If you’re here reading this travel blog, chances are that you are a traveler or that you have an interest in travel. You might choose to travel in your local area, or you might want to explore the entire country… or the whole world! People travel for a wide variety of reasons; you probably have your own reasons for wanting to see and experience different places. If you feel your motivation to travel waning, however, or if you simply want to know more about why others choose to visit lands near and far, here’s a list of the benefits of travel:
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Travel provides a break from daily life
If you’re enmeshed in the daily grind of work, school, household chores and errands, getting away allows you to take a break from the monotony. If your life is so busy that you hardly ever get a chance to just sit around and enjoy yourself, travel can provide that, as well. Visiting other places can reduce your stress and give you some much-needed rest and relaxation.
Travel can be educational
No matter where you go, you’ll likely learn something. Camping weekends with the family will teach you a lot about interpersonal relations and brush up on your survival skills. A few weeks in a foreign country will immerse you in a culture that you have only read about in books, and you might learn a bit of a new language, too. Volunteer and business travel will teach you new skills. Even laying on the beach for a week will probably allow you the time to catch up on some reading, which might or might not be educational!
Travel helps us relate to others
When you travel to a different area of the world, you will be able to really internalize the concept that while people do different things and think different ways in other parts of the globe, we’re all really the same, deep down.
Travel lets us have more “first” experiences
If you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, you might be under the impression that you have few “firsts” to look forward to. Au contraire! The world is teeming with experiences that you have never even considered. Travel allows you to take part in some of them.
Travel helps you to get to know yourself better
Whether you’re traveling alone or with a partner, you’ll likely behave a bit differently when you are out of your own element. You might notice this most prominently when you travel far from home or for an extended amount of time, but even a weekend spent an hour or two away can be eye-opening.
Of course, you can’t forget about all of the other great things about travel: New restaurants, being pampered in a hotel, and reuniting with faraway family and friends. There are probably as many reasons to travel as there are travelers, after all!
Why do you travel? Have you experienced any unanticipated benefits of traveling?
