George Nugent Travels

Travel has the power to change your life and can often teach you so much more than you learn in school. It forces you into some uncomfortable situations and then leaves you to be the one to get yourself out of it.

I have been travelling solo for two years now, and below I have shared with you the six things travel has taught me about myself, and how these skills can be useful in other areas of your life.

1. How To Budget Responsibly

Travelling alone means that you need to be able to plan for every element of your trip, and that you must also foot the bill for all of the expenses that arise when booking, and while travelling.

Before I travelled abroad solo for the first time in 2022 I had very little idea on budgeting, and struggled with the concept of saving money now for something that might not be happening for another seven months.

Now, I know how to budget all aspects of my trips and what the likely costs will be when booking and away. My experiences of different countries has given me a good idea on what sort of last minute expenses might arise, and now I know whenever I travel that I have enough money to deal with these costs.

2. Time Management

This was a key skill that I learned while travelling, which also came in handy when I was studying for my university degree.

When you are travelling, time is just as important as money, after all if you are late to the airport the plane will not wait. I used to be that person who was always leaving things to the last minute and rushing to complete it.

Travel has taught me that being on time is key, arrive too early and you waste time sitting around doing nothing, arriving late (let’s ignore Slovenia) means you run the risk of missing a flight, train or bus and having to pay for a whole new ticket.

3. People Skills

My people skills were not great before I started travelling, and if I am honest they are still not perfect, but travelling has introduced me to new cultures and new ways of thinking.

When you are in Spain you realise that the Spanish deal with situations in a completely different way than Polish people. Learning how to adapt to these cultures has allowed me to communicate with different people in different ways that better suit them.

This is a key skill in life, as if you always stay in your hometown you can fail to adapt to different cultures, making it difficult to communicate with people you will meet in life.

4. Not Taking Things For Granted

Some people can take the things they have in life for granted, travelling has made me realise how hard people work to allow people to have an amazing holiday.

Before I travelled I would get to a hotel and just think it was a hotel. I would get on a plane and just think its cabin crew and pilots working. I would think that the people I could see at the time were the only people involved and that it was really easy to organise.

Now I have realised just how far from the truth this is. The amount of work behind the scenes that happens in hotels, airports and other travel facilities is nothing short of incredible. The people who work behind the scenes to schedule aircraft, crews, staff, room availability and so much more do their jobs so well that we as the travelling public usually overlook them.

5. Thinking Outside The Box

When you travel things will always go wrong, for example Lufthansa might forget to load your bag on a flight to America meaning all your stuff is thousands of miles away from you.

When these things happen it is very easy to get angry and blame the staff in your destination for the issue, when they had nothing to do with it! When this happens you learn to think outside the box on how to organise your items delivery and how to temporarily deal with the situation that has arisen.

6. You Never Stop Learning About Yourself

If you think you know everything about yourself then I urge you to think again. Travelling, particularly solo travel, teaches you that you really don’t.

You might think that you would never try local food when on holiday, I can assure you that you will at some point, and you might not even realise you are doing so.

Solo travel gives you a sense of independence (I became a very independent person from a young age, but that is another story), and makes your sense of awareness significantly stronger as you pay attention to the things around you.

You learn that you can in fact navigate a foreign country, meet new people and can even prove the people who doubted you wrong. So if you think you know yourself, get out travelling and keep learning.