Confessions of a Travel Addict: 26 Signs You’re One Too

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Travel has a way of getting under your skin. One trip leads to another, your bucket list keeps getting longer, and before you know it, you’re checking airfare for places you weren’t even planning to visit. I’ve been traveling for most of my life, and the more of the world I see, the more I realize how much is still out there. Somewhere along the way, travel stopped being something I occasionally did and became part of who I am. If that sounds familiar, you might recognize yourself in a few of these 26 signs you’re addicted to travel.

You Know You’re a Travel Addict When…

I don’t know if there’s really such a thing as a “travel gene,” but if there is, I’m pretty sure I have it. I’m always thinking about somewhere I’ve been, somewhere I’m going, or somewhere I’d like to visit next. Sometimes I’m already planning another trip before I’ve finished the one I’m on. If you do the same thing, chances are you’ll recognize yourself in this list.

1. Your Closet Looks Like a Trip Around the World

You have a hanbok, kimono, sari, 20 sarongs, lederhosen, and a grass skirt hanging in your closet. At this point, getting dressed could turn into an international event.

2. You Know How to Call Home From Anywhere

You instinctively know how to dial the United States from just about anywhere in the world. No Googling required.

3. Even Your Wine Collection Has a Passport

Your 300 bottles of wine are organized by country.

Okay, that might mean I have more than one addiction.

4. You Check Airfare Before You Brush Your Teeth

You wake up, grab your phone, and check airfare prices before you even get out of bed. You weren’t necessarily planning a trip. You were just looking.

At least that’s what you tell yourself.

5. You Actually Fill Your Passports

You’ve completely filled passports before they expired. I was already on my fourth passport when I originally wrote this post, and it had only six blank pages left. Filling a passport instead of simply letting it expire felt like its own little travel accomplishment.

Photo caption: My first, and technically second, passport. In the first photo, I was a baby sitting on my mom’s lap. I was still too young to legally sign the next one myself, so my mom had to sign it for me.

6. Every Conversation Eventually Turns to Travel

Someone asks, “How are you?” and somehow your answer becomes a story about your last trip or how excited you are about the next one.

You didn’t mean to turn the conversation into a travel story. It just happened.

Again.

7. Your Luggage Is Impossible to Miss

You own bright yellow crocodile luggage that can be spotted from halfway across baggage claim.

That’s practical, people.

Just make sure it’s actually mine before calling my name. I convinced my mother to buy the exact same set.

Photo caption: My bright yellow crocodile luggage from the Samantha Brown collection. It definitely stands out in a sea of black suitcases.

8. You Know Who Designed Your Luggage

And not only is that bright yellow luggage easy to spot, you know it came from travel host Samantha Brown’s collection.

I can’t tell you how many compliments I’ve gotten on those bags over the years.

9. You Have a Drawer Full of Foreign Currency

You have leftover bills and coins from countries around the world, and you always check your stash before leaving on another international trip.

At some point, all that leftover currency stops being money and starts becoming home decor.

Shadow box, anyone?

Photo caption: Foreign currency collected during our travels. Much of it eventually ends up in shadow boxes and other travel displays around our home.

10. Exchange Rates Live Rent-Free in Your Head

Sometimes you can rattle off recent currency exchange rates without looking them up.

That’s when you know travel has taken over a little too much brain space.

11. You Know the Important Phrases

You may not speak five languages, but you can probably say some version of “How much?” and “Where’s the bathroom?” in several of them.

Priorities.

12. You Know When Not to Go

You know the high, low, dry, and rainy seasons of popular destinations without having to look them up.

Someone mentions Thailand in September or Italy in August, and your brain immediately starts running through weather, crowds, and prices.

13. You’ve Picked Up Random Bits of Travel Knowledge

Travel teaches you things you never expected to know.

You start recognizing currencies, airport codes, foods, place-name pronunciations, customs, and little cultural details simply because you’ve encountered them along the way.

It’s the kind of knowledge that sneaks up on you.

14. Your Bathroom Could Supply a Small Hotel

You have multiple stashes of travel-size shampoo, conditioner, soap, and lotion collected from hotels around the world.

Eventually, you stop taking everything.

Unless, of course, it’s a really good product or comes in a pretty bottle.

Then all bets are off.

Photo caption: My collection of travel-size shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and lotions from our travels.

15. Wi-Fi Is One of Your First Priorities

You land, get through the airport, and immediately start looking for Wi-Fi, your SIM connection, or the nearest coffee shop.

Only then can the trip officially begin.

16. Your Refrigerator Tells Your Travel Story

Your refrigerator is covered with magnets from places you’ve visited around the world.

And the collection probably doesn’t stop there. Tickets, stamps, coins, postcards, and other little travel souvenirs have slowly worked their way into your home too.

Photo caption: Fridge magnets collected during our travels around the world. I also collect tickets, stamps, and coins that eventually become little pieces of travel art around our home.

17. Your Phone Is Basically a Travel Agency

Most of the apps on your phone are related to travel.

Airlines. Hotels. Maps. Translation apps. Currency converters. Transit apps.

And a few of them may not even be in English.

18. Certain Songs Immediately Take You Somewhere

You hear a song and suddenly you’re standing in another country, remembering exactly where you were when you heard it.

I’ll always associate running the Paris Half Marathon with the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.” That’s what was playing when we took off, and that memory has stuck with me ever since.

Travel has a funny way of giving songs a permanent address.

19. You’ve Googled Jobs Based on How Travel-Friendly They Are

At some point, searching phrases like “location independent,” “remote work,” or “digital nomad” started feeling less like job hunting and more like a hobby.

Because wouldn’t it be nice if work stopped getting in the way of travel?

20. Airport Codes Make Perfect Sense to You

You recognize three-letter airport codes other people have never heard of.

JFK? Easy.

ICN? Of course.

SIN? Singapore.

And yes, a day in SIN sounds perfectly reasonable to you.

21. You’ve Developed Strong Opinions About Airplanes

You know there are differences between Boeing and Airbus aircraft, and you might even have a favorite.

I developed some very strong opinions after spending six miserable hours squeezed between the window and my husband on an Airbus A330 from Busan to Kuala Lumpur.

I couldn’t get comfortable, couldn’t move much, and couldn’t even raise the armrest between us.

By the end of that flight, I was ready to add aircraft type to my future booking criteria.

22. Airport Security Amateurs Test Your Patience

You’ve been through airport security enough times that you have your routine down.

So when someone gets to the front of the line and suddenly discovers the change in their pocket, you’re standing behind them thinking, Come on, people. We can do this.

Frequent travelers know the drill.

23. You’re Planning the Next Trip Before You’ve Unpacked

You’ve barely made it home before you’re thinking about where to go next.

The suitcase isn’t completely unpacked, the laundry hasn’t been done, and somehow there are already five new tabs open on your laptop.

24. You Still Look Up When a Plane Flies Overhead

A plane flies overhead and you stop, look up, and wonder where it’s going.

Even after all these years and all these trips, there’s still something about seeing an airplane in the sky that makes me want to be on it.

25. You Check the World Clock Before Calling People

When you’ve made friends around the world, moved around, or traveled extensively, you learn to check the time before calling.

Nothing says “I’ve completely forgotten about time zones” like accidentally calling somebody when they’re sound asleep.

Ask me how I know.

26. You Have a Travel Blog

Obviously.

When you travel, come home, write about the trip, edit the photos, publish the story, share it, and then start planning another trip so you’ll have something else to write about…

You’re probably addicted to travel.

And honestly?

I’m okay with that.

Once Travel Gets Into You, It Stays

After years of traveling, I’ve realized the addiction isn’t really about collecting passport stamps or checking countries off a list. It’s the feeling of discovering someplace new, learning how other people live, eating something you’ve never tried, getting completely turned around in an unfamiliar city, and coming home with another story.

And the funny thing is, the more I travel, the bigger the world seems.

There is always another neighborhood to wander, another food to taste, another train to catch, another country to understand, and another place that wasn’t anywhere near my list until somebody mentioned it.

So yes, I might be a travel addict.

But I can think of worse things to be addicted to.

 

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