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Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

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Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#31

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

I've been to around 50 countries across 6 continents, hitchhiked tens of thousands of kilometres and never have I even taken a single picture.

These experiences are not for others, they are for yourself and they give you the capacity to understand stories and circumstances that otherwise would be foreign to you.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#32

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

Nobody is talking about quitting their job to travel for 2 weeks. This is about months or years of travel.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#33

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

You have a very stereotypical view of what "traveling the world" is, so it's not surprising that you're dismissive.

> If you want to immersed into a culture, wouldn't you want to commit to learning the language and go to your local city's meetup for that language - instead of going to a foreign country with a phrasebook.

Meet-ups are not even remotely comparable to actually being there. This is especially true for non-Western countries that haven't been permeated by Starbucks/McDonalds global American culture. The idea that Google Street View and a Wikipedia article can replace real life is absolutely absurd.

Personally, it would take books to write about how living abroad has concretely impacted my life. I don't even know where to start. It has exposed me to ideas and places that I previously had zero knowledge of.

I'll summarize by saying the trajectory of my life has been shifted dramatically by traveling, and this is obvious when I compare myself to the people I grew up around.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#34

I am always wondering how these data nomads are actually sustaining themselves. As a freelancer, I had quite some hard time to find paying gigs, not to mention that most of the time I was asked to work on premise. This said, I do not claim to be the smartest guy when it comes to business, nor to development…

remote salary job and "live" in one country collecting that salary while traveling the world.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#35
post #10

In 2019 I went on a solo Biketouring trip spanning across Canada, USA, Peru, NZ and Taiwan lasting 10 months. While obviously the means of transportation was draining both physically and mentally it was amazing to be truly immersed in region I was currently visiting. In general it was great but if I were to do it again I would go way easier and slower on my bike instead of trying to race it plus I would have shortene…

How many KM did you manage to bike in that time?

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#36

I am always wondering how these data nomads are actually sustaining themselves. As a freelancer, I had quite some hard time to find paying gigs, not to mention that most of the time I was asked to work on premise. This said, I do not claim to be the smartest guy when it comes to business, nor to development…

I tried this out when I took a year break to travel. I got gigs from Upwork easily. I was able to limit myself to 10 hours a week and it paid for my travels. What I found was that there are all kind of companies out there looking for all sorts of helps, you just have to be proactive with outreach.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#37

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

Traveled around south america for 2 years. 1 year backpacking thru hostels with 3 months in bolivia studying spanish then one year volunteering as an english teacher.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#38
post #30
post #11

If you have even the inkling that you might want to do this then you absolutely should. Opportunities and projects and ventures will always be there. Your youth will not.

Why does everyone try to travel when they're young? There are things youth helps with but visiting other countries doesn't seem like one of them. Finding a partner and building a family is though and that's very hard when you're always in a different place. Plenty of people end up traveling more than they want to later in life for business anyway.

Business travel is nothing like personal travel.

Business is all about maximizing the time w/ the client or customer and minimizing the downtime. You catch a 3pm flight, work on the flight, grab a late dinner, get up early, spend all day with the customer or at a conference, then drop.

I can tell you all about convention centers in 10 cities and 2 continents! And my customer's offices in Phoenix.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#39
post #28

I didn’t quit my job but took a three months leave of absence to travel the work with my SO and our two kids (2 and 4 at the time). It was great and we had planned to do it again in 2020 then COVID hit. Now my kids are of compulsory school age so we need to figure out how we will do it.

I wonder how homeschooling would combine with travel?

My dad brought the family with him on a three month business trip to Florida when my brother and I were young. My mother (a former teacher) brought homework along and I remember doing worksheets. It didn’t seem to hurt us any, but I was already way ahead in school.

He almost took us to Greece, but they chickened out at the last minute.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#40
In 2016, I quit my job working at a small software firm in Chicago. I didn't think I would do it, I was afraid I would keep putting it off, so one day in the middle of the workday I just abruptly opened AirBnB and booked an apartment for two months in Paris, just like that, non-refundable, plus a flight, also non-refundable. It was 7 months in advance, to give myself plenty of time, but also to put a definitive date on the matter. I had never been outside the US at the time.

I left at the end of July and spent all of August, September, and October in Europe, living off savings and just enjoying the sights, alone.

I have a mixture of extremely good and sad memories. I do not regret it in any way and am extremely glad I did it.

My place in Paris was lovely, right by Les Gobelins in the heart of the city. The weather was beautiful and I would just spend days walking the streets, visiting every museum and cathedral and café and restaurant. The best thing is that under such circumstances you aren't pressed to fit everything into a few days-- you have the freedom to do something every day or every few days, whatever pace you feel like. So you never end up feeling hassled or pressured.

I would pass whole afternoons sitting in the window of the bookshop across from Notre-Dame Cathedral, listening to the churchbells and reading books. I would spend many evenings walking the river. If I felt like it, I would take a train out of the city to a random village in the countryside and visit castle ruins. I did this many times. It's amazing what you can find sitting around in Europe, hundreds or thousands of years old decaying in a field. So much history there.

I rented a car and drove to Normandy, and to the south, and saw many more things. Eventually I flew to Italy, and then to Croatia. Croatia was the best part of the whole trip-- it's an unbelievably gorgeous country. It's not so well known as Italy and Greece and France, but it's as good or better.

A lot of this time was spent playing video games on my laptop in my airbnb room, being a little sad that I was on my own. That's the other side of it. Some friends flew out and spent time with me there, totalling two weeks, but the other eight weeks was just me in a land where I could only speak the language well enough to get by, but not well enough to get to know anyone meaningfully. It was lonely. And all the while I knew I had to go back and figure out what to do next.

I think it depends. You have to know yourself. Money can take away some causes of unhappiness, but it can't give happiness, only freedom, which isn't the same thing. Purpose is happiness, someone said to me recently, and I agree with them. Traveling on my own, I had freedom, but no purpose beyond seeing beautiful and ancient things that I'd never seen before. It was lovely, and I'll do it again soon. But I wasn't as happy as the times when I knew I was where I was meant to be, with people who needed me there and wanted me there.

I don't have a tidy conclusion. It's just food for thought I guess. My personal answer to OP's question. For what it's worth, the whole 3 months cost me <$6000. Staying in one airbnb for an extended block of time and buying groceries instead of eating out 3x a day makes a big difference, plus the trains are cheap in Europe.

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