I’ve been running this Cheapest Destinations blog since 2003 and the 4th edition of my international travel book will come out soon, so I’ve heard more than my share of excuses on why people can’t or don’t travel.

In all fairness, some of the reasons are really legit. “I’m a convicted felon” is one that may give you some visa trouble. “I can’t leave the country until the custody case is settled” is reasonable. “I don’t really enjoy packing up and leaving home” was a response from a friend that I really didn’t have an answer to. Fair enough. We can’t assume everyone likes to travel.  And some people really can’t. There are not many travel agencies in Cuba or North Korea.

If you live in a free country and want to travel but don’t, however, the excuses you give are probably the same ones I’ve heard 100 times. Apparently these 71 other travel bloggers have heard the same ones too as their sample excuses and responses are amazingly consistent.

The b.s. travel excuses

1) I can’t afford it.

2) I don’t have the time.

3) I’m (scared about) not good at foreign languages

4) My family wouldn’t approve (I’m scared to leave my family).

Why these travel excuses are usually b.s.

1) Unless you’re in such poverty that you can barely afford groceries, you can afford to travel. Because if you choose the right places, it’s cheaper than being home. Try shopping less, buying fewer gadgets, brewing your own coffee—in other words, prioritizing. Do some basic research and you’ll find ways to couchsurf, get free flights, work abroad, and in general get by for far less than you’re getting by now. If you have a job you can do from anywhere, you’re just plain nuts to live out all your years in an expensive country anyway.

2) If you’ve been in your job a year at least and don’t have a couple weeks to travel, something is seriously wrong. If you’re self-employed, even worse. That’s called not taking the time; it’s not a lack of time. Nobody is so important in their position that they can’t take a couple weeks to travel unless they have “president” or “prime minister” next to their name. If you’re worried nobody will miss you if you leave and you’ll be easily replaced with another warm body, then you’re not making much of an impact when you’re there are you?

3) Based on my 20-odd years of travel, you can get by with English alone in about 90% of the places you’ll go on this planet as a tourist, with Spanish taking care of another 5 or 6%. So unless you’re going to visit rural China or some undiscovered tribal region, I think you’ll survive. If you’ll be somewhere more than a couple weeks, you can pick up some basics with minimal effort and a phrase book. Heck, these days you can even take a real-time translator on a smart phone, Star Trek style.

4) I’ve heard so many iterations of this sequence now it’s become a short story I could write in my sleep. Daughter (it’s usually a woman) announces to her family that’s she’s going backpacking for a month, for the summer, maybe even for a year. A family member (usually the mother) responds that it’s a horrible idea, that she’ll be raped or killed, that she’s abandoning the family. She forges on and goes anyway, sending them photos along the way about her fantastic time and telling them all the things she’s seen and learned. She returns home looking fit and radiant, she’s worldly-wise, and she’s exhibiting a new self-reliant streak that’s going to help her create success on her own terms in the future. Her parents can’t stop telling their friends about her wonderful adventure and they share her photos with everyone they know.

Of all the 71 responses on that long blog post, which admittedly get a bit redundant, I like this one from Benny at Fluentin3Months the best:

Usually people will latch on to what seems like a totally logical reason to not travel, such as lack of money, no time, unable to get off work, family responsibilities and so on. At times these are legitimate, but many times the true reason they are not following this passion is fear, and the reason they give you when you ask is founded in nothing but this fear.

They can repeat the mantra of “I have no money” all they like, ignoring stark evidence about how they should embrace minimalism and stop buying so much crap, or perhaps they think that learning a language is a rare genetic gift even though over half the population of the planet is multilingual. It’s time they stepped outside of their self-fulfilling prophecies.

Like most things in life, finding the time or money to travel is just like finding the time or money to do anything else worthwhile: buy a house, reach a sales goal, raise a child, get good at a sport, get in shape, learn a language, write a book, finish a painting, dance the tango, or build a fence. Make it a priority and it’ll probably happen. Put it no higher on your list than the latest slightly better gadget Apple is feeding you, then it probably won’t.

Do you want to travel this year or are you just saying it would be nice? Like winning the lottery would be nice?

If you’re not just fantasizing, stop dreaming and start finding ways to make it work. See all the excuses and answers here.

 

I’ve navigated quite a few countries in my time, but a few of them felt like different planets from a cultural standpoint, especially Korea, Japan, and India. There are just so many baffling customs and social rules that if you don’t get schooled a bit in the local ways, you’re going to offend, annoy, and alienate people on a regular basis.

I’ve always liked the various culture shock books that help you navigate all this, but there’s a new series out there for the Kindle with an unbeatable price: $1.95. Don’t be fooled by the price tag though: the information within will save you lots of embarrassment and make your time abroad run more smoothly, especially if you’re moving to one of the 20 countries covered.

The author, Bill Drake, ran a cross-cultural consultancy and he’s an avid traveler. His guides dive much deeper than any source I’ve seen for free on the web, so this is a case where two bucks is a hundred times better than nothing.

Cultural Dimensions of Expatriate Life in Korea is quite a mouthful, but it’s definitely $1.95 well spent. I checked this one out first because I spent 14 months there as an English teacher in the late 1990s. To say it was a struggle sometimes from a cultural standpoint is putting it mildly. Some expats couldn’t deal at all and they bailed out. Others coped by doing nothing but working and hanging out in expat bars, avoiding contact with most locals. Others just got bitter and were a royal pain to be around. The easiest course is to go with the flow, and this guide has plenty of advice on how to do that. Some examples:

Koreans often find it difficult to trust a business partner until they have gotten drunk together. Drinking together is seen as the only way to resolve a sensitive issue or to close a complex business deal. Although it is become more accepted to refuse to over-indulge, the attitude that the person who drinks less than his counterparts is hiding something or is afraid to let down his defenses is still quite prevalent.

It should be noted that it is customary among friends that one individual picks up the tab. Koreans consider the American custom of dividing the check somewhat barbaric.

The “seamless” integration of the individual into the group is considered a principal goal of the society. All forms of social training,indoctrination, education and conditioning have such integration as their core assumption and ultimate objective. In such societies, any evidence that a person is “individualistic” is treated as a social pathology.

I found the information throughout to be spot-on and consistent with my experiences there. I wish I’d had this in hand before I moved there and started working.

Less engaging but still useful is another one I read through called Educating Children in Expatriate Environments. It requires more hunting for the right nuggets in this one since the subject matter is so broad. Figuring out what to do with a pre-schooler in England is very different than trying to navigate high school in such different environments as Mexico, India, and Japan. Again though, it’s not hard to justify your $1.95 investment with the nuggets that matter.

Guides are available for a wide but oddball assortment of countries, from expat hotbeds like the Czech Republic and the U.K. to ones with far fewer travelers and foreign business workers, such as Nicaragua.

There are plenty of e-books out there with information like this selling for 10 or 20 times the price. If you’re heading to one of the countries profiled in these guides and you’ve got a Kindle, round up some change and go make a purchase.