mean. Can't reverse the decision. I would counsel anyone thinking about going on some long extended travel thing to think twice and thrice about it before committing. Especially now days, when the world is sadly pretty much the same everywhere. Cities at least, along with all the marquee travel spots which people see on instagram and get inspired to go to all the spots themselves. The world has been ruined by the tourism apparatus, making it easy and comfortable for anyone to go anywhere no matter how clueless. You simply can't escape it without SERIOUS commitment and probably more money than most people have access to. So in short, it's not worth it these days. Stay home, work toward your future, and if you just can't quell the itch, go see the world in short snatches of vacation rather than some years-long trip.

The only thing I regret about travelling is the fact I travelled not as often as I could. Now I promissed myself I will travel whenever I have such opportunity. Just now I have been playing my Bali vacation through https://travelsites.com/ . Will try to make up for the lost time.

vivalarepublica wrote:

I have not spent months traveling, more like weeks, but I have never regretted any trip that I have taken in my entire life. Each one teaches me something about a place that interests me and teaches me about how other people make a living in a place that I have not visited. And because my only worry is getting from place to place, I have a lot of time to relax with my travel mates or with my own thoughts if I am traveling alone.

Regret is useless, anyways. The only thing that eats me up inside are the things I did not do, not the things that I did do.

+1

Well said.