The benefits of travelling whilst young
Travelling particularly when you are young, holds many benefits and often opens up multiple windows of opportunity. Travelling is an experience in which you will be able to gain an understanding of cultures that are vastly different your own, see and do things that you thought you never would and as an added bonus, you will have loads of great stories to tell. So, what are the other benefits of travelling when young?
You have less ties
One of the most obvious benefits of travelling when you are young, is that you have less ties. As we get older we gain more and more responsibilities, such as a full time job, a mortgage and kids. Those ties mean that it becomes difficult to squeeze in the time and money to travel. By travelling when you are young you are more likely to be able to have the ability to come and go as you please. You will be able to start your career and settle down after you have travelled and hopefully the skills you have learnt along the way, will benefit you in the long run.
You get to experience other cultures
This may be a bit of an obvious one, but when you go travelling you experience other cultures that you probably wouldn’t have if you had stayed at home. Experiencing other cultures means that you will gain an understanding of how other people live and it will open your eyes to different values and morals. By experiencing this when you are young, it will mean that these different cultures will stick with you and you will have a better understanding of the world. By experiencing other cultures it will rid you of the stereotypes that you may hold. It will also give you the ability to see where other people are coming from more easily, which a great skill to have throughout your life.
You gain responsibility and independence
Travelling grants you a lot of independence and responsibility. By travelling when you are young it means that perhaps for the first time in your life, you will be completely in charge of everything, it throws you into adulthood, without it being terrifying. As someone who is travelling, it will be your responsibility for being on time to your connections, where you are staying and the money that you spend. By gaining such huge responsibility and independence when young means that you will also gain confidence in your own decisions. Gaining such confidence in yourself, will stick with you for life and it is one of the biggest benefits to travelling when you are young.
You get to push yourself
Leading on from gaining responsibility and independence, travelling also results in you pushing yourself from outside of your comfort zone. You will come across things and people that you are not familiar with and you will have no choice, but to figure out how to deal with these kinds of situations. You will find yourself maybe even scared, but you will push through and find yourself to be better in the long run. By learning to push yourself and step out of your comfort zone, you will learn vital life skills on how to deal with sticky situations that may occur in the future.
You meet friends for life
Another benefit of travelling when you are young, it means that you make friends for life from all over the world. This means that not only will you gain the ability have friends wherever you go on holiday in the future, but it also means that you will have a worldwide network. Having such a network means that it could help you out later in your professional life when you least expect it or in your personal life when you may need to ask a favour.