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7 Signs You’re Destined to Travel the World

By Two Monkeys Travel - Contributor July 29th, 2022 Posted in Inspiration and Love Stories, Travel Blog 35 Comments

A life of travel may be calling your name. – Monica Gray

Calling all daydreamers, wanderers, and nomads out there! Do you constantly find yourself lost in thought, dreaming about a place you miss or a place you’ve never been to? Are you wishing you were somewhere else, always moving, and never in one spot for too long?

Kach in Seychelles

I recently found a class assignment from school when I was eight years old. The teacher had asked us to write about two things we love. I wrote: I’m a lover of dogs and a lover of travel. I laughed when I found this- how did I know this when I was eight? I had only traveled to California to see family when I was that age. But even then, I knew something was calling my name. And now, as a 21-year-old, I can easily say that traveling is what makes me tick.

I know I’m not the only one with this type of experience. Many of you may have had something similar, or you may be meant for a life of travel and not even realize it. Here are seven signs that you were destined to travel.

 1. You love taking chances and you don’t like routine

 

7 Signs You're Destined to Travel the World
Photo by Jim SurkampCC BY-NC 2.0

Whether you travel or not, you can’t stand doing the same thing over and over again. Maybe you get bored easily, or maybe the thought of doing something mundane makes you run away faster than you can say, “get me out of here!” You get excited when you don’t know where you’ll be sleeping that night, let alone if it’ll be in a bed. When you’re backpacking, there is no set routine, and you love that. You’re always looking for an opportunity to change up your day; maybe you take a different route to work or order something at a restaurant you’ve never even heard of before, or try the new cafe down the road you’ve always been wanting to try.

Someone asked me today, “How can you land in a place and have no idea what to do next?” It’s like solving a puzzle, you’re holding the piece but you don’t know if any of the pieces surrounding it are even on the board yet. Having no routine and no set plan is the same while traveling. You live by adventure and by taking chances; it makes you feel alive. And you know that by taking these chances, you’ll learn things about your character that you never knew before.

2. You consider more than one place your home

7 Signs You're Destined to Travel the World)
Photo by im SurkampCC BY-NC 2.0

 

You don’t understand how someone can have only one home when there are thousands of cities out there that can easily become your second, fourth, or even eighth home! Ah, all of the places you can live in. You love imagining yourself waking up in your favorite city, knowing that once you wanted to change, you know where you’d go- another one of the many cities you consider your home.

You also have a second sense of knowing if you’ll like a city or not almost right away. Some of the time, a city will sweep you right off of your feet when you least expect it, and you’ll be falling head over heels for a place you’ve come to love. Almost right away I can tell if I can picture myself living in a certain city. When I landed in Copenhagen and saw everyone biking everywhere, I immediately knew that this was the type of lifestyle I would love to immerse myself in for an extended period of time.

3. You’d rather spend your money on something travel-related than anything else

7 Signs You're Destined to Travel the World
Photo by Justin Kern CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 

A new pair of expensive shoes? But that could be a round trip flight ticket in Europe! Starbucks coffee? That’s a whole meal right there in Southeast Asia! I usually find myself weighing the value on what I’d rather spend- and I always choose travel. For me, I know that I would get a lot more out of a plane ticket somewhere than I would on something I may ruin (Stains love me. And so do broken zippers).

If you get total fulfillment on paying for experiences over anything else, travel may be calling your name. You would rather buy one big thing, such as a plane ticket, than many small things. Travel is a long term investment that will slowly pay you back- with knowledge, experiences, and an understanding of the world that you can’t learn in a textbook, or anywhere else.

4. You’d rather live out of a backpack than in a room

7 Signs You're Destined to Travel the World

You know where everything is in your backpack, and you love living minimally. You have a few “whatever” outfits, a few nice outfits, your passport, etc., all in one place, and it’s a lot easier for you to be organized that way. Living out of a backpack also prevents you from having those unworn shoes and dresses with tags still on them shoved in the back of a closet that’s falling apart.

My backpack is in my room. My shirts, pants, shorts, bras, underwear, dresses, and shoes are all in one, messy compartment strapped to my back. I could spend one hour looking for one shirt in my room, or ten seconds finding the same shirt in my backpack. When you’re backpacking on the road, you need to have as little as possible.

5. You’ll try any food at least once

7-Signs-Youre-Destined-to-Travel-the-World
Photo by Jazz Guy CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 

You’ll look at the menu, pick something with a strange name (or maybe something that sounds fun to say out loud; “I’d like the burgoo”), and prepare yourself for the worst. This is one of the best parts about traveling- the food. You know you may end up hating it, but you may have also found your new favorite dish. It always pays off to be adventurous with your food, and you learn so much about a culture just by trying one of their staple dishes.

One of my favorite memories is trying pig ears in Portugal. If you’re wondering, no, I did not enjoy them, I couldn’t get over the crunching cartilage part! But I will try anything, at least once.

6. You know what’s important to you and what isn’t

Visa Experiences Around the World Trip - Filipina Backpacker in Bahamas

You appreciate everything you have and are happy having just that. You love not having a superfluous amount of miscellaneous items because they’re not important to you. You know that having less is having more because it allows you to have certain experiences that let you grow as a person. Material items become of minimal importance, while experiences become a staple.

Like I said in number four, backpackers on the road need to have as little as possible. Less is more in this case. Traveling and items have an inverse relationship: The more you travel, the less you need.

 7. You’re always wondering and wandering

7 Signs You're Destined to Travel the World
Photo by Shandi-lee Cox
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 

You have an urgent need to discover the unknown. You’re always wondering what an unexplored place is like, and you always find yourself wandering through the world, your eyes clouded with curiosity and excitement. For you, this exploration can take place somewhere you’ve lived your entire life or an entirely new city thousands of miles away. The important thing is that you love learning about it. You love exploring new cities and having new experiences. You love the fact that you may find a beautiful hidden waterfall in a park a few hours from your home or discover old ruins in a city across the world.

Travel is about exploring other places, cultures, or people, but ultimately, you end up learning more about yourself. Traveling fills your soul and leaves you wanting more. If this thought resonates with you, then you know you’re destined to travel.

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About the Author

Monica Gray

Monica is a part-time wanderer, full-time dreamer that prefers living out of a backpack to literally anything else. Most of the time, you’ll catch her either looking up flights or writing in her journal. Follow her journey around the globe as she finds the strange, the beautiful, and the ugly at www.globe-trottica.com, where she hopes to inspire you to do the same.

She’s Awesome, follow her on Facebook, and Instagram!

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35 thoughts on “7 Signs You’re Destined to Travel the World

  1. Hi Monica!

    This post really struck a chord with me. I am working office job 9-5 but all of my free time and money is going on plane tickets and new experiences. Who needs new shoes anyway? They’ll do for another few months until they’re completely broken and I’ll replace them out of sheer nececity.
    I am preparing for long-term travel this year and your article just put a smile on my face and made me nod, nod, nod along as I was reading 🙂
    Thank you for reminding me that I’m doing the right thing!

    Cheers,
    Arina

  2. I love this. A good reminder to just for it. I’m not sure I’d prefer to live out of a backpack just yet though

  3. You make great points! I want to travel America next year in a uv or something. I’m not much of a flyer so I’d prefer being on the ground lol!

  4. After reading this list I’m not sure I’m destined to travel the world? I’d like to though very much. I have some dream destinations!

  5. I definitely want to travel still so many places I want to see and theres so much to learn from different cultures

  6. I am so destined to travel. I already have been to so many countries when I was in my twenties but it would be nice to travel with the husband and child!

  7. I know at some point I will get to carry out my dream and travel the world, there is so many places I want to go to.

  8. These are some great points. I wonder If I’d enjoy traveling the world. I definitely have a few countries in mind.

  9. I definitely want to travel more. I prefer to go places where I know people–I think people make a place.

  10. Not having a routine gives us the opportunity to experience something new. But more importantly, it allows us to experience something old with a new perspective that can inspire us to change something. Thanks for sharing.

  11. But this is so cool! You’re right, I never travelled as a child but I’ve always had a weird sense I’ve missing out on something, some place. This feeling has been following all my life, though now I can name it – wanderlust!

  12. Love this post! I actually made the leap a year ago and quit my job to go work at a school in Qatar. But ended up coming back home in December, now I regret doing that! This post makes me want to pack up again and go somewhere new.

  13. This was an awesome article. I feel like quitting my job after reading this and wander anywhere in the world!

  14. Aaah, #2 is so relevant! I found my home in Wales, London, Queensland, Oslo AND my home town! Love this list! 🙂

  15. Agree with everything expect #2. The Philippines will always be home, it is where my heart is! 🙂

  16. Generally, in 24 hours I start feeling like “at home”, in a way… in fact, it feels better, because it’s exciting to discover new places and meet new people.

    I can’t even count how many times I think about traveling on a daily basis.

    Traveling is one of my main sources of energy!

  17. Your duck sandwich reminded me of my frog sandwich in France! It was yummy!
    This post is very inspiring, I’m in a two week vacation now and and I keep thinking when I have vacations again haha. I love enyoing the moment but I always look ahead to make sure I continue to chase my dream of travel. Great post!

    1. I would love to try that! Thank you so much, Laura! Absolutely chase that dream, there’s so much of this beautiful world to see 😀

  18. Hi Monica,

    Love the message!

    I’ve been circling the globe for about 46 months in a row. I embody most of these ideas, especially the note about not falling into routines. I work off of my intuitive nudges for much of the time so routines are kinda out the door for me, other than getting in my 6,000 words or so of writing each day.

    Keep on inspiring!

    Ryan

    1. Hey Ryan, been wanting to reach you! Can we interview you for our Nomads Inspiration Series? You’re an awesome guy and we would be very happy to feature you!! <3

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Written by Two Monkeys Travel - Contributor

Two Monkeys Travel Group – Community Travel Blog is a travel blog and website. We quickly grew into a valuable source of inspiring travel stories, advice, itineraries and travel guides, with the aim of demonstrating how to live a sustainable life of travel, whilst living your own definition of success. If you'd like to contribute and write a guest post, contact us at [email protected]