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For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to do a motorcycle trip across the US. Aiming for at least six months on the road with a lot of camping out west thrown in. I don't know anyone personally who has quit their job to travel, so I'd like to hear some goon stories. Specifically, I'd like to hear about how it affected your life overall. Was it worth it or did you have regrets? How did you handle the unemployed gap in your resume? How did friends and family react? What are you doing now? I'm not particularly worried about leaving my current job - it pays well but is pretty boring. A sabbatical isn't an option currently, so quitting outright would be the only way. I've saved up a lot of money over the last three or four years and can afford the trip itself with a little extra in the bank when I return. Can anyone who has been in this situation share their story?
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Jul 18, 2014 18:27
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I can't tell you what it's like but I'm planning on doing the same thing in the very near future. I'm in a period in my life where I only feel bad about leaving my cat behind, and he can stay with family until I get back. No regrets!
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Jul 18, 2014 19:57
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I think others will chime in with positive experiences so I will offer some drawbacks. I have a friend doing something like this right now and they said that it can get pretty lonely. You think "Oh, I'll make new friends in all the new places I'm going to!", but the reality is that when you're on a bike on the road you're not meeting anybody. Also, staying in hotels, even hostels gets expensive over time (my friend is in Europe so costs are higher there, I think) and you can't cook your own food without a kitchen. I think it'd be great if you are a lone wolf type and you have sufficient funds saved up.
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Jul 19, 2014 02:11
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hitension posted:and you can't cook your own food without a kitchen. Theres a thing called "camping cooker" that you can use to prepare food. I guess MREs would be another option. Failing that, make a campfire and cook some delicious roadkill.
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Jul 19, 2014 02:49
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I was young, immature, and restless. The only thing I got out of it was a unique set of experiences, but I probably could have accrued similar experiences a little later in life in a much more responsible way. Oh well!
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Jul 19, 2014 03:00
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I had an employee hand me in his resignation last... February(?) saying that he wanted to travel while he was still young, before 30s. The idea was to fly to southern Argentina and then bike all the way up. Not sure if he and his partner planned on reaching Alaska from the start or decided later on, but they're now in the boonies of Alberta somewhere. They maintain a blog on facebook, most recent posts are in English: https://www.facebook.com/Mytrip2013.Panamericana/timeline?filter=3. Try asking them if you have any questions. We catch up via skype occasionally but I'm not sure we're getting the whole story on this end. The beginning was undoubtedly fascinating, but I wouldn't be surprised if after a year and a half they're full of it. I'm not into bikes anyway but having to pedal for >8 hours a day like they do just seems ridiculous. If I were doing the trip, I'd probably use a motorbike (or car), ride for a couple of hours and them spend the time meeting people and exploring the locations better. In terms of career this of course depends on the situation, I think in this case there wasn't any damage done really. People are often unemployed for 6+ month and having a great story would easily explain the gap. That is besides missing all the opportunities that might comp up during the time, though there might be none too, so... Still, I'd probably try to time something like this between different jobs.
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Jul 19, 2014 19:30
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I had a buddy who biked from I think Wisconsin to Seattle and then took a ferry up to Alaska. He crashed on peoples' couches all along the way, mine being one of them. It was a pretty neat experience for him and for us to be able to be a part of it. If you could set something like that up, I'm sure it'd be really cool. Another buddy biked across the US to raise awareness for Alzheimers and it was a similar fun story. I think its a bit different if you're doing it and chronicling it so you can participate in sharing the experiences. Otherwise, I can see it being lonely just driving everywhere hitting hotels every other night.
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Jul 19, 2014 19:44
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Das Butterbrot posted:I guess MREs would be another option. MRE and their ilk are really loving expensive. Camping cooking's great and cheap though, but it's not really an option in cities.
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Jul 20, 2014 03:08
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Knew a guy who did something similar, and I guess he still is. Got probably a couple of hundred kilometres out and ran out of money, worked on a farm for a bit and then somehow ended up in Central America somewhere. I guess what I'm saying is save up a lot of money.
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Jul 20, 2014 04:50
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Jastiger posted:I had a buddy who biked from I think Wisconsin to Seattle and then took a ferry up to Alaska. He crashed on peoples' couches all along the way, mine being one of them. It was a pretty neat experience for him and for us to be able to be a part of it. If you could set something like that up, I'm sure it'd be really cool. While there's plenty of people online who will open up their homes to bicyclists this route also puts in potential danger. I think camping is more sound option. Invest in a weather resistant, one-man tent along with a halfway decent sleeping bag and you're set. Both fold up into a tiny amount of space. Plus you can camp almost anywhere. I have no personal experience with this sort of thing, but I've seen other threads that basically recommend getting a YMCA membership so you have a place to bath.
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Jul 20, 2014 18:40
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hot sauce posted:For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to do a motorcycle trip across the US. Aiming for at least six months on the road with a lot of camping out west thrown in. I don't know anyone personally who has quit their job to travel, so I'd like to hear some goon stories. Specifically, I'd like to hear about how it affected your life overall. Was it worth it or did you have regrets? How did you handle the unemployed gap in your resume? How did friends and family react? What are you doing now? Be honest to yourself about your finances. There are lots of ways to enjoy the world without quitting your job and having a large employment gap. If you blow through a good chunk of your savings and then return to find the job market is poo poo again you screwed yourself pretty hard when you could have invested, compounded interest blah blah. Basically lots of people have thought their finances were a lot more secure than they actually were, because they assumed the good times never end. FrozenVent posted:MRE and their ilk are really loving expensive. Camping cooking's great and cheap though, but it's not really an option in cities. Compared to MRE's sure, but small gas cookers are really inefficient compared to normal cooking and even campfires aren't really cheap unless you are chopping free wood (and like you said there's lots of places it isn't an option).
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Jul 20, 2014 19:08
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This is of course personal preference, but having roadtripped across the US- most of it is incredibly boring and not worth seeing. I would just use regular vacations and hit up the spots you actually want to see and do your camping thing or whatever. If you want to take 6 months off and see a place I would think there's much better places to go than a trip that can be done pretty easily with normal vacation time. e; oops this should have been an edit to the previous post
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Jul 20, 2014 19:16
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2 summers ago I quit my job and went a traveled Europe and Asia for like 5 months. Coming back to America broke and trying to find a job was difficult but totally worth it, traveling is dope.
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Jul 20, 2014 20:08
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I got a degree, worked in a related job for 4 years, got really sick of it so I quit and went to South East Asia for 7 months, then Australia for a year and a half (I worked in Aus). It was excellent, but SEA is very tourist heavy so meeting people and exploring things with them wasn't so difficult. I imagine it's a lot different in a lot of places in the USA. Even if you think of yourself as a lone wolf, it's going to get hard being by yourself. There's going to be a lot of experiences you wish you could share with a significant person. And you're going to be bored as hell for a lot of those 6 months. Also hostels and food and basically everything in SEA was cheap as hell, which is pretty different from the states. Anyway, dealing with a gap in your resume could be okay - just explain on your cover letter that you left the position in a better state than you started, you left it running smoothly and clearly for your replacement, and you decided to travel as that's not something you had done yet. But now you're finished travelling and ready to start a career with <insert company you're applying for here>. Also if you work anywhere along the way, somehow make the position relevant to what you're applying for. Also double the amount of time you worked there.
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Jul 22, 2014 01:44
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For camping, you can get tiny teardrop trailers that basically have everything you need. http://www.tiny-house-living.com/motorcycle-teardrop-trailer.html The novelty factor of camping in tents wears off rather quickly in cold weather storms.
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Jul 22, 2014 03:50
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I did something similar I guess. I quit a decent job after college to move to Egypt and to "travel". I ended up finding a job and working in Egypt for two years then moved to Chile and taught at a public high school for another before ending back in the United States. I wouldn't trade my experience for anything even if it might not have been the best career move (I ended up switching careers so it worked out alright). Yes, some of my friends are further along in their careers or have higher paying jobs but the experiences I had and the people I met were well worth it. I didn't end up with too large of a gap because I ended up working in Egypt (at like 3 different jobs) but I did have a few questions come up about why I moved around so much. However, once I explained the situation most places seemed to understand. Now I am teaching and have summers off so I try to take at least a month every summer to travel.
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Jul 22, 2014 05:29
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I quit my first law firm at the age of 24 in order to walk the length of the United Kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land%27s_End_to_John_o%27_Groats). It was amazing fun, and I planned it/trained for it while I was still in gainful employment. The only hard bit was getting a job on my return - I did it eventually, but I know some of the rejections I got was because I quit in order to travel. It doesn't look good to have those holes on your resume, especially when you've only been with the employer for a year when you quit. No regrets though, absolutely loved it. I spent a poo poo ton and it's good to see you've already considered this in your saving.
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Jul 22, 2014 09:56
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My wife and I quit our jobs at the end of December and have been traveling since then. It has been pretty awesome for us. I can't tell you what it's like when it's over (we are going until at least February), but I can tell you about our experience so far and how we came to the decision to quit our jobs. We are both 31 years old and had good, well-paying jobs that we liked. We also both work in the same small industry (non-profit fundraising) and have good reputations, several years of experience, and left jobs where we had leadership positions. This all means that while we may not get jobs at the same salary when we return, we are not worried about getting jobs of some kind. Even if we had less secure job situations, we probably would have done the same thing but we may have saved more money before leaving. As it stood, we saved enough money for 12-16 months of travel plus payments for my wife's student loans, and that's it. We aren't worried about explaining the trip - I plan to put it on my resume as non-work experience, and my LinkedIn profile lists my current job as "world traveler" which has gone over well with my colleagues. Our families handled it well, I guess. My wife's mother passed away when she was in her early 50s, so her family was the most supportive of our idea that we didn't want to wait until retirement to do the things we wanted to do with our lives. My family was less enthused (brother is a financial planner and dad is a CEO, both thought this was a huge mistake though dad has since come around). Our friends took it well and were very supportive and curious, wanted to know everything about the trip and blah blah. That's been great. Everyone was pretty bummed about not seeing us for a while though, so that sucks. Not seeing people and being involved in their lives is probably the hardest part, but it's pretty easy to forget about when you're camping in Namibia and you can see billions of stars. We've met several people in various stages of a trip like this, and nobody has regretted it. We met a couple slightly older than us who wanted to travel for a year and ended up calling it quits after 5 months. They didn't regret doing it and they now want to get back to traveling, but they said life on the road was much more challenging than they had expected. Anyway if you are interested we have a blog and have also built a travel blog aggregator called Go Trip Yourself to help people find info about trips like this, so you can look there. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have, but our trip is a little different from yours in that we're going through a bunch of different countries and are a couple, so not sure how relevant my advice will be.
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Jul 22, 2014 15:51
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tsa posted:Be honest to yourself about your finances. There are lots of ways to enjoy the world without quitting your job and having a large employment gap. If you blow through a good chunk of your savings and then return to find the job market is poo poo again you screwed yourself pretty hard when you could have invested, compounded interest blah blah. Basically lots of people have thought their finances were a lot more secure than they actually were, because they assumed the good times never end. I think I've been honest with myself and am fortunate enough to have enough to do something like this. Taking money out of investments etc is actually one of the reasons I'm hesitating. I've been good with money my entire life and this would be the opposite of that. Grey Skies posted:I quit my first law firm at the age of 24 in order to walk the length of the United Kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land%27s_End_to_John_o%27_Groats). It was amazing fun, and I planned it/trained for it while I was still in gainful employment. The only hard bit was getting a job on my return - I did it eventually, but I know some of the rejections I got was because I quit in order to travel. It doesn't look good to have those holes on your resume, especially when you've only been with the employer for a year when you quit. This is awesome and I'd totally like to see pictures/hear more. Did you finish? Sub Par posted:My wife and I quit our jobs at the end of December and have been traveling since then. It has been pretty awesome for us. I can't tell you what it's like when it's over (we are going until at least February), but I can tell you about our experience so far and how we came to the decision to quit our jobs. Thank you for the write up, I'll definitely be saving this blog. I love your LinkedIn title  As for the lone wolf/bored responses, I can totally see that. I honestly hadn't even thought about it. I don't think it would bother me but I would have more fun traveling with others.
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Jul 22, 2014 20:14
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Seems like ages ago now but i basically got a week off work sick and in that time decided to get a round the world ticket and see what happens, i came home six years later having been on every continent  I had money for about 3 months and worked all sorts of crazy jobs, mostly bar work and slummed in Asia for a while cos its so drat cheap. e: I guess i never cared about coming home or being responsible with money because we only get one run right, what are you saving for? a whole buncha crows fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 21:05
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I know taking more than 2 weeks off work is seen as some sort of career suicide in the US, but stop hesitating and just do it. As people have already mentioned, you can stop and work odd jobs if you're worried about money. That stupid cliché is true - nobody, on their deathbed, ever says they wish they had worked more and travelled less.
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Jul 23, 2014 23:45
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This isn't 1972 where you need every day since high school accounted for on your resume and well bred parents who are known at the country club to get a job, absolutely nobody gives a poo poo about gaps anymore. Everyone takes time off to have fun or deal with children or just catch up on video games for a few months, nobody cares anymore stop listening to your parents' terrible career advice because it's not that world anymore.
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Jul 24, 2014 00:07
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Depends on your field and how attractive your skill set is, I guess. My older cousin (early 30s) had a solid job in marketing. Then she decided to take all her inheritance money and find herself for a year. Two years on, she is still a barrista living with two roommates.. Which isn't the end of the world I suppose, but it is worth considering if you are OK risking a slide into the ranks of the working poor.
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Jul 24, 2014 12:00
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Math You posted:Depends on your field and how attractive your skill set is, I guess. Maybe she realized she really hated marketing, but it's what she knows so she's "looking" for a new position, but not really. That's what happened to me.
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Jul 24, 2014 22:07
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A few years ago, after a hectic break-up, I decided to save all my money from work, and, in the winter, go to Asia. So I booked a ticket to Thailand, then India, and went and did that for five months. Best way to get over a break-up that has ever existed. And the best part? When I'd got back, I went and spoke to my old boss and he re-hired me immediately. I would wholeheartedly recommend, if you possibly can, jacking your job in, and go and see somewhere with a massive cultural difference to your home country, it's a great experience. And if your job's only a so-so job, who cares? You'll get another one just as poo poo when you come home!
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Jul 28, 2014 17:52
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I think quitting your job to travel is much easier when you're older, early-to-mid 30s when your friends, peers are now hiring managers and can get you a job when you return. You should be honest with yourself if you're worried about employment. Are you a top-notch software engineer? Well, you can probably get a job in the near future whenever you drat well please likely for more money that you're making now. Are you a school building engineer, custodian? Well, you're probably going to get a $10/hr gig with no benefits when you return. The stats do show that your applications will be at a measurable disadvantage if you have 6 months to 1 year or more of unemployment time, but if you're good at your job and have a good reputation in your industry, sure, roll the dice. If you're in some job that a hundreds of people are waiting to get into and could easily replace your production, that's more risky than many would be able to tolerate. I've never quit a job to travel, but I have taken jobs like web content manager that allowed me to travel. I've also taken advantage of funemployment during a company closing that was quite nice and went abroad. I really enjoyed backpacking and meeting tons of new people in hostels where many were also traveling, looking for social groups to hang out. If you're 30+, you may not quite get that experience as younger people freak out that you're ooooooooooold.
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Jul 29, 2014 08:19
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I'm currently on that trip. Worked for 2 years after getting my honours then packed up and left (on good terms) 4 months ago. Had a chat with my manager and handed in my 2 weeks notice the following day. I never intended on saving up for this trip, I was bored with my job and made the decision pretty much overnight. Don't regret it at all. It's going to be poo poo moving back into the job market but I'll deal with it when that day comes. Unless you're saving for something big, I'd recommend you do it. It's one of those things you'll regret later if you don't. Guaranteed. Besides, money isn't any good if you can't spend it.
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Jul 29, 2014 23:50
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An alternative is for a Leave-Of-Absence, which I've done for shorter (2-3 months) periods. Where I am, you can be on the books for 364 days on personal (unpaid but insured) leave. However, your job upon return is not guaranteed. Unless times are tough I've never heard anyone being fired in that way. I believe this is pretty standard for large corporations.
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Jul 30, 2014 01:13
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I was already traveling for work year round, in the merchant marine, and quit that to go hike the Appalachian Trail with my then girlfriend. I should add I had an application in when I quit and got the job offer about half way in, so it made the transition easier. It was totally worth it, and I intend to do it again, hopefully in the next 10-15 years. FWIW, I was 31 at the time I did this, making good money and with good career prospects.
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Jul 30, 2014 01:34
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Merchant marine doesn't count though; I left work to faff around for like eight months, decided I was out of cash one day, sent two emails and had two offers inside of like an hour. It's a great job for someone who wants to spend ridiculous amount of time travelling, as long as you don't mind never being home, ever.
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Jul 30, 2014 01:46
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I was away from home for a couple years. The second year I didn't have anyone with me that I knew previously. I'd recommend it to anyone, the most valuable part for me was learning how to be alone and on my own and make my own fun and have my own friends. I'd gone my whole life up to that point being around people I grew up with and making friends indirectly through them, so how did I know if I was capable of making friends on my own? Once I realized I was I got alot more confident in myself, in a certain sense. Lots of it sucked though. gagelion fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 03:34
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gagelion posted:
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Jul 31, 2014 04:43
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photomikey posted:Can you expand on this, please? Well being on your own is a double edged sword. It's very freeing and opens you up to alot of experience. But being far away from the people you know and the roots you've set up over the years (job, bank, doctor, etc)can be sort of scary and lonely. You need to find all of those things again on your own. As much as everything was new and exciting, there was alot of downtime when I didn't have enough money or know enough people to go out and feel connected. I would miss home or wonder if i made a mistake. Being away from your support structures also makes you more vulnerable. Losing a job, fighting with a friend, or having an issue with a landlord is a much bigger deal when you don't have as much to fall back on. But in the end all of that is a learning experience and a good thing. Just something to be aware of.
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Jul 31, 2014 09:18
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I sort of did something similar. I did a study abroad in Germany my last semester of my MBA. I had to quit my job to make that happen, but being in school I have a reasonable excuse for the gap in employment. My plan was to travel every weekend, see all the Europes, have amazing adventures. I've had a good time, but honestly the best part of the experience was getting to know my base city and getting to know locals. I've done some traveling, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I've realized I don't really like traveling that much. It was exhilarating for the first month or so. But traveling is mostly really boring, and it's frustrating not knowing where the cool stuff is. I've learned there was a big difference between what I thought I wanted, and what I actually want. I think that's a good lesson, though it was a bit expensive. For a couple years before I left, Germany was my dream. I was really motivated to learn German, and the dream kept me going when work and school sucked. Once I got here, I was kinda like "wtf do I do now?" I guess it's cool to follow your dreams, but now that my dream came true, I feel kinda rudderless. I know that's an incredibly privileged thing to complain about, but I kinda think some dreams are better unrealized.
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Jul 31, 2014 10:50
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gagelion posted:Well being on your own is a double edged sword. It's very freeing and opens you up to alot of experience. But being far away from the people you know and the roots you've set up over the years (job, bank, doctor, etc)can be sort of scary and lonely. You need to find all of those things again on your own. It's always during those quiet nights on your own when you feel most homesick. All you want to do is just be back home and shoot the poo poo with mates. Moving from town to town every few days means you have to make new friends every few days and that gets exhausting for me. So half the time I'm antisocial as gently caress and avoid people. Being from the same country is totally grounds for being BFFs.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:59
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How did you guys prepare for these trips? Did you make an actual schedule, did you know exactly where you wanted to end up and when and just kind of did your own thing along the way, or did you just go where you felt like? What did you wish you knew before embarking?
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Aug 1, 2014 19:51
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Transmogrifier posted:How did you guys prepare for these trips? Did you make an actual schedule, did you know exactly where you wanted to end up and when and just kind of did your own thing along the way, or did you just go where you felt like? What did you wish you knew before embarking? We saved up a bunch of money and maybe 600k frequent flier miles. As for planning, we made a list of the countries we wanted to visit which turned out to be like 107 countries, then pared it down, preferring countries that: 1) Would be difficult to travel to later in life 2) Are sometimes unstable but currently stable 3) Were lifelong dream destinations 4) Fit our approximate daily budget This cut the list into the ~30 area, and then we basically picked based on what seemed most practical and dumb things like weather. We bought all the plane tickets for the first 6 months and decided to figure the rest out later. We're now 7 months in, and we're glad we planned the first several destinations plane-ticket wise, but we're really happy to be in the more free form phase of the trip. For example, we wish we had had more time in Namibia but we had a plane ticket so we had to leave, but now we're in Turkey and have decided to visit Romania pretty much on a whim which we can do because we don't have a flight to catch. We wing it when we get to countries, developing a plan based on how much time we have, which places seem cool, what we hear from other travelers we meet. We try to split time between the big cities and smaller, more out of the way places. For example here in Turkey, we did Istanbul, Ephesus, and the Mediterranean beach, but we also did Kars, Safranbolu, and Amasra which are smaller towns. The number #1 thing I wish I had known was how much I love sitting still. When you think about and plan for a trip like this you think you'll want to be go-go-go all the time so you don't "miss out" or "waste time", but we spent 11 days in Essaouira, Morocco in a rented apartment just chilling, and they were some of the best days of the trip. Ditto for Rishikesh, India and Amasra, Turkey. Now that we don't have self-imposed airline deadlines, we'll probably move a lot less. For example, we've all but decided to spend 2 months in Berlin in Sept-Oct.
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Aug 1, 2014 21:24
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I had received a decent chunk of inheritance money, and had the opportunity to attend a geography field school in SE Asia with my university here in Canada. I was set to come back to my job when I was done. But a month from leaving, I ended up trying to finish my current semester, prepare for a whirlwind 3 weeks in Thailand, Borneo, and Bali, AND plan for 5 weeks on my own in Australia and New Zealand. I always plan and book everything on my own, so it was a ridiculous amount of research and work to figure out how to get all I wanted out of this trip. It was my first time outside of North America and I was going to be alone for most of it. On top of all this, I got a concussion from falling on ice a month before leaving. So one Saturday morning, I called my job and said "I'm sorry, I'm not coming in today and I'm also never coming back." I was just stressed to the max I was having a total nervous breakdown. I couldn't deal with all of it. I needed to cut some responsibilities from my life and that was the only option. Three weeks later I was doing school work in Asia, then getting as much done as I could on my first solo travel trip. I ended up flying on commercial flights 19 times before I got home after two months. When I got home, I had a hard time finding work because of how I quit my last one. I returned in July, and didn't get work until November. I had started volunteering to boost my resume, it seemed to work.
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Aug 1, 2014 23:53
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Transmogrifier posted:How did you guys prepare for these trips? Did you make an actual schedule, did you know exactly where you wanted to end up and when and just kind of did your own thing along the way, or did you just go where you felt like? What did you wish you knew before embarking? I usually do research the night before I leave to make a rough itinerary or maybe the day I arrive. Basically just go where I feel like or if I meet people with similar interests at a hostel, we'll make plans together to see stuff. I wish I didn't pack a pair of jeans. They're heavy and take up a lot of space and in 4 months I've never worn them. The cheapest places are usually around the equator and if you're traveling long term, a lot of your stops are going to be in that rough area where it's a constant 30C or more. And you don't actually need pants (like rear end in a top hat bloggers tell you) to visit temples and religious sites. As long as your shorts are actually shorts and not a hair band, you're fine. I wish I had packed a first aid kit and a sewing kit.
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Aug 2, 2014 14:43
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My husband and I are about to do this but I don't know if "I quit my job to travel" is how I can describe our situation. I work online for 4-5 hours a day, so I plan to do that while we travel. My company gives us weekends off, too, which is awesome because we can do all our movements between cities/countries on weekends and I won't have to take much time off. My husband is about to get out of the Army but he was medically retired with an 80% VA disability rating. Once the VA starts paying he will get $1,700 per month, so we both will have income while we travel. Both of our incomes combined will be enough to live really well in third world countries or even live cheaply and come back with savings. And if we do some couch surfing or HelpX assignments in Europe we'll still have enough money. We will be able to be on the road indefinitely this way, and I'd have no employment gap on my return thanks to my online job. My husband will, but he wanted to go to school and re-train on the GI Bill after we get done traveling anyway, so I don't really see an issue. My part time job also has a relevant skill set to help me move into a full time office type job after we return. We also will probably start our trip with close to 10K saved, but we don't need as much as other people because we will have income the whole time. We plan on trying to stay within the confines of our income without dipping into savings as much as we possibly can.
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Aug 2, 2014 23:56
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