personal travel experience essay

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Travel: Personal Experience

Categories: Personal Growth and Development Tourism

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Words: 519 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 519 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Personal growth through travel, cultural understanding and empathy, the formation of lasting memories.

Larson, R., & Verma, S. (1999). How children and adolescents spend time across the world: Work, play, and developmental opportunities. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 701-736.
Alkire, S., & Santos, M. E. (2014). Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index. World Development, 59, 251-274.
The World Bank. (2021). Poverty. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty

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Travel: Personal Experience

One of my passions is travelling. Travel involves visiting new places and meeting new people and having varied experiences. I come originally from Romania and have travelled to UK and US. I remember the quote by Samuel Johnson: “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it”. I have had the luck of visiting better countries and I believe my travel experiences have taught me a lot about human life and helped me expand the way I see things.

When I first travelled within Romania, it opened my eyes to how other people live. I saw how people lived happily even though they did not have much money or luxuries. It taught me that to be happy, money is not the only thing. I must have an attitude to be happy with what I have. It also taught me to accept people from different races and colors. When I travelled abroad, I saw new cultures and different lifestyles.

It was very exciting and adventurous. I learnt to enjoy these new experiences, to become part of these varied cultures by taking their food, wearing their dresses, etc. This has created in me the awareness that people all over the world are basically the same but they are different in the cultures – have different ways of talking, singing, enjoying, dancing, writing, building, dressing and conducting business. I have acquired a more global perspective of the world we live in. My knowledge has thus expanded because of my travel.

Self-confidence is another quality that I developed as a result of travelling. Whenever I travel, I had to be responsible for my own luggage, tickets and documents. I had to be careful in taking flights and cabs. When I was in my home country, I used to be shy to talk to new people. But during my travels, I learnt to talk to strangers and ask for help whenever I needed it. This gave me the confidence that I can make new friends. Also, new places sometimes had new customs that I had to adapt to.

Travel is the time I use to read and listen to music. This also gives me the time to reflect deeply on my life’s goals and where I am right now. It is an ideal opportunity to break free from a routine lifestyle. I feel very much relaxed during my travel and enjoy seeing new scenes and landscapes. It gives me time to discover more about myself. For example, when I was in Los Angeles, I saw a rock music performance at a club where everyone danced. I had not danced earlier at clubs. But when I joined the fun, I was surprised to realize that I enjoyed the experience a lot.

Travel also gives me a sense of being free and independent. It makes my mind open to new experiences all the time. Even during a flight, I get to taste new food, hear a new language, see new ways of dressing and listen to new kinds of music. This is very exciting and I thoroughly enjoy my life during these moments.

Through my travels, I have made many new international friends. Conversing with them has helped me understand their cultures better and I also have opportunities of improving my English which is now very important when travelling in UK and US. Moreover, as I intend to study in United States, it is good to improve my language skills before I begin my studies. Travelling to the United States has also helped me absorb their local culture and understand the value of hard work.

Above all, whenever I return to Romania after my travels, it helps me appreciate my home country a lot. I value Romanian culture and the warm way in which people relate to each other. I can appreciate it all the more when I travel abroad. Thus, my passion for travel while giving me fun, dreams and confidence, has also educated me, helped me embrace new cultures and new communication skills, adopt a more global perspective, improve my English and given me lots of good friends and wonderful memories. It has made me a richer person internally.

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IvyPanda. (2021, September 28). Travel: Personal Experience. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/

"Travel: Personal Experience." IvyPanda , 28 Sept. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Travel: Personal Experience'. 28 September.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Travel: Personal Experience." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

1. IvyPanda . "Travel: Personal Experience." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Travel: Personal Experience." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

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Editor’s Note: We know that many of you are looking for help writing travel experience essays for school or simply writing about a trip for your friends or family. To inspire you and help you write your next trip essay—whether it’s an essay about a trip with family or simply a way to remember your best trip ever (so far)—we enlisted the help of Professor Kathleen Boardman, whose decades of teaching have helped many college students learn the fine art of autobiography and life writing. Here’s advice on how to turn a simple “my best trip” essay into a story that will inspire others to explore the world.

Welcome home! Now that you’re back from your trip, you’d like to share it with others in a travel essay. You’re a good writer and a good editor of your work, but you’ve never tried travel writing before. As your potential reader, I have some advice and some requests for you as you write your travel experience essay.

Trip Essays: What to Avoid

Please don’t tell me everything about your trip. I don’t want to know your travel schedule or the names of all the castles or restaurants you visited. I don’t care about the plane trip that got you there (unless, of course, that trip is the story).

I have a friend who, when I return from a trip, never asks me, “How was your trip?” She knows that I would give her a long, rambling answer: “… and then … and then … and then.” So instead, she says, “Tell me about one thing that really stood out for you.” That’s what I’d like you to do in this travel essay you’re writing.

The Power of Compelling Scenes

One or two “snapshots” are enough—but make them great. Many good writers jump right into the middle of their account with a vivid written “snapshot” of an important scene. Then, having aroused their readers’ interest or curiosity, they fill in the story or background. I think this technique works great for travel writing; at least, I would rather enjoy a vivid snapshot than read through a day-to-day summary of somebody’s travel journal.

Write About a Trip Using Vivid Descriptions

Take your time. Tell a story. So what if you saw things that were “incredible,” did things that were “amazing,” observed actions that you thought “weird”? These words don’t mean anything to me unless you show me, in a story or a vivid description, the experience that made you want to use those adjectives.

I’d like to see the place, the people, or the journey through your eyes, not someone else’s. Please don’t rewrite someone else’s account of visiting the place. Please don’t try to imitate a travel guide or travelogue or someone’s blog or Facebook entry. You are not writing a real travel essay unless you are describing, as clearly and honestly as possible, yourself in the place you visited. What did you see, hear, taste, say? Don’t worry if your “take” on your experience doesn’t match what everyone else says about it. (I’ve already read what THEY have to say.)

The Importance of Self-Editing Your Trip Essay

Don’t give me your first draft to read. Instead, set it aside and then reread it. Reread it again. Where might I need more explanation? What parts of your account are likely to confuse me? (After all, I wasn’t there.) Where might you be wasting my time by repeating or rambling on about something you’ve already told me?

Make me feel, make me laugh, help me learn something. But don’t overdo it: Please don’t preach to me about broadening my horizons or understanding other cultures. Instead, let me in on your feelings, your change of heart and mind, even your fear and uncertainty, as you confronted something you’d never experienced before. If you can, surprise me with something I didn’t know or couldn’t have suspected.

You Can Do It: Turning Your Trip into a Great Travel Experience Essay

I hope you will take yourself seriously as a traveler and as a writer. Through what—and how—you write about just a small portion of your travel experience, show me that you are an interesting, thoughtful, observant person. I will come back to you, begging for more of your travel essays.

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Personal Narrative Essay: My Travel Experience

Travelling is an action in which the mind is enriched and which can ultimately change one's life. It all began from the business trips my dad used to take to Berlin, Germany. He used to tell us these fascinating stories and how the atmosphere of this beautiful city was unlike any other. We are a family who loves to travel, whenever we have off from school we usually travel. Some of the places that I have travelled to include the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, United States, etc. So when my dad told me that Berlin and Europe was different from all of my other travels I was fascinated. I wondered, what could make Europe so different? After that, I was extremely anxious to travel to Europe, especially Paris because I love fashion. Once summer of 2018 came around we took a trip to Europe. It was an exonerating experience. One that made me appreciate different cultures. This trip gave me a different perspective on life and its diverse cultures. It gave me the wonderful opportunity to experience different cultures, lifestyles, cities, and most importantly it made me appreciate the life my parents have provided for me.

My month long trip consisted of travelling to different cities such as London, Paris, and Berlin. The moment I landed in Paris, I already noticed a big difference in the culture, language, food,and style. I honestly fell in love with the city. As a fashion designer the fashion industry was the best; the boutiques were so unique with exquisite clothing pieces. My favorite was going to Champs Elysee and Galeries Lafayette where we shopped day and night. Oh and the architecture was even better; from the tall gold defined construction of the Palace de Versailles was eye shocking. It was a feeling and ambience unique to Europe. It was like seeing the art from the History books but in real life. Our next stop was London. This was much different as compared to Paris, it honestly was the most culture shocking for me. The accent was so different but I honestly loved it. It felt like I was living a royal lifestyle because of how respectful, kind, and downhearted the natives were. We were staying at the Waldorf Astoria of London which was probably one of the best hotels I have stayed in; the breakfast they offered was to die for from various pastries, cheese’s, and breads. The ambience was amazing; it felt like you were living through history with an acadian style architecture with gold finishes. Something I found fascinating was how the taxi cabs were like the cars you would see from the 1900s, the back beetle like cars, with the driving seat on the right side. The London eye and the Big Ben was breathtaking. The last stop to our trip was Berlin, the most relaxing of them all. We were able to explore the city without having to make it on time for some activity. The breakfast we had at the lounge was also amazing. The people were so kind there. However, the one thing i did notice was that people love to drink beer and smoke cigarettes there a lot, which is something I find appalling as I feel that consuming or smoking such cansmoking such can have negative effects on your health. We went on fairy rides that took you all throughout the city, which was relaxing. Overall, Berlin was a beautiful city and the most relaxing. Overall the culture and moral is much different from anywhere else in the world.

The lifestyle in Europe is if you just want to forget about all your problems and have no one rush you. Everything there was just so laid back and relaxing, like I mentioned before they didn’t rush you out of anywhere. I am also coming from a vacation aspect, if I lived there it would be a totally different lifestyle. Talking about living, my family and I were going to move to Berlin for a year because we loved it so much. I truly wanted to move there but my sister didn’t want to leave in the middle of high school so we decided to stay in America. In Berlin, it just felt safe, me and my sister were going on the train and just exploring all of Berlin by ourselves because our parents knew it was safe. If you want to live the city lifestyle with the European touch Berlin is the place to be. London had the luxury lifestyle everyone fantasizes about with houses shaped like castles and going to Harrods to shop and eat. The atmosphere in Paris specifically near the Eiffel Tower was everyone is just living in the moment and you would hear soothing French street music as you observe how the Eiffel Tower is nothing like the pictures.

All of this wouldn’t be possible without my parents. This trip made me realize how fortunate and grateful I am to have parents who want me to experience all different types of cultures. If it weren’t for my parents my trip to Europe would not have been possible. I wouldn’t be staying at such luxurious hotels and eating such exquisite food. I have never appreciated travelling as much as I did when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It made me reminisce of all the wonderful times we had as a family.

Going to Europe gave me a different perspective on life by making me realize how grateful I should be to have experienced such an amazing trip which I will remember for the rest of my life. It also made me realize that we should never take things for granted especially because there are many out there who aren’t fortunate enough to be able to experience such luxuries. So whenever we take such trips my family likes to donate to various organizations to help those in need. This trip was most definitely the most enriching especially because I was able to experience different cultures, food, languages, and cities. After this trip, I was even more intrigued in travelling than I was before. I want to continue travelling the rest of the world and explore more cultures. I definitely believe that travelling can change a person for good, it makes one appreciate all the amazing cultures, religions, and lands out there. A wise man once told me that people forget years and remember moments which will resonate with me for the rest of my life.

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Essay on My First Travel Experience

Students are often asked to write an essay on My First Travel Experience in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My First Travel Experience

Introduction.

I still remember my first travel experience. It was a family trip to a beautiful hill station, Shimla.

The Journey

We travelled by train, which was an adventure in itself. The scenic beauty outside the window was enchanting.

Exploring Shimla

In Shimla, we visited famous places like Mall Road and Jakhu Temple. The snow-capped mountains were a sight to behold.

This trip was more than just sightseeing. It was about spending quality time with family, trying new things, and making memories. Truly, my first travel experience was unforgettable.

250 Words Essay on My First Travel Experience

My first travel experience was a profound journey that enriched my understanding of the world and myself. It was not merely a physical relocation, but a voyage of self-discovery and personal growth.

The Destination

My destination was the enchanting city of Rome, a place where history and modernity coexist in a harmonious symphony. The city’s architecture, culture, and cuisine were a stark contrast to my familiar surroundings, sparking curiosity and excitement within me.

The journey was an adventure in itself. The thrill of boarding my first flight, the anticipation of the unknown, and the exhilaration of soaring above the clouds were emotions I had never experienced before. I was struck by the realization of how vast and diverse our world truly is.

Experiences

In Rome, I was captivated by the Colosseum’s grandeur, the Vatican’s spiritual aura, and the timeless beauty of the Trevi Fountain. I savored authentic Italian cuisine, learned about the city’s rich history, and interacted with locals, gaining insights into their lifestyle and perspectives.

This travel experience transformed me. It broadened my horizons, challenged my perceptions, and instilled in me a sense of global citizenship. It was an enlightening journey that taught me about the world’s diversity and the importance of embracing different cultures. My first travel experience was indeed a journey of self-discovery that I will always treasure.

500 Words Essay on My First Travel Experience

Traveling is a transformative experience that opens our minds to the vastness of the world, introducing us to different cultures, landscapes, and perspectives. My first travel experience was a journey that significantly shaped my outlook on life and the world around me.

The Anticipation

The weeks leading up to my first trip were filled with a mixture of exhilaration and anxiety. I was about to embark on a journey to Rome, Italy, a city steeped in history and culture. As someone who had never left my small hometown, the prospect of immersing myself in a foreign environment was both exhilarating and terrifying. I spent countless hours researching, planning, and imagining the experiences I would encounter.

The actual journey was a whirlwind of emotions. The moment I stepped onto the airplane, I felt a wave of excitement wash over me. The hum of the engines, the chatter of passengers, and the anticipation of the unknown made my heart race. As the plane lifted off, I felt a sense of detachment from my familiar surroundings and a thrilling connection to the vast, unexplored world.

The Arrival

Upon arrival in Rome, I was immediately struck by the stark contrast between my rural hometown and this bustling, vibrant city. The air was filled with a blend of unfamiliar sounds, smells, and languages, creating a sensory overload that was both overwhelming and enthralling. The architecture was breathtaking, with ancient ruins coexisting with modern structures, creating a living testament to the city’s rich history.

The Exploration

Exploring Rome was an education in itself. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon were not just historical sites; they were tangible reminders of a civilization that had shaped the world. Each monument, each cobblestone street, each local cuisine offered a unique insight into a culture that was vastly different from my own. This exploration was not just a physical journey but also a journey into understanding the diversity and interconnectedness of human experience.

The Transformation

My first travel experience was more than just a trip; it was a transformative journey that broadened my perspective and deepened my understanding of the world. It taught me to appreciate the beauty in diversity, to embrace the unfamiliar, and to remain open to new experiences. It sparked a desire to explore, to learn, and to grow, shaping my future travels and my outlook on life.

In conclusion, my first travel experience was a significant milestone in my life. It was an adventure filled with discovery, learning, and personal growth. It served as a reminder of the vastness of the world and the richness of human experience. Traveling is not just about the destinations we visit, but the journey we undertake and the transformations we undergo along the way.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on My Best Travel Experience
Essay on Travelling
Essay on Travel by Train

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

How To Write a Good Travel Essay

Home / Blog / How To Write A Good Travel Essay - Guide With Examples

Introduction

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”

-Gustav Flaubert

Packing the duffel with the bare essentials and hopping into the car, getting behind the steering wheel and driving with no perfect destination in mind – we all dream to live such a life, don't we? Travelling to unseen places and exploring what it has to offer can be an enriching experience. However beautiful can travel be as an experience, writing a travelling essay can be quite a challenge. It may seem easy to come up with the ideas that you want to include in the essay but putting them into coherent sentences can be difficult. Your words should be impactful enough to be able to sweep the readers off their feet and take them on the cliff or make them feel the saline breeze on a beach.

A perfect travel essay must reflect the journey and highlight the little-known facts about the region. It should be infused with the character and culture of the place. If you are feeling stymied while writing a travel essay, then we have some brilliant tips for you that can make the task considerably easy for you.

8 tips for an outstanding essay on travelling

Here are 8 tips that you can cash on to produce a winning travelling essay:

Be specific with the destination

Before you choose a topic for your travel essay, keep the time spent in the location in mind. If your trip is just for a couple of days, then do not make the mistake of writing about an entire city. Think it out practically – is it possible to travel through a city in just a few days? Take for instance your essay is about London. It is quite an insurmountable task to be able to cover all the distance even in a week. So stick to a particular destination so that you can include the nuances and minutest details of the place to paint a picture in the reader’s mind with your words.

Less guide, more exploring

Also, the destination need not be about an exotic locale. It can be a story about an idyllic rustic location in the suburb of the teeming city. It can be about a cottage up on the hills with just the view of snowy valleys and iced peaks. Your words should give the sense of exploring and not touring. The essay should not be like a guide. It should be a view of the location through your lens.

Know the location like the back of your hand

Before starting to write a travel essay, do your research. A travel essay isn’t a made-up story so there should not be any fake information. Readers will be looking for more than just the necessary information about the must-visit tourist attractions. So you need to go beyond the surface and include more about the history of the place. Just do not write about the restaurants – talk about the cuisine of the place and the story behind it, if any. To get into the innermost recesses of the location, you can speak to the residents of the area. To bring richness in your travel essay, you must reveal another side of the destination.

Include the nitty-gritty

The key to an impressive travel essay is to be able to break down the location into kernels and write the core details about them. As mentioned earlier, so not just write about the tourist attractions and restaurants in the destination. Write about the lesser talked streets and unknown landmarks and the history behind them. If the place is known for its delicacies, write about how the cuisine has evolved and who had started it. From quaint bookstores to ice cream parlours to run-down shabby pubs – shed light to such nuances to bring your essay to life. You can even mention the negative things that you have faced in the place – like irregular transport modes or impolite locals. These little details will help you make your essay more impactful.

Be creative with the writing style

Since a travel essay is more like an anecdote, there is no specific format to write it. Therefore, a travel essay gives you the scope of setting your foot into the unchartered areas of creativity. You have got the creative freedom to write what you want. You can study how the natives of the locale speak and learn some of the basic words and phrases they use. To put them into writing you can read the local newspaper to get the pulse of the city you are in. Using the colloquial lingo can help the reader get a closer peek into the lives of the people living in the place. It will reflect a slice of how they live their way of life. Your words should be simple and yet impactful to portray and not just merely narrate. Touch every bit of the rust in the roof to make the reader feel like they are on the same journey with you.

Make it personal

The travel essay is your story. So add some personal experience in the story and at the same time do not make it self-indulgent. Include stories that can resonate with all your readers. Your experiences should be able to bring the reader back to the travel destination and connect him with the place. It should be the perfect blend of narration of the experiences you had while on the trip along with a vivid description of the place. To achieve the balance, write your essay in first person perspective to give a real touch to the story. Include the most interesting bits that will help the reader connect with you. You can even include the quotes of natives living in the area you had visited.

Start with a captivating catch

Like every essay, the introduction is the key to make it an impressive read. The opening should be capturing enough to attract the reader’s attention. It should leave an impact and should make them want to go on reading the piece. Start with an unknown fact about the place and leave it hanging from the cliff. Use a tone of suspense to excite the readers to keep them guessing about the contents of the essay.

Make it vivid with images

For certain places, words may fall short in being able to explain the exact description of a place. You cannot describe how the sky looked with the mountains seemingly touching the clouds or the horizon fading beyond the sea. Certain things cannot be explained in words – like the color of the sky or the water! This is where pictures come in! Providing real images of the place in between can help the readers stay connected. Vivid photos can also make the readers understand the story better by bringing them closer to it. So make sure you take breathtaking pictures of the place you are writing about. The images will help your essay stay in the readers’ mind longer.

With the above tips, we are sure you will be able to write an excellent travelling essay that will impress your professor and fetch you a good grade.

And if you are still unsure about putting these to use, then below is a winning sample to show you how it is done!

Travelling essay sample

I have visited London several times, and yet it is amazing how I find something new to explore every time I visit the capital city. My visit last autumn too did not fail to surprise me. With the hustle and bustle and the rich royal history, London city has a lot to offer. Since I just had a few days to spare, I wanted to make the best out of this trip.

Although vast and sprawling, I decided to visit most of the city on foot this time. Now since in my previous visits I had seen most of the tourist-y attractions already, I wanted to take the path less travelled this time to discover the hidden gems of the city. The last time I had been to London, I had missed out on the chance to visit the chock full of literature and history that awaited me in the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Being a student of literature, visiting the place where the Bard of Avon once enacted the plays he wrote was a spellbinding moment. And guess what? I also caught a staging of the Macbeth before I left the place. Before heading towards the Hyde Park tube station, I grabbed some of London’s famous Fish ‘n’ Chips from the oldest food market of the city, the Borough Market. From Hyde Park to Tower Hill in under fifteen minutes by Tube, I began exploring the Tower of London. It was there that I heard a guard speaking about where he hailed from. A quick conversation with Peter, I had gotten intrigued to know more about his village – Suffolk in Lavenham. I asked him how to get there and Peter, being the quintessential helping guide that Londoners are known to be, told me that I could either take a car from central London. Or I could wait for the next day and take the train from Liverpool to Sudbury and then take the bus route 753 and reach in around two hours. Having nothing to do, I spent that day in the British Museum and walking on Oxford Street.

The next morning, I started my journey to the quaint village of Suffolk. I had picked up a book about the village where I learned that the village had once housed Henry III in 1257. And a bonus for all the Harry Potter fans – the village also starred in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ as Godric’s Hollow where Hermoine and Harry are seen to be visiting Bathilda Bagshot. On reaching the village, the first thing that grabbed my attention was the picture-perfect silhouette of prosperous medieval England with all the half-timbered houses. The lime-washed and brightly coloured buildings added an idyllic element to the village with the De Vere House standing out from the rest. Adding to the rustic touch was the fifteenth-century St Peter Church with its soaring height of a 141ft tower. The autumn breeze welcomed me as I walked on the leaf-covered high streets. I saw some young guns cycling around in a park and called out to them for directions. My stay for the trip was an Air BnB home-stay where I had to put up with an elderly couple – the Havishams. I still remember how on reaching the gate of the house, I had caught a waft of crumpets and hot scones. After an exchange of banalities followed by me gorging on the scones, I had found out about the hidden gems from Mr Havisham who happened to be quite a cheerful talker. He told me what a must-visit Hadley’s was when in Suffolk. I had then set out with a local map to find the hidden gem. On reaching I had found that Hadley’s was a cutesy ice cream shop, almost run down, run by an old lady. Here Rebecca told me how the ice cream parlour was opened back in the 1850s and was still known for their hand-made sorbets.

Like the sorbet, my stay in Suffolk had been a sweet experience – a trip of revelation. The tour – with all the lonely walks – had in an inexplicable way helped me to get my perspectives right. It isn’t the exotic locales and the flight above the clouds that make travelling my drug. Rather, it is little but beautiful discoveries like Suffolk that feed my wanderlust. Thank you, London. Thank you for being a wonderful experience, once again.

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Travel Narratives , Solo Female Travel , Travel Inspiration

Personal essay: why i love traveling so much.

FMTC Affiliate Disclosure: Blond Wayfarer contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This disclosure pertains to all affiliate links.

Updated: 26 April 2023

Even at first glance, it is so obvious to everyone who meets me that I love traveling. The idea of travel, packing my bags and disappearing to someplace new, lives inside the brain allllll the time. I mean, I spend my spare time on Google flights, haha.

Not to mention, whenever I meet someone for the first time or even encounter an old friend, I instantly want to talk about my upcoming trips, ask about their own adventures, share embarrassing and funny travel stories, and swap bucket list ideas.

And yeah, I’ll admit it. I’m probably a little annoying to my non-traveling friends and acquaintances, but I can’t help myself. My “wanderlusty” passion seeps through my pores, out of my control.

Passion is a good thing, I guess?

A few years ago, on my 29th birthday, I wrote about 29 Ways Travel Changes You forever. I know that ever since I started my solo adventures, I slowly morphed into a far more spontaneous, well-rounded, and grateful person. I used to freak out at plans changing or sudden cancellations, but now, disruption to my routine just rolls off my shoulders.

Although I still stand by the ideas in that post, I wanted to return to my “graduate school” roots and felt inspired to write an entire essay explaining why I love traveling so much, haha. I know it is stating the obvious in many ways, but sometimes we all need a little dose of inspiration, especially after the stress and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic that put global travel on hold for nearly two years.

Exploring the world costs time and money (not to mention, boarding planes stresses me to the max!) so the trade-offs need to be worth it, right?

this gorgeous stockholm view clearly shows why i love traveling

Table of Contents

“I Love to Travel Because” — A Complete Essay

Okay, full disclosure , some of the reasons why I love traveling are totally superficial and shallow.

I mean, think about it. Travel makes you look cool. For instance, an ongoing joke about dating apps (haha) is that every single profile professes a deep love of travel. It’s damn near cliche at this point. And I understand why.

I also love to travel, because being in a new place means I’m allow to indulge and spoil myself. Pampering myself has become even more important on solo trips in my 30s , honestly.

I mean, isn’t it nice to eat a lot of delicious food, explore museums stuffed with world class art, and capture the perfect Instagram shot on top of a mountain crowned in a pink sunrise’s glow? Of course!

However, all jokes aside, I love to travel for deeper personal reasons, too. The experiences go far beyond pretty pictures and a full stomach.

I deeply believe travel makes you richer, not in your wallet, but in your intelligence and compassion. Not to mention, roaming this planet makes you realize your full potential and helps you learn what makes you truly happy. Let’s break it down.

eating oranges in como is why i love to travel

Travel is My Passion

Life without passion is a prison sentence, in my opinion. Each day blends together until they are identical.

Wake up. Go to work. Eat dinner. Watch television. Sleep.

Time slips away without accomplishing anything. Not good.

We’re all on this earth for a deeper purpose. We need to discover that purpose and let it embrace us. By doing that, we cultivate the abilities to face any challenges that come flying in our direction.

the true solo traveler of jacksonville beach fl

For me, travel is my passion. Travel is my purpose. Not to mention, I channel this passion by using my own experiences to help people feel brave enough to take the trips of their dreams.

Recently, I’m listening to a lot of motivational podcasts on my commutes to work. For example, I love “The School of Greatness” and think these interviews provide great insight on practical ways to improve yourself. Seriously, if you’re struggling, then give this podcast a try.

Anyway, one of the reoccurring themes on “The School of Greatness” is to find a passion and purpose in life. No one can take passion away from you. It’s freeing.

And travel? Is a beautiful passion. Most importantly, I like to learn about humanity, beyond my country’s borders, in order to better connect with others. It’s a blessing.

i love to travel and experience new cultures especially in places like portugal

Travel Helps Me Believe in People.

Travel restores my faith in people. It’s true.

Okay, I hate to out myself on this blog, but I’m a total cynic sometimes. Full disclosure.

In general, I have a very hard time trusting people, mostly because I worry they’ll lie or take advantage of me. And sadly, some people have done just that (another story for another day, my friends). It’s super challenging not to be jaded.

one of the advantages of solo travel is seeing gorgeous scenery like this

Yet travel reminds me so many kind-hearted, inspiring, brave, and intelligent people exist in the world. For example, I’ll never forget how complete strangers invited me to lunch in Nazare and helped me find the way to Stockholm after my train was canceled.

I’ve also had strangers talk to me on planes to calm my anxiety over flying. I had one woman stay awake the entire flight on my trip to Madrid, for instance, and reassure me whenever we hit a bump in the sky.

Travel reminds you that most people are inherently good. They are. I promise.

Even at home, the travel community’s members never stop encouraging me to transform into a better version of myself. For example, attending Women’s Travel Fest in New York City connected me with so many incredible women who are living their best lives every single day.

i love to travel to small towns such as toledo

Travel Heals My Insecurities.

On a similar note, I’m a person who loves to travel, because exploring the world builds incredible self-confidence and worth. I’m able to accept and embrace my flaws much more readily after traveling somewhere epic and having time to reflect.

In our society, there’s an unspoken pressure to embody perfection, and falling short of that standard isn’t acceptable.

Think about it. When was the last time you felt safe admitting that you were angry or jealous and received zero judgement or advice regarding your turbulent feelings?

solo travel kansas city: happy with drinks

We all have flaws and insecurities. We’ll never reach this ridiculous idea of perfection either.

Travel gives you a chance to push beyond these troublesome traits, which we all have, and even accept them for what they are.

Is traveling alone scary? Absolutely.

However, the fear is invaluable, because you need to get out of your comfort zone for personal growth to happen. For example, I was terrified to go paragliding in Slovenia, not only because I hate flying on general principle, but because I’ve never identified myself as a dare devil. I felt like an imposter. But when my feet touched the ground again, I realized how much courage I actually possess. Cool, huh?

As I’ve said, we all deal with insecurities. All of us. But these supposed flaws don’t have to define us. Another major reason why I love traveling is because I was able to move beyond these flaws.

travel is the best because you get outdoors

Travel Makes Me Appreciate Natural Beauty.

I’m a city gal at heart. New York City is my “happy place,” because I love the endless entertainment options, great shopping, and diverse population. Bring me the city lights.

On the other hand, travel forces me to return to nature and foster a deeper appreciation for the earth. My breath was taken away in both the Scottish Highlands and Banff National Park. Crystal clear glacier lakes. Massive green mountains. Fresh air filling my lungs. Our planet is an absolute gem.

don't skip granada with solo travel in spain

I’m even willing to get my hands dirty now!

And, even at home, I’m trying to make getting out into nature a priority. I will say New Jersey has plenty of beautiful beaches, and I fully intend to take advantage of them.

this smile shows why i love to travel. look at how happy i am!

Travel Has Me Falling in Love with Myself.

Self-love is grossly underestimated. A lot of us are taught to place other peoples’ needs ahead of our own – which is especially true for women. Society pressures and molds us into the perfect daughters, sisters, friends, girlfriends, wives, mothers.

When do we have time to pour the same kindness back onto ourselves to ensure we’re mentally healthy and happy?

There aren’t enough hours in a day. It’s sad.

solo travel quebec city and loving afternoon tea

Travel reclaims your time, and lets you spoil yourself. It’s amazing.

For instance, I took myself out on dates in Seattle. I bought super expensive chocolate and sat in the park and took pictures of Mount Rainier, and it was the best thing ever. I also spent over $70 on myself at the Walrus and the Carpenter in Ballard, and didn’t care that my indulgence had reached ridiculous levels. I was worth it, damn it!

By traveling alone, you can give the love that you freely hand out to everyone to yourself. Be selfish. It’s a wonderful feeling.

travel is my passion even at home in nyc

Ultimately, I Love to Travel and Experience New Cultures.

My passion for new places and cultures isn’t something that appeared out of nowhere in my adult life. Far from it.

I’ve always wanted to travel ever since I was young. When I was in middle school (wow, I was twelve at one point?), I was convinced that I would move to England and design houses.

While I think the latter had to do with playing too much Sims , my desire to explore beyond the borders of the United States never weakened. Not once.

Travel has made me a stronger person, and I couldn’t imagine my life without endless plane tickets and backpacks. Breaking outside my comfort zone strengthens my self-esteem. It’s a precious gift, the best one I can give myself.

Finally I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for the world now. I’m not as closed off or shallow, and consider myself very receptive to different opinions and ways of life. Travel makes me a better person.

If You are a Person Who Loves to Travel …

We’re soul sisters (or brothers if you’re a dude! Haha).

Here’s some final parting wisdom for my fellow travelers. Know that I think you’re amazing for pursuing your passions!

travel is the best because of inspiring views

Don’t Feel Guilty.

You’re probably on the receiving end of some judgment. Do any of these lovely nuggets sound familiar?

“Enjoy it now. When you’re married and have kids, you won’t be able to travel anymore.”

“Don’t you want to settle down?”

“Are you running from something?”

These statements are intended to make you feel guilty. End of story. Don’t ever apologize for traveling too much!

You’re allowed to travel as much (or as little) as you want without other people impacting your choices. So, whenever you hear varieties of the above comments, simply smile and nod and move on. Guilt has no place in your adventurous life. BYE.

why i love to travel? donuts! lots of donuts!

Share Your Travel Passions with Others.

Even as a solo traveler, we want to talk to people who have the same passions as us. It’s only natural. So, being part of a community makes travel even more special.

Facebook has several groups and communities that will connect you with fellow travelers. I love giving travel advice to random strangers in these groups! It makes me feel important.

Not to mention, it’s an easy way to hook up with likeminded people when you’re in a new country or city.

wandering the desert is one of the great things to do alone in scottsdale

Furthermore, if you run a travel blog, then you can join classes and workshops (such as BlogHouse) , and also attend blogging conferences to make new friends. My blogger friends are some of the greatest people I know, and they support my dreams and goals whenever I feel low. Their encouragement is irreplaceable. You can’t put a price tag on it.

Finally, if you live in or are close to a big city, then check out your local Travel Massive chapter. These events will connect you with travel industry members and influencers, which is great if you’re planning on starting a travel blog.

Not planning on running a travel business? Still go to Travel Massive and make friends! The atmosphere has always been very welcoming.

Share your passion and build a supportive circle.

Implement “Travel Lessons” at Home.

Most of us aren’t digital nomads. We have a permanent address with established careers. We don’t travel 24/7. But another reason why I love traveling is because I can take those memories home with me.

Regardless, it’s easy to fall into depression at home when you love to travel so, so, so much. Sometimes you even feel like an “outsider” in your own neighborhood, but don’t let isolation creep into your brain. It’s a mistake.

Instead treat your home as another travel destination. Local getaways are fantastic. Research a cool attraction, park, or restaurant in your own backyard and then go explore.

Curiosity and wonder doesn’t die simply because you’re at home now. You never know what special gems might lurk around the corner.

Get out there!

travel is the best even in your own backyard

Are you a person who loves to travel (I think I know the answer to this one)? Why do you love traveling? What trips have created the fondest memories for you? Share all your thoughts in the comments. Thanks (as always) for your continued support.

why i love traveling | i love traveling | i love to travel | why i love to travel | travel is the best | i love to travel and experience new cultures | travel is my passion | a person who loves to travel

Rachel Elizabeth

At 22, I took my first overseas trip to Bermuda. Took a break to follow the "American Dream." Had my self-esteem broken. Embarked on my first solo trip to Scotland at 26. The travel bug dug its way under my skin. I now book multiple trips a year.

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How to write an essay about traveling experience

Writing college essays about travel is no rocket science. You just need to be aware of how you must use your skills. Following all of the tips mentioned above will ensure that your draft is perfectly formatted, well-organized, and error-free.

Write my essay is a common plea among students, especially when faced with the intricate task of composing travel narratives. According to more than one professional paper writer online , writing traveling essays can be fun yet challenging. You may want to include a lot of information. But be careful, you may lose track of your essay direction. If you want to craft a perfect travel essay, you need to follow the basics of an essay. How? Follow these tips.

Use a capturing introductory section The thing that hooks your reader is, of course, the first few lines of your write-up. When writing a travel essay, students may begin with cliche or boring statements, such as:

Traveling is an important part of life.
Traveling plays an integral part in making us feel relaxed.

The statements mentioned above indicate nothing new; instead, they indicate that you don’t have something interesting in your write-up. If your first few sentences are not interesting enough, the reader will anticipate the same for the rest of the piece. Thereby, it is essential to start with something that catches their attention or interests them. For instance, to introduce your travel write-up, you could write:

Having a routine helps me stay focused and productive. But, breaking that routine and traveling helps me experience life at its best.
I firmly believe investment in travel is an investment in yourself.
Travelling has not only helped me experience life in different ways, but it has turned me into a storyteller.

These statements indicate that you have something interesting to tell in the body. However, if you’re feeling stuck and asking around, “who can write my essay “, taking help from a writing service could be the best solution.

Follow a standard essay structure This is one of the crucial tips to keep in mind. No matter what your topic is, you need to follow a standard structure. Travel essays are mostly like personal essays, but it doesn’t mean you can write a personal essay as you wish. Hence, make sure you follow this structure:

Introduction (Include a thesis).
Body (Divide your body into a logical paragraph).
Conclusion (Sum up the draft and leave the reader with food for thought).

Following this structure will help you organize your thoughts and ideas and maintain cohesiveness. Your paragraphs must be well-connected. Besides, make sure you don’t repeat any of the information. A good body of essays about traveling has two to three paragraphs. In the first paragraph, introduce the place where you traveled and the person you traveled with. Also, mention what your feelings and expectations about this trip were. In the second paragraph, include an exciting experience you had there. In the third paragraph, you can write what you learned from this experience. Also, you could mention if this trip met your expectations. Following these steps will help your piece look structured and your thoughts organized. As a result, you’d be able to achieve cohesion in your writing.

If you want to craft a perfect travel essay, you need to follow the basics of an essay like this one about “ Sarajevo Tours ”.

Outline To follow a proper structure and keep your ideas organized, outlining the essay is a prerequisite. Do you want your travel experience essay to be perfect? If you’re nodding your head in yes, don’t forget to create an outline. Having an outline helps you stay on track and not miss anything important. Your outline should include the following:

Thesis to be included in the introduction.
Experiences that you will be sharing (key points, people you traveled with, place you traveled to, and any other relevant information).
Concluding thought.

Use the 1st person perspective When sharing your personal experiences, you must use the first-person perspective. You cannot tell your story from a third person’s perspective. Avoid writing like a novel writer even if you are tempted because this is a personal essay. Your reader must feel that you are telling the story. Writing in the first-person point of view makes the writing personal. Besides, it creates a connection between the reader and the writer.

Keep it simple You may want to use flowery language and include a lot of information, but that’s not necessary. Your teacher or examiner is only interested in how well you can convey your story. Besides, they also focus on the fact that your write-up is well-structured. Your experience may not be something very unique. Your travel destination may not be too dreamy. But, what counts is how you demonstrated it. Therefore, describe just one experience, that too in an organized way. Moreover, make sure you’re not showing off your vocabulary. Using too many difficult words may interrupt the flow of reading. Also, using relevant vocabulary is a great way to impress the reviewer, such as:

Globetrotter.
Destination.
Sightseeing.

Avoid clichés and formal Avoiding cliches is highly crucial if you want your essay to be catchy. Spend a reasonable amount of time brainstorming ideas. Think carefully about how you will start each paragraph. Ask yourself these questions:

Does it sound interesting?
Is it engaging?
Does it have unique information?
Is my language repetitive?
Do I sound too formal?
Will it connect with the reader?

Basic self-questions like these will help you improve your content and remove cliches. Remember using too common phrases is a big turn-off for the examiner. You have to showcase your best language knowledge to them. This is one of the critical ways to score high grades.

Proofread and edit Once you’re done inscribing your draft, ascertain that you proofread and edited it. Re-read the entire draft at least three times and look for:

Spelling mistakes.
Grammatical errors.
Punctuation errors.
Incorrect sentence formation.

After checking your document thoroughly, have someone else read it. Sometimes, it is normal to overlook some mistakes such as punctuation errors, incorrect sentence structure, incorrect vocabulary, typos, etc. When you ask someone else to read it, they read from a different perspective. Their personal feelings are not involved in the writing. Therefore, they read it in their own voice. As a result, they are capable of giving valuable feedback. They may notice some errors in your writing that you have missed. Also, they would be able to tell you if you succeeded in creating a unique voice as a writer. And if you successfully conveyed what you were trying to convey, also, if your essay is precisely what it needs to be, edit your draft as per their feedback, and you’re good to submit.

To conclude, writing college essays about travel is no rocket science. You just need to be aware of how you must use your skills. Following all of the tips mentioned above will ensure that your draft is perfectly formatted, well-organized, and error-free.

Main photo by Tirachard Kumtanom from Pexels

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Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

June 9, 2022

Writing About Your Experiences Abroad

You studied, worked, or volunteered abroad. Now you want to include part of this in your personal statement as part of an undergrad, AMCAS or other application. Maybe you want to show that you’ve experienced a different culture and expanded your perspective through your eye-opening experiences meeting new people, mountain-climbing, assisting in a rural community, or some other opportunity to help people who genuinely need it.

Don’t forget the most important question: WHY?

But, at this point, you’ve also realized that many other applicants have had similar experiences. While the experience may have been transformative for you, requiring you to learn how to operate without your usual safety net in a foreign environment, you need to ensure that your study abroad experience serves a role in your essay as something other than window-dressing.

But you also know that your experiences aren’t unique to you; other applicants will have had similar adventures.

There’s an old Onion article that jokes about a person whose short work experience in Africa allowed her to post a better Facebook photo. Without asking yourself the most important question of why your experience was transformative in some way, your travel descriptions might resemble the person parodied in that article.

I’ve read many essays with lush descriptions of exotic scenery and people who speak different languages, yet the writer does not seem to have changed. Unless you can articulate how you have changed from these experiences, your stories will simply blend together with those of other applicants. The admissions committee will get the impression that you traveled simply to add another notch to your resume.

You may consider that your travel experience really was transformative for you, requiring you to learn how to operate without your usual safety net in a foreign environment, a pivotal moment in your life journey. The key is for you to be able to explain in your personal statement exactly why .

[Click here to read a sample diversity essay]

What, specifically, did you learn from your immersion in another culture? It can’t be enough to just tell a story about someone you met on a bus, train, or in a classroom. Explain why and how that person’s influence changed you. How do you think, act, and perhaps even plan differently now as a result of this exposure?

An admissions committee member once told me that an applicant’s actual experience mattered less than how they talked about it . Even a seemingly dull experience can be transformative to someone who is really paying attention.

Do you need help taking your experiences and using them to create a unique, compelling – even exciting – personal statement? Explore our Admissions Consulting & Editing Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will guide you through the admissions process to acceptance.

From Example to Exemplary - Download your guide today!

Jessica Pishko graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University. She spent two years guiding students through the medical school application process at Columbia’s Postbac Program and is a former Accepted admissions consultant. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

Leadership in Admissions , a free guide
9 Secrets to Telling an Attention-Grabbing Story
7 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay

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Real Life Stories

15 Travellers tell us their most memorable travel experiences – and how it changed them

By Jaye Hannah

Published on Nov 30, 2017 | 6 min

There’s no doubt that travelling brings you a range of emotions: joy and excitement, but also the feeling that you’re in unknown territory. One thing’s for sure though: travelling is probably the best thing you can ever do. Don’t believe us? Just ask these 15 Travellers, who shared the trips and moments that changed them forever…

RELATED: WHEN YOU TRAVEL FOR THE FIRST TIME, SOMETHING CHANGES IN YOU

“The most memorable trip I have ever had was when I was 17 traveling to Vietnam alone. I was living and working in Vietnam for 4 months as a bartender (and ended up meeting my amazing girlfriend there too!). The most emotional part of the trip was when I was leaving back to Australia to visit my Grandmother who had been very sick. I felt like I lost everything (and even being able to see the person who I had come to love). I worked hard for 6 months and was able to find my way back here. 3 years later I live in this beautiful country and able to speak the native language while living with my girlfriend.” – Lachlan Gordon

“A friend and I booked a spur of the moment trip to India after a few drinks. That trip was one of the highlights of my life, teaching me so much about culture, enriching me and teaching me more than any classroom ever could. The smells and sites and sounds will forever stay with me. That trip gave me the travel bug and showed me the true meaning of wanderlust.” – Bala Walsh

“My most memorable travel experience was when I was 12 years old I was lucky enough to be sent on a camp to Switzerland with children from all over the world who had also received organ transplants. Growing up being sick and having my liver transplant in 1998 at the age of 7 travel had never been an option for me, so this was such an incredible experience to be gifted. It was my first time on a plane and overseas. It was so special, I remembered being shocked at the sheer beauty of it all.” – Kate Elizabeth

RELATED: I TRAVELLED ON CONTIKI WITH A BRAIN TUMOUR. THIS IS MY STORY

“Our first night on Contiki, we could see the Eiffel Tower from our accommodation…and we decided to walk to it! 3 hours later it was 2am and we were getting closer and closer – it looks like it was just around the corner every corner! We finally reached it and and we were in utter awe! I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as finding the Eiffel Tower at 3am covered in sparkles which lit up the night sky. That is what happiness feels like. In that moment, anything in the world felt possible. ” – Emma Walker

“I have only started traveling this year. As a child I wasn’t fortunate enough to travel as my parents worked to keep a roofs over our heads. It was a DREAM of mine since I was very young to go to Japan. I worked, worked and worked my butt off to fulfill my dream all by myself! I finally got to go in April to see the cherry blossom trees, I literally cried as we touched down in Tokyo. To see a whole new world was mind blowing! Travelling is made me so humble since then.” – Maddi Lomas

“As a coeliac I found it difficult to locate gluten free foods in a lot of places, but I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying my contiki trip through Europe. We wanted some gelato in Italy and opted to walk around the streets to find some gluten free gelato. Finally, we found some – I then asked if there were gluten free cones as well, and when the shop keeper pulled out a gluten free cone, I confessed my love for him and his shop. It was so important for me to find traditional local foods so I could experience my European adventure to the fullest!” – Leslie Wickens

“After my summer study abroad trip to Italy fell through, my best friend and I decided to book a last minute trip to Europe. While searching for trips, we stumbled upon Contiki and decided to book. As Americans, we had never heard of Contiki before and really didn’t know what to expect. From this trip, I got to experience 6 different countries, watch the Euro Cup in Europe, and most importantly I met life long friends. I am dying to go back and as a teacher, although I have to work multiple jobs to even be able to dream of it. I work in an intercity where most students don’t get the opportunity to leave the state for a majority of their lives, due to financial reasons. My goal is to show my students that they should never let money limit their travels. With a lot of hard work, they too can see the world!” – Julia Gulia

“I have always wanted to explore New Zealand and when the opportunity came up I just couldn’t say no. This group of people made the trip for me and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. They helped me to face my fears and try things I never imagined I’d be able to do. The euphoric rush you get when you compete your first bungy jump is one I will never forget!” – Kira Chow

“My most Memorable travel memory was from a Christmas I spent in China. I was able to travel to a leper colony in one of the very rural areas outside of Guangzhou. There was one lady in particular who has rocked my world even to this day. After learning that they only have to eat what they can grow and the large bags of rice my friends and I brought them, she offered me and every person I was with this bowl of oranges. She had nothing by our standards – but was still willing to give all that she had. It’s moments like this that keep me hungry for travel.” – Arden Shanklin

“The moment that changed my life was in July 2016. I went on the grand southern contiki tour and I opened up the further into the tour I went (I’m usually quite shy) and have never been the same since. Because of this tour I wanted to be more open, so between this tour and my next tour in April 2017 I took the biggest step in my life and came out to my parents. Not only has travel physically changed me, but it’s helped me come to terms with myself” – Tim Savage

RELATED: WHY SPAIN IS ONE OF THE BEST COUNTRIES TO TRAVEL TO IF YOU ARE LGBT+

“My sister and I went on a Contiki to Scotland and Ireland. There was one night in Loch Ness when it was raining cats and dogs, so we were forced to stay at our hotel. Everyone was bummed at first, but then we didn’t really care, because we were cooped up in a hotel with some pretty awesome people. We sat and played card games and drinking games all night. It was probably one of the most fun nights in the whole trip!” – Kandyce Lauren

Do you have a travel experience that changed you forever? Let us know in the comments…

Stop dreaming and make sh*t happen!

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Life-changing travel experience stories

There’s nothing like other travelers’ tales to get inspiration . When you are home longing to be on the road, or when you are on a journey wondering why you left the comfort of your house, submerge into these life-changing travel experience stories, beautiful tales of how a trip can alter the trajectory of your life .

I’m sure my regular readers are used to me talking about travel experiences . But for those who are discovering this little window to my soul called Experiencing the Globe , you can see that it all started with a bucket list of all the –surprise, surprise– travel experiences I want to have around the world.

The list is my goal in life, so I’m spending as much time as I can on the road. But when I’m home in between trips I seek inspiration in other travelers’ tales. I’ve read as many books about exciting journeys as I could put my hands on. And recently I got a hold of Lonely Planet’s Travel Goals: Inspiring Experiences to Transform Your Life .

It got me thinking of my own life-changing travel experiences . Like my transformation into a sustainable traveler after fully grasping what that meant for the planet and all the life in it. I have a trip to the Caribbean to thank for that. The first trip I took alone, when I was starting to test my boundaries, empowered me as a solo female traveler, and opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities! I’m so thankful I chose Italy , an amazing destination to explore on your own! I reaffirmed my faith in human kindness after spending a month in Iran , meeting the loveliest people I’ve ever encountered. And the most literal life-changing travel experience, moving to Croatia after meeting the love of my life in this beautiful country that now I call home.

The book also encouraged me to ask other travelers if they had a story in their own travels that changed their lives in one way or another. I was overwhelmed with the beautiful tales… some of the best life-changing stories that’ll inspire you to travel!

Life-changing travel experience stories that’ll inspire you to travel

Collecting memories, not counting countries.

I want to start this series of tales with my own. As I told you, many aspects of my life have changed over the years due to a travel experience, but the one I want to elaborate on is the one that defined what my life would be. Traveling hasn’t changed me, it has made me. It’s who I am. Several trips to the south of Chile showed me where I was going. This is the story of how I became the person I am today:

My parents took me camping to the Chilean Lake District every summer while growing up. This was in the dark age, before the internet. Back then we had to rely on maps and guidebooks. So through the endless hours of our road trips, I kept myself entertained glancing at a map, reading about the small towns we passed, and convincing my folks to take a detour to visit some place that caught my attention.

During one trip I told them that I have decided I wanted to go everywhere in the world. After a few laughs, my dad told me about the Travelers’ Century Club (TCC), a group for people who have visited 100 or more of the world’s countries and territories. My eyes sparkled with the thought of being a member, and I made it my goal.

Obviously, I started asking to go to another country instead of the same National Park we always visited. They laughed again –conscious of the monster they have created– and offered a compromise: they’d take me to our neighbor Argentina, my first trip abroad, but I had to see more of my own country before I embarked on my adventure of visiting another hundred. I happily accepted.

See, what I immediately realized is that –as much as I wanted to be part of the TCC– the main reasons to travel should revolve around what I’ll get out of a trip –whether that’s meeting locals, tasting the typical cuisine, exploring nature, or adventuring into an activity– it shouldn’t be just to count countries . I know the “why you should travel” is super personal, but ticking countries off a list only because you put your feet there feels meaningless to me.

Why do people travel? Well, there are as many reasons as people traveling, but even if it is to get a tan while you’re permanently sipping from a cocktail, that trip will always be part of your story, so you should make the most of it.

After visiting every region in Chile, I started to go abroad. Nowadays, getting closer to 100 countries and territories of the TCC list properly visited, what I knew instinctively, transformed into lessons I learnt during my travels … What inspires me the most to hit the road is experiences, because they feed my adventurous soul –the TCC list (and my own bucket list) became the means to guide my journey, not an end themselves.

Spreading the word about the truth of traveling

Claudia’s life story is remarkably similar to my own. Being avid travelers changed the way we perceive a destination, and the story that should be told about it. We both left behind an academic career and repurposed our research abilities towards travel writing. Now we both blog from a distinct point of view. This is the story of how in a visit to Cuba she found her true calling:

“Cuba changed my life because it was nothing like I had expected it to be –quite the opposite, in fact. You see, being the avid traveler that I am, before my trip to Cuba I spent months reading just about anything I could put my hands on. If it talked about Cuba, I had to read it. Everything made it sound like traveling to Cuba would be easy, and locals would be generous and welcoming.

My time in Cuba was less than fabulous. Don’t get me wrong, it is a gorgeous country and now, a few years later, with much more traveling experience and understanding, I am ready to go again. But back then, it was awful. My 23 days there were a constant challenge to avoid scams –a challenge that a few times saw me succeed but that other times saw me fail miserably. It was frustrating. I felt I could not trust anybody. Where were the lovely Cubans everyone talked about in their blogs?

Cuba taught me that people lie, even (or especially) online. Because nobody really wants to say they have had a bad experience, and nobody is really interested in reading about others’ bad experiences –but is that really the case?

I decided there and then to be different. I decided that I had to warn others, tell them the truth, let them know what they should expect and what they should do to avoid scams. That’s why I opened my blog. It was just a pastime at the beginning.

Fast-forward 2 years and I realized that I did want to make an effort to make it work out. After all, what did I have to lose? My contract as a research fellow at the university had expired and I had no real prospect if not a series of menial short-term teaching jobs I was less than interested in. So, I gave blogging my heart and soul. And it worked. I’m a much happier person now. I love what I am doing. I wake up in the morning to face a long list of to-do things and I read it with a smile on my face, which is priceless.

Cuba changed my life. And despite all the frustration I felt back when I was there, it changed it for the best.”

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Encountering wildlife to find yourself

Camilla was looking for something, but she wasn’t sure what it was. Her heart lead her to India , and after that trip her life would never be the same. Animals can have different impacts in our life, but for this former vegan chef, one particular big cat meant more than anything. This is her story:

“January 2017. That’s the date I first arrived in India. By that time, I used to work as a freelance vegan chef in the hustling city of Paris. Having attended a 4-weeks course on yoga and Ayurveda, I had planned to spend the following month exploring this amazing country.

Little did I know that a special encounter would change my life forever.

Always an animal lover, over the years I had developed a passion for the most majestic of big cats: the tiger. The striped animal had somehow summoned me. To what reason and to convey what message I do not know, but to such a call one can hardly resist.

India is home to more than 60% of the world’s remaining wild tigers. The critically endangered species is highly protected, and the country has given to many of its national parks the status of Tiger Reserve.

It was time for me to see my first one in the wild.

With zero safari experience and many hours of research, I booked 4 drives in Ranthambhore, one of India’s most famous Tiger Reserves .

I will always remember the excitement before that first drive in the jungle, and I will never forget the distress of realizing that finding the elusive cat is no easy task.

But all of a sudden, there it was. Glorious in its fierce black striped orange coat, a killer look and an attitude to die for. My first wild tiger.

That fleeting moment was enough to make me want more. Today, I have moved to Central India, prime tiger landscape of the world, and I have seen 103 different individuals. But every time I see those eyes, I feel the same excitement that I felt as a total beginner that day in Ranthambhore.”

Finding love in an unexpected place

Traveling is full of surprises. A spontaneous detour can change your life forever. Don’t I know it! A quick, unplanned stop in Split after exploring Dubrovnik ended up seeing me move continents for love. A simple recommendation of a town in The Philippines had the same in store for Alya. This is the tale of the trip that lead her to her husband:

“Meeting my future husband was definitely one of the most life-changing travel experiences I’ve ever had. We met 6 years ago in the Philippines. I was traveling alone around Southeast Asia for a couple of months. After completing my dive course in Gili Air Island in Indonesia and didn’t know where to go next. I was looking for a good place to learn to surf. My dive instructor told me about a small town on Luzon Island in the Philippines. It sounded like the perfect place for me. I bought a plane ticket immediately and two days later arrived in San Fernando.

The hostel I stayed at had a big dormitory with many beds. I met many travelers including Campbell. In fact, we had neighboring beds in the dormitory. He traveled alone as well and we liked each other, so we started going together to the beach, surfing and going out at night. By chance we had very similar travel plans and decided to continue our trip together.

We both like doing the same things, like surfing, diving and hiking. We left San Fernando and traveled around the Philippines together for 2 months. From there we went to Singapore. Unfortunately, I had to go back home, my 4-month holiday was over. We arranged to meet up again two months later in Nepal since we both had trekking to Everest Base Camp on our bucket list. So we did, it was our first multi-day trek together.

We met up a couple of times on the road again in different countries. After 6 months of on and off I decided to quit my job and join Campbell on his around the world adventure. Three years later we got married and decided to start a travel blog . In the last 6 years we’ve done hundreds of hikes, spent a year hitchhiking through Latin America, drove thousands of kilometers across Africa and walked seven Camino de Santiago routes.

Now I can’t imagine how my life would look like if I hadn’t gone to that place in the Philippines and had never met my husband.”

Giving is better than having

A trip to South East Asia gave Corritta’s life a whole new meaning. Possessions are overrated, true happiness comes from giving. She and her family left a comfortable life in the United States behind to fill their souls while making the world a better place. This is the tale of their journey:

“My life changing experience prompted me to sell our house, car and possessions to take off on a journey to see the world. That may seem a little extreme but let me explain. My first international trip was to Bangkok in 2018. I thought this trip would be a great way to get away from the stress in my life. It turned out to be a life altering experience that made me realize I was existing, not living.

While in Bangkok we took a day trip to Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and it changed my life. We learned how cruel animal tourism is and how we, as tourists, are unwitting accomplices. We support illegal pouching and animal cruelty by taking part in animal tourism. This includes taking pictures with large cats or monkeys and riding elephants. When we do these things, we are not only hurting the animals, we are ensuring things will never get better. I must admit I was never an animal lover but being up close and personal with elephants changed something within me. It made me want to give back.

So, two years later, with my partner and our one-year old baby boy, decided to take off for a family gap year . We sold everything and left San Diego to live a life of service. We will use this time to give back to those less fortunate.

When I left Thailand my definition of happiness changed. It was no longer associated with material possessions, but by the quality of life I wanted to live. I realized what truly matters is the love of your family. The Thai people with their families were happier than most Americans. So I decided to take back one of the most invaluable things in the world, time. Never forget, all the money in the world can’t buy you more time.”

Small changes can make the world a better place

A trip to Australia developed plastic-issue awareness in Simona. Seeing how the tides brought tons of plastic to the shores made her change her approach to traveling. From carrying her own grocery bags and water bottle, little adjustments made her a much more responsible traveler. This is how her journey towards sustainability started:

“The first time ever I realized that plastic was a serious matter for our planet was during a road trip in Western Australia, almost 12 years ago.

We stopped at a supermarket along the Coral Bay coast to buy some groceries and the lady at the counter told us they didn’t sell any shopping bags to prevent plastic in the ocean and to help preserving the endangered turtles living in that area. After a first reaction of surprise, we gathered all our shopping in our arms and left, reflecting on what we had been told.

This was just one of the many experiences I’ve lived that made me more conscious about my impact and pushed me to adopt various habits to live and travel more sustainably. For example, after that trip, I am always carrying a cotton bag when I go shopping.

Our eco-honeymoon to Borneo was another life-changing experience that has strengthened my resolution to turn to a zero-waste lifestyle. I selected three ecotourism projects to visit. In Asia finding safe drinkable water is always a challenge, but we traveled with our water bottle, and we chose the right service providers engaged in sustainable travel so, with a little effort, we managed to avoid almost entirely the use of plastic during our trip.

However, we were seriously struck by our stay on Libaran Island, where a sustainable and turtle conservation project was launched 10 years ago. Despite the big efforts carried out by the project and the community in cleaning up the beaches and creatively re-use plastic, the shore is washed daily with tons of plastic coming from the tides. Walking on a carpet of plastic that almost prevented us from seeing the beach underneath was quite shocking.

Facing this global issue in person, raised in me a contrasting feeling of sadness and anger that soon turned into determination: to do as much as possible to reduce plastic in our life. Sometimes we may feel helpless in front of big problems, but we should be aware that small changes can actually make a difference!”

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Discovering happiness in simplicity

When her career and personal relations were failing, Soujanya decided to retreat to the mountains. The Himalayas were the perfect setting to get away from everything and regain perspective. In a small village she discovered that technology is overrated, and that what counts are real connections. This is how a trip to India changed her take on life:

“Back in mid-2019 I wasn’t in a good place in life. I was getting out of a serious relationship, I was burn out at my job, I had problems within my family, and the ever-increasing sense of loneliness had thrown me into a pit of depression. During that time, I turned to the only positive thing I had going on for myself, which was travel and blogging.

After some contemplation, I decided to quit my job to travel. I had saved up enough money that would last me 8-10 months so I didn’t give it much thought because I knew it was the only thing that would keep me from tipping over the edge.

The first thing I did after leaving my job was to head to the Himalayas in India. I spent a month in the Kinnaur and Spiti valleys in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The Kinnaur district was a breath of fresh air. The snow-clad mountain range in the distance, the lush green vegetation all around, the sparse population and the friendly people spoke to my soul.

There was one village called Chitkul , which lies on the Indo-Tibet border and has no cell connectivity, that helped heal me the most. A remote village with a population of less than a thousand people and only a handful of tourists, with nothing around it for many miles.

I spent my days sitting by the river, hiking to the nearby hills and walking through meadows. Just being there surrounded by the Himalayas, without any social media due to lack of connectivity, and making real connections with other travelers and the villagers had some sort of magical effect on me. Not only I have the best travel experience of my life, but the place also healed my mind. I came back happier than ever, with a renewed spirit, ready to enjoy everything that life had to offer.”

Uncovering a braver version of yourself

We all have that one thing we’d love to do but we’re too scared to try. A trip to Thailand taught Allison that life is what we made of it. Pushing her boundaries not only allowed her to have a ton of fun, but also gave her a new path, one in which she gets to do what she loves. This is her story, an encouragement for you to get out of you comfort zone too:

“Shortly after I graduated from college, I moved to a new state to start a full-time job. One day at work, I found myself wanting to go traveling. As I didn’t have any friends there, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to go on my first ever solo trip. So I quickly started doing research on where I’d like to go.

I had never traveled alone before, especially overseas, so I decided to sign up for a guided group that was going rock climbing in Thailand . This gave me a sense of security, being new to solo traveling. It felt like a great way to dip my toes into being alone and meeting strangers, but also doing something that sounded really fun and engaging for 2 weeks.

The entire Thailand trip forced me out of so many comfort zones that ended up being one of the big turning points of my life. The time I spent in Thailand navigating airports and taxis alone, meeting a group of complete strangers, and spending 2 weeks climbing with them in often remote parts of the country, ended up being one of the greatest experiences of my life. Up until this point I had always considered myself a ‘shy’ and ‘cautious’ kind of person, but this travel experience lit me up to become different. It showed me a brave, strong, and self-sufficient side of myself that went on to influence my life in dramatic ways when I returned home.

When I got back, I pretty much dedicated my life to spending as much time as possible outdoors whether that be climbing, hiking, or backpacking… essentially doing things that I once thought I wasn’t ‘capable of’ or was ‘too scared of’. Today, roughly 6 years later, I’m an outdoor empowerment coach and backpacking educator.

My trip to Thailand was the spark that I needed to make that change. It showed me what was possible. I don’t know if it was the people I met, the experiences I had, or the beauty of traveling in Thailand – likely a bit of all of it– but whatever it was, it changed the trajectory of my life, and I’ll forever hold Thailand (and all the people I met) in a special place in my heart.”

A leap of faith towards a new life

Getting to visit a new place after a business trip is nothing out of the ordinary. For most people. For Derek and Mike it was literally life-changing. After a quick trip to Copenhagen , they packed up and started a new chapter of their lives as expats in a different continent. This is the tale of their journey:

“In November 2016 we had a life-changing travel experience in Copenhagen, Denmark. My partner Mike was asked to make an unexpected business trip to the city to help with a project. His company had recently acquired another company in Denmark, and he was asked to help with the integration. He flew there from our hometown, Philadelphia, with only a few days’ notice, and on his first day in the office they asked if he would stay a few weeks longer. He agreed but asked for time off during the American Thanksgiving so that I could fly to Denmark and take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a cheap trip to Europe with no-cost lodging and some meals expensed.

We loved getting to check out a city that we didn’t have on our travel bucket list before this opportunity came about. We did a few tours, visited the Christmas markets and dined out. At one restaurant we got to try the Christmas traditional Danish meal . I enjoyed Copenhagen for 5 days and Mike remained there for work until the end of November.

On his last night in Denmark, he had dinner at his boss’ home. They shared a meal with a lot of wine and then Mike called me when he got back to his hotel. I could hear the excitement in his voice. He asked if I liked Copenhagen, which seemed odd because he knew I enjoyed myself when I was there. Then he asked if I liked it enough to move there, because on that final night, his boss asked if we would take an expat assignment in Denmark.

We didn’t hesitate to accept and our life abroad began almost right away. That trip to Copenhagen was certainly life-changing!”

Learning to fully appreciate what’s in front you

No matter how much you have traveled, there are places that will bring up the best of you. No matter how much there is still to see, some places will take your breath away and will forever stay in your heart. A trip to Antarctica transformed Wendy into a student. She acquired as much information as she could to fully absorb the beauty that she was about to witness. And now she is longing to go back. This is her story:

“Before my cruise from Ushuaia to Antarctica , I was already quite well-traveled. I had visited about 75 countries and seen plenty of natural beauty before. But all of that paled in comparison to the White Continent. The Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina had mesmerized me just days earlier, but now I was seeing dozens, even hundreds, of sparkling white glaciers practically everywhere I looked. These landscapes were so different from anything I’d ever seen that it felt like I’d traveled to another planet.

On the times when the weather was bad, and on the long days of crossing the Drake Passage between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica, I soaked up every bit of knowledge that I could about this snow-and-ice-covered land. Our ship, the MV Ushuaia, was manned by a full staff of scientists and lecturers who were experts in a number of relevant topics, from geology to ornithology. When we were out on the high seas with nothing to do, these experts held lectures on the flora, fauna, history and geology of Antarctica, and I attended every single one.

When we stopped at the British base at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, I grilled the staff there with questions about how I too could go live and work on the island. And while that dream never materialized, my memories of Antarctica are still sharp in my mind 11 years later, and I still dream of returning one day.

Such an expensive voyage would normally be the trip of a lifetime, not a return destination. But if you’re willing to try your luck, sharply discounted last-minute deals can be found at the port in Ushuaia a day or two before departure. In recent years, these huge discounts have become few and far between, as most ships fill up months in advance. But still I’m thinking of a return trip to Antarctica for some more adventure!”

Adelie Penguins in Antarctica - The Nomadic Vegan

No matter where you go, every single place in the world has the potential to change your life! Tell me in the comments if you’ve had any life-changing travel experiences!

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16 thoughts on “Life-changing travel experience stories”

Wow this is really amazing,I pray that I will be opportuned to travel around the world one day

Sometimes we think it’s a far away dream because it’s dangerous, or expensive, or because we can’t take time from work. I’m aware that for some people it’s actually quite impossible due to their passport or the political situation in their country. For others, their responsibilities are far too great to leave behind. But for most of us, it’s just a matter of priorities. Don’t wait until you have all the money you think you need, or all the time you’d like to spend on the road. Just go! Even if it’s a weekend trip to your neighboring city, or to the countryside close to your place. You got to start somewhere, and every trip has the potential to be life-changing! Let me know how it goes! 🙂

I was looking for inspiration, and inspiration I found. I can’t travel at the moment, but I’m already thinking of how to be more sustainable on my next trip. Thank you all for sharing!

That’s amazing to hear, Dani! Welcome to the sustainable traveler’s team! 🌱

I googled inspiring travel stories to see if my day could be picked up, and I’m so glad this popped up! Lovely stories, super inspiring! I can’t wait for the pandemic to be over to create some travel stories of my own ❤️

Awww! I’m so happy to read your comment, Monty! Hopefully the pandemic will be under control soon and you’ll get to have some travel stories too. Make sure you tell me about them!

Beautiful tales! I can’t wait to start traveling again. Travel already has changed my life, but I’d be happy living through any of the wonderful experiences described here!

When you get to travel again, keep an open mind and an open heart… amazing experiences will happen! ❤️

Very inspiring stories! Thank you for sharing them!

It was a blast to write this, and collect other wonderful tales!

Love all these stories! Love how travel has shaped everyone!

In one way or another, every trip makes us a bit different. It was great to get these wonderful travelers to share their stories -now I’m sure it’s not only me who is deeply changed by travel!

These are all such inspiring stories! Really goes to show you how much travel can impact your life. Thanks for sharing!

It’s crazy how much travel can change us, and how much we can learn from it, no matter where we go!

I loved reading this! All of the stories are such an inspiration! I can’t wait to get back on the road 😍

In times of armchair travel, nothing like beautiful stories to keep the wanderlust up, right? ❤️

How Two Weeks in Tokyo Helped Me Rediscover My Personal Style

By Michelle Li

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Back in April, I landed in Japan at 3 a.m. after a long flight from New York—and awoke three hours later to begin my first (jetlagged) day in Tokyo. Thankfully, more than any other destination, Tokyo has always had the remarkable ability to reinvigorate me—and just as importantly, how I get dressed. It’s a city of contradictions, with subway supermalls only a few steps away from a serene neighborhood shrine, or charming streets with local ramen and third-floor monjayaki spots located across from a seven-floor TGI Fridays. Which instead of confusing me, makes complete sense—contradictions and contrasts have always been the bedrock of my approach to style.

Recontextualizing an item in an unexpected way was how I originally found my place within the fashion industry. A pair of track pants with a ruffled feminine top, an anorak with a soft chiffon skirt, pastels with a hint of neon. It’s a delicate balancing act that I felt I’d lost over the past few years in New York City. I had started to question if I was overcomplicating the items in my closet—even pieces I loved—after spending too much time on social media.

So, I started planning this trip. There are some vacations that are meant for relaxing (by the beach, cocktail in hand) and other vacations that are meant for challenging yourself. Historically, Tokyo has pushed me out of my comfort zone—but I’ve always come home feeling reinvigorated creatively.

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This would be my third trip to Japan. The last time I visited was in 2019: I was a fashion assistant at a magazine, my hair was pink, and in all honesty, I still didn’t have my personal style quite figured out. I packed my usual everyday items: a puffer coat, some easy comfortable pants, a few sweatshirts, and a pair of Skechers. But after returning home, I felt a sartorial shift after observing how authentically everyone dressed for themselves in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. People dressed in outfits that felt truly lived in. Thoughtfully tailored to be worn for a lifetime. Making a convincing case for putting care into the clothing you already own. I remember clearly thinking: This is how you translate those fashion editorials into your real, everyday life.

Met Gala 2024 Red Carpet Looks: See Every Celebrity Outfit and Dress

By Audrey Noble

By Dulce Moncada

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So it was that spirit I tried to reconnect with when I began packing my suitcase for two weeks in Tokyo. It forced me to get creative with how I built my outfits, and to see the clothing I own in a new context. When in Tokyo, my “boring” everyday denim and leather jackets looked shiny and new. My two pairs of shoes seemed to be the only shoes I would ever need! I packed some wild-card-last-minute-decision items, like a pair of green lace-up leather pants and a striped Kiko Kostadinov dress. These pieces—that see the light of day only a few times every year in New York City—somehow became staple items in Tokyo. I started brainstorming outfits around the daunting pieces in my closet at home that I loved but had neglected. It could even be the simple process of adding a belt, or trying a different pair of shoes to bring out a different texture. It reminded me that an outfit doesn’t have to go big to be good.

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In Tokyo, where overstimulation is only a subway ride away (if that), instead of feeling panicked when I got out of Shibuya station, I felt a sense of calm and curiosity. I could process it all on my own time. I was staying at K5 Hotel in Kabutocho, formerly the financial district and home to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and housed in a bank building that dates back to 1923. My everyday routine was simple: I woke up and read a few chapters of My Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (I try to read a book every vacation so that I can associate the book with the trip), then headed out for the day to find breakfast (a surprisingly difficult task because a lot of places in Tokyo don’t open until 11 a.m.), then took my time popping into shops in various neighborhoods. By 8 p.m., I was exhausted and ready to go to the local sento —or neighborhood communal bathhouse—and give myself time to fully process everything I saw that day.

Instead of “decompressing” by scrolling mindlessly on TikTok and Instagram, I would reflect on the outfits I saw that day. I especially loved seeing the unique styles of the salarymen on their way to work, with the subtlest winks to their own personal style. Like the guy I sat across from on the train with a Comme des Garcons multi-pocket briefcase reading manga on his way to work, or the elderly man I spotted in one of the city’s smoking sections wearing a leather Bottega Veneta tie. Beautiful pieces of clothing brought to life by the authenticity of how they were worn. The kind of thing you can only appreciate when you see it in real life.

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On my final days in Tokyo, I began to find myself mentally removing items that I had previously put in the box of “things I would never wear.” (V-neck sweaters, collared shirts, bomber jackets, anything yellow—the list goes on.) I asked myself why I felt so inspired and excited to dress up every day in Tokyo, but couldn’t bring that same energy to my day-to-day life in New York City? For some reason, after two weeks here, getting dressed here felt like an opportunity, not an obligation.

Now that I’m back home, I’ve been inspired to undergo a massive closet overhaul. But instead of waving items of clothing goodbye, I’ve been trying everything on, thinking about the fit, and finding new places for it in my wardrobe. It’s challenging to find ways to grow with your clothing (trust me and my green leather lace-up pants) but as I’ve learned from my trip to Tokyo, it’s worth it. Sometimes all it takes is getting dressed in a new city to get you excited again about the clothes you already own.

Essay on My Most Memorable Travel Experience for Students [PDF]

Who doesn’t love travelling? Maybe rare! I love travelling so much, in this essay paper I am covering my most memorable travel experience, I hope you like this essay presentation. So without wasting more of your time let’s jump to the essay!

Essay on My Most Memorable Travel Experience feature image

I love to travel

Don’t you? For me traveling opens my mind to new ideas, new adventures and lets me learn. I like to learn as well and when I travel I get to learn about different people, their cultures and their way of thinking.

When I was young I was able to travel across Canada. Even in a western country, there are different cultures and I got to see Ottawa and Montreal up close. The French Canadians are not the same as the Western Canadian and my experience was fabulous.

Going to the east was not as exciting as traveling through the Rocky Mountains though. The grandeur and beauty of that mountain range defy description. Snow-capped almost all year round, these mountains stood tall and majestic.

They even have a glacier in their midst that is something to behold. Lake Louise stands out as well with its multi-colored water and mountain surroundings. But as good as those trips were, they do not compare to when I left Canada and traveled to Asia for the first time.

Here I was traveling to a completely different culture than I had experienced as a child. My itinerary was taking me to the land of the Morning Calm and was known in earlier days as the hermit kingdom.

This was going to be a new experience for me. The plane took off going in a northerly direction as airlines like to fly close to land. This is a good policy as the passengers get to see the grand western mountains from a new angle.

Up to and past Mt. Mckinley the snow-covered peaks glistened under the sun’s rays… That look was made better by the contrasting dark green colors of the forests that make their home throughout the mountains.

Then as we were flying over the north Pacific ocean the realization set in that I was in for an adventure. The bright blue waters of the Pacific made the Japanese islands look like little diamonds set on a velvet cloth.

A few minutes later we were passing over the eastern coastline of Korea, with its tall waves beating against the rocky shores. It was too late to turn back. We were almost to our destination, Seoul.

After we had landed and I found my way to my hotel. The great thing about Korea is that it has signed both in English and Korean making it easy for foreigners to navigate to their destinations without hassle.

The taxi drivers were polite and very helpful, plus they did not try to rip me off. They drove me directly to my hotel and helped me get inside. In looking out my hotel window I could see what made Seoul so attractive. It was a modern city filled with history.

A history the Korean people were proud of. That pride was found in the lack of an entry fee to their wonderful museums. Even their ancient palaces were not that expensive to enter. Seoul. Has at least 3 of them within its borders.

The main palace, Geongbokgung, is backed by Seoul’s mountains giving it a picture-perfect quality that is astounding. It took some time to see it all. After I left the palace I headed to the first national treasure of Korea, Nam Dae Mun or the southern gate.

It stood tall and proud and it would be the entrance you would come through if you were traveling to Seoul from the south. The wide Han River is quietly weaved its way through the city supply the residents with pure mountain fresh water every day.

There is too much to list here that both Seoul and Korea have to offer but it was a trip of a lifetime and one I will always remember. It wasn’t a vacation nor an adventure. It was a true travel experience.

Do not forget to share your thought on this Essay on My Most Memorable Travel Experience, it will help us to deliver more helpful essays for you guys.

Jessie on a Journey | Solo Female Travel Blog

19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips

Love inspiring travel experience stories ?

Then you’re in the right place!

Grab a snack and your favorite beverage and get ready to settle in, as you’re about to read some truly inspiring travel stories about life-changing trips.

In this roundup, some of my favorite bloggers share their best travel stories.

You’ll hear about travelers embarking on sacred pilgrimages, growing after a first solo female travel trip, deeply connecting with locals on the road, and getting out of their comfort zones in ways that completely alter the course of their life.

And if you’re looking for a unique travel experience, you’ll likely find it in the short stories about travel below.

Table of Contents

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There is so much included!

Plus, I’m constantly adding new resources, guides, and personality quizzes to help you travel beyond the guidebook!

On that note, let’s dive into the inspiring travel stories .

1. Travel Experience Stories In South America

My travel story takes place in South America, back when I used to travel solo for months at a time.

I was in my mid-20s, and even though I’d backpacked Europe, Southeast Asia, and China and had studied abroad in Australia, the mix of intense excitement and nerves I had leading up to my South America backpacking trip was different.

And despite family and friends warning me that South America wasn’t a place for a solo female traveler , it ended up being my best trip ever.

There are so many interesting short travel stories and unforgettable travel experiences woven into this trip, like:

Getting invited to have dinner with my Brazilian plane seatmate and her grandma
Having a group of complete strangers on Couchsurfing take me out for dinner and dancing on my birthday in Mendoza
Attending a small house party in Argentina and learning about the tradition of mate
Getting stuck on a broken-down bus and having an impromptu language exchange with an elderly woman in Peru
Having a love interest back home break up with me via text, and then experiencing the kindness of strangers as a woman in my hostel who I barely knew treated me to ice cream to cheer me up
Having a romance with a hostel mate in Ecuador and then traveling through the country together
Living in a giant treehouse with a group of strangers during a solo trip in Brazil and spending our days exploring hiking trails and swimming and our nights drinking and exchanging stories about traveling
Taking a 4×4 from Chile to Bolivia across the Siloli Desert to see otherwordly sites like rainbow lagoons and train graveyards in the middle of nowhere
Experiencing some of the world’s most incredible natural wonders, like Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, the Amazon River, Uyuni Salt Flats, and Perito Moreno Glacier

At times the trip was also challenging, from dealing with long bus rides and car sickness to flipping over my bicycle handlebars in Peru and getting my body (and ego) badly bruised.

But, I was okay.

In fact, I was more than okay, as the trip showed me how independent I could be and what I was truly capable of. It also showed me the beauty of immersing yourself in cultures different than your own and connecting with locals who want to share them with you.

Years later, when people ask what my best travel experience has been this is the trip that comes to mind.

-Jessie from Jessie on a Journey

2. Traveling With An Open Mind

Many people think of travel as an experience and rightly so. Sometimes, however, you cannot choose the places you travel to.

This happened to me in 2019.

My husband found himself posted in Brunei for work.

Three months pregnant meant that I had a choice:

Either stay with him in Brunei for three months before returning back to India or remain in India, alone.

I chose the former. Not because of my love for the country but because I wanted to be close to him.

Brunei had never held any appeal to me. Whatever research that I pulled off the Internet showed me nothing other than one beautiful mosque.

The flights in and out of the country were expensive so traveling frequently out was not an option either.

I was engulfed by a sense of being trapped in a remote place.

Needless to say, I reached Brunei in a pretty foul mood. I think one of the things that struck me the most even in the midst of that bad mood was the large swaths of greenery that surrounded us.

Mind you, we were not staying in the big city but as far away on the outskirts as you could imagine. I’m not a city girl by any stretch and the greenery eventually soothed my nerves.

It took a week, but I soon found myself interacting with people around me. Fellow expats and locals all went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

The more comfortable I felt, the more we explored. We trekked (yes, while pregnant!), we joined the board game community, and we enjoyed the local cuisine.

Three months later when it was time to leave, I found myself reluctant to say goodbye to the warmth of the country I had called home for a short while.

I think that my time in Brunei taught me a valuable lesson:

Don’t judge a place by what others say or a lack of information.

Sure, you may not always like what you see, but there will always be something that you will like. You just need to look hard enough to find it!

-Penny from GlobeTrove

A slow travel experience across the Portuguese Camino de Santiago

3. From Half-Day Hiker To Walking Holiday Enthusiast

I’ve always enjoyed walking but never in a million years did I imagine I’d end up walking over 200 kilometers (~124 miles) in 10 days, become a fan of walking holidays, and end up developing self-guided hiking routes in Portugal with a local tour operator as part of my business.

The shift from being someone who was content with an easy three-hour walk to an experienced multi-day hiker began with a brief taste of the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim trail through Portugal to Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

Back in 2013 I did a guided one-day hike along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Camino, north of Ponte de Lima. It’s also one of the most challenging sections so it was hard work, but the views from the top of Labruja Mountain made the climb worthwhile.

My guides were so enthusiastic about the thrill of arriving at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral after the challenges of day after day on the Camino that I began to think I might want to give it a go, despite not being religious.

Fast forward a few years and I set off from Barcelos with a friend of mine to follow the Portuguese Camino de Santiago.

Apart from suffering from chronic back pain, I thought I was quite fit but nothing had prepared me for how utterly exhausted I would feel at the end of each walking day.

This was truly a slow travel experience, as we were averaging about 20 kilometers (~12 miles) per day and by the time we reached our hotel, I would barely have enough energy to get cleaned up and find food before collapsing. I had envisioned plenty of sightseeing but that ended up being minimal.

Quickly, I realized the moral of this unique travel experience:

The Camino was all about making the most of the journey rather than the destination.

For me, that was quite a shift in thinking as I am usually all about getting to where I want to be as soon as possible so that I can start exploring. It was, perhaps, also my first step on the path towards mindfulness.

I will never forget the sense of achievement and progress at the end of each walking day, and the relief and pride I felt when we finally made it to Santiago de Compostela.

We met people who had walked the Camino several times and I can totally understand how it can become addictive.

-Julie from Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal

A story about traveling the Banda Islands

4. A Story About Traveling & Its Ripple Effect

Tucked away in far eastern Indonesia is a tiny archipelago of islands called the Banda Islands.

Apart from world-class snorkeling and some crumbling colonial buildings, the Banda Islands are mostly forgotten and would be described as a backwater by all accounts.

However, the Banda Islands are possibly the main reason that I am who I am today.

Well, the Bandas are the original Spice Islands.

Nutmeg used to grow on this tiny group of islands alone and nowhere else. The Dutch colonized Indonesia and promptly became the owners of islands where money grew on trees.

The only problem was that Indonesia was so far away that they needed a halfway stop to and from Indonesia.

That’s where my travel experience story comes in.

The same Dutch East India Company that traded in spice set up a halfway station at the foot of Table Mountain to break up their long journey. As a result, my Dutch ancestors arrived in the southernmost point in Africa , and generations later we are still there.

When I visited the Banda Islands, it dawned on me how something happening on the other side of the world can ripple out and affect people on the other side of the planet.

And I’m not the only one!

The spice trade was so important to the Dutch that they even traded a tiny island in the Banda archipelago for a much bigger island…Manhattan.

Yes. That Manhattan.

Before visiting the Banda Islands I never really knew about this part of my history.

Along with the spice that the ships carried back to Amsterdam, it also carried slaves. These slaves, more often than not, ended up in Cape Town.

Just like my European ancestors, they too became a part of Africa and added another shade to our beautiful Rainbow Nation.

It was in the Banda Islands that I realized how much of my culture, food, stories and even words in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, actually originated in Indonesia.

Because of these tiny islands, I am a true mix of Europe, Africa, and Asia. While I always thought I knew how all things in life are somehow connected, I didn’t really grasp it until my visit to Indonesia.

This could have been a resort travel experience story, as I went to Indonesia to swim and snorkel and relax on the world’s best beaches. And while I did get to do that, I also learned a lot about who I am as a person, my people, and my country…on another continent.

My visit to the Bandas has sparked a fascination with Indonesia, which I have visited seven times since. I’m already planning another trip to this spectacular country!

-De Wet from Museum of Wander

5. Awakening My Spirit In A Costa Rican Cloud Forest

In February 2017, I was just coming out of a decade of mysterious chronic illness that had shrunk my world.

And one of the things that finally helped me to resurface during the previous year was an online Qi Gong course I stumbled upon:

Flowing Zen .

To the casual observer, Qi Gong looks a lot like its better-known cousin, Tai Chi — the ancient art of moving meditation — but it’s actually energy medicine for healing.

In fact, it’s commonly used in Chinese hospitals.

My daily practice that year made such a difference for me that I dangled a reward for myself:

If I stuck with it all year, then I’d head to Sifu Anthony’s annual retreat in a cloud forest in Costa Rica the following February.

And I did! It was my first trip out of the country for more than a decade.

Just like that, I booked a solo trip — something I hadn’t done since I was an exchange student to Europe 30 years earlier — to San Jose where I met up with a dozen strangers and Sifu Anthony, our Qi Gong master.

We boarded a tiny bus and rode up, up, up around carsick-inducing curvy mountain roads into a magical cloud forest jungle where we finally arrived at The Blue Mountain (“La Montana Azul”) for a weeklong Qi Gong retreat.

There were no Internet or distractions here — just delicious organic vegetarian meals made with love and shared with the community under a gorgeous open-air palapa.

There were also colorful tropical birds singing in the jungle, as well as the largest arachnid I’ve ever seen in my gorgeous (but also roofless) room for a little extra adventure.

I’d felt a little energy movement during my year of online practice, but during that week on The Blue Mountain, my body began to really buzz with Qi — life force energy — as I Lifted the Sky, stood in Wuji Stance, and practiced Shooting Arrows.

I felt electrified and joyful.

And that was when everything changed for me.

At home, I had a successful career as a freelance writer, but I decided during my week in the cloud forest that I wanted more from life.

I wanted to explore the beauty, diversity, nature, and culture in every corner of the world.

And I wanted to share this intoxicating joyful feeling of life-giving freedom and adventure with anyone who wanted to come along for the ride.

Shortly after that, at age 53, I launched my travel blog.

Dreams really do come true. They are just waiting for you to claim them.

-Chris from Explore Now or Never

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6. From Rome With Love

This wasn’t the way I wanted to see Rome.

Sure, I was happy to spend Christmas in Rome and stand in awe of the city’s many iconic attractions. But, life wasn’t meant to turn out like this.

I was supposed to go to Rome with my mom back in 2012; however, life had different plans, because a week before our trip, I got a double kidney infection. A condition that required a week of hospitalization.

Although I was annoyed I had missed my trip, it wasn’t the end of the world since I was fine and everything seemed okay…until my mom developed a cough.

A cough that later became a heartbreaking diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer.

My mom spent the final months of her life in chemo, desperately trying to fight a horrific disease so that she wouldn’t let her family down.

And she didn’t.

Instead, she showed us how to never give up on life, even if it was a losing battle.

So, when she eventually passed away, I booked a trip to Rome.

Sure, it wasn’t the trip I had hoped for. But, I knew that as her daughter, it was my job to live enough for the both of us.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Was I an anxious, sad, angry mess of a person?

Absolutely. I was still getting used to a world that my mother wasn’t a part of.

And honestly, you never get used to that world. You just deal with it because you don’t really have a choice.

But I also knew that I wanted my mom to live on through me and that I didn’t want to live a life where the haunting phrases “should of,” “could of,” and “would have” swirled through my head and ate away at my happiness.

So, I went. I packed a boatload of tissues, sobbed my heart out, and attended Christmas mass at the Vatican.

I also threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, walked through the Colosseum, chowed down on gelato, and spent two weeks doing all the things my mom and I had wanted to do.

And that’s when it hit me. I had never gone to Rome alone because my mom had always been there with me. Maybe she wasn’t physically there, but I thought of her and felt her presence every minute of every day.

Her presence also reminded me that life isn’t about the things we buy or the money that we have.

It’s about making memories with the people we love; people that never really leave us since they are constantly influencing our lives in countless ways.

And after my trip to Rome, I finally knew that my mom would always be there because she had forever changed my life in the best possible way.

-Kelly from Girl with the Passport

7. Studying In Finland

One of my major life-turning points happened during my exchange studies in Finland.

Until then, I was studying at a university in Prague, had a part-time job at a renowned management-consulting firm, and thought I was on the right path in life.

At the University of Economics where I studied it was notoriously difficult to get on an Erasmus exchange trip abroad since the demand was huge. Everyone wanted to go!

Regardless, I decided to sign up early for my last semester, just to see what the process was like to be better prepared for applying again in a year.

I did make it through all the three rounds and surprisingly got a spot at a University in Turku, Finland! I was ecstatic. The success brought its own challenges, but once you set your eyes on the goal, nothing can stop you.

And I had the time of my life in Finland.

I met the most amazing people, traveled a ton, partied a lot, and bonded with friends from all over the world.

Given I was one of the few people there who really needed to pass all her courses and additionally write her thesis, I managed to run on an impossible sleep schedule of four hours per night. But I made it!

My studies in Finland opened up my horizons, too.

The summer after, I wrapped up my life in Prague and went on to study in Germany and China . The whole time I traveled as much as possible, often going on solo adventures. It was only a matter of time when I’d start my own travel blog.

My Finland adventure led me to a life of freedom made up of remote work, travel blogging , and plenty of traveling. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. And it gave me one of my favorite true adventure stories that I can now share with others.

-Veronika from Travel Geekery

8. How Cuba Changed My Life

One of my favorite inspiring stories about travel takes place in Cuba.

I visited Cuba in February 2013 and it changed my life — and I like to think it did so for the better.

Interestingly, I expected a completely different country and was compelled to write about it when I got back home.

But let me tell you more.

I read copious amounts of blogs and travel diaries to prepare myself for the trip to Cuba so I thought I’d go in with a fairly good idea of what to expect. Each and every post I read spoke of marvelous landscapes, pristine beaches, crumbling but charming cities, and welcoming locals.

All of it was true, in my experience — except for the locals.

I didn’t find them so welcoming. At least, not genuinely so. They only seemed to welcome me as far as they could get something in exchange: money, clothes, pens, soap, you name it.

Each and every day in Cuba was a challenge to avoid the scams, to avoid being ripped off, to fight off each and every attempt of people trying to take advantage of me. I usually managed, but it was exhausting and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once I got back home I felt the urge to write about my experience — not for other sites or papers as I’d often do. This time I was afraid I’d be censored.

So I opened my own blog. With zero tech knowledge, zero understanding of online content creation and SEO, I started writing and telling people what they should really expect during a trip to Cuba.

I’d put up the occasional post, but continued with my usual job.

At the end of the year, my contract as a researcher in international human rights law at the local university ended, and I decided to stop pursuing that career for a while.

I packed my bags and left for a long-term trip to Central and South America . I started writing on the blog more consistently and learning, and eventually took my blog full-time , turning it into a career.

As of today, I have never looked back and have no regrets.

The one thing I’ll do, as soon as I can, is travel to Cuba to say thank you — because it changed my life in a way nothing else has ever done.

-Claudia from Strictly Sardinia

9. A Short Travel Story About Finding Inner Peace In Patagonia

Life in London is hard.

Life in London as a gay single brown refugee is harder.

Juggling between work, my passion for traveling, and the prejudices that I dealt with on a daily basis eventually took their toll on me and I reached a breaking point.

The fact that I couldn’t return home to see my family and being away for them for almost nine years was enough to hammer in the final nail in the coffin.

I almost had a nervous breakdown and in that moment of desperation, which I knew would define the rest of my life, I took a month off and headed to Patagonia.

It was probably the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. The 36 hours it took me to get to El Chalten from London were tiring but Patagonia blew me away.

On my first day there I did a 28-kilometer (17-mile) hike which included a steep mountain climb. It was incredible how moving through the forest helped me clear my mind. And as I stood in front of Laguna de Los Tres, the rain and clouds gave way to sunshine and a rainbow.

I felt at peace.

The countless hikes, great food, and the warmth of locals in Chile and Argentina helped me get back in my skin and find the peace I was missing in my heart.

Nature is indeed the best medicine when it comes to stress relief and I won’t be coy about hugging trees to speed up the process (it did).

Patagonia was life-changing for me.

The beauty of nature struck me at each point and every time I thought it wasn’t possible to beat the view, the next one did just that.

I came back a changed, resilient, and most importantly, a happy person.

-Ucman from BrownBoyTravels

10. Looking Inwards & Making Connections With Strangers

It was decades before I traveled solo for the first time in my life.

This trip — a six-day escape to Colorado — was the first trip that was not for business or family reasons but just to travel and discover.

As I prepared for it, I had a strange feeling of excitement and nerves at the same time. I had all sorts of thoughts and doubts:

Would it be fun?

Would I be bored?

Would I stay in bed all day or would I bounce with excitement to do the next thing?

I wasn’t sure. Little did I know that it was going to be a memorable journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me travel is always about the family; always thinking of who would enjoy what. It’s about family time and bonding. It’s about creating memories and travel stories together. It’s all so wonderful.

But on a solo trip who would I connect with? What would I say?

Well, I found that I got to do anything I wanted!

Usually when I travel with my family, if I feel like going on a drive that’s not on the itinerary or getting a snack no one else is interested in, we simply don’t do that.

So it was weird to just go do it. Really, that’s a thing?

As for making connections, it was so easy to meet locals while traveling and also to connect with other travelers. Honestly, I had conversations everywhere — on planes, while hiking, in restaurants, in the hotel lobby.

It was quite an eye-opening experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of foster kids, a cookie baker, a professional photographer, a family of Fourteener hikers, and an internationally ranked marathon runner.

The inspiring stories I discovered were amazing and nothing like my wonderful safe life at home.

In terms of travel safety , I got to go rock climbing, solo hiking, driving up a Fourteener, eating alone.

And it was all fine. Actually, it felt surprisingly normal.

It was was just me, my SUV, and my backpack for a week. Most of all, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know existed.

It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are endless and there is so much more out there to explore and be wowed by!

-Jyoti from Story At Every Corner

life-changing travel experience stories in Colombia

11. A Solo Hike To Find Connection

I have traveled solo many times, but I admit I was a bit uneasy booking my trip to Colombia . In part, due to the country’s dark past. But also because I desperately wanted to do the Cocora Valley hike, and if I’m honest, I was terrified.

This hike is located in the Coffee Triangle, an area recognized for its beauty as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It features both rainforest and a stunning green valley speckled with cartoonishly-tall wax palms rising 200 feet or more.

It’s incredibly beautiful.

It’s also a long hike and quite challenging — it generally takes between six and eight hours and there is a steep area with over 3,000 feet of elevation within a quarter of a mile.

I wasn’t in hiking shape, so I was a little concerned. But, worst of all for me were the seven dodgy-looking suspension bridges.

I’m terrified of heights.

And, I’d be going alone.

I decided to go anyway and I met an incredible woman on the bus to Salento, the town near Cocora. She was also traveling solo and we agreed to hike together.

The town is a backpacker enclave and we met up with a small group of people all traveling solo. As the days passed, our group got larger and it was such a magical experience.

As much as I love city travel, this small town won my heart.

My new friend and I set off on the hike and met two other women who were nervous to do the hike. We all went together.

When we got to the first suspension bridge, I paused. I was embarrassed to admit my fear, but the bridge swayed widely and there was nowhere to hold onto.

When they realized how out of my comfort zone I was and how scared I felt, everything changed. Instead of me dealing with it alone, they were all there to encourage me.

One crossed the bridge to encourage me from the other side and they stayed off of it to limit the sway. Crazy enough, I not only crossed the seven suspension bridges, but I also crossed one an extra time when we went the wrong way on the trail.

I did it!

I was prepared to be blown away by Cocora Valley’s beauty, but what I wasn’t expecting was what a life-changing travel experience my time there would be.

-Sam from My Flying Leap

short stories on travel and sustainability

12. How A Pet Sitting Travel Experience Led To A Passionate Career

We wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it.

By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise landed a three-month gig in a beautiful house in the US Virgin Islands — with an infinity pool overlooking the British Virgin Islands.

A month into our sit, we had explored the destination pretty well and so had a lot of time on our hands. We managed to secure another sit in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple that had previously stayed at our Grenada housesit, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches and funky bars.

But for every photo of a beautiful beach there were 10 photos of trash.

It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such pristine and remote beaches. So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick up on our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pandemic. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free .

We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great conscious brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going.

We love connecting with like-minded people and love the shift over the last few years that brands have made towards creating more sustainable products and services.

It’s been an amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

-Aaron & Vivien from The Dharma Trails

13. Learning To Slow Down The Hard Way

On Christmas of 2017, I was born again.

We like to spend our Christmas holidays somewhere warm abroad, and that year we chose Uganda.

Nature, wildlife, and sunny days were a blessing when it was so cold and dark in Europe. Life was beautiful, and we had a rental car and a busy schedule ahead to explore the country.

This is where this short travel story turns into one of my more scary travel experiences :

At Murchinson Falls National Park, we had a car accident.

I lost control of the car, and it rolled over, destroying windows, chassis, and engine.

But we were alive! My right arm was severely injured, but we managed to walk to our lodge, not far inside the park.

In the lodge, I was happy to learn that there was a pretty decent American hospital in Masindi that was just a one-hour drive from the lodge. Moreover, one of the lodge’s guests was a nurse who cleaned the wound while we were waiting for the taxi from/to Masindi.

The hospital took care of us, and after a couple of injections and stitches, I was ready to head to our new hotel in Masindi; however, my wound required daily dressing and more injections, so we were asked to stay in town for a few days.

Masindi is the kind of place where you may want to stop to buy some food or water, but that’s it.

The town’s highlights were the market and our daily visit to the hospital, so we ended up looking for the small things, chatting with the medical staff, the hotel staff, the people in the market, and learning more about their customs.

We learned to slow down the hard way.

When we were allowed to leave, we took a road trip south through the country to see something else. We did not care about our travel bucket list anymore — we were alive, and we wanted to enjoy Uganda’s unique nature and its people.

In the end, our Uganda trip was not about the places that we saw, but the people that we met. It was travel for experience vs sightseeing.

I hope to revisit Uganda one day, with a stop at Masindi for some food, water, and maybe something else.

-Elisa from World in Paris

14. A Cycling Trip To Remember

During the summer of 2019, I cycled solo from London to Istanbul. This huge bicycle tour took me 89 days and through 11 countries.

As you might expect, it was a challenging yet incredible journey, which saw me pedal along some of Europe’s greatest rivers, pass through some of its best cities, and witness some of its most beautiful scenery.

It’s becoming more and more important for us to think about the impact that travel can have on our environment. This was the inspiration for my bicycle tour; I wanted to find more responsible ways to explore the world and avoid flights where possible.

I discovered that bicycle touring is one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel, as using nothing but a bicycle and your own pedal power you can carry everything you need while covering surprising distances each day.

The simplicity of life and the sheer amount of time I spent cycling alone gave me a lot of time to just think . This really helped me to come to terms with some personal problems rooted in my past and, as a result, I arrived solo in Istanbul with newly found confidence, independence, and liberation.

Cycling across the entire European continent may seem like an impossibly daunting task, but I assure you, it will make you feel like a new person, just like it did for me.

-Lauren from The Planet Edit

15. How The Caribbean Shaped Me Into A Fully Sustainable Traveler

One of my first international trips as an adult was traveling around the Caribbean .

I checked into my hotel in Jamaica and asked for a recommendation for a local place to eat. The receptionist told me that under no circumstances should I should go into the town because it was really dangerous, but that — to my luck — the hotel’s restaurant offered wonderful Caribbean food.

I pondered my options:

Did I really want to spend all my time on the beach without getting to know a single local?

I was a very inexperienced traveler and very young, but there was only one answer to my question:

Absolutely not. I was not going to be visiting a new place and staying hostage in a hotel chain. So out I went.

The poverty hit me in the face. After only seeing fancy resorts, the reality was hard to swallow.

A few locals approached me and were super curious as to what I was doing there alone, since most tourists didn’t go there.

I told them I was interested in meeting them and experiencing their culture. And just like that, I was embraced.

We met more people, had some food, and then we danced the night away. They had so little, yet they wanted to share it with me. They wanted to make me feel welcome.

And they undeniably did.

The next morning all I could think about was how all the money most tourists spend goes to big corporations. The locals have to be thankful if they get a job that pays minimum wage, while foreign businesses earn millions.

I have always been environmentally conscious, but this trip made it clear that sustainability goes well beyond nature and wildlife.

It’s also about communities.

From then on I always look for locally owned accommodation, eateries, guides, and souvenirs.

Sustainability, with everything it entails, became a motto for me and changed the very essence of the way I travel.

-Coni from Experiencing the Globe

16. Lessons From My Students In Peru

One of the most life-changing trips I’ve ever been on was a volunteering experience in the stunning city of Cuzco in Peru.

I spent a month there teaching English and Italian to a group of local adults. And even though my time there was short, the travel experience was so humbling that it changed my outlook on life.

My lessons took the form of active conversations, which essentially turned into a massive multilingual cultural exchange between me and my students. Hearing my students talk about their lives — and realizing just how different they were from mine — made me look at my own life with a fresh new perspective.

One person spoke about the three years he spent living in a jungle with his dad, where they fed off of animals they hunted in order to survive.

Another student told me about her ultimate dream of mastering English so that she could become a tour guide and have a more stable future.

For me, these stories were a reminder of just how small I am in this world and how much we can get consumed by the small bubbles we live in.

Most of all, my students showed a passion and appreciation for life that I’d never witnessed before.

This is true for the locals I met in Cuzco in general. The quality of life in Cuzco is very modest; hot water is scarce and you learn to live with little.

But the locals there do way more than just that — they spontaneously parade the streets with trumpets and drums just because they’re feeling happy, and their energy for the simple things in life is incredibly contagious.

It was impossible to not feel inspired in Cuzco because my students always had the biggest smiles on their faces, and the locals showed me again and again that simply being alive is a blessing.

I went to Peru to teach, but ended up learning more from my students and the locals there than they did from me.

Ever since I got back from that trip, I made it a goal to slow down and not take the simple things in life for granted.

Every time I get upset about something, I think about the Peruvians in Cuzco parading their streets in song and pure joy, and I tell myself to stop complaining.

-Jiayi from The Diary of a Nomad

inspiring traveling stories about overcoming obstacles

17. Braving Travel With Chronic Pain

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city with a prominent cathedral positioned centrally within the city.

While the historical cathedral attracts numerous visitors, even more well-known is the route to Santiago de Compostela, Camino de Santiago –- the world-famous pilgrimage route that has a plethora of trailheads and ends in Santiago.

Home to locals, students, English teachers, and those on a spiritual pilgrimage, personal conquest, or a great outdoor hiking excursion, Santiago is a magical city.

My introduction to Santiago de Compostela doesn’t begin on the pilgrimage route, yet ends with a spiritual awakening analogous with those other unique pilgrimage stories.

It was my first solo trip abroad teaching English in Spain, a country that’s always been on my travel bucket list. A small town outside of Santiago was selected as the school I’d be teaching at for the year.

Unknowingly, this teach abroad program chose the perfect city for me to live in.

A year prior, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that left me unable to function normally and complete average tasks. Migraines, headaches, and dizziness became my body’s normal temperament, a hidden disability invisible to the naked eye.

Braving travel with chronic pain was the first lesson I learned during the trip.

The vast green outdoors and fresh dew from the morning rain enlivened me daily and reminded me about the importance of slowing down so I could enjoy traveling with my hidden disability.

I also learned to stop often for daily tea breaks and to embrace the long lunch hour, siestas , with good food, company, and a nap to rest.

Meeting locals , indulging in local food, and learning Spanish allowed me to connect deeply with the beautiful culture of Santiago. After all, my dream was to travel to Spain, and I more than accomplished that dream.

Difficult or not, I learned to own my dream and I was more than surprised with the results.

Who knew that a year after my injury I’d be traveling the world with chronic pain, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.

-Ciara from Wellness Travel Diaries

18. A Blessing In Disguise

2020 has been a wild year for all of us and foreign students in China are no exception. As soon as the malevolent virus began to make its rounds in China, our university sent us home for “two weeks.”

However, within a short time, countries began to shut their borders and these “two weeks” turned into months, a full year even.

Crushed by the burden of online lectures and virtual labs, my boyfriend and I packed our bags and caught one of the first flights to his home country of Pakistan.

I had always been an over-ambitious traveler. I believed numbers were everything — the number of countries I visited, the number of hours I spent on a plane, the number of international trips I took in a year. These numbers were what defined me.

My feet were constantly itching and I never liked to spend more than a few days in a place before heading to the next country. Revisiting a place felt superfluous to me.

That’s why I was hoping to spend a month or two in Pakistan and then continue to check new countries off the list — after all, my online classes finally granted me the freedom to “work on my numbers.”

But as is usually the case in 2020, things turned out quite different from what I had expected. Borders remained closed and worldwide infections stayed rampant. At this point, I have already spent nearly half a year in Pakistan.

During this peculiar time, however, an amazing thing happened:

My mindset about travel started to change and I began to look at my long stay in Pakistan as perhaps my most valuable travel experience ever.

I may not have visited dozens of countries like in previous years but my experiences were deeper than ever before.

From trekking to one of the world’s tallest mountains to sharing tea with heavily armed officers at nearly 5,000 meters altitude to exploring hidden beaches in the most secluded regions to spontaneously being invited to village homes, my adventures in Pakistan couldn’t have been more incredible. They opened my eyes to the sheer diversity of many countries and completely transformed my idea about traveling.

It took me nearly a full year of heavy restrictions on international travel and a few months in one of the world’s most fascinating countries to give up on my superficial ideals and become a more mature traveler.

This time will always have a special place in my heart.

-Arabela from The Spicy Travel Girl

short travel stories about life-changing trips

19. What The River Taught Me

My travel story takes place in the summer of 2017 — the final summer before I graduated university — as it continues to play a significant role in the person I’ve become.

When I say that, people ask me if it was the portion of the summer I spent solo backpacking in Europe . And to their surprise, it wasn’t. It was actually the latter portion of the summer where I stayed closer to home.

For July and August I worked as a canoe guide leading whitewater canoe trips on remote rivers in Canada. It was here that I got to canoe the powerful and iconic Missinaibi River, a river that continues to influence me all these years later.

The Missinaibi River flows from the powerful Lake Superior to the even more powerful salty waters of James Bay. Here, I led a group of eight teenagers through dozens of whitewater rapids over 500 kilometers (~311 miles).

With no cell service for 25 days, we were forced to disconnect from anything other than the river.

During this trip I learned two important lessons:

First, I learned to be confident in my own abilities as a leader and problem solver.

There were a few rapids where my campers’ boats flipped and I had to rescue the campers and the canoes. One rescue saw two boats flip on a mile-long rapid. It took six hours to make it down the rapid, and during this time I managed stuck canoes and crying campers.

And while this was one of the most difficult rescues I’ve done, I was amazed at how calm I was throughout it. I gave clear directions, prioritized effectively, and kept my campers safe throughout the entire experience. Following the rescue, I had a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities.

The second lesson I learned on the Missinaibi was the power of disconnecting from society and connecting with the people around you.

A wild river commands all of your attention. Each day, you and your group must take down camp, load canoes, paddle up to eight hours while navigating both rapids and portages, get to a new campsite, set up camp, cook dinner, and go to bed.

And without the distraction of technology, your attention has nowhere else to be. You focus on the river and your teammates.

As someone who had wrestled with anxiety and depression prior to this summer, I felt at total ease on the trip. Now I seek societal disconnection and human connection as much as I can.

Sometimes the most profound, life-altering trips are the least expected trips closer to home.

-Mikaela of Voyageur Tripper

Do you have any inspiring travel experience stories about life-changing trips to share?

Enjoyed these inspiring stories about travel? Pin them for later!

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These stories are so much fun to read! Thanks so much for putting a post like this together. It’s great to be able to check out other people’s blogs and read about other people’s experiences!

Always great to read about travel experiences of others. Some great stories to read over coffee. I’ve Pinned your post for future reference and to share with others. Will check out each story author’s blog as well. Great Job! 🙂

Amazing story for new traveler like me thanks for your contribution

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Our top recommendations

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Why we like it: The card_name is a great value card for international travel at annual_fees per year since it comes with a $300 annual travel credit and Priority Pass Select membership (retail value of $469). This card also earns flexible travel points that can be used to book airfare, hotels and car rentals through Capital One or transferred to Capital One airline and hotel partners.

Other benefits like free authorized user cards, cell phone protection and Hertz President's Circle status sweeten the pot. Also note that this card comes with a range of Visa Infinite benefits.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Earns flexible travel points that transfer to Capital One partners.
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Excellent flat rewards rate.
Comes with fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership.
Reasonable annual_fees annual fee.

Why we like it: The card_name requires an annual fee of just annual_fees per year, yet it earns generous rewards for purchases and comes with a sizable welcome offer worth $750. Cardholders will also love the flexibility of this card's rewards program considering miles can be transferred to airline and hotel partners, used to book travel through Capital One or redeemed for gift cards, merchandise or cash back.

VentureOne Rewards from Capital One

Earns flexible miles that transfer to airlines and hotels.
Other flexible redemptions for rewards.
No annual fee.
Comes with intro APR offer.
Low rewards rate for regular purchases.

Why we like it: The card_name lets users earn flexible rewards for travel with no annual fee required. The miles you earn with this card can be used for travel through Capital One, transfers to airline and hotel partners, statement credits, gift cards and more. This card doesn't charge foreign transaction fees, and it even has intro_apr_rate,intro_apr_duration and balance_transfer_intro_apr,balance_transfer_intro_duration .

Capital One® SavorOne® Cash Rewards Credit Card

Generous rewards rate in everyday spending categories.
& zwnj; intro_apr_rate,intro_apr_duration and balance_transfer_intro_apr,balance_transfer_intro_duration .
Few travel-specific benefits for international trips.

Why we like it: The card_name doesn't charge foreign transaction fees or an annual fee, but it does earn generous cash back rewards in a range of categories most people regularly spend in. Cardholders also get intro_apr_rate,intro_apr_duration and balance_transfer_intro_apr,balance_transfer_intro_duration , plus Uber One membership benefits and a handful of travel protections.

Citi Premier® Card

Flexible points transfer to Citi airline and hotel partners.
Other flexible redemptions through the Citi ThankYou program.
Generous rewards in everyday spending categories.
$100 annual hotel savings benefit.
Few travel-related benefits.

Why we like it: The card_name is a great card for everyday spending due to its generous bonus rewards categories that most people spend in. This card also earns rewards that fall within the Citi ThankYou program, which can be transferred to Citi airline and hotel partners, used to book travel through the Citi portal or redeemed for cash back, gift cards and more. This card's $100 annual hotel benefit also makes up for the annual_fees annual fee each year you use it.

IHG(R) Rewards Club Premier Credit Card

Redeem points for stays at 6,000+ IHG properties.
Welcome bonus is worth up to four free nights at 4,800+ hotels worldwide.
Generous rewards for paid hotel stays.
Free anniversary night (up to 40,000 points).
Comes with Platinum Elite status.
Limited flexibility for rewards.

Why we like it: The card_name can be a great option for international hotel stays if you want to spend time in one of the program's 6,000+ properties worldwide without paying foreign transaction fees. This card even comes with automatic Platinum Elite status and a free anniversary night each year.

Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®

Redeem miles for flights to 900+ destinations through American Airlines and its oneworld partners.
Free checked bags.
Preferred boarding.
Earns Loyalty Points toward elite status.
No annual fee the first year.

Why we like it: The Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® is a great card for airfare since miles can be redeemed with American Airlines and partners like British Airways and Cathay Pacific. Members get frequent flyer perks like free checked bags and priority boarding, and this card earns Loyalty Points that count toward elite status requirements with the American AAdvantage program.

Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card

Available to applicants with poor credit or no credit.
Earns 1.5% cash back.
Refundable security deposit required.

Why we like it: The card_name is a secured credit card that requires a refundable cash deposit of at least $200 to get started. However, this card is available to people with poor credit or no credit, and it doesn't charge an annual fee or foreign transaction fees.

Individuals can use this card to build their credit over time, and they can get their deposit back when they cancel or upgrade their card in good standing with a $0 balance. Capital One also promises automatic credit line reviews with this card after six months, which could pave the way to a higher credit limit.

Best credit cards for international travel 2024: Comparison

How we chose the best credit cards for international travel.

To find the best credit cards for international travel, we only considered card products that don't charge foreign transaction fees . From there, we looked at rewards rates and other card features that could make international travel more comfortable or affordable. We also looked at credit cards based on their fees, interest rates and credit ratings required.

Ultimately, we looked for credit cards that offer the most lucrative rewards structures and welcome offers, as well as flexibility within their designated rewards programs. Travel perks like travel insurance benefits, annual travel credits, expedited airport security and airport lounge access were also taken into account.

Choosing the best credit card for international travel: Where to begin

Finding the best credit card for international travel is no easy task when there are so many types of cards to choose from. Consider these factors as you search for the right card for your next trip.

Annual fees

Compare cards based on their annual fees, but keep in mind that cards with higher fees tend to offer more benefits in return. If you're willing to pay $395 per year or more, for example, you can get a credit card for international travel that comes with a fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership plus broad airport lounge membership.

Travel perks and features

Many travel credit cards come with perks that can be useful, but you'll want to figure out which ones you can actually use. Benefits to look for include annual travel credits, automatic elite status benefits, airport lounge membership, fee credits for expedited airport security, free checked bags and free hotel nights.

Travel insurance benefits

Some credit cards also offer robust travel protections that can apply when you use your card to pay for travel with a common carrier. These benefits can include trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay insurance, baggage delay coverage, lost luggage reimbursement, primary auto rental coverage and more.

Customer satisfaction rankings

Note how different credit card issuers have scored in third-party rankings for customer service and satisfaction. You can see below how major credit card issuers scored in J.D. Power's 2023 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study , which was built using responses from 31,418 credit card customers between August 2022 through June 2023.

Eligibility by credit score

Also consider which credit cards you can qualify for based on your credit rating. While the best credit cards for international travel require very good to excellent credit, there are also options for good credit, fair credit and even poor credit or no credit.

Rewards for spending

Look at the rewards you can earn for spending, and make sure to consider the bonus rewards categories each card offers. Ideally, you'll pick a credit card that offers the most rewards in categories you frequently spend in.

Rewards programs

Also consider the type of rewards you're earning, whether you prefer to earn flexible rewards for travel, airline miles, hotel points or cash back. Make sure you have an understanding of how much the rewards you earn are worth on average, as well as how you can redeem them.

International acceptance

Finally, make sure to consider international acceptance when you're planning a trip abroad. Visa and Mastercard credit cards feature the highest rates for international acceptance, whereas American Express and Discover feature lower acceptance rates in some destinations.

Case in point: The Discover website clearly shows that its cards are not regularly accepted across Asia, the Middle East, Russia and some countries in South America.

How to maximize card benefits for international travel

Once you pick a credit card for international travel, there are steps you can take to maximize your card's benefits and features. Consider the following tips:

Use your card for all your spending abroad. Use your credit card for all your international purchases to avoid foreign transaction fees and boost your rewards haul over time.
Sign up for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, NEXUS or TSA PreCheck if your card offers a credit. Make sure to sign up for these programs if your card covers the membership fee, and use your card to pay so you can get reimbursed after the fact.
Take advantage of airport lounge access if your card offers it. Keep tabs on airport lounges you will have access to during international trips, and make sure to use them when you can.
Pay your credit card bill in full each month. Finally, remember that not paying foreign transaction fees won't save you money if you carry a balance on your card after each trip. Pay your credit card balance in full each month and you can avoid paying the exorbitant interest rates most credit cards charge.

Avoiding dynamic currency conversion

Dynamic currency conversion is a system that shows what your international purchases will cost in U.S. dollars for you, ahead of time. However, this conversion typically comes with a less-than-stellar exchange rate that leaves you paying more for everything you buy overseas.

If you want to avoid dynamic currency conversion when you use a credit card, you will need to make sure all merchants, restaurants and others who charge your card for international spending do so using the local currency.

Things to keep in mind when using a credit card overseas

Before you head overseas on your first international trip, you'll want to keep several important facts in mind. Consider these tips for a better travel experience overall:

Tell your card issuer that you'll be traveling. Calling the number on the back of your credit card and notifying your card issuer before you travel overseas can help you avoid having transactions denied.
Carry more than one type of credit card with you. If you're worried your card type won't be accepted, carry more than one with you when you travel overseas. For example, carry both a Visa and a Mastercard, or a Mastercard and an American Express card.
Pay in the local currency. Make sure to pay using the local currency when you use your card, even if you have to be specific about it when charges are made. This can help you avoid dynamic currency conversion, which makes international purchases more expensive.
Know which travel protections your credit card offers. Also be aware of which travel protections your card offers and when they apply. For example, look for trip cancellation and interruption coverage, travel delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement and other perks that can apply to international trips.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What credit cards are most accepted internationally.

Visa and Mastercard feature the highest international acceptance rates, whereas international acceptance for American Express and Discover lag behind.

Do credit cards automatically convert currency?

Credit cards can use dynamic currency conversion in order to convert the cost of your purchases to U.S. dollars. However, the exchange rates you get with this method will make your purchases more expensive, so you should always pay in the local currency instead.

Do I need to notify my credit card issuer if I'm traveling out of the country?

Notifying your credit card issuer before you travel overseas can help you avoid having transactions denied due to suspicion of fraud. This is especially true if you're an infrequent traveler who rarely (or never) makes purchases overseas.

What is a foreign transaction fee?

Foreign transaction fees are additional fees that are added to international charges when you pay with a credit card. You can avoid these fees by picking a credit card that doesn't charge these fees and using it for purchases abroad.

For rates and fees of the card_name , please visit URL .

Introduction to C&F Travel Insured

Types of Policies Offered

C&F Travel Insured Cost

How to Purchase and Manage Your Policy
Customer Service and Claims Experience
Compare C&F Travel Insurance
Why You Should Trust Us

C&F Travel Insured International Review 2024

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate insurance products to write unbiased product reviews.

Between booking your hotel and packing all your travel essentials, even the most avid planners may overlook trip insurance. Travel insurance can help you recuperate financial losses to give you peace of mind, no matter how far away you are from home.

We are here to break down C&F Travel Insured coverage options, costs, and how the company compares to its competitors.

Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Offers 2 major plans including CFAR coverage on the more expensive option
Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Cancellation for job loss included as a covered reason for trip cancellation/interruption (does not require CFAR coverage to qualify)
Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Frequent traveler reward included in both policies
Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Up to $1 million in medical evacuation coverage available
con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Medical coverage is only $100,000
con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Reviews on claims processing indicate ongoing issues
C&F's Travel Insured policies allow travelers customize travel insurance to fit their specific needs. Frequent travelers may benefit from purchasing an annual travel insurance plan, then adding on CFAR coverage for any portions of travel that may incur greater risk.

Crum and Forster is an insurance company that provides a wide array of corporate insurance products covering property, casualty, accident, and health. It also offers travel insurance under the name Travel Insured International. Included among our guide on the best international travel insurance , C&F Travel Insured offers comprehensive coverage with unique add-ons that distinguishes itself from many of the best travel insurance companies .

While policies aren't particularly low-cost for most single travelers, they're exceedingly cheap for families traveling with kids as kids are heavily discounted under the Protector Edge plan and completely free under the Protector plan.

C&F Travel Insured also has an annual multi-trip policy which has an optional cancel for any reason upgrade. It's noteworthy since most annual plans don't offer CFAR upgrades. It also offers medical emergency coverage for pre-existing conditions, which is also uncommon among annual plans.

Types of Policies Offered by C&F Travel Insured

C&F Travel Insured offers two coverage options: Worldwide Trip Protector and Worldwide Trip Protector Edge.

With this travel insurance agency, you'll find an a la carte of coverage options and optional policy add-ons like "cancel for any reason" (CFAR) and "interrupt for any reason" (IFAR) coverage.

You'll find a comprehensive list of features included in each policy below:

C&F Travel Insured International Annual Multi-trip Protector

C&F Travel Insured's annual plan covers all trips under 45 days taken within a year. This policy is only available to travelers under 80.

Additional coverage options from C&F Travel Insured

If you need more coverage, you may fancy C&F Travel Insured's vast array of insurance add-ons and riders.

Cancel for any reason coverage — Receive up to 75% of the cost of your trip for unused, forfeited, or nonrefundable deposits. Policy must be purchased within 21 days of initial trip payment.
Interrupt for any reason coverage — Starting 72 hours after your scheduled departure, C&F will reimburse up to 75% of nonrefundable costs. IFAR coverage is specific to land and water bookings.
Cancel for work reasons coverage — Get reimbursed for up to 100% of the cost of your or your traveling partner's trip due to a work conflict.
Air flight only, accident, death, and dismemberment coverage — Provides compensation for accidents during your flight.
Electronic equipment coverage — Get reimbursed for electronics stolen, damaged, or destroyed during your trip.
Event ticket registration fee protection — Receive reimbursement for unused, forfeited, or nonrefundable event ticket registration fees.
Rental car damage and theft — Get coverage for rental car damages beyond your control.
Travel inconvenience — Receive reimbursement for covered events such as closed attractions, beach closures, and flight delays.
Bed rest — Get reimbursed for unforeseen ailments and injuries requiring bed rest or quarantine for at least 48 hours.

The premium you pay will depend on various factors, including the age of the travelers, destination, and total trip costs. The average cost of travel insurance is 4% to 8% of your travel costs.

After inputting some personal information, such as your age and state of residence, along with your trip details, like travel dates, destination, and trip costs, you'll get an instant quote for C&F Travel Insured plans available for your trip. And from there, it's easy to compare each option based on your coverage needs and budget.

Now let's look at a few examples to estimate C&F Travel Insured's travel insurance costs.

As of 2024, a 23-year-old from Illinois taking a week-long, $3,000 budget trip to Italy would have the following travel insurance quotes:

Worldwide Trip Protector Edge: $105
Worldwide Trip Protector: $ 140

Premiums for C&F Travel Insured plans are between 3.5% and 4.6% of the trip's cost, well within the average cost of travel insurance.

C&F Travel Insured provides the following quotes for a 30-year-old traveler from California heading to Japan for two weeks on a $4,000 trip:

Worldwide Trip Protector Edge: $141
Worldwide Trip Protector: $177

Once again, premiums for C&F Travel Insured plans are between 3.5% and 4.4% of the trip's cost, within and below the expected range of travel insurance costs.

A Texas family consisting of two 40-year-old parents with a 10-year-old and 4-year-old on a two-week trip to Australia for $20,000:

Worldwide Trip Protector Edge: $420
Worldwide Trip Protector: $624

Quotes for this trip cost between 2.1% and 3.1%, below the average cost of travel insurance. Note that insuring children with C&F Travel Insured is heavily discounted with the Edge plan and completely free with the Protector plan.

A 65-year-old couple looking to escape New Jersey for Mexico for two weeks with a trip cost of $6,000 would have the following quotes:

Worldwide Trip Protector Edge: $562
Worldwide Trip Protector: $782

Premiums forC&F Travel Insured plans for older-age travelers are between 9.4% and 13%, which is well above the average cost for travel insurance.

C&F Travel Insured Annual Multi-Trip Policy

Annual policies for C&F Travel Insured cost the following:

Adults: $94 yearly

Kids: $64 yearly

Prices will vary based on optional add-ons attached to your policy.

How to Purchase and Manage a C&F Travel Insured Policy

Purchasing a policy with C&F Travel Insured is simple. You'll first need to go to the C&F Travel Insured website to acquire a quote. You'll need to be prepared to provide the following information:

Travel dates
State of residence
Number of travelers
Age of traveler(s)
Cost of trip per traveler
Initial payment date
Type of travel (cruise/other)
Email address

Once you input this information, you'll be taken to the quotes page, where you can select a policy and add any desired riders. While you don't have to add your destination when receiving a quote, you'll have to add a destination once you check out.

How to File a Claim with C&F Travel Insured International

When you experience a loss on your trip, you'll need to act quick when filing a claim, within 20 days of experiencing the covered loss. You can start a claim by filling out a short form with the plan number listed on your confirmation of benefits document and your last name.

Alternatively, you can give the company a call at 855-752-8303. C&F Travel Insured's hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST. You can also email the team at [email protected].

According to the Explanation of Benefits, C&F Travel Insured will pay out within 30 days of receiving proof of loss. Once this period has elapsed, your payout will begin accruing interest at 9% APY.

C&F Travel Insured Customer Service and Claims Experience

C&F Travel Insured has overall positive customer reviews, receiving an average of 4.4 stars out of five on its Squaremouth page and 4.1 stars out of five on its Trustpilot page. Customers were very complementary of the buying process, saying that customer service representatives were helpful and knowledgeable about policy options.

Reviews were mostly complementary of the claims process, saying it was straightforward and wait times weren't too long. One customer on Squaremouth says their claim took just 48 hours to process.

Its BBB page fares far worse, receiving an average of 1.06 stars out of five. While reviews on BBB were overwhelmingly negative, C&F Travel Insuredwas far more diligent in responding to these reviews than Squaremouth or Trustpilot, usually addressing them within a business week.

Compare C&F Travel Insured

Learn more about how C&F Travel Insured compares to popular travel insurance plans.

C&F Travel Insured International vs AIG Travel Guard

The most similar plan from Travel Guard is the mid-tier Travel Guard Preferred Plan. Below, we've outlined some of the main features of this insurance policy.

Up to $150,000 in trip cancellation coverage
Up to $225,000 in trip interruption coverage
A maximum of $800 in travel delay coverage
A maximum of $50,000 in emergency medical coverage
Up to $150,000 in emergency evacuations
Up to $1,000 coverage for baggage loss, theft, or damage

Below, you'll find coverages for C&F Travel Insured Worldwide Trip Protector plan.

100% in trip cancellation coverage
150% trip interruption coverage
Up to $1,000 in travel delay coverage after six hours
A maximum of $100,000 in medical emergency coverage
Up to $1 million in emergency evacuations
Up to $1,000 in coverage for baggage loss, theft, or damage

At a glance, C&F Travel Insured Worldwide Trip Protector offers more travel insurance coverage than Travel Guard. Travel Guard's travel insurance also caps the dollar amount of its trip cancellation and interruption coverage, which is something to keep in mind before buying travel insurance.

Read our AIG Travel Insurance review here.

C&F Travel Insured International vs iTravelInsured

iTravelInsured Travel Insurance 's most popular plan is the Travel SE plan.

150% in trip interruption coverage
Up to $250,000 (primary coverage) for emergency medical coverage
Up to $2,000 ($125 daily limit) in travel delay coverage for delays after 12 hours.
$1,500 ($250 per item) maximum for baggage loss, theft, or damage

You'll find more comprehensive medical and baggage loss coverage with iTravelInsured Travel Insurance's SE plan than C&F Travel Insured Worldwide Trip Protector.

iTravelInsured Travel Insurance Travel LX and C&F Travel Insured WorldWide premium package also offer CFAR and IFAR coverage. Remember, your cost may vary based on personal factors such as age and travel destination. It's best to generate rates using the companies' quote tools and compare prices.

Read our iTravelInsured Insurance review here.

C&F Travel Insured International vs Credit Card Travel Insurance

Buying insurance through a travel insurance company like C&F Travel Insured is one of many ways to get coverage. However, travel insurance may also be a perk included in your credit card. It's essential to check if any of your credit cards offer travel insurance and if the coverage is sufficient to meet your needs.

A separate travel insurance policy can help you fill gaps in your credit card's travel insurance coverage . For instance, many credit cards offer trip cancellation and interruption coverage but not medical coverage. C&F Travel Insured's Travel Medical Protector plan may be a good addition if you only need to add medical-related coverage.

Read our guide on the best credit cards with travel insurance here.

C&F Travel Insured FAQs

C&F Travel Insured offers comprehensive coverage, but stands out for its riders as well as its pricing for family trips.

C&F Travel Insured's prices are middling, with lower rates for children and high rates for senior travelers.

The customer service at C&F Travel Insured is particularly good compared to its competitors, with communicative staff and a fast claims process.

C&F Travel Insured typically offers customization options for their policies, allowing customers to add more coverage and select from a number of add-ons.

The claim filing process with C&F Travel Insured is streamlined and user-friendly, with support from their customer service team to assist policyholders throughout the process.

Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed C&F Travel Insured

We looked at C&F Travel Insured's coverages and compared it to the best travel insurance policies. We analyzed coverage options, claim limits, available add-ons, and typical insurance policy costs. The right policy will offer sufficient coverage for your situation at the most competitive price.

C&F Travel Insured offers aggressive options if you're willing to pay a bit more. It also offers budget travel insurance plans for those looking to supplement credit card or other protections already in place. To find the travel insurance that makes sense, check out different providers and compare quotes.

You can read more about our ratings methods for insurance providers here.

Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards .

Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

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Travel and Tourism (Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Assn)

Conference will be held November 7-9, 2024, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Travel and Tourism Studies as a discipline continues to gain popularity in academia, in part because of its inter-disciplinary nature. The Travel and Tourism area seeks papers that discuss and explore any aspect of travel and/or tourism. Topics for this area include, but are not limited to, the following:- - travel and gender/race/class - travel and religion - travel and war - personal travel narratives - heritage tourism - material culture and tourism - virtual travel and tourism: How has COVID affected travel around the globe?

Please feel free to consider a wide range of materials, texts and experiences. Applicants are encouraged to consider multi-media (or other alternative format) presentations if those formats would better suit their topics, and may also propose 3- or 4-person panels and roundtables. Submit a brief (300 words) abstract at mapaca.net by JUNE 30, 2024.

Students (both undergraduate and graduate) and independent scholars are encouraged to apply. Please feel free to send questions to Chair Jennifer Erica Sweda [email protected]

https://mapaca.net/help/conference/submitting-abstracts-conference

For general information: mapaca.net

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It feels like her personal travel experiences inspire you to join her in the exploration of lesser-known lands. In the sample essay on travel experience below, you can see how a student describes a journey to a small Romanian village in the Banat region, Gărâna: "In the heart of Romania lies a hidden gem, a remote village known as Gărâna.
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Call for Papers. a service provided by www.english.upenn.edu. FAQ changelog: 2024/05/06. ... - travel and war - personal travel narratives - heritage tourism ... Please feel free to consider a wide range of materials, texts and experiences. Applicants are encouraged to consider multi-media (or other alternative format) presentations if those ...

Travel: Personal Experience

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Personal Narrative Essay: My Travel Experience

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Travel Narratives , Solo Female Travel , Travel Inspiration

“I Love to Travel Because” — A Complete Essay

Travel is My Passion

Travel Helps Me Believe in People.

Travel Heals My Insecurities.

Travel Makes Me Appreciate Natural Beauty.

Travel Has Me Falling in Love with Myself.

Ultimately, I Love to Travel and Experience New Cultures.

If You are a Person Who Loves to Travel …

Don’t Feel Guilty.

Share Your Travel Passions with Others.

Implement “Travel Lessons” at Home.

Rachel Elizabeth

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