Why People Don't Travel More Often

I have traveled quite a bit in my lifetime thanks to my parents and my school's educational opportunities. But, now that I am married and I no longer have my parents to help me afford vacations or my school to give me unique opportunities, I have realized that it is up to me and my husband to decide when and where we want to go.

First, please know that when I talk about traveling in this blog, I mean traveling for fun. Not for business, not for family, but for your own enjoyment.

What I have found through the years is that a large majority of people would say that one of their hobbies or passions is traveling. Most of the people who fit in this category have been out of the country or have taken quite a few vacations in their lifetime. But, I would also assume that if asked most of these people would say that they do not feel like they've maximized their traveling as much as they would like to. Why do people not travel as much as they would like to? The following is a list of reasons why I believe people don't travel as much as they would like to: 

Reasons why people don't travel as much as they would like to:

1. It costs to much (This is probably the biggest reason, especially the way that the economy is now. You not only have to think about the expenses you accrue from traveling, but also the ones you deduct from not working and that can add up. But, I think the reason why this is such a huge issue is because of the priority in which you put traveling. If there are many other things  you'd like to purchase and they are more important than traveling, then you will end up never getting to travel because it will never be a priority in your budget.)

2. You can't take the time off work (A lot of people find that they can't take time off work and this could be because they don't have hours accrued or because there is too much work that they would miss if they did choose to leave. I would like to suggest here that most people who aren't satisfied with the amount of traveling they are doing probably aren't thinking of taking one day off work or zero days and just doing a weekend trip)

3. Research is time-consuming (If you are like most people you don't enjoy looking through countless hotels, activities, flights, etc to figure out what you might want to do, where you would want to stay, and how you would get there. It doesn't seem worth the time to you to spend all that time looking when you probably won't end up getting to go anyways.)

4. You don't know where you would go (let's say you could take the time off work, and you did have some money, but some of us have trouble deciding where to go because there are WAY too many places to travel in our world! It's seems like a daunting and overwhelming task to decide where you might want to go, and you don't even know where to begin!)

5. You enjoy being at the travel destination, but traveling to or from is what keeps you from actually going (A lot of people may have horror stories from traveling, and most people that have taken a few flights in their lifetime probably have at least one story. This may be keeping you from going to where you want to go.)

6. You are afraid of going to new places (This could be the case for quite a few people, it is scary to go outside you comfort zone and experience something new. But, it shouldn't keep you from doing what you love.) 

7. You're not in a good place or time in your life to leave (This is where I think most people identify with. There are countless reasons why traveling may not be a good thing right now: maybe you have kids, pregnant, maybe your career is just beginning, you just lost your job, your health is declining, etc. These reasons are endless and each person has their own depending on their situation. But, just know that there will probably never be a "good time". Ask yourself, "if not now, when?")

8. Not having a companion to travel with (This is not one that I initially thought of, but thanks to my best friend I realize that this is probably a very common reason why people choose not to travel. Part of the fun of traveling is having someone to share it with, and all the fears of traveling would easily be amplified if traveling by oneself.)

I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot more reasons why people don't travel as much as they would like to and I would love to know what some of those reasons are, so please feel free to share!

I will be addressing each of these issues in future blogs, so look for more to come!