Why, you ask, Travelling is Important?

This is an article for the travelers at heart and for those who still did not start traveling, for the dreamers, for the adventurers, for the bold, and those with burning feet.

Between these lines, I will share with you thoughts, learnings, and feelings to help you to realize you why traveling is important and how it holds the power to change our attitude and consciousness toward ourselves, other humans, and the world around us.

This is an article I have wanted to write for a long time, because of how passionate I am about this topic. Finally, I think I found the right words. I hope you will enjoy it! 🙂

Let’s Start!

25 Reasons for Why Travelling is important.

1. It pushes you Out of your Comfort Zone

Travelling puts you out of your comfort zone, whether it’s on your 1st trip or your 100th journey.

Moving out of your comfort zone means breaking your normal routine: you need to make plans, you see new things, you enter in contact with new ideas and people. And you have to bring yourself to deal with them!

It can be stressful at times, but that’s part of the game. It can be scary to try, especially the first time, but it can be the first step to a journey of adventures and self-discovery.

Indeed, by leaving your comfort zone, you are forced to re-discover in yourself abilities and skills you didn’t know you had, you constantly need to challenge your perspective of the world, question your certainties and thus, grow yourself in the process.

2. You become more Social Aware

Travelling puts you “out there”, in the real world, outside of your bubble of friends and away from the social constructions of mainstream media.

When you travel you necessarily enter into contact with the lives of countless others and cross paths with their jobs, their experiences, their passions, their hobbies, their families, their cultures, their traditions, their dreams…

Observing others’ lives, makes you realize how precious life is and how beautiful and complicated it can be. You realize that you are just part of a much larger picture of which you know but a tiny fraction.

By realizing that, you become socially aware of others and their own importance on this little planet, and you learn to respect others’ life experiences and ambitions.

3. It will Shatter your Stereotypes

 Travelling shatters your stereotypes and helps you to modify your mental images of people and place them closer to reality.

The more you move, the more you find out that the world out there is different from what you thought or heard: not all Italians are Mafiosi (although all love pizza!), not all Cubans are good dancers, most Chinese never tasted a dog and unorganized Germans are actually a thing.

Going beyond national stereotypes, you will discover that the world is not the dangerous place that media and local voices constantly tell you: in fact, you will slowly find out that 99,9% of the people you find on your way are kind and completely harmless, exactly like you are.

All in all, traveling helps you to loosen your mental structure and move beyond silly, uninformed prejudices.

4. You become more Self-Confident

Travelling is important to become more self-confident.

When you travel, you are pushed to do things you normally would not do: talk to strangers, hitchhike, bargain, improvise, adapt to surprises, accept your plans not always depend only on you, etc…

As you try new things, you train yourself to become more flexible, and you build confidence in your ability to deal with the most different situations: you improve your diplomacy, your planning skills, your adaptation, and your flexibility.

When you were a child, trying new experiences for the first time was boosting your self-esteem: remember the sense of accomplishment you rode a bike or completed a puzzle for the first time?

As adults, our brains work exactly the same: when we succeed in trying something new, we improve the self-image we have of ourselves. Traveling offers us plenty of opportunities to do it.

5. It Keeps your Brain alive with Fascination

When we experience something new, our brain and conscious mind must concentrate to process that information. When that happens, we also create memories.

On the opposite, when our brain learns the pattern, it lazily inserts the self-drive and our attention falls. When that happens, we live the routine without truly living our time.

Days pass by, you don’t remember them clearly, they become grey, all the same over and over. Have you ever felt that feeling like your life was on self-drive?  

Travelling is important to constantly challenge our brains with novelties, new patterns that keep us fascinated and that forces us to think and to create memories. Once you’ll be older, you will remember every single day you tried something new: isn’t it a beautiful way to be alive?

6. You Live Experiences that you thought Impossible

Travelling allows you to live the experiences that you only dreamed of but thought impossible.

Crossing dusty deserts, sleeping on cranky trains, peeking into the life of buzzing local markets, explore the jungle, witness the northern lights, enjoy a tea-cup on a rice field… anything you might think of, and more, you can do it out there!

Hitting the road can be scary, yes, but it is necessary. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes they go way better than you could have ever imagined. The only way to find out and to live a dream is to go and chase it.

7. You Put Life into Perspective

This is one of the most important teachings you acquire when travelling.

When you travel, you have the honour to peek into other people’s lives and this experience is a gift so valuable that often we do not even fully recognize.

In the same way, we often fail to realize that not everyone can travel in today’s’ world.

Some have a family to take care of, and some have responsibilities toward their society, some live in a reality where they cannot earn enough money no matter how hard they work, some are restricted by their passport, some will never find the courage to pack and leave.

Travelling teaches you that you are privileged.

No matter when you’re coming from or what brought you on your journey, you had some luck in life that brought you to live what you’re living now. Travelling teaches you to be grateful for what you have, and to respect the life of others, no matter how different it is from yours.

8. You Become an interesting Storyteller

All we are is simply the sum of our experiences.

When you return from a trip, you never come back the same as you were when you left.

This happens because the more you travel, the more experiences you live and the more you learn.  Even when everything stays the same, you are changing.

As you grow yourself while travelling, without even realizing it you become a much more interesting character in the eyes of others. As your knowledge of the vast world around you grows, you increasingly become an interesting storyteller that makes you more sociable and attractive.

9. You often Learn more than in School 

When you travel, you almost surely learn more about a place than you ever did in school.

Exploring a new place is the best school for learning about its history, culture, customs, and traditions… more often than not, you can get knowledge of those topics only by strolling around the streets.

When instead you start to actively search for information on your journeys (by visiting natural parks and museums, joining expositions and guided tours, etc.) you can learn the world: arts, science, religions, engineering, economics, biology, fashion, sport, nature… the list is truly endless.

If you travel with an open mind, you will develop curiosities, you will grow your interest also in subjects you never thought you cared about and overall, your general knowledge will fly through the roof.

10. You Meet Cultural Diversity and Learn to Appreciate Differences

If you want to travel the world far and wide, the first thing you need to accept is that as you move to new places, you cannot expect to find what you have at home: this is exactly the reason why you choose to travel in the first place!

Instead, when you travel you need to learn to accept diversity and to appreciate the differences between other cultures and your own. The more you travel, the more you realize that humanity is beautiful not despite, but because of its diversity. 

Travelling is important to comprehend and accept others’ behaviours and beliefs. By getting into contact with other cultures, your own personal culture changes: you become more tolerant, kind, open-minded and respectful.

11. It Teaches you to Be Happy also Alone

Solo-travelling is an experience everyone should try at least once in a lifetime. 

It is undeniable that, travelling alone in a place where nobody knows your name, has something magical to it. Travelling alone gives you a lot of time to think, to talk with yourself, and to understand your own mind.

In this mix of thoughts, you understand how you like to introduce yourself, what you like of yourself and what you want to change, you learn to live with yourself and to find happiness independently of others. 

Once you learn to be happy with yourself, you’ll be able to spread happiness to others and to fully enjoy shared moments. Travelling is an important experience to reach this marvelous human objective.

12. You’ll be a Master of Geography

While travelling you learn curiosities from any field, but arguably nothing can compare to the incredible geographical knowledge you accumulate along the way.

Names and locations of capital cities, states, countries, landmarks, natural wonders… and again, rivers, mountains, seas… flags, frontiers, roads… travelling helps you to master them all! 

When you visit a place, you assimilate way more information about a place than when you just read about it.

The more you travel, the more emotions you will feel just by simply starring a planisphere: memories, dreams, ideas, stories, curiosities… the more you know about the map, the more you realize how much you still have to discover! That’s reality, and it’s awesome!

Last but not least, you’ll be extremely sought after by your friends which will look for your help when planning their trips: “So where should I go? What should I visit? Is climbing the Eiffel Tower really worth it? When is the best time to visit Kenya and Tanzania? How do you rent a tuk tuk in Thailand? 

You’ll be ready for it all!! ;D

13. You Can Learn a Foreign Languages (or more) along the Way

No matter how long you travel, sooner or later you will find the urge to try learning a new language.

You might realize you just need one more language to improve your communication, you may want to learn it to understand the local culture, or, as happens to many, to simply communicate with someone you fell in love with (the strongest motivation of all 😉 ).

No matter the reason, when you travel you have the chance to learn a new language and also to practice it straight away. Embarrassing at first, trying to speak with locals is the fastest way to improve your skills.

Remember not to be shy: no matter where you are, locals will likely appreciate your effort and be more than open to help you on your journey.

Once you learn a new language and you realize how it impacts the way you see and process the world around you, you will also realize like most globe-trotters, that you’ll likely don’t want to stop after the first. Personally, I am at 6 and still learning, it’s that addictive.

14. You Create Lifetime Memories

Once we will reach the elder age in life, the dream of most of us is to watch back, shed a tear, and be proud of how we lived.

By putting you out of your comfort zone, traveling helps you to collect unbelievable experiences that you will remember for a lifetime.

Let’s be honest: you will not remember your gray routine days when you were doing something you didn’t like; and if you will, you won’t be happy with those. Instead, you will cherish those moments that left you speechless, that challenged your perspective, and made your heart beating faster.

If you have the chance to travel and to create awesome memories, then It is up to you to grasp it, be grateful for it, and enjoy it to the fullest.

15. You Understand What is Like to Feel Vulnerable

Travelling can be hard. Sometimes things don’t go your way and, especially when traveling alone, you will need help from strangers and in believing their kindness and good faith.

When you don’t speak a language, when you don’t have information, when the sun is setting or when by chance or error, you find yourself in a shady area, you will feel vulnerable. It is a feeling that permeates your bones, mostly unpleasant, but that bears great teachings.

Learning to accept your vulnerability and to show it to others, opens yourself to others’ kindness, and often help you to create deeper human relationships.

Last but not least, by understanding how it feels, you will grow your sense of compassion, patience, and kindness toward others too.

16. You Realize What you truly Need and What you actually Don’t

Travelling is important to realize what truly matters in your life. 

Not being able to bring everything with you, forces you to figure out what you truly need and, even more importantly, realize what you actually don’t.

That’s not all. Travelling also teaches you to appreciate the small things: a warm shower, a home-made meal, a comfortable bed or just a smile on the street. Travelling grows your sense of gratitude, removes the unnecessary and makes you embrace what truly matters for your happiness.

17. You start seeing your Home with Different Eyes

The feeling of returning home after a long trip is… strange. Everything seems more or less the same, but in reality, it feels so, incredibly, different. This happens because when you travel, you change, and with you, the eyes through which you see your home change.

You start examining your home country with the new consciousness you grew along the way, you start analyzing that old reality with new lenses and you start seeing things you never saw before.

This process makes you aware of the good and the bad of that place you thought you knew like the insides of your pockets and makes you see its inhabitants in a different light.

Comparing your home country with the other realities you crossed on your way, will help you to realize what you want for your future and to visualize your options to reach it.

18. You Discover What you Really Like to Do

Travelling is important to discover what you really like to do. If you don’t try new things, you will never know if you missed something important.

Getting time for yourself to try different experiences and to live the adrenaline of the adventure, can help you to realize what you truly enjoy doing and why.

In turn, becoming aware of your passions can shape your path to move forward while cultivating them can lead you to a happier and more rewarding life. Of course, travelling is not the only way to find out about your passions, but it can surely be a powerful accelerator of the process.

19. You Experience New Foods and Cuisines

A much more physical benefit of travelling is that you get to try an incredible variety of food that you never thought it even existed.

The vastness of the culinary delicacies you can encounter around the globe or just a few kilometres from your town is unbelievable. Humanity cooked for thousands of years and food is always evolving.

Travelling allows you to get a taste of the centuries of rich traditions, of cultural differences and cultural influences.

By trying authentic food in its own country, you’ll realize how most international restaurants often lied to you, and how dishes you thought you knew, can tastes 100 times better!

Last but not least, on your journeys, you will grasp the importance of food in building new friendships and lasting human relationships. 

20. You Expand your Social Network

Another positive benefit of traveling is that it helps you to make friends from all over the world.

When you travel, you become more exposed to other people and more inclined to speak with them.

The chances to meet new people when you are moving outside of your routine are endless: on a guided tour, in a museum, in a bus station, in a hostel, in a queue to an attraction… being in the same situation as them, already is a common factor that brings you closer.

With the right attitude, getting to know new people while traveling is easy. Making experiences together on the other side, can build long-lasting friendships and expand your social network beyond any frontier. 

21. It can Strenghtens True Relationships

Sharing experiences strengthen human relationships, as it brings us closer to others. That can also happen with couples.

If you’re travelling together with your partner, chances are that you will get to know some parts of that person that you never noticed before. After all, all of us behave differently in new situations! Getting to know that person better has the potential to bring you closer and solidify your bonding.

On the other side, traveling can also bring you to reflect on your current relationship and put it into perspective: you might realize how incredibly much it means to you, or perhaps how much you overrated it.

Nevertheless, no matter what you’ll realize, it will help you to clear your mind and make a decision to move forward more self-confidently.

22. It’s an Experience for your Resume

Traveling makes you a much more interesting person, and this is also true in the eyes of potential employers.

Open-mindedness, flexibility, social awareness, and adaptability are all well-valued skills in today’s world, and traveling generally boosts all of those. Furthermore, the languages you can potentially learn on the way are precious assets in many workplaces (think commerce, hospitality, etc.).

Combining your travelling with long-term experiences such as studying, volunteering, language courses, internships, or working, of course, can be a plus too.

Last but not least, greater general knowledge can leave a positive impression of intelligence and reliability to any interlocutor you will be crossing.

In conclusion, don’t be shy to hide the experiences that made you grow as a human, they are a valuable part of yourself and you can show them!

23. It Teaches You to Value your Time

Time is the only thing money cannot buy, and therefore, the most precious resource we have as humans. Time does not come back. How you use the limited amount you have, is up to you. You choose it every single day.

Travelling is important because it makes you internalize the reality of time, and how valuable your time is. Not only this; it also teaches you to measure the price of things in minutes of times you need to earn it, instead of simple money.

Realizing how valuable time is to us and how in the past we might have wasted it, can be devastating for some, but it’s never too late.

Travelling teaches you to cherish the moment, each and every moment. It pushes you to focus on the thing you love doing instead of on the things others tell you should be doing. And that, my friend, is just so fulfilling and beautiful.

24. You Learn to Cultivate your Happiness

When you learn to value your time, you learn to cultivate your happiness.

Travelling is an important and powerful experience for both understanding what makes you happy and for helping you to think about which way you want to reach it. When you take back control of your time, when you switch off the self-drive in your brain, then you truly start living.

The objective of every single human on Earth is exactly the same: being happy. There’s no reason why we all just want to be happy, it’s simply our ultimate goal, full-stop.

Questioning what true happiness is though, is a question that most don’t even come across. Travelling stimulates you to think about it and, the more you think about it, the more you will learn to cultivate your happiness day by day.

25. It Transforms 100 years on this Planet, in a 1000

This last point is a partial quote from this video that I saw years ago and that inspired my life ever since.

When you travel, you break the routine. You escape from that self-drive condition, from that enemy of time that steals your days and turns them into grey, unexciting periods, filled with repetitive actions.

Travelling allows you to challenge your brain every day with something new. As you do it, you form new memories and in turn, you will feel alive every single day of your life.

When you’ll get older and you will turn back, you won’t ask “where did all my time fly?” as many do. Instead, you will turn back and while shedding a tear of joy, you will notice how you turned the 100 years you had on this planet, into a thousand!

This, in my opinion, is the ultimate reason why travelling is important.

Conclusion – Why Travelling is Important?

These were 25 reasons why travelling is important. Did you like my article? Do you agree with my perspectives? Do you think something more should be on this list?

Let me know in the comment below to get in touch!

Thanks for reading and see you in the next article! 🙂