Travel, like everything else in life, involves time. From the moment you must press purchase, you know your set travel dates. You know when you will be leaving for a destination and when you will be returning home. Everything is within a certain time frame. Some of us go for the standard two-week vacation for that is all our jobs, family commitments, or school will allow. Others decide to be daring, going around the world any where from 8 months to 2 years. Then, there are those that just never come home. Their travel time is indefinite. They have no home base. Their home is packed away in a storage locker in some far off corner of the world. Eventually, their travel time, like the majority, will come to an end, hopefully decades upon decades down the road.
I have received a few questions here and there about my upcoming travel plans, including why I am living in Italy for three months. Wanting to answer questions and perhaps help those deciding how they want to travel, I have created a list as to why I am staying in one place for three months, making trips here and there, but still basing myself out of one studio apartment for 90 days.
1. Actually Having Time To Sleep
If you set up a home base for your travels, you are not constantly in a new city every two days. You have time to rest up and live your 3-month destination to its fullest degree. You may have those late nights out at times, but you can determine your next morning schedule. While hostels and couchsurfing options are great, let’s be honest. Sometimes you just want a bed you know who cleaned the sheets last as it was you. As I am renting an apartment, I know I can come and go as I please, make all the noise I want (within reason), and I won’t be disturbing anyone. I can sleep soundly under that clean pillowcase, well rested for the next day as I have the privacy and comfort of a place to myself.
Sleeping in between destinations after too many days on the road
2. Finding A Home Away From Home
No one can tell me they don’t miss at least one aspect of something at home. Big or small things, homesickness is natural. I am not someone who gets homesick or falls into a gloomy disposition complete with tears the minute I leave Mom, although this did occur at 4 years old when dropped off for ballet practice. When you live somewhere for several months, you can introduce elements of home to make you feel a little bit less foreign. While my red hair is a giant indicator in Italy that I am not from around there, I still managed after living there several months at a time to make the city my home. Shopkeepers start to know your name and expect you every morning. Friendships grow and develop with people who actually live in town. If you do the host family option, you may just find a new family halfway across the world. Just don’t replace them for your old family. They did raise you after all.
My Italian Mom. Can you see the family resemblance?
3. There Is Always A Place To Put Your “Stuff”
This summer, I intend to take several trips. Some of them will be for the day, in and around Italy, while others will be more extensive and involve plane rides and ferry boats. The beauty of having an apartment allows me to leave that cumbersome bag at “home” on weekend or week trips. No sore shoulders for me as my clothes, shoes, purses, and pants will also have a home base.
A place for all my travel "necessities"
4. Becoming A More Observant Traveler
I have lived abroad in the same city for several months at a time. There were things I never noticed my first few days in town that I only discovered with time. They may be little, but that far off destination seemingly so foreign, starts to open up with possibilities I never considered. That old man on the corner with his cane, smiling at everyone passing him by, didn’t catch my eye until weeks after living in Sicily. I grew to know his daily routine, what shop owners he seemed to enjoy, and just what he thought of me by his wise, yet telling Sicilian stare. I’m not saying these moments and details don’t occur when you visit a place just for a few days, but as time passes in one spot, I did notice and appreciate aspects to that destination on a sharper and deeper level. Those details and moments are what I love about travel. It is in the details you uncover aspects to yourself or that local man staring back at you.
Taking it all in
How do you travel? I would love to hear how you travel and what you like most about your way of living on the road in the comment box below.
You’ve made a pretty compelling case to me, Suzy. 😉 The more I travel, the more appealing that doing it the ‘slow’ way has become. A week in a great place is better than a day, and a month is better than either of them. That’s something that we all instinctively know, and yet something that we seem to forget when making travel plans.
The need to cram all of the ‘highlights’ into a set length of time seems to overwhelm the part that says that slower is better – despite the fact that when we get home, the things that we remember are usually those that only came about due to spending an extended amount of time somewhere. The old man with his cane. Your Italian mum. Whatever and whoever it might be.
Great post, as always. 🙂
Right in line with my plans. I definitely like the idea of setting up residences one at a time rather than constantly being on the move. There’s so much depth available in these areas that 3 days just doesn’t cover it.
P. S. Buy a bike!! You can’t beat it for exploring your surroundings! 🙂
Exactly why I’m in France for six months! While I don’t mind being away from home for that long, I can’t imagine being “on the road.” I like having a home base, getting to know my way around a city, getting to go back for seconds when I find a restaurant I really like–in short, try to become a resident instead of just a tourist. Great post!
Sounds like an amazing trip. You know my story. One month at a time in destinations around the world. Although your first point has got me reconsidering using Couchsurfing the entire time…hm.
While couchsurfing and dorm-sleeping do not appeal to me at all, I could totally see myself doing this kind of travel. Find a home base somewhere, a place to call my own for a month or three, and explore around it. Like you said, sometimes you just want to sleep in a bed that you made.
Sounds like you’ve set yourself up for an amazing time and it’s nice to know more about your trip.
Me and Kirsty have noticed this week that all our original plans and schedules have gone out the window and we are more open to doing whatever takes our fancy now. I am sure this will see us spending more time in places we love and really experience them.
Awesome, right up my alley too. This “slow”er travel is what I really enjoy. I moved to Germany to set up a long term homebase to travel Europe from by train. Even when I travel from here I like the home-touches.
I love that feeling of knowing the guy who serves me espresso every morning. And knowing which pub with no sign has the best beer. It makes me feel much more like a traveler than a tourist, which is a nice feeling.
Having a home base and traveling around a region is great for many reasons. You save money doing so, can really soak in a place, and is a good medium that helps with travel fatigue.
I agree that having a homebase makes a huge difference! We rented an apartment in Paris once, and it really felt like being a part of the community – greeting people in the building, and popping into the same shops everyday. I wish I could do that on every trip 🙂
I am one of those who never went home! I gave up my home nearly two years ago and am still travelling. Next week I start a three month stay in Tilburg in the Netherlands and after that I take up a three year house-sit in Spain. This will give plenty of time for travel when the owners come out. Sometimes, even though you love travelling, you need some down time. I have written on that today at http://www.travelsofanearthpilgrim.com/when-a-traveller-not/.
Hi Suzy, I have loved each and every post of yours I’ve read. I do love this idea of living in one place, and I agree that most places require more time to know and love (I learned this first hand living 5 months in an isolated town of just 4,ooo in nevada). But I must interject, if I may, that I do love hostels and couchsurfing. Many of my greatest travel memories are filled with the friends I have made while staying in a hostel. A hostel seems to been the perfect hub for world travelers; like-minded people looking for new friends abound. Another plus, I have kept up these friendships using the Facebook, allowing me to relive those memories just by chatting up an old friend across the pond.
Yes! This is totally my way of travel although it’s not my husband’s first choice, so we sometimes have to compromise. I’m actually working on a post about “traveling like a local,” which will explore ways I’ve been able to travel and feel like a local more than just a tourist.
I hope you have a wonderful trip. It all sounds dreamy, from the day-trips to the bigger trips and the cozy apartment.
You didn’t mention which Italian city you’re going to…?
Great post Suzy! I totally agree. My husband and I are just wrapping up a year on the road. We spent time traveling fast (ie not spending more than two nights in one place) and we rented an apartment in Kathmandu for three months.
We still talk about our time in Nepal. Do we remember the things we passed by on our whirlwind tours? Nope. All those details were lost. So we’re huge believers in taking things slow these days.
I’m curious. Where are you in Italy? I spent two years in and around Florence.
Cheers!
-Jaime
Hi Suzy, great post! I agree with you, these short term home here and there makes us, long term traveler, going. Traveling is not only about hoping from one place to another, but sometimes when we fall in love with the place, we want to “experience living in there”. Understand the local a step deeper than shorter visits. One thing I love about never ending traveling is, it actually consisting of so many little traveling packages inside, that each has different characteristic. Since April 2009 when we started our vagabonding, we have done various ways of travels: regular old style backpacking, car-trips, cruising (when it’s cheap!), staying in 4 star hotels (Priceline makes them cheaper than hostels!!), having 3 weeks to 3 months temporary-home here and there.
Suzy, I thoroughly agree that planting yourself in one place for the long term is the way to go, for the reasons you stated. You really can turn a different destination into a temporary, or not so temporary home, which is far, far more rewarding, educational and memorable than just hanging out for a week or so.
The reasons above are a huge part of why I’m focusing on one country for now 🙂 I want to see more, but I want to enjoy the above benefits for a while and then take off to more places. Come visit 😉
Hi Suzy, Staying in one place in Italy for 3 months sounds so nice. I love taking my time in one place instead of rushing from city to city. With a full time job now, I only get so much vacation time but instead of going to a bunch of cities within two weeks I’m going to plan to go to one new country a year with my time off so I can really get to know the place and enjoy it.
I completely agree! I have no desire to carry a backpack (preferring the wheeled carry on instead) and I like my space and peace.
You make an incredible point. For the past few years, I’ve taken a few 2-week international vacations, and while they have been fun, I’ve crammed SO much in just to see as much as I can while I’m out (in one two-week bit, I went to England, Scotland, Germany, and France — exhausting and too much!). I am admirable of people who do those year-long RTW trips, but I can’t commit to something that long. I’ve been trying to contemplate what the ideal in between is. I think you’re right on track — that does sound like a happy medium. You get to stay somewhere long enough to really soak in the culture, and the fact that you have a home base to leave your things is great. That’s awesome.
I’m with you on this one. When I was younger, I did the whole two nights in each place thing, and it’s exhausting and becomes more about the people you meet at the hostel than the place you are visiting. This time round, partly because we are taking children, we are planning to spend a week or two in a lot of places, renting holiday properties instead of staying in hotels. We’ll be able to cater for ourselves a little, but also get to know a neighbourhood a little too, hopefully way from the tourist routes. I really like being able to shop in the local market, visit the bookshop or library, hang out in the cafe every morning.
I completely agree Suzy. There is something really cool about spending enough time in a place that it starts to feel like home. I love travel where I really get under the skin of a place and although you can sometimes do that quickly you stand a much better chance of finding out what makes a place tick if you spend weeks, months or even years there!
long travel is the only way to go. Nicely written.