The benefits of travelling are huge. You gain world-wide life experience, explore who you are, and make some amazing memories along the way.
In this article we give you a list of benefits of travelling to a new destination and explain how and why the act of travelling can benefit you as a person.
Whether this is learning a new language, using no language or simply having to communicate with a range of different people, a benefit of travelling is improved communication skills.
We once helped an old French Lady who spoke no English at the airport. And we speak no French. She couldn’t find the correct gate she needed to be at and we tried to help her. How did we find this information out? Hand gestures, pointing at passports and boarding passes, and the use of single words that we knew from school. And the old faithful google translate!
Open your mind and you will be amazed at what you can achieve!
You will have to communicate with a range of different people while away, so naturally you will improve you communication skills while travelling and you might even end up learning a new language.
Meet New People
Travelling puts you in the path of so many people. You might get chatting to someone at the airport or on a bus, you might meet a bunch of cool people in a bar or a restaurant, or you might end up living or working with some amazing characters.
Regardless of the how, meeting new people are a huge part benefit of travelling. Travelling can be extremely social. If you want it to be, of course.
We have found that travellers are much more open minded to meet new people. never be afraid to go and say hi!
Additionally, once you’ve met and established a relationship with these cool new people, another benefit arises. When you do more travel, you have a contact in a different country to go and catch up with! It is always nice seeing a friendly face in a foreign place.
Mental Health Benefits of Travelling
A great benefit of travelling is that it has been shown to improve your mental health.
Seeing new places, removing yourself from your busy hustle and bustle life, and enjoying new experiences helps relieve your stress and tension.
Forget about your problems for a bit! (But definitely don’t ignore them).
You will also see increased mental resilience in unknown situations, as you will (sometimes quite literally) be walking into a completely unknown situation. Learning how to handle and manage these situations will make you more resilient to change in everyday life.
Physical Health Benefits of Travelling
Travelling… hiking up mountain tracks, swimming in tropical waters, kayaking around mangroves, cycling on F1 tracks, walking around cities. These are all pretty active, right?
You may not be able to stick to your strict 5-day gym schedule, but a huge benefit of travelling and seeing cool things is being active. And you’re active in a completely new way!
Get your blood pumping, endorphins flowing and enjoy that immense view that you’ve hiked a few hours for or the serene beaches you’ve kayaked to.
Understand Other Cultures
Did you know that New Zealand once had a bird called the Moa that stood at 3m tall but it was so delicious the Māori ate it to extinction?
Neither did we until we came travelling.
(This fact in itself is rather interesting once you learn more about the Māori people and culture. Which will happen very easily when travelling.)
Culture is one of the best benefits of travelling. Seeing how other people live, experiencing public holidays and celebrating like a local, understanding the whys behind tradition and all the other things you will learn while away.
Understanding other cultures was one of the main reasons we came travelling in the first place. It’s also one of the reasons we slow travel, so we can really take the time to immerse ourselves.
5 Top tips for how to immerse yourself in local culture:
- Travel slowly. You miss so much on a whirlwind tour of a city or region.
- Enjoy local cuisine. There is nothing like learning about the national tastes and flavours of a country! Avoid chain bars and restaurants and head for the independent ones as they’ll be more likely to have the good local foods.
- Research local customs. By researching local customs, you will understand it more and know how to respectfully act or react in unknown situations. This could be clothing, hand gestures or covering tattoos etc.
- Use public transport or walk. You can’t focus too much on epic landscapes if you have to focus on the road ahead. What about experiencing an open top bus or the excitement of a tuk-tuk? If walking, be mindful of what you are seeing, hearing, and smelling. Take the time to really see where you are.
- Visit museums and cultural buildings. You learn so much about culture in a museum, an art gallery or a temple. The smaller museums are even better as they show local culture, things that the big museums may not cover. These kind of activities are usually free or very cheap.
You Can Be Who You Want To Be
Travelling to a new place where you know no one socially gives you the opportunity to be who you want. This is because there’s no social expectation of your friends and family.
You’ll discover things about yourself too. Maybe you’ll realise that you like doing a certain activity or that you have an amazing quality that other people you meet while travelling point out to you.
The best part? All of this that you learn about yourself comes home with you.
Growth and change is a part of life.
You Will Have Some Amazing Stories
Travelling gives you so many stories to be able to tell. You will be able to share your experiences about where you have been and what you have seen.
Just don’t overdo it- no one likes it when all you talk about is one thing. Remember that friend who went to uni and didn’t shut up about it for the first few months? Yeah… that was us too.
You May Learn to Appreciate Your Life More
Travelling exposes you to so much great aspects of the world and life.
It also exposes you to negative parts of life too.
You may travel through a new country that isn’t as wealthy as yours or where homelessness and poverty is high.
You may appreciate the luxury of having drinkable tap water at home a little more after backpacking through Southeast Asia.
Thank you for reading!
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