When Traveling, Take the Road Less Traveled

Why would anyone want to quit their job, pull the kids out of school (assuming you still have kids at home), leave behind everyone and everything you know for a life of the unknown? Well, lives have a way of becoming routine and somewhat predictable. There is comfort in that routine and predictability, but also boredom and narrow mindedness. Taking time away from your life is a way to break the inertia; to create opportunities to open your mind and to see things from a different perspective. It gives you a chance to step away from your day to day lives and live a life different from the one you have been living. An extended trip forces you to stretch yourself personally and gives you an incredible opportunity to grow.

On the other end is your chance to live a different culture. When you spend an extended period of time in a city, especially a small one, you are no longer a tourist; you are a part time resident. You become a familiar face to the local community and you have time to see and do things above and beyond the typical "tourist" activities. You are staying in communities long enough to rent an apartment, furthering your opportunity to experience life as a resident versus as a tourist.

Over the course of a year, my family traveled to seventeen countries typically spending two to three weeks in each location. Over and over we had incredible experiences and adventures that had nothing to do with being a tourist. Horseback rides through vineyards, sand dunes, and craters; picnics in parks with the locals; visits to food shops to buy our groceries and to chat with our new found "friends;" cooking classes, Chinese calligraphy classes, foreign language classes; bike rides in the country side. Our fondest memories over the course of a year are not of the Coliseum, the Taj Mahal or the Sydney Opera House. While they were all amazing sights, the memories that are nearest and dearest to our hearts are about the everyday things we did and the people we encountered while doing them. This can only be accomplished when you commit yourself to long-term travel.

More and more, people are choosing to make extended travel part of their lives: empty nesters, ready to stop putting their life on hold for their kids and start living their personal dream, individuals taking a sabbatical year, those between jobs seizing the opportunity to see more of the world, late in life parents (like me) who realize that time on the other side of parenting may not be the healthiest time of our lives. People have more options than ever before with flexibility in their lives and realize that now is the time to exercise those options.

So picture a life where you have no schedule to keep; days where you don't have to be anyplace at any particular time. No phone, answering machine, door bell, mobile phone, television or mail delivery. You have almost no household responsibilities and no car to maintain. While it's not realistic to think you can live the rest of your life this way, you can experience it through long-term travel and when you return home, you might just find that the way you lived your life before is not the way you will chose to live your life in the future.

Lisa Shusterman is an author, arbitrator, mother and world traveler. She planned and executed a one year around the world trip for herself, her husband and her two daughters. She continues to write, blog and speak on travel related subjects. She also enjoys inspiring others to manifest their dream as she did hers.

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