20 Bloggers Share How Travel Has Changed Their Lives

In this article, 20 Bloggers Share How Travel Has Changed Their Lives (and How it Can Change Yours!!!)

Two weeks ago, I published a post titled 20 Bloggers Advice for Making Travel a Reality. The post was a great success and many of you expressed how the advice helped you to move ahead with your dreams (or concrete plans).  I am extremely happy on how the post has contributed positively to the ones who read it.

But things didn’t stop there.

I also asked my fellow bloggers an additional question:

How travel has changed your life and how do you believe it can change others?

I recognize how travel has changed my life. Others see it as a frivolous, non transcendental activity. Therefore, I was interested in discovering if others have gone thru my same experiences. Turns out travel has the power to change people but in different ways.

Again, bloggers over delivered.  Read this and discover more reasons (way more reasons) to travel, to discover, to explore.  Because you don’t know if that little trip can change your life forever (it has already done it for a lot of people, so watch out!!).

Travel has provided me with self confidence. When you land in the middle of Africa and you are all alone, you find a way to get what needs to get done. When I return home, I’m more confident, less shy and take more risks.

Travel will indeed change others, but everyone is affected differently. Some appreciate learning about new cultures, while others are inspired to help those less fortunate. Some people appreciate life at home and some travelers develop a new passion or two. And that’s what so special about travel, everyone benefits in their own, unique way.

Ben of Adventures with Ben

I see travel as an extension of every aspect of life – love food and try the local specialties, love to meet new people and make new friends on the road, love to be outdoors and choose a destination with stunning scenery and opportunities for adventure, love the sunshine and choose to go somewhere hot when it’s cold at home. I find that travel reinforces my faith that most people will go out of their way to help you and make you welcome and confirms that regardless of different languages and cultures we are all essentially the same.

Heather of Heather on her Travels

As a family of five, travel for us is about exposing our kids to different things.  Studying earth formations and plate tectonics in class is pretty boring.  When you’re standing on the edge of a volcano in Hawaii, peering down into the crater, learning why that lava is boiling down there (and why it’s actually safe to be standing there) is far more interesting.  Travel has put a curiosity in to my children’s minds about an endless amount of things, some good (How does that roller coaster work?) and some bad (Why does everybody in Las Vegas wear so few clothes?)   So for us travel is less about changing our life than changing our children’s. Hopefully, traveling will be something they decide they enjoy, and carry on throughout their lives, because we really would like them to understand more than just the North American way of life.

Steve of More Kids Than Suitcases

Travel has fully liberated me. I have always been very independent, but there were certain things I was not great at doing alone. I also spent too much of my life over-planning, over-thinking and stressing myself out over everything. Traveling has taught me how to take more risks, move at a slower pace, and know when spending my savings is okay. In 2010, I had a wonderful job as a bilingual preschool in my hometown, but something wasn’t right. My boyfriend of 4 years and I broke up and I immediately knew I needed to move abroad. Not to run away from the pain, but to do what I never would have done while I was with him. I ran my first and second half marathon, dedicating the 2nd to my students. I gave a goodbye speech so I could tell them all that I was moving as much for them as I was for myself, so that they could see that dreams are not something to be ignored and that any of them could do anything. I have never regretted my move!

Rease of Travelated

I started my journey thinking I was going to discover Latin America but the truth is I really was rediscovering myself. When you aren’t surrounded by people and places to define who you are, you start to emerge into the person you really want to be. I didn’t think I wanted to change but I have grown in ways I would have never imagined.

Ayngelina of Bacon is Magic

Travel has changed my life in more ways than one.  It has opened my mind to the different ways of different cultures. It has taught me a lot about history and architecture, about traditions and culture, even about my own ancestry. I’ve learned to be patient, to be
tolerant, to be open-minded, to try to understand before passing judgment. I don’t always achieve that but at least I try. Travel has also broadened my palate!

Ana of Ana Travels

The following is one of our favorite quotes that summarizes how travel has changed our outlook on life:

“Life´s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting …holy shit…what a ride.”-Author Unknown

We’ve learnt countless life’s lessons through travel. Among the most significant is how small the world seems yet how different one life can be to another. Some are more privileged than others. We know you’ve heard many times that you don’t have to be rich to travel but we’ve learnt that to be able to travel really is a privilege. Not everyone is able to do so. It’s not just about the money. One’s ability to travel can be limited by mobility, safety, desires, priorities, time, culture, tradition and many other factors.

This realization and understanding of the different lives in the world has taught us to cherish all that we have, do what we can to make the world a better place, while living our lives to the fullest with humility, tolerance and compassion. These life’s lessons may sound like a cliché but to truly grasp its meaning and live it, you need to be inspired and learn from your own experience, not by reading about it in books or the internet.

Shirlene of Idelish

Travel has changed my life in so many ways. It has made me a more empowered person by granting me the understanding that I can choose how I wish to live my life. It has shown me how to see the beauty in all things and to be in awe of them. Travel has taught me that I am powerful beyond measure. I am so confident in doing things that stretch my comfort zone as I have learned I am more capable than I ever thought and that positive outcomes always come from it and that doing so means I am living my life full out.

Caz and Craig from yTravelBlog

Besides learning all kinds of interesting tidbits about different cultures around the world, travel has really taught me about patience, flexibility and the ability to adapt to any situation with ease.

As for others, travel really has a special way of changing everyone in a unique way according to ones own personality and choice of lifestyle. If we travel with an open mind and good attitude, the changes and lessons that come are limitless.

Mark of Migrationology

Travel taught me that there are advantages afforded to be merely by being born in the United States, and through travel I discovered a well of compassion and drive or change in the sheer number of inequalities in this world depending on your country of birth. Travel opens your eyes to not only the incredible pockets of joy and humanity on every corner of the earth, but also the areas where awareness and social consciousness can effect very real change.

Shannon of A Little Adrift

It really opens your eyes to all of the misconceptions that are out there about cultures and also countries in general.  I am currently in Israel on a press trip and it has really changed my impression of not only Israeli people but also the country as well.

Marcello of Wandering Trader Travels

Travel has made me feel more fulfilled as a person. I’ve gained an incredible amount of life experience and have gotten to see places I had only read about. Travel has provided a great deal of cultural knowledge and enrichment, not to mention the memories of the incredible people I’ve met. One of the biggest rewards is that it has made me more self-assured and confident in my ability to handle any situation in any environment.

Scott of Quirky Travel Guy

Travel has helped me improve my sense of self and confidence through knowledge. Every day on the road is an incredible learning experience. I learn about myself by solving problems and being introduced to a range of situations that I wouldn’t if I just stuck to my daily routine at home. It’s one thing to read about far away places and their history and current events, but another to go and see things for yourself. Everything we read in the news is filtered; until you get out there and poke around in the world on your own you really don’t know anything about what’s going on and how people live. That said, exploration only creates more questions for me…

Andrea of Inspiring Travellers

Personally, I think that it has opened up my mind to other cultures, philosophies and ways of living. Whereas before, I’d be a little more hesitant to new experiences, now I find that I love experiencing new sights, sounds and tastes.  It breaks me out of my own little hole, my own small mind.  The world is huge – I want to experience as much of it as I can fit in my short time on this earth!

Jen of Devour the World

Travel has absolutely changed my life. I grew up in a “normal” middle-class suburb outside Los Angeles. My family took yearly vacations, but mostly around California. However, when I graduated college I did what so many others do—I got a Eurail Pass and backpacked around Europe for three months. I was blown away by how different everything was from my life—the people, cultures, languages, food—and loved seeing places I’d read about in my history books. Since then I’ve been to many other parts of the world but still want to see more. I have huge “bucket list” and hope to check off all of the items someday. I think that once people step out of their comfort zone and see that there are many different ways of living around the world, it will be life-changing for them as well.

Michael of Strux Travel

Through traveling, I’ve seen so much natural beauty and awe-inspiring art, architecture and landmarks. I’ve learned about people, cultures and history in other parts of the country and world in away that you just can’t from books or movies.

I’ve been traveling since I was very young. Traveling, the anticipation of new adventures and memories of past experiences are a big part of my life. I hope that I can inspire others to travel or think about new destinations and activities by sharing my experiences. I also think that we all can be ambassadors of our country when we travel and give people in other places a positive impression of our country.

Cathy of Traveling with Sweeney

Travel has taught me to have more empathy for people with different perspectives. Often we hear about things that happening in different countries that make us think, how could they do that? Or, how silly is that? If we actually understand how people live in those places, the social pressures, economical conditions, the choices that they have and so on, we will understand why they do such things. And then it doesn’t seem silly any more. It seems like exactly what I’d do in those circumstances.

Dina and Ryan of Vagabond Quest

My current long-term travels through Latin America have given me this fantastic feeling of freedom.  I can decide at any moment what I do and where I go.  I feel this huge sense of accomplishment traveling solo, and I know that I can learn, adapt, and
go anywhere.

Something I was not expecting is the increased desire and ability to connect with people.  When you travel alone and/ or begin to meet other people from different backgrounds and cultures, you become more curious and more trusting, and you truly appreciate and gain so much from those interactions.

Related posts:

Bloggers Advice on How to Add More Adventure to Your Life 9 Things Tour Companies Don’t Tell You Phenomenal and Inspirational Quotes about Traveling Why Independent Travel Still Works for Me