The travel bug

NOUN

informal

• a strong desire to travel; an obsessive enthusiasm for or addiction to travelling.

To be bitten by the travel bug is to suffer a life of overwhelming excitement, passion and vibrant experiences, packed with culture, history and lifelong friendships.  Harsh eh?!  A single bite by this unforgiving creature will transform the victim’s mind forever.  This sensation of ‘wanderlust’ can ‘LiNGER’ for literally a lifetime!

Life changing

Symptoms of being travel-bitten include the following:

1. 80% of your social media following is travelling acquaintances you met in far flung corners of the globe. Your Instagram story is plastered with colourful snaps of a smiling copy of you.
2. You prefer reading travel blogs, drafting itineraries or browsing hotel social media platforms until the early hours rather than going to sleep.
3. You check flight prices online as regularly as the ‘unbitten’ would check the weather.
4. Withdrawal symptoms should you refrain from or be prohibited from travelling within a five month period include whining, moaning and attempting to make your favourite cocktails from the ingredients you found on the foreign food shelf at your local supermarket.
5. Travel mementos, talisman and at least one hand woven bracelet are littered around your home, including on mantle pieces and in sock drawers.
6. There are at least three framed photos of an exotic expedition which make you yearn for even more.
7. You have at least a dozen uncharted destinations lying dormant in your brain, waiting to be chewed over and discussed. One of them is almost always brought up at any social gathering, telephone or Zoom call with friends.
8. Meeting a fellow addict at a party envelopes you and those around you in a three hour peacock like display of places you have been and experiences you have had. You transform into an animated raconteur as you relive travelling memories past.
9. A birthday party does not exist. Instead, you believe in the mantra of a birthday trip.
10. Your advice to your younger self would be to travel as much as possible before settling into a day job.
11. You can say hello, thank you and beer in at least seven other languages.
12. Your phone may be old and cracked, but your backpack is seriously enviable!

During the pandemic, reading travel blogs, watching travel films or literally travelling with your stomach have been the only ways to try to keep the travel bug at bay.  Let’s hope that the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022 will herald a new dawn in travel and your travel bug can finally be sated after a long, long drought.  This is one bug that we do not want a vaccine for!

Contact us for a dosage of travel inspiration.