This is How You Catch the Travel Bug.

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“When I was 19 I had a little rust bucket of a car, 2 mates and a ferry ticket to France”

This little adventure is what turned me into a travelholic.

The travel bug; some people have it while some people don’t, it’s just the way it is. Some people are quite content staying close to home their whole lives, whilst others have itchy feet that won’t ever stop.

I think people who have the travel bug need to have it brought out of them by something.

I’ve pinned this ‘something’ down to 3 things.

1) Your parents have it, pass it on to you and share their experiences with you.

2) You have an experience that makes you realise you have it, such as a short trip.

3) You’re surrounded by people who bring it out of you as they are travelling/want to

If you’re a self-confessed travelholic I’d be interested to see which categories you think you fit into.

In a way I think I fit into all three categories, allow me to explain…

Covering point number 1 about your parents; both my parents travelled extensively when they were younger. My father spent a whole year in Australia when he was 21 on a working visa (something I will be doing in the next few years) and my mother spent months working in Israel as well as travelling across Europe. I think your parents stories and photos show you the light.

Covering the whole experience thing, this was probably the most influential one of the 3 for me. When I was 19 I had a little rust bucket of a car, 2 mates and a ferry ticket to France. We drove to Dover, took the ferry across to Calais than drove down to Paris. We stayed there two nights in a great little hostel that I forget the name of. We met a bunch of South Africans and explored the city by day and had plenty of beverages by night. I remember driving back to London planning my next little adventure, I was hooked on travel instantly.

Now point number three is an interesting one. There’s a saying; you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around – I find this to be very true. Yet growing up, and even now, I don’t know many people living a life of travel. Instead, what I did was surround myself in the world of online travel. I would regularly watch Youtubers such as FunForLouis, JacksGap and CaseyNeistat. I would read articles from National Geographic and watch David Attenborough documentaries. Who and what you surround yourself with has a huge impact on who you become.

Once you’ve caught the travel bug its both wonderful and frustrating.

Frustrating because you want to travel more than you do. Its probably never enough for a travelholic – work and life take over!

But it forever remains wonderful. You are constantly thinking of and planning your next adventure, you keep the excitement in your belly and you’re known by the people around you as ‘the traveller’.

You’ll regularly hear people ask you;

“Hey, where are you off to next?”

“Anywhere”

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