Travel: Why and How
Travel is obviously important to us. Why else would we have chosen to move into an Airstream? Our financially independent lives (post full time work) involve nothing but travel. For some that might seem daunting. To us, it is inspiring.
“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin
Perhaps it is how we travel that makes the prospect so appealing. Steve and I definitely fall into the “slow travel” category. We like to go someplace and explore that place for as long as possible. We cook our own meals with local ingredients. We dine out to try local cuisine. We go to local festivals and markets to see the people and the culture. One week vacations (which we have mostly been limited to) are never enough. We’re not the type to pack our days full, but at the same time we don’t want to leave a place without feeling like we’ve experienced at least a piece of what makes it great. Therefore most of our travel experiences while awesome, always feel half-done and we’re usually pretty tired by the end in our quest to see and do so much.
Once we decided on our financial freedom plan, knew our end dates and came to terms with the fact that our whole lives will be travel soon, we started changing how we travel now. Everyplace we go….we can go again. There will be nothing stopping us very soon from returning again and again anywhere we desire (within the reaches of our Airstream for now). We no longer have that nagging feeling that if we don’t experience something now we’ll never again get the chance. In fact we know we will get the chance. So the last two vacations were much more in line with how we plan to live soon. There was no rushing, plenty of fun and while we certainly would not say we “know” the area we stayed like a local, we know enough to want to come back and probably will.
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson
When hearing of our plans to travel full time in our Airstream, many people exclaim how wonderful it will be to be on vacation full time. It won’t be like that. Yes, we will be traveling to many new places but we plan to stay in areas for weeks at a time to get to know them. Meanwhile real life will still go on. We’ll have to find laundromats for laundry, grocery shop, pay taxes, keep up with our online commitments and many other things that we push off when on vacation. We won’t be sleeping until noon and having champagne for breakfast (well at least not everyday ;)). But we will be traveling exactly the way we like it and we cannot wait.
Do you enjoy traveling? How do you travel? Are you the type to keep a schedule or someone who wants to be spontaneous? Would constant travel be a blessing or a massive stressor in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Just watched your Vlog 5 of Baja. Very cool. Terrific idea. Love seeing vacation destinations through the eyes of others.
We just returned from our two week family vacation with kids in our mountain home In the NE which will be our new home when we hit FIRE in two years. Also spent three nights over in Acadia. Just stunning coastal scenery.
It was an outdoors two weeks with lots of hiking, grilling, kayaking, and a few naps.
Just like we intend to replicate but at a much slower pace when we hit FIRE.
It takes a few days to truly wind down on vacation and unfortunately only a few hours to wind back up when those Monday morning blues hit upon return to work. I won’t miss that latter feeling at all!!
Wow, sounds like an awesome vacation Mr. Pie! You are totally right about it taking a few days to wind down on vacation (which is why when it’s only a week by the time you’re relaxed it’s just about time to start ramping back up again). We’re also looking forward to the slow pace of FIRE but these little breaks help keep us motivated!
We’ve slowly started to embrace the slow travel mindset, and it’s a pretty great way to travel. We’re not spending months in one location yet (maybe someday), but we’re staying longer than we normally would in each destination and not forcing ourselves to check every box of things to do in a place. We’re mostly limiting ourselves to one “attraction” per day, too, which saves some money and makes each experience more special. We enjoy what we want to, and we know we can always come back for the things we miss.
That sounds perfect Matt! As long as you are enjoying yourselves and not feeling rushed or like you are missing out, it sounds like you’re going at the right pace! Sometimes we may spend weeks-months in a location but other times a good week or few days is long enough, if you have the right mindset. It sounds like you guys do! We’ve been loving the pictures on Instagram. Gorgeous!