I’ve lost count of the amount of travel blogs out there urging anyone and everyone to quit their jobs and up sticks to far-flung places around the world. All well and good, but there’s the tiny, insignificant fact that not everyone is the same.

Yes, some people spend their days dreaming of jungles and old-fashioned cities from their desks, whilst others are happy with a quit jaunt to a beach hotspot once or twice a year.

I’m never going to press the idea of quitting your job to travel down your throat, because for a long time I didn’t think it was for me. And even now I haven’t really done that. Sure, I quit my job and moved to Spain, but I’m not constantly on the road. I have a home base and I like having that.

FYI: This isn’t my homebase… unfortunately

Over the past few weeks (and months and years) I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of posts throwing caution to the wind and suggesting that if you don’t quit your job to travel you’ll constantly be wondering ‘what if?’

Whilst that may be true for some, for others it’s far from the truth.

So, today I’m starting a mini-series on the blog that will hopefully help you to identify whether quitting your job to travel is the right thing for you.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing tips on how to choose when the right time to go is, how to save and pack, what you can do on the road to earn a little bit of money, and I’ll also highlight the good and bad things about quitting your job to travel.

See other posts in the series here:

• Quit Your Job to Travel: How to Save Money Fast With These Secret Tips

Today, though, I want to start by asking you whether it’s the right thing for YOU.

Know before you go

I want to just quickly mention a few things that you should bear in mind before you even consider marching into your boss’s office with your notice.

Travel can be done on the cheap

If it’s just money that’s holding you back, don’t let it. Sure, you need enough for a plane ticket and a couple of weeks to get yourself settled in, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend ten years saving thousands of pounds.

In fact, Relokate published a post the other day about how you can travel with no savings. Most of the time it’s all about the mindset – how can you raise the funds for your plane ticket? What can you do to earn some extra cash on the road? Do you really need that new, top-of-the-range phone?

I’m actually going to write a post dedicated to the costs of travel in the next few weeks, so if you have any questions about this feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Travel isn’t always easy

Yes, it’s easy to think that travel is the best thing in the world when you see pictures of people in paradise, but you have to remember that these photos provide just a snapshot of their experience.

Behind the scenes all manner of things could be taking place. There’s lots of time spent alone whilst travelling, lots of waiting, lots of personal tests. It’s hugely rewarding but it’s definitely not all rainbows and unicorns.

Travel isn’t for everyone

And this is the most important thing. Just because someone else has had the most fantastic time slumming it in the Amazon Rainforest, it doesn’t mean you will. Everyone is different, with different needs, wants, interests, and so forth (thank god, otherwise the world would be helluva boring place!).

It’s not a bad thing if you don’t like spending weeks camping in the Sahara Desert, just promise me you won’t force yourself to do something you don’t like just because everyone else is saying you should do it!

Okay, now I’ve got those points out of the way, let’s move on to how you can tell whether quitting your job to travel is the right thing for you.

Start small

I’d highly recommend starting small if you’ve never travelled for an extended period of time before. Take a couple of week-long trips, or spend a month travelling somewhere with the knowledge that you’ll be able to go home back to your job afterwards.

When you’re back, ask yourself these questions:

• Did you enjoy coming home?
• At what point did you start thinking about home?
• Was it all it was cracked up to be?

Be honest with yourself. No one is going to judge you!

Do you like your job?

There seems to be this idea that everyone should hate their job, but I know (from experience) that this just isn’t the case.

A lot of people absolutely love their jobs and wouldn’t want to do anything else in the world. That’s fantastic – that’s something special and you should listen to your gut if this is the case.
If you love your job, ask yourself if you’d be able to come back to it once you’d left to travel. Does travelling appeal to you more than carrying on with your job?

If you don’t like your job, you should ask yourself whether travel will be the answer. A lot of people think that leaving to travel is akin to running away. Just remember that running away from your problems is never a good idea.

In many cases travel may well be the answer, but be prepared just in case it’s not.
Why do you want to travel?

Really dig deep here. Ask yourself why you want to quit your job to travel and what it is you want to get out of the experience. Do you want to experience a sense of freedom? Learn about different cultures? Or just have a few months of fun before you ‘settle down’?

Whatever your reasons, ask yourself what you’ll do if it doesn’t turn out the way you planned; if you don’t get what you wanted out of travel.

Still want to go? Be my guest!

There is always another option

The biggest pet peeve I have with those blog posts that say you have to travel the world OR ELSE is the fact that they are so black and white.

There are never just two options in life. It’s never a case of one extreme or the other, there’s always gradients in between and that’s what makes life so exciting.

Quitting your job to travel the world is a huge deal and not everyone has the will or want to do it. But that doesn’t mean you’re destined for a life chained to a desk. Hell no!

Travelling with a job is absolutely possible. In fact, for five years or so I took four or five shorts trips a year whilst studying and working. Sometimes just a couple of weeks out of your normal routine is enough to relight that fire.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that there are so many different options when it comes to travelling. It never has to be all or nothing, so don’t scare yourself! If it’s not for you, it’s not for you. (Cheesy line coming up): Life’s too short to do things you don’t enjoy.

Remember to tune in next Sunday for the next part of the series, where I’ll discuss when the best time is to quit your job to travel.

Until then, I want to hear what you have to say! Would you quit your job to travel the world? Or have you figured out another way to enjoy a life of travel?