Author : Aigner Mathis
Majority of people you speak to would love to jet off to different countries, states and cities at the drop of a hat. Everyday a new travel page pops up or that super chic girl you follow on Instagram posts a gorgeous photo of her breakfast croissants with the Paris countryside in the background. We all see these images and wish that we could have their lives, but what about the downsides to traveling that no one talks about? What if it’s not all sunshine and rainbows? As a person who travels 24/7, I can promise you the sun does shine a LOT but there are rainy days as well. Everything has its pros and cons, right? Below I’ve listed a few cons that come along with constant or frequent travel.
- Lonely
Especially if you are single! Random hookups just wont do, and the risk of disease or unwanted pregnancy is enough to make most people refrain. Well…most smart people.
2. Expensive
Flights, hotels, incidentals, food, fun, and rental cars add up – QUICK!
3. No family/friends
Unless you are traveling with them, be prepared to go a while without seeing them. Thank God for Facetime, snap chat and Skype!
4. You miss the important stuff
Birthdays, holidays, random celebrations, happy hour…yea, I can’t remember the last time one of my friends actually invited me to one of these. They don’t invite me because they know I won’t be able to come. (I’d low-key still like the invite so I can politely decline…but hey, whatevs)
5. Packing is hard
Being on the road frequently, you have to stay current on the weather in different cities and unfortunately due to global warming and season changes, it’s hard to trust the weatherman. My last day in Utah there was a snowstorm; by the time I got to Dallas it was 84 degrees. I was definitely not prepared.
6. Easy to get sick
Changing temperatures, different cuisine that you aren’t used to eating and being in close contact with strangers (on planes, buses, cars, subways etc.) can make it hard to stay healthy. Good sleep, lots of water, exercise and vitamins are a MUST.
7. Hotel Amenities are either awesome or non existent
Some hotels pull out all the bells and whistles like awesome workout rooms, free breakfast, washers and dyers, amazing pools, room service, attached
restaurants/bars, balconies etc.…. but others barely give you a pot to piss in or hot water to run.
8. A hotel is not a home
Unless you are staying at a residency hotel like Town Home Suites or Hawthorne etc., you will be staying in a simple and small room with only the basics. So basically you are staying in a bedroom with a mini fridge (can you say college life?).
9. A hotel is not YOUR home
Going along with the same idea of #8, the hotel or even the apartment you are renting from Air B&B is not YOURS. There will be people who are also staying there for the time being or permanently and will surround your area, unless the apartment is detached. They may have kids who go to sleep early, so they need you to be quiet by 8pm or maybe you like to sleep in and forget to put the “shhhhh!” sign on your door and suddenly at 10am you are woken up by the loud housekeepers. Be prepared to adjust to others who are staying/living around you.
10. Wifi and Cable? – Yea….No.
Good luck finding a hotel with consistent and strong wifi signal! Oh and catching your favorite cable show? Dream on. Most hotels only have the most standard of packages and any good movies will have to be paid for. Don’t get me wrong, there are hotels that have full packages but this list isn’t for them.
11. Ordering something online can be difficult
1-3 business days for your order to be processed and then 1-5 business days for shipping, but by the time it arrives, you have already left that hotel and are on to the next one. Not having a permanent address makes it difficult to have something ordered if you aren’t staying there for a long time. You could always get it shipped to a friend or your parents, but then you have to pay more for overnight shipping from there too…whew! That’s excessive.
