Travelling is always a unique personal experience – you see the world through your own eyes (literally and figuratively). You taste, smell and feel everything wherever you travel in manner that has everything to do with you little with someone else. Despite this, there are constantly “travel rules” being banded around that people expect you to follow but seeing as your travel is all about you, here are 5 travel rules you should definitely break:
1.) RULE: Avoid travelling back to the same place.
BREAK IT: Sod that rule! If you enjoy a place so much and you want to go back often, definitely do it! Your travel is about how it makes you feel and you should definitely always put your happiness first and ignore anything anyone else says.
2.) RULE: You should restrict yourself to travelling with only certain luggage sizes. Typically, the further the distance you travel, the bigger your luggage should be.
BREAK IT: While there are some practical reasons why this rule might hold true (e.g. cost of excess luggage, transport options at your travel destination…etc), this is one rule that you can generally ignore. If you want to go to New York 3 days and decide you want to wear 10 outfits a day, why shouldn’t you? You might decide to go backpacking for 6 months and travel with very few clothes and buy some as you go along despite having lots of room for luggage allowance – again, perfectly valid to ingore that extra room and pack light. At the end of the day, the main reason you should pack certain things (or conversely refuse to pack some things) should be down to the type of person you are (high or low maintenance) and the type of travel/holiday you’re going for – definitely not down to how much luggage space you have (a hurdle than can be easily taken care of)
3.) RULE: Always try to save money when you travel.
BREAK IT: Again, who doesn’t like having spare cash lying around? Despite this though, your travel should be down to what you can afford and want to do. Don’t be so focused on bargain hunting that you don’t indulge yourself when you travel. As long as you can reasonably afford it, there’s nothing wrong with treating yourself to a nice 5 Star hotel, a slap up fancy-pants meal (with trimmings) and tickets to some of the best events in town. Part of the reason you’ve worked and saved so hard in the past is for moments like this.
4.) RULE: Try To See As Much As Possible!
BREAK IT: One big rule that’s always bandied around is that whenever you travel, you need to head out and see as much stuff as possible and again, while this is what a lot of people might want to do, there’s no reason for you to have to try to recreate someone else’s exact itinerary for your travel. Some of the best parts of travelling are the bits where you’re not spending every single moment chasing after sights but instead in taking the time to relax and to notice even smaller details that you would have missed in your mad rush from sight to sight. For instance, I had as great a time rushing about from Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame to Sacré-Cœur when visiting Paris on one trip as I did visiting another time doing nothing but eating pastries, taking leisurely walks, stopping for coffee and dining at really nice restaurants. They were different types of holidays and most places we visit offer different facets of life that we otherwise miss when focusing on just one thing or on just one type of experience.
5.) RULE: You have to travel far away enough for it to be really considered travelling.
BREAK IT: I call bull sh*t on that rule. 🙂 There’s quite a lot of exciting stuff to see not far from where you come home and it’s not made less interesting or less of a valid travel destination just because you live next to it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Go wherever you want to go to and see the places that you truly want to see! It’s your travel journey – own it, ignore that rule and make it truly yours!
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