Expat Life vs. Long-Term Travel

Expat life vs. long-term travel – which is the better choice?

I know I sometimes wonder if I made the right decision in moving overseas.

Maybe I should have taken my meticulously saved up dollars and gone traveling instead. Spent ten months or a year making my way around Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Who knows how my life would have turned out.

Yet, almost two years ago now, I decided to live my life as an expat, not a long-term traveler, for the following reasons.

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1. You're Less Likely to Burn Out

Travel can get quite exhausting. You're constantly planning where to go, how exactly to get there, what you'll eat and where you'll be sleeping.

If you're lucky, you'll go through this process minimal times as an expat.

Everything is new and confusing when you first move overseas. Then you find a place to call your own. You have furniture and a bed.

Your can take your clothes out of your suitcase and arrange them in your wardrobe, rejoicing in the lack of wrinkles when you wear them out. You know your food in the fridge will remain uneaten unless you have particularly devious housemates.

You, are in a word, settled. Having your own place and a routine can go a long way in ensuring that you keep your energy levels and often, your sanity too, intact.

2. You Can Get to Know an Entire City Inside Out

When you're traveling, you may end up only spending a handful of days or weeks within a city.

Living as an expat allows you to get to know somewhere in full depth.

I live in London – a massive city with an abundance of things to do. Living here gives me the opportunity to truly experience England's capital in a way that I never would if I were only passing through.

As a result, when I finally leave London to move onto somewhere else, I'll know I will have explored it as much as possible. I'll know this city in a way that I only know a handful of other places.

I'll never regret giving myself the opportunity to experience any place in this particularly way.

3. It May Help Your Career

Although many travelers end up embracing entirely new careers as digital nomads, this isn't the case for everyone.

Some people who go traveling like the jobs they're leaving behind – they may just want to take a career break, or see the world while they can.

Moving overseas can help your career in more ways than one. You may end up picking new skills that you wouldn't have gained working in your own country.

There may be the chance to further your education, increasing your employment prospects for when you head home.

You may seem more diversified to potential future employers – it never hurts to have international experience on your resume.

Working the same job in a different country could lead you to realize that you're happy with the direction your career is heading. Or, it could lead to a few home truths – in that it might be time to try something new.

Either way, you're going to be gaining work experience while earning money and there isn't any harm in that!

4. You'll Take Better Care of Your Health

There are some people who are pros at staying healthy on the road. Their mastery at cooking cheap and healthy meals from the confines of hostel kitchens knows no bounds. They work out. They can sleep without the aid of ear plugs.

They're an inspiration to us all.

Not me. When I travel, I eat all the things, and the only exercise I get is walking around museums or historical sites.

It's only when I have a home base that I start looking after myself – doing yoga, going to the gym, cooking deliciously healthy food and sleeping throughout the night.

As a traveler, I'm a hot mess. As an expat, I'm far more in control of my life.

5. You Can Still Travel – Sometimes for Longer

Here's the best bit about living as an expat overseas – you're still allowed to travel.

In the time I've been living in London, I've visited 16 other countries on three different continents.

I've also spent time traveling around England, seeing many villages and cities that other travelers to the UK simply do not have the time or funds to visit.

Better yet, I've been able to travel longer than I would have if I'd chosen the nomadic lifestyle.

As long as I keep earning money, I could keep my lifestyle going indefinitely (until that is, the urge to go home to Australia grows too strong to resist).

There's no right or wrong way to travel. Some may genuinely enjoy a nomadic lifestyle. Others may find themselves unable to give up the comforts that come from having a home base.

Either way, you're living your life and seeing the world.

That's all that matters in the end, after all.

Last Updated on March 27, 2017 by Maria Laborde