How to Travel More in Your Twenties and Why You Should

One of my favorite things in life is being the youngest of four girls. I love having my three older sisters for a thousand reasons, but the biggest might be learning from them.

As the youngest, I feel like I have an unfair advantage at life. I get a front row seat to what life might look like during my 30s. Not to mention the much wiser, yet still relatable advice I get from my sisters who are just a little further ahead of me in life.

My sister, Laura, has given me the same piece of advice at least 50 times: travel while you can. If you are in your twenties, you probably hear this all the time. (This is why I get annoyed when adults ask why I travel so much, like hellooo, just taking your advice! ;))

People toss that piece of advice out so much that it starts to sound platitudinal, but I don’t think we should overlook it. There is no other time in our lives quite like our twenties: old enough to handle ourselves, but not responsible for anyone else yet.

I know that this season is short lived. Right now, when I go on trip I only have to pay for myself. I can make up work when I get home. God willing, that won’t last forever. I know the next chapter will be amazing in a whole different way, but right now I want to fully embrace the freedom that this time offers.

I’m aware that most people aren’t opposed to traveling. Most people love to travel and wish they could do it more, but I also know how difficult traveling can be. It’s time consuming and can be expensive. Taking time off work isn’t always feasible. And things hardly ever go perfectly on trips.

I know what you’re thinking: It’s easy for you to make sweeping statements about travel when you are self employed and not missing classes. While some parts of traveling are easier for me, others totally aren’t. I really do believe that most people have margin in their life for travel, it’s just a matter of actually making it happen.

Let’s dive into the how of traveling more often!

Travel Cheap

I think we would all agree that one of the hardest parts of traveling is figuring out how to pay for it. Travel can be very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. It all comes down to what you value. If you want an amazing all-inclusive resort, then you will have to make the sacrifice of taking less trips. If you are like me, you value new experiences over your comfort.

My favorite thing to talk about is how to travel on the cheap (and consequently, more often). I talk about my five favorite budget tips in this post and I spill all my secrets to booking cheap flights in this post.

Don’t overthink it!

Aside from budget, I think one of the main reasons we don’t travel as much we could is that we overthink the whole process. Sometimes, travel is as easy as just leaving and figuring things out along the way.

This is the part where all my planner friends tell me all the reasons why you can’t just up and leave. I see their point, I really do, but I’ll tell you that I have done it more than once (many, many times actually) and I promise it doesn’t take as much planning as you think.

In this post, I shared my minimal trip planning tips… but if I’m being honest, sometimes I don’t follow them. By that I mean sometimes I do a lot less. There is nothing I love more than a spontaneous, unplanned trip.

I encourage you to not overthink travel and just go! Make a plan or don’t! Just see where a little adventure takes you.

Stay Flexible

I preach all the time about flexibility being the key to traveling cheap and often. Do your best to be flexible with dates, times, and even destinations. If you are able to catch a cheap flight to a destination you’ve yet to consider: grab it! Then figure out all the fun things to do from there. I’ve booked trips this way countless times and they have all been great, so I hope you do the same.

The whole idea here is to embrace the freedom in spontaneity during your 20s. That might look like a last minute road trip to Colorado or an epic backpacking trip through Europe. Either way It’s my hope that this post encourages you to travel a little more this year. If you were already sold on the idea (who isn’t?!), I hope this post helps actually make it happen! I’d love to hear about your travels in the comments, so drop a line!