What Kind of Traveler Are You?

So you have decided to live life on the road. Great! Now comes the hard part: getting started. All of a sudden, all of the needs, wants, opportunities, and logistics start swarming around your head, and sorting them seems like an impossible task.

Breathe. It's not.

Before you start tackling everything that comes with a one-way ticket to who knows where, take a second to think about what kind of traveler you are or want to be. Are you someone who wants to forego the luxouries of Western life and live off what little money you can scrape together in the next six months? Or are you a stringent planner that cannot stand last-second itinerary changes?

Before you start, put some thought into these questions (and more). How you answer them will shape where and how your travel journey unfolds, and they can make or break your experiences. Here are a few considerations for you to think about as you plan your new-found travel lifestyle.

Shoestring or Luxourious?

It may seem obvious in writing, but most people have not thought about what their travel budget and ammenities preferences are before their first trip. They watch the travel vloggers, read the internet forums, and think that their travel style will just naturally present itself.

Most people would be wrong.

The reality is you should put some thought into this before you start traveling. If you are an American, chances are you've never stayed in a hostel before, sharing a room with upwards of 30 other people (for non-Americans: hostels are not at all common in the States). If you are young, you may never have cooked small, budget meals for yourself before. If you've spent your entire adult life driving, renting a car for a trip may seem like a logical thing to do.

To be sure, some people want to stay in the nice hotel, the freedom of having their own vehicle, and the experience of eating out at every meal. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that (provided your budget can take it!). Others will prefer to enjoy the company of strangers in new places over a homecooked meal and hostel kitchen coffee. That, too, is fantastic. The trick is to think about where you fall on the spectrum of having the travel niceties while planning your trip, not when you get halfway through it. Chances are you fall somewhere in the middle on the luxoury-shoestring spectrum.

Relaxation or Adventure?

What do you want to do on your travel journey? Some people enjoy sitting on the beach getting wasted on margaritas and mojitos after rolling out of bed a noon. Others like to get a head start to see the sunrise from the mountaintops. Some people like to de-stress from the realities of home, while others like to say "yes" to random opportunities arise.

As you build your travel experience, you will meet people who have all sorts of travel goals. You will also encounter people who booked a trip which doesn't align with those goals. They are immediately identifiable, because they are unhappy somewhere they should be enjoying themselves.

Don't be one of these people. Think about what your travel goals are. Chances are they will change with each trip, and they should. The best and most-memorable trips will be those where you have clearly identified why you are going. I once went to Maui and spent no time in the ocean, because I went to hike and camp. It was one of THE BEST trips I've ever done. I also went to Venice thinking I would just take in the walking city aimlessly. That is to this day one of my least-favourite trips, because I didn't know what my goal for it was, and my experience suffered.

Privacy or Communal Spaces?

This is a tricky one to figure out before you actually start your travel journey. Most Western adults are accustomed to having their own space, be it their apartment, car, dorm room, whatever. When you are traveling, nothing is your own space. You are just another guest in the hotel/hostel, another seat on the bus/train, and another cook in the literal kitchen.

So the real question comes down to what you want in your down/off time in the mornings and evenings. Some people like to go back to a private hotel room or Airbnb and enjoy an evening movie after a day of exploring. Others like to hang out in the hostel common room talking and drinking until the wee hours of the morning. Bathrooms and sleeping area can become a major stressor if you are not used to sharing them and you stay at a hostel (I was once on a boat that had 1 bathroom for 14 people, and some of the group were not conscious of that fact...).

A decision in this arena will be a major factor in your budget, as hostel beds, hostel private rooms, and hotel rooms are all in different price categories, so you should think about it in advance.

A bit of a disclaimer: Sometimes we need to change it up. Staying in hotels as a solo traveler can get lonely, and a hostel could go a long ways to breaking you out of a slump. On the reverse, you can't share everything with strangers forever, and having your own place for a night or two can do wonders for your mental, physical, and emotional health.

Planner or Winger of Its?

"What are we doing today?" That can get to be an annoying question if you are someone who likes to figure it out on the fly. "I don't know, what do you want to do?" That is equally annoying for someone who likes to follow an itinerary.

To be sure, a mix of both plans and winging-its are necessary for a great experience, but we all ultimately fall more into one category than the other. Some opportunities will only present themselves once you are at your destination (like taking a boat to see the hippos on the river in Africa), while others have to be planned out in advance (like getting tickets to tour Auschwitz).

In your day-to-day, however, knowing which of these categories you are in will make your experience so much more enjoyable and memorable.

Parting Thoughts

Travel is supposed to be fun, exciting, and full of memorable experiences! Everyone wants that cool story or bragging rights about something they did that no one they know can even dream of experiencing. Those experience just don't happen, though, and a lot of them are influenced by what kind of traveler you are out in the world. Whether you are a planner or seat-of-the-pants type, an adventurer or a vacationer, we can all have amazing experiences. We just need to put in a little thought about how we want our travel journeys to take shape.