The Negatives of Long Term Travel

Can you believe that in 2025 it’s been 6 years to the month since our almost 7 years of full-time family travel ended? We returned to our old home just before Christmas in 2019, flying in during a cyclone, to a house we hadn’t seen since 2012. And we hadn’t missed it even once.

We planned on stopping for just a while, to sell the house and be done with that millstone for good. But life had other plans. The pandemic lockdowns were just around the corner.

So while in January 2020 we were able to escape for 6 weeks of travel in Malaysia, Borneo, and Bali, visiting temples at Lunar New Year with crowds in masks and flying and travelling by bus extensively, it was short-lived.

We came back, and the borders closed behind us, we were stuck, and it was devastating. I felt that my kids’ final years of childhood had been stolen, simultaneously my business and income were all but destroyed, and life became 4 walls and a garden.

We were lucky to have that, I guess.

The garden saved me. During those years, we hatched our plan to buy a small farm and go off-grid, and indeed we did.

Today we are very happy on 5 acres with 70 or so animals and a garden that feeds us. The travel itch remains, and every year we have managed to take extended trips to Jordan, the UK, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and more.

How do we still travel and have a home base? My work is still this website, the rest of the family have flexible employment, and travel is a priority that we are happy to pay for.

We live simply and frugally a keep money aside for travel, because we always have. Living out of backpacks with few possessions, staying in simple hotel rooms or tiny apartments, taught us a few things about what’s important in life.

The most important things are love, health, and family, not the “stuff” we were so happy to be free of.

Were There Any Negatives of Long-Term Travel?

In retrospect, there were, maybe, a few negatives of travel as a lifestyle. We never saw them as such at the time, but some people may feel these negatives more than we did. So, if you’re planning or preparing for long-term travel, here are some things you may like to think about.

Diet Negatives of Travel

I probably need to add a disclaimer here, none of this is medical advice, just my own experiences. This post may contain affiliate links, but I haven’t added any.

We’re a fit family, my husband is an Ironman, a powerlifting champ, and today he’s an ultra-marathoner. I’ve always tried to maintain some fitness, and until early in my 59th year, I could run 10 Km without excessive difficulty.

I’m injured right now, but I guess that’s fair as I approach my 60th birthday. I plan to get back to running if I can, but I still walk for an hour each day and lift weights. Big weights, I’m a farm girl.

We walk everywhere when we travel, clocking up the steps. If we can walk, we skip the bus or Uber. Often carrying heavy packs. I would encourage you to walk everywhere, if you and your kids are able, it’s a great way to stay fit, see more, and chat with your family.

We hiked, swam, scuba dived, and skied with the kids, I figured we were all pretty fit, and we tried to eat what we thought were healthy foods. We took the kids to Everest Base Camp, a 3-week hike at altitude, and didn’t have to train or prepare at all. Walking with packs is easy for us, and nobody even got a blister.

I know now that those foods weren’t so healthy. Even though we were fit, a bad diet creeps up on you.

We ate out every day in Asia with no control over the quality of the food we were eating. You won’t know what oils the cook fries with, what quality of eggs or meat they are using, or if the vegetables are covered in pesticides and herbicides.

We ate snacks from the 7-11 far too often, and there was always junk food at airports.

I had a big problem with MSG for a while, until I figured out what was causing the problems.

For most of the journey, I was a vegetarian, and for a year or two, I tried being vegan. That was all but impossible, and that’s when my diet became really terrible, and I developed some health issues.

On the road, you eat a lot of processed foods, particularly if you are searching for vegan or vegetarian meals, and particularly in Malaysia, which is where I got sick.

Fried tempe, fried tofu, lots of carbs. It wasn’t great.

We came home, I went to the doctor (something I had done only once or twice in 7 years), got my bloods done and was told I was Vitamin D deficient and that I needed statins to temper my high triglycerides. “Cholesterol” – yes, a vegan diet is not great for that unless you can access unprocessed foods that haven’t been fried in seed oils.

I’ve been taking Vitamin D supplements ever since. The QLD sunshine isn’t enough, diet is a big factor for me. That’s one of the reasons that we now produce our own free-range eggs, not the battery eggs you will likely consume as you travel. It’s to do with Omega 3 vs Omega 6 levels and grain-fed vs a natural diet of bugs and plants.

So, obviously, I wasn’t going to take statins, ever. I fixed it my way, dropped the 8 lb that I was overweight and took a deep dive into the up-to-date science of nutrition, fasting, sleep, and more.

On my 3-month follow-up appointment with the GP, everything was back to normal. I haven’t been near a doctor’s surgery since.

Today I’m very well indeed, I think, and when we travel today, I’m very mindful of watching what I eat. It is very difficult.

So, if you have health issues, or if you are a perimenopausal woman, watch your diet as you travel. I went through perimenopause and menopause on the road. I’m a trained biomedical scientist with a lot of medical knowlege from my degree and 20 years of work. I thought I knew my stuff.

It turns out that what I learned in school and university is mostly out of date science today.

Sleep – A Bigger Negative Of Travel Than I Thought

We aren’t too bothered by jet lag generally, but jumping between time zones does mess with your body.

Today I know that sleep is so important. We do everything we can to maximise sleep.

As you travel, you will probably never be able to switch off the wifi at night, you will be exposed to blue light, and miss out on sunrises and sunsets.

You will spend time in airports at midnight, flooded with artificial light. You will attempt to sleep on buses and trains with the same issue, and more.

I woke at 4 am, pretty much every day for years, and started working on my laptop while the kids slept. That’s not great.

Today I’m up with the sun and the birds, and the laptop isn’t on until I’ve been outside and seen the morning light. I have to, I have animals and a garden to care for.

But back then, I was very keen to be a successful blogger and I put in the hours before dawn. I thought that my ability to be up at 4 am was a superpower. Now I know how important sleep is.

So that’s another thing to think about before you set off to travel long-term. Consider how you will get enough sleep.

You Lack Time When You Travel

There was rarely much time for us to do anything other than actively travelling and exploring, working on the blogs, and taking care of and educating the kids.

Travel planning and organising sucks up your time, way more than you imagine. 10 minutes to book the next hotel can rapidly become several hours as you weigh up options and costs on multiple platforms.

Today I don’t do that, I just get it done. But today we’re not travelling on a tight budget to maximise the amount of travel/$.

If you value your time, get it done fast. Your time is worth more than a $2 saving.

You may be the sort of person who relaxes as you travel, to read books or linger over coffee. It’s not our style, we’re all action.

I used to see reading as a waste of time when I could be working instead.

Today I have learned to relax, rest, and spend time doing things I enjoy. I can read a book, following endless rabbit holes of new knowledge. I even enjoy cooking, preserving and food prep today. Something I didn’t do for years.

I’ve let go of the blogging thing. I still enjoy it, but that drive to be more successful, collect followers and make more money is gone. I blog now because I want to write about something or somewhere. I’m working on a post about a place in Vietnam right now, because I enjoy the process of going there, finding out, taking photos, learning, and then learning even more through writing about it. It’s fun.

But this post was much quicker to write.

Today I have time to appreciate the natural world around me, every day. It’s pretty amazing if you stop and look.

So think about how you will make time for yourself and your spiritual wellbeing as you travel. For parents, it can be pretty impossible. With hindsight, I don’t see a way I could ever have done that with the pressures of parenting and home educating or worldschooling.

But then, I’ve been blessed to have my immediate family with me 24/7 for 20 or so years. That has been wonderful.

You Miss Out on Friends and Family When You Travel

I’ve mentioned before that certain friends and family did not approve of our choices at all. We lost a few along the way. That’s a very common negative of adopting a non conventional lifestyle.

Today I’d consider that no loss at all. If they couldn’t support us, were they ever friends? I wrote about one particular incident here, a former friend accused me of being depressed or running away by hitting the road, it wasn’t true at all.

I was running towards something, love, beauty, joy, shared time and experiences, not away. That person who criticised didn’t have a family, her job was important to her, she didn’t understand how motherhood changes everything. She was never going to get it.

So, we spent a lot of time not living in a stable community, not integrating ourselves into a place and people.

We were happy to be rootless and had no intention of ever going back. It didn’t matter to us.

We weren’t lonely ever, we had each other, but I imagine that solo travel must be very lonely. I was thinking of doing it now the kids are grown, but I don’t think I’d really enjoy it.

In reality, we had to stop travelling and start over in a new location, barely knowing a soul. It’s not easy, but it’s not so bad either. It’s harder for the kids than for parents because most local kids had either left for university or were part of existing social groups, but they’re doing OK.

So if you plan to travel, or become digital nomads as we were, think about your support group. Do you need one? Will you be returning to one?

Also, think about interacting with real humans, not online connections. I believe that the former should be a priority.

And that is just one of the reasons that we have left all social media. We’re trying to focus on community and family. Since the social media suck has gone, I’m spending more and more time talking to my brother and his family, my lovely Dad, my close friends who have stuck with us, and I’m trying to connect with locals.

You may notice that I’ve changed my name on this site. I’m trying out using my Dad’s name, not my in-laws. It feels better, I feel more like me.

It’s not easy to make new friends and find community in a new place. A lot of people who just happen to live nearby will have nothing else in common with you, and honestly, I suck at making friends. I’m socially awkward and anxious. I always have been. But I try.

If you were formerly in touch with us on the socials and want to stay connected, you have my email through this site. We’d love to hear from you.

There are other negatives, I could include the digitalisation of your data, as I mentioned the other day, but overall, we have no regrets, just a whole bunch of great experiences and memories. Our family is tight, we’re strongly connected with young adult kids who have seen the best and worst of the world, and that’s the biggest win as far as I’m concerned.

What about you? Can you see any negatives of a travel lifestyle that I haven’t thought of? I’d love to have your input in the comments because we no longer do this on social media. Have a great day, everyone.

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