5 Reasons Why You Should Travel in Your Twenties

Traveling in your twenties can be a bit intimidating, especially if you factor in the cost of actually flying out of the country and visiting places that you have only heard from before. However, the best time travel is in your twenties—and here are the reasons why.

1. You are not getting any younger

Sadly, people do not really age backward (Benjamin Button, perhaps, is the sole exception) and the more time you spend waiting around for the “perfect” time to travel, the more likely that you would find that there is no perfect time but now. As you grow older, it would be more difficult to travel—you will have mortgage payments, car payments, children to take care of, and more responsibilities at work. These things can bog you down and snuff out the fire of wanderlust within you.

Your twenties can be a trying time—filled with confusion, emotions, and a bittersweet longing for simpler times. This time is also the perfect time to immerse yourself in a foreign adventure that will teach you more about life in the long run.

2. You are less cynical

Younger people tend to have a less cynical outlook in life—while you might not be the most optimistic effort, your sense of unfulfilment and unsettlement is comparatively broader. Your expectations are not yet as specific (again, we are not saying that you do not have expectations), and chances are that you will have a more enjoyable and rewarding experience when traveling.

3. You are much flexible

When you are in your twenties, you are much more flexible in almost every aspect. Physically, very much so; but you are also flexible in other ways. For example, couch surfing in a South American country is so much more doable in your twenties than in your forties or fifties. You do not feel like you are running out of time (as well as the desperation and frustration that comes with botched plans) whenever you miss scheduled minutiae such as your 3 PM bus or the operating hours of a certain museum.

4. You are more curious

When you are in your twenties, chances are much of the things you know are passed on from your parents, friends, teachers, and college professors. The less you know, the more curious you are about the world. Learning and discovering things on your own—through the experience of traveling—is the surest way to retain all the knowledge and insight you have gained. There is much of the world to explore—new flavours to taste in different places, trying on the traditional garb of a certain culture, knowing more about the trying past that made a certain people rise up from the ashes.

5. You need to experience things

Experience is the best teacher, as a wise man said. Through experiencing a wide variety of things, you get a better perspective of the world and your own life. Do not let yourself grow into an ignorant person who chose to read only one page from the book of life.