80 Signs You Are a Travel Addict

80 Signs You Are a Travel Addict

• Stephen Knight
• Travel
• 0 Comments

Travel is a bit like a drug. Once you start, it can be difficult to stop, and the more you do it, the more you want to keep doing it. Go without it for long enough, and you may just find yourself in a pawn shop with your partners fancy watch and a fistful of Aunt Mable’s silver in an effort to plan your next escape.

What are the symptoms of addiction? Besides hoarding travel shampoo or dealing with ‘the shakes’ when you’re grounded for too long, what qualifies you as a travel addict? Check out these tell-tale signs and see if you are, in fact, a travel addict!

You know you’re addicted to travel when:

1. The only reason you work is so you can afford your next trip
2. You’re planning one trip while on another
3. Waking up at home feels strange
4. Instead of winter/summer clothes, your closet is divided into home/travel clothes
5. The high street in your hometown plunges you into despair
6. Your 9 to 5 job makes you feel like you’re in prison
7. You sit down at your work desk or at a restaurant and reach for the seatbelt
8. Your cubicle at work is covered in postcards and travel memorabilia
9. You live out of your suitcase even when at home
10. Thinking about all the places you haven’t been makes you feel anxious
11. You don’t wait around for people but take off on your own
12. You have credit cards based upon the air miles program
13. You have more miles in the air than you have on all your vehicles combined
14. You’re constantly counting countries and continents
15. You can and have given tourists directions in London, Paris, Quito, or any other places you don’t live
16. You already know the airport codes for airports you’ve not yet visited
17. You can pick up your luggage and guess, within a few ounces, the weight
18. You think about getting a 'travel' related tattoo for your ankle or lower back
19. The projected period of your next big trip is longer than the amount of time you anticipate being retired
20. When 80% of your email inbox is full of travel related messages
21. Haircuts are scheduled not on when you need them but to carry you through the next trip
22. You carry your everyday cosmetics in a quart-sized Ziploc bag
23. When you are out walking, you stumble because you are looking up at a jet in the sky and wondering where it’s going
24. Your travel bucket list is over four pages long
25. The only items on your bucket list that you’ve crossed off are the ones related to travel
26. Books, films and music make you want to travel
27. You pepper all your sentences with travel quotations or start all your stories with “When I was in…”
28. You read travel guidebooks for fun
29. You always ask “where people are from?” even when you know
30. You wear flip flops in the shower
31. You take toilet paper everywhere you go out of habit
32. Your iPod only has songs related to travelling
33. You can tell where people have been by the cheesy logos and sayings on their shirts (Same Same = Thailand, Yellow Star = Vietnam)
34. You have elite flier status on multiple airlines
35. You attend travel conferences multiple times a year
36. You don’t have paintings on the wall – you have maps
37. You spend two hours each day reading travel blogs and travel websites
38. You subscribe to multiple travel magazines
39. When you think of prices, you value things in terms how many days you could travel on the equivalent amount of money
40. You pretend you are a travel writer
41. Your conversation starter is “Have you ever been to [insert country name]?” instead of talking about the weather
42. You wear t-shirts that say country names other than where you live
43. When people ask you about your hobbies, all your answers contain the word “travel”
44. You know how to pronounce your name in 5 different languages
45. Some people cry when they leave home. You cry when you have to go back
46. When people ask you your profession, you say vagabond or nomad
47. You filled your first passport before the first year was over
48. You have trips planned for the next decade
49. The VLA Blog, Boots N All, Kayak, or Lonely Planet is your homepage
50. You don’t think San Jose (Costa Rica) to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) is long distance
51. You’ve been to at least 5 major cultural events (Carnival in Brazil, Oktoberfest in Germany, etc)
52. You started a travel journal/blog (even if you only managed to muster up one entry)
53. You think it’s not really travelling unless you visit at least 2 countries during a trip
54. Half of your Facebook photos are of you standing in front of various world wonders or monuments
55. During a job interview, you tell the interviewer that your 5-year plan involves not staying on the same continent
56. You’re pretty familiar with the layout of most major airports
57. You know which customs officials to avoid
58. Your parents have suggested you seek professional help
59. You become offended when someone thinks Aussies actually drink Fosters
60. You spend hours every day daydreaming about trips you’ll never take, trips you’ve taken, and people you’ve met on the road
61. You have detailed critiques of the world’s major airlines and judge them by the quality of their in-flight food
62. The vast majority of your Facebook friends live across the world
63. Booking flights gives you an amazing high
64. The faint smell of sewage combined with car exhaust fumes makes you mildly aroused
65. Dodging cars, motorbikes, pushcarts and livestock is your only form of cardio
66. Friends with spouses and children live vicariously through your tweets and Facebook updates
67. You start to wonder just how much damage it would do to your life if you spontaneously disappeared for three-to-six months
68. Staying in the same place for more than one week makes you fidgety
69. You know the tipping etiquette for more than 10 countries
70. You are an expert in combating jet lag
71. You know which airports have free Wi-Fi and which do not
72. You can spot which souvenirs are authentic and which are from factories in China
73. You have spent a small fortune on iPhone travel apps
74. You follow elections in other countries to gauge for travel viability
75. You use Skype more than a regular phone
76. You plan your friends and family’s vacations, just for fun
77. You evaluate prospective careers based on allowable vacation time
78. You have more than one currency in your wallet, just in case
79. You don’t have a permanent address
80. You read about travel addict posts!