You must get completely fed up with us constantly going on about how much we love our lives and how great everything always is. Bit much isn’t it? I’m really not surprised that you’re not buying all of this ‘wonderful life’ business. So I thought we should come clean and tell a few reasons why this travelling life is not it’s cracked up to be.
Full time travellers
As most of you know we have been travelling fulltime for nearly three and a half years. All we carry is a small backpack and a case as we move from place to place. Everything we own is in those bags and if we buy anything new then something else has to go.
So here are out ten reasons why fulltime travelling just isn’t as amazing or as fantastic as we make out. In no particular order.
Our ten reasons why full-time travelling isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!
1 Lack of clothes
We don’t have a summer wardrobe or a winter wardrobe, in fact we don’t have a wardrobe of any kind. Just a couple of pairs of trousers, a handful of shirts, couple of sweatshirts, and a jacket. It would be nice sometimes to be able to choose something different to wear or have something smart.
2 Different beds
We have slept in over 180 different beds since we started this journey and some have been amazingly comfortable but several have been dreadful. A lot of people just don’t appreciate how nice it is to have your own bed.
3 No Car
Most people can’t believe their ears when they learn that we don’t own a car. ‘Everyone’s got a car‘ they say. Well we haven’t and it can be restricting having to travel everywhere by public transport. It means we have to be very very organised and book train and bus tickets well in advance.
4 Restrictive food shopping
Shopping of the food kind for us is limited to exactly what we will be eating over the coming few days. We never buy anything that won’t be eaten so it’s all well planned. No spices or sauces or bottles of something fizzy just in case. Oh and if that isn’t enough, we generally have to carry all of our shopping ‘home’ in our backpacks and sometimes it’s a fair walk.
5 Not enough shoes
Due to space requirements we each only have two pairs of footwear, one of which has to be boots. So for Jo this is seriously restrictive as it isn’t in any womans DNA to have so few pairs is it? Whenever she explains this to any other ladies she is always met with a blank look followed by a shocked exclamation ‘What? Only two pairs?’
6 Unable to invite friends and family round
This may be unbelievably obvious as we are homeless but it is a major difference to ‘normal life’. So much of our social life previously was entertaining and inviting people to our house. Impossible now and we do actually really miss it.
7 Doctors and Dentists
We still go to these but have to travel back to our previous home town of Maidstone for every single appointment which can be well tricky to organise when we’re forever on the move. I used to think going to the doctors on the way home from work was a pain but that pales into insignificance against some of the day return journeys we’ve made.
8 Relaxing in our dressing gowns
It’s one of the delights of having your own home that you can occasionally just slob around for an evening or even a day without getting dressed and do absolutely nothing. There’s no way we can do that as we are always in someone else’s house, an Airbnb, or a hotel. We can still relax but need to be considerate always.
9 Home baking
Jo is an amazingly good cook and loves to bake. Very rarely she gets the opportunity to work her baking magic when we’re staying with our boys but it’s on a very few occasions. She really misses it. So do I as those cakes all have to be eaten don’t they?
10 Christmas
We still celebrate Christmas, it hasn’t disappeared, but we really do miss being able to have our family round at that special time of year. Being together at Christmas is wonderful. We obviously arrange to get to see all of our boys over the festive period and still have a marvellous time but there is something special about everyone coming home isn’t there?
Actually, full-time travelling is all it’s cracked up to be!
Although all ten are serious issues we don’t actually feel that any affect our travelling life adversely. Sure we wouldn’t mind having a car but we’re so organised that train travel is easy and we still enjoy the adventure. More clothes and shoes? Not a big deal as we’re happy with being frugal plus we don’t like to carry anything we don’t use. No waste. So from our point of view travelling full-time is everything it’s cracked up to be and well worth any sacrifices that we have to make.
The only real negatives truthfully are not being able to have Christmas at home and maybe inviting friends round. Although perhaps that doesn’t ring true anymore as we’ve made friends all around the world and continue to meet more and more wonderful people with every step we take.
Any other good reasons that you can think of to argue that full-time travelling isn’t all it’s cracked up to ?
JWalking 
Yep, totally fed up with you two banging on about your travels and adventures so of course it’s fabulous to hear that you have modern day difficulties like the rest of use, Bit disappointed that it’s only 10 though and I seem to recall that you never owned more than 2 pairs of shoes anyway! In the grand scheme of things though it’s not too much to compromise for living the life that you want.
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We’re not complaining at all as we love our lives at the moment. To be honest most of these ten things really don’t bother us at all apart from seeing the family more.
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Great post. A lot of people are envious but it really isn’t for everyone. We’re not as minimal as you yet having still got the car but we no longer have a house or furniture, just a small storage cube. We’re glad we kept a car for Australia though as there’s so much of the country you can’t see without a 4WD. We will, however, be selling out before we head overseas next year.
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Having a car probably saves you expense and hassle currently so it sounds like the way to go. When are you leaving Australia?
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The plan is next May / June – first stop Japan
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Exciting. Seems a long way off but I bet the time flies. It’ll soon be here.
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Much of what you have given up is material, and they are just that – material! There’s a theory that you should only buy what you actually use, so cupboards aren’t full of crockery that only comes out once a year, or foods that take a millennia to eat. Many people struggle giving things up because they like to be surrounded by things and that’s the problem they have. We don’t need the most of what we have and so can’t give it up. We all have choices, it’s just what are we prepared to sacrifice to live the life we want to live. Yours sounds pretty near perfect!
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All of that is exactly our philosophy. We only own what we use and only buy what we actually need. Again it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but we’ve never been bothered about ‘stuff’.
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I think you have it absolutely right too!
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Thanks, so do we.
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Ditto!
We don’t own a car. But manage on public transport. We have all day to get to where we want to get to. But people find us strange because we don’t want one.
We are happy doing the simple things in life.
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Most people just don’t get the ‘No Car’ thing do they? We love slow travel and find that we enjoy the journeys much more when we use public transport. And it’s so much cheaper.
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Slow, simple life is the best
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I love tracing but don’t think I could do it. I Love house and my yard and what would happen to poor Roxy?
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Ah it would never work if you have pets. Perhaps that is one of the best things about house sitting, we get to have our own dog for a while.
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NIce!
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The food bit has to be difficult as eating out is costly and loses its appeal after a few days. When I was flying interstate regularly I was always coming home with half bags of oats and tubs of butter in my bags. That’s where the caravan comes into its own, the house fridge stuff just gets put in the van fridge and off we go. No wastage.
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It can be tricky as we just don’t have any space to carry food around. Lots of meal planning required which Jo is brilliant at.
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have to agree with the thrust of your argument. Those ten points are pretty minor ones, really. At least I think so!
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All surmountable as far as we are concerned but some are huge issues to other people surprisingly.
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People are strange, Jonno.
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Yep, I can see why you live the way you do. Honestly, I think I could do without many of my shoes and much of the stuff. I’ve always enjoyed a minimalist lifestyle. I guess that’s why we love camping so much. Such a great post Jonno. Keep enjoying. Life’s to be lived and you’re certainly doing that.
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Thanks Miriam, that’s exactly how we both feel. We really don’t need anything apart from each other.
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Aww, beautifully said.
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Great post. We travel WITH our home so we’re lucky to always have our own ‘home comforts’ and, as minimal as they are in our tiny space, we always seem to manage well.
Things we miss slightly:
A flushing toilet
An oven
Being able to sit up in bed (it’s one that drops down and there’s very little height)
Bedside tables
A Christmas tree
Cuddling up on a sofa
What you are doing is amazing. I can really appreciate how organised you need to be. Keep doing what you love.
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Sitting up in bed is a major one, plus the flushing toilet. Big deals. Hopefully having all your other things around you makes it better though.
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Absolutely and I’m not complaining. If anything it teaches me to appreciate everything in life.
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So where are you at the moment?
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Derbyshire
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Beautiful part of the country. Hope the weathers behaving.
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Great to see the ‘flip side’ but we should all be living like this if we want to save our planet
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It would make a huge difference wouldn’t it? If people only bought and owned things they really needed.
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Great post, guys! It was cool getting an inside look at your journey.
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Our slow slow journey! Doesn’t suit everyone but we love it and it suits our low-key land sailing lives.
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The longest I ever travelled was 5 months and one thing I missed was just feeling settled and being able to unpack and stay still for a bit! I enjoyed reading your post and can definitely relate to a lot of those! But I think you’re right and it’s not for everyone but if you can get used to not having the material things in life, it can be a pretty awesome adventure 🙂 I’m surprised to hear that you don’t have a car though. Is this just so that it’s easier for you to travel in cities etc?
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We’ve found that we can get everywhere by public transport just as easily and much cheaper. Bit of prior planning and train splitting and it’s simple. Really don’t need a car at the moment.
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Definitely can relate to some of your top ten – no chance of dressing up to go somewhere nice for dinner, take us in our jeans and sneakers thanks! The shoe thing is the hardest – we have slightly more (2 pairs plus sandals/flip-flops) as we don’t want to end up with wet shoes only.
But we still have more clothes than we need for the weather we have experienced so far…but winter is coming!
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You need to take enough to cover every situation dont you? Our wet winter clothes take up so much space but we’ll need them soon.
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When we were homeless we were to far from our normal dentists and Drs so used the locals, Not being a regular patient meant their care factor was low though, which meant a few small problems compounded over time. and my hair definitely suffered from not having a regular Hairdressor. And every woman knows just what a bad hair day can do….
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We decided from the beginning to keep our doctor and dentist as we felt comfortable with them. Think Jo might like a regular hairdresser but unfortunately its just a matter of get em where we can.
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I definitely never saw you wearing a pair of shoes in the office! It always amuses me that you know the number of different beds slept in. #stats
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Can’t help myself with stats I’m afraid, just that sort of geeky JWalker I guess.
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I appreciate your honesty in writing this article. Even when we have been away for a month life on the road is certainly not all cupcakes and rainbows. I think for anyone considering a nomadic life this post could serve them well.
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It sounds more romantic and exciting than it sometimes is. Not for everyone I’m sure but works for a few.
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Still sounds like a great adventure to me 😀 although I do love my own bed 🤔 Great to read about the downside of your travels, but I’ve got a feeling all the adventures out way thes downsides 😊
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You’re right Sam, the adventures more than make up for the few disadvantages. Wouldn’t change it.
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