Travel Full Time or Have a Home Base?

Traveling full-time requires leaving some things behind -- like little pet shih tzus.

The blogosphere has been rife lately with tales of travelers who give up their permanent home in exchange for a life on the road, making their way through the world without a break. And you’ve no doubt seen the Eat, Pray, Love previews blaring everywhere, championing this idea of leaving your former life for one of globetrotting. Although my goal of getting to 25 percent of the world would be a lot easier accomplished (and ultimately cheaper) if I weren’t hitting just one to three countries at a time, I have to agree with Gadling writer Mike Barish, who recently wrote a post about how perma-travel isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Now, I don’t feel quite as strongly as he does that these leave-it-all-behind bloggers are annoying. If someone has the time and desire to carry all their stuff around in a bag and find a different place to sleep every night, more power to them. I admit there’s something romantic about the idea of being a career traveler — after reading Honeymoon with My Brother while I was still working in an office full time, I was suddenly convinced I needed to follow the lead of the brothers and traverse the world (I even looked seriously into joining a cruise ship staff, which I’m sure can be a fun job but probably isn’t for me).

But if I were always on the run, never sure where I’d be the next week, let alone the next month, and it went on for an indefinite amount of time, I think I’d adapt, but I don’t think I’d be as happy. There’s something comforting about having a home base, and I don’t think it makes any traveler less hardcore or world-savvy to have a place to call home. In fact, I think it offers an opportunity to digest what you’ve experienced. Plus, planning a vacation is proven to make you happier.

So, I won’t be selling all my worldly possessions anytime soon in favor of a nomadic existence, but I will continue getting out as often as I can, greatly looking forward to each trip as it comes, making a dent in that countries-seen goal one fraction of a percentage point at a time.