People often say that travel is the one thing you buy that makes you richer. But why is traveling so important, and what exactly is it about travel that makes the high price tag so worth it? In simple terms, travel makes you invest more in yourself and the world. But what does that mean in practical terms? We’re glad you asked.
In case the benefits of traveling aren’t quite clear, here are seventeen indisputable reasons why traveling is important and why you should plan your next vacation as soon as possible.
Table of Contents
- 1. Traveling Pushes You Out of Your Comfort Zone
- 2. Traveling Is Educational
- 3. Traveling Helps You Relax and Unwind
- 4. Traveling Allows You to Make New Friends
- 5. Traveling Can Do Wonders for Your Mental and Physical Health
- 6. Traveling Creates Amazing Memories
- 7. Traveling Broadens Your Vocabulary
- 8. Traveling Takes You on an Adventure
- 9. Traveling Gives You the Pleasure of Planning
- 10. Traveling Allows You to Try New Foods
- 11. Traveling Provides You with Hands-on History Lessons
- 12. Traveling Helps You See the World in a Whole New Way
- 13. Traveling Gives You Business Insights
- 14. Traveling Allows You to Explore Other Cultures
- 15. Traveling Can Renew Your Relationships
- 16. Traveling Pushes You to Live in the Present
- 17. Traveling Gives You a New Appreciation for Your Own Home Sweet Home
- Cheap Airline Tickets Are Important Too: Next Vacay Has You Covered
1. Traveling Pushes You Out of Your Comfort Zone
We’re all guilty of routine. It’s a natural part of life. But with routine comes complacency and a tad bit of laziness. That’s not necessarily bad, but you’re often unmotivated to break free when you become stuck in a routine.
Travel challenges your everyday comfort and encourages personal growth.
It’s a universal truth that if you’re not undertaking new experiences or encountering new stimuli, you’re not growing. Let’s face it. No one ever got anywhere by standing still—unless you happen to be a teleporting superhuman.
Travel plays an integral role in forcing you outside of your comfort zone, encouraging you to become a stronger, better version of yourself. It’s only through the experience of new cultures, new situations, and even new problems that people can grow as, well, people.
2. Traveling Is Educational
Learning about today’s world in books or even in TV shows—we’re not judging, we do it too—doesn’t hold a candle to experiencing it all firsthand. It’s the difference between practicing a foreign language in the classroom and speaking it on the street. Or hearing the rush of a waterfall in a video and feeling its spray against your skin. The only way to truly experience life is to get out and live it.
All of the best textbooks and media can’t drive home information as effectively as practical knowledge. Studies show that whether you study at home or abroad, what always bears the most impact is real-world experience.
Traveling is important because it throws you headfirst into applying what you know and forces you to confront new places, new ideas, and new people. The best way to learn about economics, languages, cultures, and customs worldwide is to live it. No class will ever give the same kind of profound, hands-on experience.
We love all our educators, but we must admit there’s no better teacher than travel.
3. Traveling Helps You Relax and Unwind
For most people who travel, the goal is to relax. Of course, some people’s idea of relaxing is sitting by the pool sipping cocktails, while for others, it’s climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. But, hey, whatever makes you happy, right?
One of the reasons travel makes for such a good time to unwind is because it gets you out of your comfort zone. That also means it gets you away from all the everyday stresses that come with daily life.
Now, you may think it’s stressful, and in some cases, you’re right. Travel can be stressful, so making plans well before traveling is essential to avoid raising your stress levels even higher.
However, freedom from your daily routine and responsibilities motivates you to focus on yourself and what you enjoy doing. Think of it as recharging your batteries. Vacations give you a break from your life and time to focus on the things that make you happy.
Additionally, travel teaches more laidback forms of living. Experience a Spanish siesta or Italian passeggiata, and you may start looking at your own daily routine a little differently.
4. Traveling Allows You to Make New Friends
Ask someone about their travels, and they’ll gush about the breathtaking views, delicious foods, and unforgettable experiences. Oh, and you can’t forget the people. Travel, especially solo travel, can be a solitary adventure that separates you from the friends and family you leave back home. But, while travel may separate people for a short time, it can connect others for a lifetime.
As you travel, you’ll find yourself bumping into locals, die-hard travelers, and some people just taking a much-needed holiday. But, no matter how brief, these interactions can have a lasting impact, enriching your life with new knowledge, new ideas, and lifelong friendships.
Traveling allows you to establish connections and build a community around the world. In addition, it helps you form friendships with people of different cultures who you may have gone your entire life without knowing had you decided not to travel.
5. Traveling Can Do Wonders for Your Mental and Physical Health
If you’ve been asking yourself whether you should go on vacation, the long and short of it is yes, absolutely! Travel gets a lot of hype for the benefits it can have on your mental and physical health for a good reason—several reasons, in fact.
On top of alleviating stress, travel reduces burnout, a form of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. Heap on other benefits to your mental health like improved brain function and higher happiness levels, and traveling becomes a no-brainer.
But that’s not even all travel does for you. Studies have found it also increases your creativity when you travel to a foreign country and immerse yourself in the local culture.
If all that wasn’t enough, travel has some awesome physical benefits too. For example, it can reduce your risk for coronary heart disease and improve your sleep functions.
So, that’s the long answer to why traveling is important for your mental and physical health. If you didn’t catch all that, the TLDR version is this: go on vacation! You likely didn’t need a brain boost to see that one coming.
6. Traveling Creates Amazing Memories
Having unforgettable memories you can look back on in the future means making those memories in your present! The only way that happens is by getting out and exploring the world.
There’s no limit to the exciting stories that traveling can inspire. You’ll come home with new tales every time you travel. Look forward to telling your friends about hiking to the top of a giant waterfall and floating in the Dead Sea.
Most everyone dreams of getting old and reminiscing fondly of past exploits. If that’s the case for you, it’s time to start building up your memory bank and ticking off adventures on your bucket list.
7. Traveling Broadens Your Vocabulary
Traveling exposes you to all kinds of new languages, and you may be surprised by the words you recognize around the world. After all, English has a bit of a reputation as being a language pickpocket. Countless words exist in English that find their origin hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Some words, like tatau, have their own English spelling: tattoo. While others, like carte blanche, remain unchanged but effortlessly woven into everyday language.
Traveling to a foreign country, you’ll likely pick up words and phrases from the local language. You may find yourself muttering British swear words under your breath or finding Japanese words that perfectly describe a moment or feeling. You’ll expand your vocab and maybe even get a head start on learning a new language! Or perhaps you can brush up on those Spanish skills you haven’t used since high school.
Your travels are bound to gift you with some new words that’ll leave you nothing short of chuffed. (That’s British slang for very pleased, by the way.)
8. Traveling Takes You on an Adventure
Traveling is an adventure. You don’t have to be Jasmine riding on a magic carpet to discover a whole new world lying beyond your doorstep. In fact, you can just as easily experience an adventure with a short car ride from home.
But, whether it’s domestic or world travel, you’ll be encouraged to explore and have fun. Hike a canyon trail, swim at the base of a waterfall, and pick up skills you never thought you’d learn in a million years, like riding a camel or surfing the Californian coast.
Travel reminds you that life is precious, fleeting, and best spent living it.
9. Traveling Gives You the Pleasure of Planning
Pleasure and planning, you read that right.
We’ll admit that planning isn’t exactly the part most people think of when picturing their fun future travels. But that innocuous planning stage can significantly impact your mood.
Anticipating your upcoming travel plays an important role in your happiness. Studies found that anticipating experiential purchases, like travel, has a deeper impact on a person’s happiness than anticipating material goods.
Think about it. You’re deep in the trenches of planning, getting your work squared away, finalizing plans, and looking up gorgeous photos of everything you plan to do and see. It’s a little hard not to get excited. So, don’t hold back in the planning. Chat with your friends and family about your upcoming trip and let your mind wander to it as you please. It’s seriously making you happier!
Can’t plan a trip in the foreseeable future? No worries. If you can’t take a trip anytime soon, you can make a list of travel benefits—like this one, you’re welcome—and find other things you can do to satisfy these desires in the interim. For example, plan to go unplugged for a day or try a new restaurant you’ve wanted to check out. Just don’t plan to put off traveling for too long!
10. Traveling Allows You to Try New Foods
Travel is often referred to as food for the soul. While that’s a heartwarming sentiment we can get behind, there’s another hungrier beast that travel satiates: your appetite.
Trying new foods might be one of the best reasons to highlight why travel is so important. Of course, eating new cuisine is already an experience in your own town. But, there are few better ways to dive headfirst into another culture’s customs and traditions than experiencing it through a foreign setting, ambiance, and explosion of flavors on your taste buds.
Traveling allows you to learn about the subtle, regional changes in products that inspire differences on a global and national scale. Each bite of local food offers a new lesson about how food is prepared, which ingredients are highlighted, and how food brings life to a halt as families and friends gather to share a meal.
11. Traveling Provides You with Hands-on History Lessons
History isn’t everyone’s favorite subject—maybe because it has everything to do with the past, while some are busy looking to the future. But the old adages claim that you must learn from the past to write a new future. And short of building a time machine to go back and live it firsthand, the best way to go about this is by getting hands-on with history.
Traveling to places like Washington, DC, or Rome, Italy, can take you on a grand tour of human history memorialized in physical form.
Hearing about the scale of the Great Pyramid of Giza or the significance of the Demilitarized Zone in Korea doesn’t prepare you to see the pyramids in person or stand in the DMZ.
Pictures and words from a page only share a fragment of history, lighting a spark in one’s imagination. Traveling gives us a direct connection to the past, making that far-off history a more present reality.
12. Traveling Helps You See the World in a Whole New Way
Traveling to a different country means exploring new cultures and new ideas that can drastically shift your way of thinking and interacting with the world. It breaks down barriers, builds understanding, and connects people in unique ways. That seems like a lot of heavy lifting, but experiencing it yourself will quickly prove it true.
Traveling challenges your perspective of other countries and lets you experience the local culture firsthand. It allows you to learn more about different cultures, languages, and beliefs that can shift preconceived notions and help new understandings take form.
For example, many people still think of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a war-torn country. But while its past is impossible to ignore, its enduring beauty and bright future become apparent when seen firsthand.
Similarly, those who have never been to Africa may think of it as one large country where technology is sparse and everyone speaks African. However, traversing Africa will showcase a diverse landscape of countries, each with its own languages, customs, and, yes, thriving metropolises bursting with innovative tech.
13. Traveling Gives You Business Insights
For years, travel has inspired creative masterpieces and brilliant ideas. Vincent Van Gogh painted his Starry Night after moving to Arles from Paris. Freeman Dyson reached a creative breakthrough for quantum physics on a Greyhound bus traveling from Berkeley to Chicago. Think of all the things that might not have existed had these greats decided not to take a trip.
Travel broadens the mind and introduces new concepts and perspectives, leading to more open-minded thinking.
For example, as a traveler in a foreign space, you’re constantly exposed to things you’ve never seen at home, anything from eye-catching textiles to a unique way to hold meetings. So traveling to garner ideas or bring something new from different parts of the world to share at home is a great way to advance your business.
Approach travel with an open mind and discerning eye, and you’ll likely stumble upon new ideas to help your business and employees thrive.
14. Traveling Allows You to Explore Other Cultures
Traveling in and of itself is important. But, specifically, international travel opens the door to different cultures and concepts worldwide.
You can observe the fire and passion of a traditional Haka dance in New Zealand or experience the peace and Zen of a Japanese Tea Ceremony in Tokyo. Go shopping in a Turkish bazaar and see how locals sell and barter their wares, or visit a Thai temple to watch the morning prayer rituals of monks.
There’s always something new to discover and learn in other cultures, whether it’s how the locals prepare their food and go about their daily lives or how they mourn their dead and celebrate life.
Additionally, travel introduces new lifestyle concepts for healthier and more balanced ways of living, from the Danish Hygge to the Japanese Ikigai.
Traveling teaches you that there’s no one way of living and no one way to find your happiness.
15. Traveling Can Renew Your Relationships
Traveling isn’t just important for improving your own personal growth and happiness. It can also strengthen your relationships.
Life presents so many distractions and challenges that relationships can quickly take a backseat to careers and other responsibilities. After a long day, you may just want to sit quietly on the couch while your partner watches a show or your kids play on the carpet.
But, just being in the same room as someone isn’t the same as connecting with them, not by a long shot. Only when we spend quality time together can we truly connect and deepen our relationships with family, friends, and kids.
Traveling offers the perfect opportunity to do just that, taking you out of your daily routines and depositing you in a new place you all can experience together. So, if you’re trying to reignite your romance or plan some quality time with your family, a vacation is the perfect answer.
16. Traveling Pushes You to Live in the Present
We keep coming back to your comfort zone, but it hammers home one of the main reasons traveling is important. When you become settled in your daily routine, life becomes rote. You perform a lot of what you do on autopilot without thinking about why you’re doing it.
Because travel exists outside that comfort zone, you’re constantly introduced to new stimuli and exciting experiences that force you to live in the present moment. We challenge you to get through bungee jumping at Victoria Falls without being very much present in the moment.
Traveling forces you to think about what you’re doing and why, from the planning stages to the experience itself. Even something as simple as popping into a cafe because you thought it looked cozy carries weight. Suddenly, you’re living in the moment, making decisions on a whim, and decidedly not doing anything on autopilot.
17. Traveling Gives You a New Appreciation for Your Own Home Sweet Home
Home can seem like the most boring place in the world when you’ve lived there for years. Even if you haven’t personally explored every inch of your hometown, sometimes seeing the same people and the same places gets old.
Travel allows you to ditch those old familiar faces and places for a new travel destination that’s fun and exciting.
However, having traveled anywhere for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the feeling of homesickness that comes with it. You start to appreciate things you knew you’d miss and some you didn’t, whether that’s running water, your friendly barista, or even just a menu that’s written in a language that doesn’t require a translator to figure out.
So, after a long period of travel, it’s unbelievably satisfying to return home, drop your bags by the door, and sink into the familiar comfort of your bed. The city that once felt claustrophobic is tinted rosy again. After so many days of new faces, all the old ones are a welcome sight.
Cheap Airline Tickets Are Important Too: Next Vacay Has You Covered
Now that you know traveling has so many benefits, what are you waiting for? Don’t let your Schwellenangst hold you back from something as important and life-changing as traveling.
But what about flights? Whether you’re electing to solo travel or hoping to take the entire family, we know finding and booking flights can be a pain. Go online, and you’ll find as many flight search engines and online travel agencies as there are reasons to travel. However, with Next Vacay, you don’t need to worry about any of it.
Next Vacay does all of the searching for you. Our team delivers amazing deals right to your inbox, whether you need to buy one ticket or eight (so that you can bring the kids and grandparents too). After you sign up, the deals come to you, and when you’re ready to book, you can do so directly through the airline! Then you’re ready to experience why traveling is important all for yourself.
We can’t wait for our next trip. Can you? Travel more with Next Vacay.
