Jonno

Our top ten reasons why full time travel isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

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.

Travel
“Everything we have is in these bags. That’s it!”

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.

Travel
“We still get to drive a few cars courtesy of kind housesitting and Airbnb hosts and the odd rental”

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.

Travel
“Making friends from all over the world”

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.

Travel
“Still get to relax in all sorts of different places”

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?

Travel
“All of us getting together for Christmas, Missmass, or anything is just magical”

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.

Travel
“Views like this are what makes it all worthwhlle for us”

Any other good reasons that you can think of to argue that full-time travelling isn’t all it’s cracked up to ?

46 comments

  1. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • 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.

      Like

      Reply

  2. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. 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!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. 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?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • 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.

      Like

      Reply

  12. 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!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. 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….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • 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.

      Like

      Reply

  15. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to Sue Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.