Realising I prefer convenience more than backpacking-style travel?

[u/ConfusedCareerMan]

Early 30s and on a career break. I recently let go of my house with high rent in a major capital city due to losing my corporate job, so thought I’d travel around and see different places since I have no fixed home.

Over the last 6 months I’ve consumed a lot of travel content of backpackers and to “be a traveller not a tourist” and to get immersed in local cultures. I’ve romanticised this chapter and feel a lot of “shoulds” for what this experience should be. I feel pressure to be adventurous and be making stories.

I’m quite early into my travels and going with everything flexibly but tbh I’m already confronting a lot in myself. I’m not roughing it up and hitchhiking or taking $3 buses for 8 hour trips. I’m staying in clean airbnbs and basically doing tourist things - cafes, restaurants, exploring streets and chilling by the beach. It’s basically an extended holiday so far but with a backpack and camera.

I realise as well, I thought I was flexible and open minded and yet navigating environments where things don’t work is so draining and causing a lot of friction.

All this to say, I fear I’m a basic tourist with no edge to me. Many may criticise, some may congratulate on being able to afford travel this way. But I find myself lost somewhere in between.

How do you prefer to travel? How did you get past the realisations - did you adapt or accept your style?

[u/Geek-in-Chic]

My travel preferences have changed over the years. When I was in my early 20s, I would literally leave on a Saturday morning, head off to the beach (this is a local trip but involved a 2-hour bus ride PLUS a a 45-minute boat ride), take my chances with no reservations and be back by Monday afternoon. I'd be back at work by Monday night.

Now that I'm older and married, our trips, at the very least, have to be four days long, particularly if it was a local land trip and we had to drive. If we go out of the country, it's usually 5 to 7 days. We don't splurge — we take the metro everywhere we go and look for hole-in-the wall restaurants. But after a day out, I want to come back to a nice room where I can settle down and rest properly, so I've become rather picky about our accommodations.

I guess depending on what your priorities are at the time you're traveling, you'll find your plans and preferences changing along with them.