15 Lessons From 15 Months of Traveling The World

And a bonus lesson I did not see coming

I left Romania, my home country, in May 2019, with a one-way ticket to Portugal. At that time, the only thing I knew for sure was that I had another flight from Greece to Singapore at the end of October. No return ticket. And no idea of what to do during those five months in Europe.

Fast forward to today, I’m almost 15 months into my journey, and this past year has been the happiest and most intense so far.

But now, like everybody else, I took a break from traveling, and I’m staying put. Which means I’m also buying a lot of clothes and skincare products that will not fit into my bag when I leave Hoi An, the city I’ve been calling home lately.

I don’t know when I’ll continue my journey, though. The only thing I know is that I don’t plan on going back home anytime soon. There’s still a lot of countries I want to explore in Asia.

Since it’s pointless to make any plans for the future, I’ve been looking back on what I’ve learned from the experience. With some Vietnamese men singing karaoke in the background, I wrote down some of the lessons I’ve learned. I hope they can inspire you to travel once we’re safe to do so again.

1. It Really Is About the People

You’re not going to learn much about a country if you just move from one place to another, without talking to the people who live there. So ask about their customs. Eat their food. Watch how they live their daily lives. Eat their food. Did I already say you have to eat their food?

But also, be picky about the people you spend your time with.

No matter how exotic a place is, if the locals mistreat you, you’re probably not going back. Yet, welcoming and kind locals will make a random place feel like Heaven on Earth. The same goes for fellow travelers you meet along the way. They can either make or ruin your day.

So choose wisely the people you surround yourself with when you’re on the road, but especially in your everyday life.

2. You Need Less Than You Think You Do

I’ve explored 10 countries carrying the minimum: 2 pairs of sandals, 5 dresses, 2 skirts, 1 pair of pants, and 3 shirts. Sorry, leggings, t-shirts, and sports shoes are not my thing.

I’ve learned to buy things that I can wear/ use in different ways, and my backpack is well-organized. If I buy one thing, I have to get rid of another.

But I’m not a minimalist, don’t get me wrong. I love to have a lot of things to choose from, but now I understand I don’t need them. This is exactly what it is: a choice.

We’re bombarded with sales and offers from any direction. But do we need all the things we buy? And if so, do we need so many of them? I ask myself while thinking about a floral midi dress I saw on Saturday, in a shop just down the street from where I live.

The answer is probably no.

3. Overplanning Can Ruin the Experience

The late Anthony Bourdain and many other travel gurus often talked about it. And if they tell us that overplanning a vacation will ruin it, we should believe them. Well, I’m obsessed with Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, and that’s my only valid argument.

But I’ve also experienced it first hand. Some of the best memories I’ve made are from days when I did not have any plans. Nothing at all. I just grabbed my bag and walked out the door.

Sure, I’d always have a bunch (a lot) of things I want to see in a city, but I’d always schedule some free-spirit days, to wander around without a map. Or to join some strangers for their plans. Not too-crazy-plans, though. Safety first.

4. But You Have to Research Every Destination

Overplanning can ruin your experience, but not having any plans at all will have the same outcome. If there are unique experiences that you can only have in one country, you want to know about it. You don’t want to miss out on stuff like these.

Popular tourist attractions are not bad. They are famous for a reason — most of them are worth seeing.

So the secret here is to find a balance between lesson #2 and lesson #3.

5. Your Intuition Becomes Stronger If You Listen to It

After some time spent on the road, you develop what people call the traveler instinct, especially if you travel solo. Don’t go all Steve Irwin on your trips, though.

The things you learn, the people you meet, the experiences you have. All of these help your brain collect more data.

So when you find yourself in a new situation, your brain compares them to past experiences. It happens fast, and you’re not aware of the process itself. You’re only aware of the results, which is your intuition.

If you have sharp instincts, you can react better and faster in any situation, not just a dangerous one.

6. Body Language and Microexpresions Are Crucial

Whether the person is speaking English or not, I’m always paying attention to their body language. Partly because I binged on too many true-crime series, and I can’t help it, and partly because I find it useful.

What I’ve learned (the hard, shameful way, of course) is that even if you have no intention to do so, it’s easy to offend someone when you don’t know their culture.

Analyzing people’s body language has also helped me avoid lots of scams, especially in South-East Asia. A sneaky smile is different from an honest one.

7. Life Gets Easier When You Relax

Yes, you meet lots of people and learn to have a conversation with pretty much anyone. You discover other cultures (and their food, wink, wink). You get to see dozens of cool stuff and brag about it on Instagram.

But you know what the best thing about traveling is?

It shows you that in many situations, you complicate things because you take yourself way too seriously. So you eventually stop giving a fuck.

You stop worrying about what others might think of you. You stop changing 20 outfits before living the house (ok, you can roughly fit 10 outfits in your backpack, but you get the point). You just stop caring about small, insignificant stuff.

You get back to basics. You try to make the best of every day and not be an asshole to anyone. Go to sleep, wake up, repeat.

8. People Can’t Fit Into Just One Category

For a long time, I’ve tried to define the type of traveler I am, which only led to frustration. I’ve also developed the impostor syndrome. I felt like I wasn’t traveling well enough.

But I’ve learned (again, the hard way. Does anyone ever learn something without going through Hell first? If you know the secret, help a girl out) that traveling is a mix of things you enjoy and don’t need to put a label on it.

I’m not a digital nomad, and I’m not a backpacker. I love staying in cheap dorms just as much as I love high-end resorts or five-star hotels.

Well, I don’t splurge too much in the second category, but you know, I’d love to.

Travel stimulates my creativity. It expands my horizons. It pushes me to the limit. That’s why I do it. Because I see how much it has taught me over the years, and it still does — every day.

But that’s it. I’m not trying to fit into one category, and neither should you.

9. Adaptability Is a Key Factor

I’ve lost count of all the plans that changed at the last minute. Sometimes it was my choice because I found something better. And I’m usually very indecisive, but I’ve learned to embrace my inability to make a decision when I’m faced with more than two options.

Love yourself, they say.

Yet, other times, it was entirely out of my control, so the only thing I could do was adapt to the new situation. And all of this leads to lesson #10.

10. Everything Is Constantly Changing

“Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.” — W. Somerset Maugham

You’ve probably heard this so many times; you don’t even pay attention to it anymore. But it’s one of the few things that are certain in life, and you really experiment this when traveling.

Bad times will not last. Nor will the good ones. Don’t get attached to any of them.

11. Sometimes It’s Better to Shut up Even If You’re Right

It’s never worth fighting over the small stuff. Not with strangers, you just met and especially not with the people you love. Your relationships are more important than having the last word or winning a silly argument.

12. Your Background Will Often Dictate Your Behavior

There’s no way around this. Your education, financial status, work experience, and even social and racial origins are a big part of who you are. Until you realize they don’t have to be and learn to define your own terms.

And the more you travel and expose yourself to different cultures (I’ve probably said the words “travel” and “culture” at least 10 times in this article), the less you identify yourself with these things.

It also helps you understand other people’s behavioral patterns.

13. You Don’t Have to Go Everywhere and See Everything

In the beginning, I wanted to see as much as possible. Take in as much as I can. If there were two cities nearby that the Internet said are a must-see, I’d go and check them out. The Internet is King, after all. Well, not really.

Trying to see everything and go everywhere soon started to take the fun out of traveling. So I’ve learned to balance things. Now, I only visit places I’m truly interested in.

You’ll probably regret going to Morocco and not spend at least one night in the Sahara desert (who does that?!). But you’ll be just fine if you don’t check out every tourist attraction in the city you’re visiting.

14. “Normal” comes in many forms

There will be times when the difference in culture is so big that nothing makes sense to you. But that’s the beauty of traveling. You get to see how other people approach things and, hopefully, become more tolerant and less judgmental. Hopefully.

15. Sometimes, A Dull Day Is All You Need

For the first six months into my journey, I never did something that I considered to be boring. I did not take a day off from traveling.

I was always in search of something new. Something I haven’t seen or haven’t done before. That’s what traveling is about, right? Absorb as much of the local culture as you can, as fast as you can. Wrong.

Traveling long-term does not look like that. It might work for a 10-day holiday, but if you do it for a few months, you’ll feel exhausted.

Sometimes, all you need to do is binge a few bad movies on Netflix. Or scroll on Instagram for hours. Not let FOMO (fear of missing out) take over you.

Bonus Lesson

Flying more will not help you get over your fear of flying. I repeat: you don’t get over your fear of flying by spending more time in the air.

I don’t know about others, but for me, it had the opposite effect. I got better at organizing stuff, and I go through security so fast I even impress myself *blink one time, and you missed me*.

But after 7 years from the first time I flew to another country, and 15 months into my backpacking-around-the world-journey, I still hate flying.

I know, I know. It’s my mindset. It’s my attitude. Whatever. Let me be.

Final Thoughts

For me, traveling is the thing that makes you grow the most.

It makes you a better person. A better partner. A better friend. A better colleague. It truly impacts every aspect of your life. And it’s not just me who’s saying it.

I’ve had this conversation with lots of other fellow travelers. Sometimes, over coffee but more often over some cold beers.

We would talk about what effect traveling has had on us. How it changed us. Usually, it comes down to a few things we all agree on:

• you become less judgmental and more tolerant
• you understand the things you take for granted are a privilege and many people in developing countries can’t even dream about them
• the more you travel, the more grateful you become for small things
• it makes you more grounded, and you learn to be more present
• you experience first hand the impermanence of things, so you become more proactive, and you procrastinate less
• you become more spontaneous and learn how to adapt easily to any situation
• you learn to read microexpressions and pay attention to body language
• you develop your intuition.

And so many other things.

But it’s also true that the journey is different for everybody. We all have different lessons to learn. And you can only find out what yours are by experiencing things first hand.

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