No Passports Required: Traveling in your Home Country

From my home state – Tasmania, Australia

If I had a dollar for every time I have been asked how I afford to travel the world, well…. I’d be traveling the world for the rest of my life without rhyme or reason.

First of all, I have made traveling the world my career as I am a firm believer in ‘do what you love and love what you do’. Since traveling overseas for the first time many moons ago as part of a children’s choice in the early 2000′s, I soon discovered I had a great passion for discovering and exploring the world.

While I won’t bore you with the logistics of my travel career up-to-date here, you can always head over and purchase the full story in my recent Ebook that explains how I turned my love for travel into a full time career, in “The World of Wanderlust Story“.

International travel has become increasingly accessible and affordable in recent years, with airfares effectively being cut in half and people becoming more mobile, hence increasing the demand for hotel accommodations and quite literally forcing the travel and tourism industry into overdrive. But when it comes down to it, international travel is still a luxury that we cannot afford to indulge in every time the wanderlust kicks in and we feel the desire to explore new parts of the world. So what should you do?

Traveling to the 12 Apostles in Australia, one of the 7 wonders of the world

Travel in your home country

For whatever reason, we seem to have adopted a greater appreciation for foreign lands. Now I’m not sure if Hollywood is to blame for that or if it’s something in our DNA (i’m guessing it’s the former), but we all seem to yearn for the most distant locations and foreign cultures that we could possibly encounter to our own. Just as an American wishes to visit Europe, a European will tell you they’d like to visit Asia, an Australian will tell you they’ll go anywhere and a Brit will almost certainly dream of visiting the land down under. But what if you can’t afford to travel to the other side of the world? What if you don’t have time to schedule 6 weeks off work to experience Europe? What if you don’t like long-haul flights?

The answer is simple.

Although we choose not to accept it or even acknowledge it, some of the most beautiful places on earth lie in our backyards. Take for instance Tasmania (my home town), one of the most iconic destinations for serenity, wilderness, and apparently the world’s cleanest air. But for some reason unbeknownst to me, I still haven’t explored as much as half of the island. Even though one of the world’s most famous treks, The Overland Track is in my backyard, I am still yet to experience it. And yet, I would spend thousands of dollars traveling to Peru to experience the Inca Trail because it is foreign, obscure, and involves ‘travel’. But what if we take our preconceived notions of what travel is, throw them out the door, and view traveling in a different light. Just because it won’t take us a plane or train to get there, does not mean we should somehow cross it off our list or place it so far toward the bottom that it will never see the light of day. No. Travel near and travel far. This weekend when you were going to do work around the house… take a spontaneous road trip to a small coastal town instead. Tomorrow when you were going to take a ‘me day’, hassle some friends to take a road trip with you to a waterfall you’ve never heard about but know exists due to the Google search you just committed to. Next time you have a birthday, anniversary, or something to celebrate – take a picnic to a nearby national park or drive to the beach to serenade your ‘happy birthday’ over cake and let the wind blow out your candles. Whatever it is that is stopping you, stop letting it. For whatever reason you can’t, tell yourself you can. Travel near and travel far but for goodness sake,

#JUSTGO

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