Do you want to travel full-time, but are you struggling to make this dream a reality?
If you are finding only obstacles along your way, this article might help.
It’s a bit different from our usual posts.
We are sharing some of the big issues that life threw at us when we decided to go full-time travelling, in the hope that it’ll help you overcome yours.
By telling you our story, we hope to motivate you, to keep going, despite all of the challenges you are encountering.
Because even though this is our story, you might find similarities between it and what you are going through.
And maybe the solutions we used will be helpful for you too (if not, there is always chocolate which cures all).
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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.
After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆
During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia.
And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful tips and info with you!
Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own adventures too!
A bit of a background story…
You might not know this, but we decided on full-time travel in January 2020.
After years of being unhappy, feeling stuck and looking for a way out, we finally decided what we were going to do.
We were going to quit our jobs, move out of our apartment and go into the world to look for a better life – one that would suit us more than the one we were living.
We decided this in January. And you know what happened in March that year.
Yep.
Just our luck.
After years we finally made a decision on what to do with our life and then the Covid pandemic hit.
We got stuck in Scotland for 2 more years.
It still hurts to even write this.
Now, there were some good moments, don’t get us wrong.
We got to be together 24/7.
We got to read books and play games.
We got to plan and research our travels properly.
We got to save money for our journey.
But they were also the hardest 2 years of our life.
The feeling that we had to put our big plan – our life – on hold was awful.
We know that the pandemic affected almost everyone.
This post isn’t a please-feel-sorry-for-us rant.
It’s a story about overcoming all challenges, to reach your goal.
Here are some of the things we faced and how we got through them.
Obstacle 1: Travel wasn’t possible
The problem
This one is pretty obvious. Travel from the UK just wasn’t possible.
And when lockdown was eased off everywhere in the country?
In Glasgow, where we lived, it wasn’t.
We had one of the longest lockdowns in the UK.
Lucky us.
And when even that was over?
We worried about leaving.
The rules and restrictions around the world kept changing.
Information was not properly available.
No one knew how many more waves and variants were going to hit.
What we worried about was giving everything up – our jobs, our flat, our whole life – and then getting stuck somewhere, unable to move on because of a lockdown or restrictions. And running out of our hard-earned money.
The solution
We did two things:
- We waited
This was a terrible, terrible struggle – full-time travel felt like an impossible dream. In hindsight, we did wait too long. We should have taken a gamble earlier, but that’s how life is, it’s easy to be wise after the fact.
- We went volunteering
Worried about getting stuck somewhere and running out of money, we decided to go volunteering in Europe for the first two months of our full-time travel adventures. That meant we had a specific place to go and we could stay there for a long period of time. (This is where the pool cleaning pic comes from).
Oh and it was pretty much free travel. Well, free as in we weren’t dipping into our travel savings, but we did have to work for things. If you don’t know much about volunteering, read our guide (coming soon). It’s a fantastic way to travel, learn new skills and meet all kinds of people.
Obstacle 2: We couldn’t get a pre-travel consultation appointment
The problem
Because travel was officially discouraged by the government, we couldn’t get a pre-travel appointment at our doctor’s.
Note: the key word here is “discouraged”, we aren’t talking about the lockdown times when travel wasn’t allowed. We waited, until borders were re-opened, planes were flying again and then tried. But still we weren’t allowed to get a pre-travel doctor’s appointment.
Now, the pre-travel appointment is not necessary and it all depends on the healthcare system of your country, but you might want to consider it if:
- You need to be issued specific medication for your travels
- You want to discuss what vaccinations might be suitable for you
- You want to get these vaccinations for free or cheaper
The solution
We again, waited as long as we could.
But we also pestered our doctor’s office – asking for an appointment, to be allowed to get the vaccinations etc. (not fun).
The third thing we did is we opted to go privately.
In the UK, drugstores like Boots or Superdrug offer pre-travel clinics and vaccinations. Yes, it’s more expensive. But it’s still cheaper than private doctors and it was available at a time when the NHS (the state-funded healthcare) had to follow the government’s instructions to discourage travel at all cost.
Obstacle 3: We couldn’t go without Covid vaccinations
The problem
We had to get the Covid vaccinations to be able to travel.
Now this problem was twofold.
We had to decide whether to get the vaccine. And we had to actually get an appointment to get it.
The solution
First, we had to decide whether we wanted to get the vaccination, which was labelled by many as unsafe.
What we did was, we weighed the pros and cons.
Of getting the vaccine.
Vs not getting it and not being able to leave the country.
It wasn’t an easy decision, but, in the end, we agreed that we were willing to risk the potential consequences of the vaccine to be able to finally set off on our full-time travel journey.
Second, we had to get ourselves on the waiting list.
In Scotland, the order of the people who could get the vaccine first was influenced by:
- Age
- Job
- Health history
As (relatively) young people with (relatively) good health history and professional, working-from-home jobs, we were at the bottom of the list. Of course.
So, the most we could do was apply for the vaccine appointment as soon as the bookings opened for our group.
We stayed up to date on the information about the vaccine appointments and rules.
And we kept checking until we could apply and then did it as early as we could.
It wasn’t much, but if you are trying to make your dreams a reality, you have to try everything.
Obstacle 4: We couldn’t try things on in shops
This was, surprisingly, a big issue.
The problem
Because of the pandemic, there were no-trying-on-things rules everywhere in shops.
And we needed to buy all our gear – many things we’ve never bought before, and so we really needed to try them on.
These were things like backpacks, clothes, shoes. Even make up.
Things that we wanted to get right because:
- They were expensive
- They were going to be our whole life when we travelled full-time – all you have is what you carry in your backpack
The solution
We ordered many things online. Which, of course, was also difficult, because when you returned them, they had to go into quarantine and shops weren’t happy about this.
This is why we tried to do thorough research and make good decisions when ordering – so we wouldn’t have to return too many things.
We also did a lot of 2m-distance queueing in shops.
And Mirka tried many make up apps to figure out what make up shade was the right one for her. 😅
Obstacle 5: Extreme negativity from other people
The problem
This was, actually, very surprising to us.
Almost everyone we spoke to – from doctors, to admin staff to random strangers, was extremely negative towards us and our plans of full-time travel.
Now, we would kinda understand it, if we were just a couple of 20 year-olds wanting to take a gap year right in the middle of a global pandemic.
But many of these people knew about our situation.
They knew that we were extremely unhappy in the UK and needed to get out.
That we were sacrificing everything for it – having a pet, moving up in our careers, buying our first property, having kids etc. We didn’t do any of these things, many of which people were doing during the pandemic. We tried to explain to people that we couldn’t do any of this, because we wanted to leave the country.
And yet almost no one understood. Or even tried to empathise.
What’s worse is people were instead very negative, to the point of being vicious, saying that we should absolutely not go travelling, that travel was never going to come back and that we were better off just staying in the UK.
😵
It still blows our minds, that this is what many people are like.
The solution
Thankfully, we are very strong people when it comes to the opinions of others. So we mainly ignored them and pushed on.
We would suggest you do the same.
If you are not harming anyone else, fight for what you believe in and for your dreams.
And don’t let negative people discourage you.
Ideally, find people who will do the opposite.
People who followed their dreams, even if it meant going against the crowd.
Who moved out of their country.
Who went full-time travelling.
Who wanted more than the default life.
These people will help you, encourage you and lift you up when you need it.
And if you don’t have people like that around you?
You can find them online. We are always just a message away, so don’t hesitate to reach out.
The most important lesson
There is one thing we want to highlight from all of this.
We made it work.
Despite all of these struggles and obstacles, we succeeded.
We pushed on, found alternative solutions and fought for our freedom.
And we encourage you to do the same.
If you are struggling, if you think your dream life is not possible, out of your reach, think about us.
Hopefully, our journey has inspired you and given you hope.
And remember, if you are struggling, we are always just a DM away.