Great read! I think there are real vagabonds who feel genuinely fulfilled traveling, but my personal experience is more aligned with your reflection. I used to travel a lot more before I lived in a place I loved as much as I do now. When I lived in the US I was always wanting to escape and get away. Now that I’m settled in Spain, I find I have lost the travel bug for the most part. I love my home and it’s hard for me to leave it! The community piece you mentioned stuck out to me; Spain is so centered on community, I feel connected to life here, and that plays a big part in the shift I experienced.
Thank you for reading! It's great that you've found somewhere that's hard for you to leave - I think managing to create a life I don't want to escape from is my focus for the next few years!
"I’ve neglected building a home because the focus has always been on escaping it." exactly! this hit home (bad joke). but seriously, what a great article about what home means and how travel helps us reflect on that.
I guess it's all about the motives for traveling - if you travel to escape something, you will perhaps always escape something else. Bourdain suffered from depression, that's a different category of unhappy. I'd rather look at Sir Attenborough, he still hasn't had enough :)
I like traveling to learn more, to experience new cultures, people, sights... But I've always had the desire just to learn, it's something in my genes (like depression in Bourdain's).
Capitalism definitely takes from the charm of it all, but then again, I think it's on each one of us - the need to instagram everything, fast consumerism, ticking boxes instead of enjoying the sights, buying food in McD and Starbucks even in e.g. France etc etc.
From soul-searching of travelers only 200 hundred years ago, it seems like a soulless activity now, at least to a great number of travelers/tourists.
An insightful perspective on what it’s like for us travelers juggling two worlds. For me, it was always a battle between settling down and continuing the adventure—something that only grew immensely once my daughter came along. I found my solution, which is similar to what others are saying: the problem was simply that “home” was the wrong place. Of course, I still love to travel and find comfort in the discomfort, but centering yourself in a place you’re not constantly looking to escape has been the key.
Yes exactly this! I had a big shift last year. I recognised ultimately I needed a strong sustainable base that enriches my health and that I didn’t need to escape from.
I’m on the road now working from home. This feels very much like a transition period but I am appreciating the gradual process of returning ‘home’
I've been thinking about this a lot, especially as I'm in the process of uprooting "home" in lieu of spending a year on the road. In years past when I've dreamed of this kind of trip, it certainly has been through the lens of escapism but as I've become more centered and "at home" in myself, it feels more like an exploration of what I want to integrate into my daily life. What do I want to stay the same? What could do with a bit of reshaping? As long as you are asking yourself the questions, traveling or not, you are making great strides for living and loving well. Great read!
I’m doing the same though my year on the road started last month. It might last a few months, maybe a year but I’m looking at this time to reevaluate a sense of home and what I need to thrive on a daily basis, whilst taking full advantage of working from home.
Sounds like we’re in a similar boat! What a gift it is to be able to have the flexibility to create a life that best serves us :) Best of luck on your travels!
Yes you too. Look forward to reading your journey evolve. I’ve definitely got an internal pull between my nomadic and nesting side. But actually I think they can both co exist
Heck YES!!! This post offers The most unique and fresh — and honest! — perspective I've seen on travel in a while. You are so right, travel is usually crazy stressful and usually damn expensive too! I've long preferred being at home now. I guess that's part of why I live abroad 😅🤩 Great work 👏
I’ve been trying to write about this for so long and have never really nailed it, this was perfect! I think the ironic thing is that when I am traveling I am subconsciously always searching for somewhere that feels like home, where I can settle down, but if I just really put roots down anywhere I could make it feel like home
I loved reading this, I definitely feel like this resonates with a lot of people and I agree that a lot of people travel to fulfil a “fantasy” or to “escape”. However, there are people in this world (such as third-culture kids, of which I am one) who don’t have or never had a home base. There is truly not a single place in this world I could call home, for the simple fact that I moved a lot growing up, and nowhere resonated. When people ask me where I’m from, I struggle to find an answer.
Travel has become my “home”. Though it comes with stress and difficulties, i find it more comforting than anything else. I’ve struggled to make friends anywhere I’m still, yet on the road it happens naturally, and I now have a community of friends all over the world! I don’t put pressure on travel to be amazing, because it’s simply just the way I live my life rather than a hobby I engage in every now and then. I recently bought a sailboat with my three favorite people: together we plan to live on it and travel the world. This will be our home, somewhere familiar in the ever changing.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, they resonate a lot and are making me reflect on my relationship with travel as well. In my early 20s I LOVED to travel. My first solo trip to Myanmar in 2018 was honestly life changing. Afterwards I felt so much more self-dependent and trusting that I could handle anything in life. I continued to travel with (boy)friends and although my trips never got so impactful again, I enjoyed them - they were nice. Now, after years without intercontinental travel due to Covid and then burnout, I’m on my own cycling around Taiwan and if I’m honest: it’s not what I hoped it’d be. I’ve been feeling anxious and unsafe, even though there’s no apparent reason for it. I’ve been feeling home sick and exhausted, and after two out of three weeks I’m ready to go home. I’ve had many nights where I’ve thought: what the hell am I doing here. I’m trying to figure out ways to make the trip more enjoyable for myself: a slower pace, taking more rest days, eating expensive but comforting western foods, searching for places with other travellers (there are very few here), etc. But I think this trip has changed my perspective on travel for good. All I long for right now is time of at home to recharge from this vacation 😅
This is really interesting, I remember my first backpacking trip and the impact it had on me back then, but it’s a feeling I don’t know if I’ll be able to recreate now due to different responsibilities. It’s a shame to hear it’s not what you expected, but hopefully comforting to know it’s more common than you probably think! We only see people’s highlight reels so feel like we should be having the time of our lives!
This is SUCH a fantastic read, thank you for writing it and for being so honest! I am someone who finds travel anxiety-inducing and would almost always rather be at home - but I also have a home that my partner and I have invested a lot of love and time into, in a village with a vibrant community, and a job that I absolutely adore. I don’t want to escape from it, because it’s my safe space and the source of much of my creative inspiration. I find hot weather very difficult to contend with too, so as a winter lover, the UK climate is very suited to me! If those things were different, would I prioritise travel more? Maybe? You’ve given me so much to ponder, thank you ❤️
I’ve been reflecting on this a lot since leaving my life in South Korea to rebuild a home for myself in South Africa. For years, I dreamed of escaping my underdeveloped village for greener pastures, but I’ve come to realize that I want a life where I can travel for a while and then return to a home I’ve intentionally built for myself. Such a beautiful article ❤️
“As someone who is obsessed with travel, I’ve neglected building a home because the focus has always been on escaping it.”
Wow-this article really hit home for me (pun-intended). 🏠
As someone constantly triggered by “fight or flight” mode, I’ve been going through something similar this year. Trying to switch my mindset to forego the ever romantic “travel year” and instead working towards finding a “home” that I can enjoy and relax in.
Pun-appreciated 😂! The mindset switch is hard! However I’ve noticed this is the first winter I haven’t had really bad winter blues and I think it’s because I’m intentionally pouring more into my life at home, rather than wishing I was somewhere warmer
This brought up a lot of stuff for me! I just moved to Australia in search of something (still not sure what) and for someone who never really thought they liked their home I have come to realise that I miss it and that stability ALOT. Thank you for this piece I think it’s going to stick with me for a while 🫶🏽
An excellent thought commentary but i think you’re hanging a lot on the ‘travel experience’ - Success, Happiness, Achievement, Contribution, Community….and even what’s Real or Unreal!
Our lives are definitely enriched through travel but it isn’t always a choice between being home bound or being a nomad is it?
Our concept of community is deeply rooted in the extent of our experiences (in my own case my father was a traveler and dragged us along through his working life and therefore community to me has always been wherever I’ve found myself)
The desire to escape our every day holds true no matter how deeply satisfying our ‘home’ conditions are - for some it’s a flight of fantasy and for others it is a very real flight to other destinations😊
As long as we don’t have to choose between being rooted to our surroundings or to not have anyplace to hold onto and call home, my sense is that travel in itself only presents experiences and our takeaways from it form the basis of good or bad travel in hindsight!
Loved this read, really thought provoking. I too am very inspired when I travel - I do think that new places spark creative freshness and inform us on different culture. But I do agree travel can be a pain in the arse - and when you are content with your home, you can feel the need to escape way less.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve definitely felt the pressure to prioritize traveling, even when I don’t actually feel like it. But honestly, my home is where I’m happiest.
Great read! I think there are real vagabonds who feel genuinely fulfilled traveling, but my personal experience is more aligned with your reflection. I used to travel a lot more before I lived in a place I loved as much as I do now. When I lived in the US I was always wanting to escape and get away. Now that I’m settled in Spain, I find I have lost the travel bug for the most part. I love my home and it’s hard for me to leave it! The community piece you mentioned stuck out to me; Spain is so centered on community, I feel connected to life here, and that plays a big part in the shift I experienced.
Thank you for reading! It's great that you've found somewhere that's hard for you to leave - I think managing to create a life I don't want to escape from is my focus for the next few years!
"I’ve neglected building a home because the focus has always been on escaping it." exactly! this hit home (bad joke). but seriously, what a great article about what home means and how travel helps us reflect on that.
I guess it's all about the motives for traveling - if you travel to escape something, you will perhaps always escape something else. Bourdain suffered from depression, that's a different category of unhappy. I'd rather look at Sir Attenborough, he still hasn't had enough :)
I like traveling to learn more, to experience new cultures, people, sights... But I've always had the desire just to learn, it's something in my genes (like depression in Bourdain's).
Capitalism definitely takes from the charm of it all, but then again, I think it's on each one of us - the need to instagram everything, fast consumerism, ticking boxes instead of enjoying the sights, buying food in McD and Starbucks even in e.g. France etc etc.
From soul-searching of travelers only 200 hundred years ago, it seems like a soulless activity now, at least to a great number of travelers/tourists.
An insightful perspective on what it’s like for us travelers juggling two worlds. For me, it was always a battle between settling down and continuing the adventure—something that only grew immensely once my daughter came along. I found my solution, which is similar to what others are saying: the problem was simply that “home” was the wrong place. Of course, I still love to travel and find comfort in the discomfort, but centering yourself in a place you’re not constantly looking to escape has been the key.
Yes exactly this! I had a big shift last year. I recognised ultimately I needed a strong sustainable base that enriches my health and that I didn’t need to escape from.
I’m on the road now working from home. This feels very much like a transition period but I am appreciating the gradual process of returning ‘home’
I've been thinking about this a lot, especially as I'm in the process of uprooting "home" in lieu of spending a year on the road. In years past when I've dreamed of this kind of trip, it certainly has been through the lens of escapism but as I've become more centered and "at home" in myself, it feels more like an exploration of what I want to integrate into my daily life. What do I want to stay the same? What could do with a bit of reshaping? As long as you are asking yourself the questions, traveling or not, you are making great strides for living and loving well. Great read!
Love that perspective of how travel changes when you're more at home in yourself! Thanks for reading too :)
I’m doing the same though my year on the road started last month. It might last a few months, maybe a year but I’m looking at this time to reevaluate a sense of home and what I need to thrive on a daily basis, whilst taking full advantage of working from home.
Sounds like we’re in a similar boat! What a gift it is to be able to have the flexibility to create a life that best serves us :) Best of luck on your travels!
Yes you too. Look forward to reading your journey evolve. I’ve definitely got an internal pull between my nomadic and nesting side. But actually I think they can both co exist
Heck YES!!! This post offers The most unique and fresh — and honest! — perspective I've seen on travel in a while. You are so right, travel is usually crazy stressful and usually damn expensive too! I've long preferred being at home now. I guess that's part of why I live abroad 😅🤩 Great work 👏
Thank you so much!
I’ve been trying to write about this for so long and have never really nailed it, this was perfect! I think the ironic thing is that when I am traveling I am subconsciously always searching for somewhere that feels like home, where I can settle down, but if I just really put roots down anywhere I could make it feel like home
I loved reading this, I definitely feel like this resonates with a lot of people and I agree that a lot of people travel to fulfil a “fantasy” or to “escape”. However, there are people in this world (such as third-culture kids, of which I am one) who don’t have or never had a home base. There is truly not a single place in this world I could call home, for the simple fact that I moved a lot growing up, and nowhere resonated. When people ask me where I’m from, I struggle to find an answer.
Travel has become my “home”. Though it comes with stress and difficulties, i find it more comforting than anything else. I’ve struggled to make friends anywhere I’m still, yet on the road it happens naturally, and I now have a community of friends all over the world! I don’t put pressure on travel to be amazing, because it’s simply just the way I live my life rather than a hobby I engage in every now and then. I recently bought a sailboat with my three favorite people: together we plan to live on it and travel the world. This will be our home, somewhere familiar in the ever changing.
That makes sense, travel is your life/not a form of escapism! The sailboat adventure sounds incredible!!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, they resonate a lot and are making me reflect on my relationship with travel as well. In my early 20s I LOVED to travel. My first solo trip to Myanmar in 2018 was honestly life changing. Afterwards I felt so much more self-dependent and trusting that I could handle anything in life. I continued to travel with (boy)friends and although my trips never got so impactful again, I enjoyed them - they were nice. Now, after years without intercontinental travel due to Covid and then burnout, I’m on my own cycling around Taiwan and if I’m honest: it’s not what I hoped it’d be. I’ve been feeling anxious and unsafe, even though there’s no apparent reason for it. I’ve been feeling home sick and exhausted, and after two out of three weeks I’m ready to go home. I’ve had many nights where I’ve thought: what the hell am I doing here. I’m trying to figure out ways to make the trip more enjoyable for myself: a slower pace, taking more rest days, eating expensive but comforting western foods, searching for places with other travellers (there are very few here), etc. But I think this trip has changed my perspective on travel for good. All I long for right now is time of at home to recharge from this vacation 😅
This is really interesting, I remember my first backpacking trip and the impact it had on me back then, but it’s a feeling I don’t know if I’ll be able to recreate now due to different responsibilities. It’s a shame to hear it’s not what you expected, but hopefully comforting to know it’s more common than you probably think! We only see people’s highlight reels so feel like we should be having the time of our lives!
This is SUCH a fantastic read, thank you for writing it and for being so honest! I am someone who finds travel anxiety-inducing and would almost always rather be at home - but I also have a home that my partner and I have invested a lot of love and time into, in a village with a vibrant community, and a job that I absolutely adore. I don’t want to escape from it, because it’s my safe space and the source of much of my creative inspiration. I find hot weather very difficult to contend with too, so as a winter lover, the UK climate is very suited to me! If those things were different, would I prioritise travel more? Maybe? You’ve given me so much to ponder, thank you ❤️
Your life is my goals!
I’ve been reflecting on this a lot since leaving my life in South Korea to rebuild a home for myself in South Africa. For years, I dreamed of escaping my underdeveloped village for greener pastures, but I’ve come to realize that I want a life where I can travel for a while and then return to a home I’ve intentionally built for myself. Such a beautiful article ❤️
“As someone who is obsessed with travel, I’ve neglected building a home because the focus has always been on escaping it.”
Wow-this article really hit home for me (pun-intended). 🏠
As someone constantly triggered by “fight or flight” mode, I’ve been going through something similar this year. Trying to switch my mindset to forego the ever romantic “travel year” and instead working towards finding a “home” that I can enjoy and relax in.
Ty for sharing ✨
Pun-appreciated 😂! The mindset switch is hard! However I’ve noticed this is the first winter I haven’t had really bad winter blues and I think it’s because I’m intentionally pouring more into my life at home, rather than wishing I was somewhere warmer
This brought up a lot of stuff for me! I just moved to Australia in search of something (still not sure what) and for someone who never really thought they liked their home I have come to realise that I miss it and that stability ALOT. Thank you for this piece I think it’s going to stick with me for a while 🫶🏽
Thanks Lola!
An excellent thought commentary but i think you’re hanging a lot on the ‘travel experience’ - Success, Happiness, Achievement, Contribution, Community….and even what’s Real or Unreal!
Our lives are definitely enriched through travel but it isn’t always a choice between being home bound or being a nomad is it?
Our concept of community is deeply rooted in the extent of our experiences (in my own case my father was a traveler and dragged us along through his working life and therefore community to me has always been wherever I’ve found myself)
The desire to escape our every day holds true no matter how deeply satisfying our ‘home’ conditions are - for some it’s a flight of fantasy and for others it is a very real flight to other destinations😊
As long as we don’t have to choose between being rooted to our surroundings or to not have anyplace to hold onto and call home, my sense is that travel in itself only presents experiences and our takeaways from it form the basis of good or bad travel in hindsight!
Loved this read, really thought provoking. I too am very inspired when I travel - I do think that new places spark creative freshness and inform us on different culture. But I do agree travel can be a pain in the arse - and when you are content with your home, you can feel the need to escape way less.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve definitely felt the pressure to prioritize traveling, even when I don’t actually feel like it. But honestly, my home is where I’m happiest.