Why do I travel and why you should travel too?

As a ten year old back in the nineties, it was difficult to understand how and why can we travel and even more when it comes to far destinations for such a long period of time and in a thing called ‘plane’ that is not going to stop for more fuel on the way and will not run out.

At first I was not sure what traveling was about and what did that mean; nowadays traveling has become a big part of my life and I do it as much as I possibly can and my pocket allows me to. Back to the ten-year-old me, sitting in the plane and having a window seat I was about to live one of the biggest moments in my life which was seeing what one sees when having such seat; see the world under our feet become smaller and smaller, fly through the clouds, freak out and get super excited for it and over all just fall in love with the process.

These days I usually travel either alone (most of the times) or with friends (not that often) but a thing that never changes is the seat I cherish the most; the window seat. Sometimes I will be lucky enough to get it for free, other times I will have to pay for it and some others (the worst ones) is when changing seats is way too expensive and me not being the richest cannot afford such thing. Then you will have a sad Sandra for most of the flight.

For me the flight is one of the best and most important things about travelling but it is only part of the procedure to follow in order to get from point A to point B for some.

Traveling opens one’s mind and widens our horizons. You get to know more bits about yourself and even find yourself enjoying something; a place, a culture, a food, a weather, a kind of people… which you never before expected at all to like.

Give yourself the opportunity to travel, to know the world, to see the things with your eyes instead of letting others tell you about it. Traveling does not need to be something you spend all your savings on. There are endless ways to travel: organized regular trips, organized small trips, adventure trips, road trips, cruises, by volunteering or finding job opportunities abroad, scholarships, international exchanges… Instead of booking a four-star hotel, why not choose to stay with a host family or in a youth hostel where you can get to know locals, people your age, make friends and go explore the city or go hiking together.

If you feel that traveling on your own at first is a bit overwhelming, go with your partner, a friend, family or even a colleague. It will make you feel more comfortable and you will not find yourself alone in the middle of nowhere. Sharing a trip with someone will definitely show you which things you like the most about the shared adventure and at the same time let you know which things you would do in a different way if traveling by yourself.

But one thing I am going to recommend you, travel solo at least once in your life; most probably you are not going to regret doing it and even end up repeating that!