Live life with no regrets. A mantra I definitely try to live by as much as I can. Make choices and decisions at each point in your life that make you happy. Try to follow your heart. And don’t look back with what if’s cause you can ask that over and over and never truly know the answer. So instead just look forward and do what’s best for you.
I’ve managed to live my life thus far without any major regrets. Have I wondered once in a while “what if” I did that instead of this and so on. I’m not going to lie, yes, of course I have. But I realized a long time ago that that is pointless. So I live my life one day at a time and move forward and try to make sure I’m doing what makes me happy (at least for the most part).
When it comes to travel however, I’ve definitely had my share of regrets. Most have to do with time and money. I’ve said before that I’m a budget traveler, but I feel like there have been times where that has prevented me from fully enjoying and exploring a location, or fully taking advantage of all it had to offer. Time is another big one. There is never enough of it! I’ve taken trips where I’ve had a limited time at a location and though I tried to plan everything I wanted to do and see, I somehow ran out of time anyway. Grrr.
So what are my major travel regrets?
The first one is probably the biggest; not taking a year after university to backpack the world. All through high school and university I dreamed of travelling for a year after I was done school. Before settling into a job, getting a mortgage and a car, before all the responsibilities of life and time constraints of a full time job. Before all that and more crowded into my life and tore that dream away. But life happened not quite as I had planned and I choose to be “responsible”. I was offered a job in my field before I even graduated from uni. I love what I do so being a newbie (at the time) with university debt and bills, how could I turn it down? Also, I was in love (or so I thought) and he was unable to travel with me. I didn’t want to leave him and go alone. In hind site I should have left as that relationship ran it’s course anyway because we wanted completely different things in life; him - a house with a white picket fence and a family with 2.2 kids; I - to travel and explore the world, discover different cultures and live a life of adventure. But unless you have an inheritance from a wealthy aunt or a lottery win, most come out of college or university with major debt. And though my debt wasn’t that bad, it could have been much worst, I didn’t have money to buy that plane ticket around the world. Nor money for even the most basic accommodations or to feed myself even if all I ate was granola bars. Yes, I could have found a way to work while traveling, doing work for food and board, participating in volunteer programs. Instead I though I’d work for a couple of years, save up enough cash and then take off on my adventures. A lot of us travel this way, work full time and just travel during their 2-3 week vacations. Travel and work and do it the “responsible” way. And though that is now what I do, and do enjoy it and make the most of each of my vacation days, I still wish I had done that backpacking trip around the world back then. So my advice is if you really want to, and you have the opportunity, take it! Don’t wait for one day, don’t say you will do it later, do it now. Don’t let it be the same big travel regret for you.
My other travel regrets are much less significant without any impact on my life, but still regrets non the less. For example, on my most recent road trip I feel like I didn’t plan enough time is Savannah. It’s such an amazing city with so much to explore. But since staying at the haunted inn was such a treat for a budget traveller I only booked us in for one night. Meaning we only had two days of sightseeing time. I wish we had at least one or even two more nights there. That would have given us the time to do the ghost tour one evening, and to do a day trip to an old cotton plantation. Since we didn’t have enough time this trip it means another trip is in order. But realistically that ends up costing more in the long run.
On the trip to the southernmost point in Key West I had another travel regret. There were day trips out to Dry Tortugas National Park by catamaran. A full day tour to see the island fort (Fort Jefferson) and snorkel with the fishies looked amazing, but pricy at just over $250 per person. For the both of us that would have been quite a lot of mulla, especially since Key West was quite expensive as it is. So we opted not to do the trip. But with my disappointment in Key West and it’s lack of beaches, I think this trip might have been just what I needed to give the southernmost point a passing grade. Now if I ever want to to do that trip, all the way to Key West I’d have to go… again… just to do the tour. Fail!
There have been other travel regrets along the same lines. Trying to save money and therefore not giving myself enough time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you splurge to the point of bankruptcy. But maybe save more then you think you’ll need so that when unforeseen opportunities come up you don’t have to pass them up because of insufficient travel funds. And give yourself more time in a location then you predict you will need so that you can take it all in without rushing or bypassing things because you just don’t have enough time for them.
What are your travel regrets? Do you have any? Please share in the comments below, I’d love to hear the so we can all learn from each others travel fails. And maybe you have been lucky enough not to have any, congrats!
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