69 People Who Quit Their Jobs To Travel Share If They Regret It Now

Yes. Several times. No regrets. The biggest was when I quit a bad factory job and saved up about 7k. Then I walked coast to coast across the USA which took about 8 months. Most of my budget was food and gear, slept in a tent most nights. My work history is full of large gaps, but also full of life experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Yes, twice.
Though I wish it weren’t the case, I feel that age plays a significant role in how these experiences unfold for me.

The first time, I was young, living in my parents’ house, and my job wasn’t very serious. Traveling for a year was an incredible adventure—I learned a lot, had amazing experiences, met fascinating people, and felt I’d had serious personal growth. Coming back home after a year of traveling wasn’t overly easy, but it wasn’t very difficult either. The hardest part was dealing with the overwhelming boredom of not traveling or doing something different and exciting every day. Still, it was relatively easy to get back into my life—I moved out of my parents' house, rented an apartment with friends, and landed a higher-paying job fairly quickly, so things worked out.

The second time, I quit my job, sold everything I owned, and set off for another adventure. It was great, but when I returned after a year, it was much harder. This time, it felt like everyone around me had moved forward with their lives. People had advanced in their careers, gotten married, had kids, and I felt stuck in place. I struggled to find a job for over a year, eventually looking at entry-level positions, which was a huge blow considering I was once on a completely different career path. At some point, COVID hit, and things got even worse. It became incredibly difficult to find an apartment to rent, so I had to sublet and move to a different apartment every month or two. My friends were busy with their spouses or babies, and I felt like I was completely alone.

Now, almost six years later, I still feel like I haven’t caught up with those around me.

Do I regret traveling? Not really. I had incredible experiences that I wouldn’t trade for anything, but it’s important to acknowledge that while you’re living your dream, life keeps moving forward for everyone else. People progress in their careers, relationships, and personal lives, and when you return, you might find that you’ve missed out on opportunities.

Not a year. I'm on year 8. And now it's coming to an end. I regret very little, although I wish I'd known the entire time that financially I was always going to be okay.

In hindsight, I'm always fine, but after 8 years of not always knowing where the next paycheck is coming from, and always having an eye on 6 months in advanced for the next major contract, it's grown tiresome

Now I worry about getting back into work that will 1 keep me stimulated and two, not suck because of nearly a decade out of regular work

If I knew what I know now when I started, I'd have taken less big risks, and just enjoyed the ride, although the 8 years of pushing myself will definitely pay off when I put down roots

The thing with money is there's always a way to find it. You just have to hone skills.

Learning things like video editing, marketing, copywriting. Are actually great starts, it's cliche, but the way you approach it is key.

The most successful way of finding money on the road that I've ever seen was video editing. Not my cup of tea but he would approach businesses, offer to do them a video for free, if they like it, they can buy it off him. Worked really well.

My partner passed away in an accident in July 2024. Quit my job, packed up and left. I couldn’t stand staying in the city we had moved to together and planned to have our life in. Initially, I started a new job in another country but I was not mentally ready for it and I couldn’t hack it. Ended up leaving and now I’m traveling. Somewhat with a plan, somewhat randomly. Visiting friends in different places, and seeing places I’ve always wanted to visit but never had the chance. It’s bittersweet because I wish my partner was with me but I’m hoping it’ll help me figure out what to do with myself when the traveling ends.

I say go for it. Why wait? There are always going to be reasons to put it off. If it’s something you want to do, don’t spend your time dreaming about it and never doing it. You never know who you will meet or what will happen along the way. Go wherever you’ve always wanted to go. Don’t overthink it.

Traveling alone gets hard around the 7 month mark. You start slowing down and spending a month or two in each place and taking classes or participating in sports or something.

Humans really want connection, comfort, stability.

If you travel with a partner though, it’s easy to go full blast for the full year at pretty high speed.

I did a whole year. Quit my job and travelled Europe, India, SEA, Japan. Ended up in Australia on a WHV, met my future wife in Thailand, she's Aussie, got married last year and bought a house now have a baby on the way. I don't regret a single thing!

Have you considered discussing the potential of an unpaid sabatical with your office? I am in the middle of a 5 month unpaid sabatical which I think has made the trip more relaxing, knowing that I have a job to go back to. It also has made budgeting easier as there is no unknown of job searching.

Alternatively, maybe see if you can find a new job and tell them you can only start on 3 months? I have a 3 months notice period at my job so it's not uncommon that people can't start straight away.

It’s not the same but I took a 13 month unpaid sabbatical to travel the world. Here’s the bulletin list to your questions:

Yes, I recommend it. You’re only at your age once. It becomes different the older and more established you are. I was 41 back then.

No. I have no regrets. The memories, friendships and experiences I made live on long after I came home.

Short answer I work for the government in BC, Canada. I just came back to my old job.

I saved and spent $24,764 CAD. About $62 a day.

I spent three months in South America, two months in Eastern Europe, six weeks in the Middle East, five weeks in Africa and five months and a week in Southeast Asia.

Regarding the regret question it’s been ten years and I’m on a second sabbatical. This time it’s seven months paid at 40% of my salary. I’m traveling Africa for the whole time. Currently in Kenya.

I'm in the middle of doing it. 1 month in. Feeling a bit homesick but don't regret it. But I was tired af of that job. I saved up plenty of money that I don't have to stress too much. Doing Europe and a bit of Asia. Might extend the trip when I get back if I feel like it.

I left a job in an engineering/manufacturing business to tour Asia for six weeks. Relatively short, but it was a long journey for me. I just needed the break as an opportunity to explore and experience discovery. When I came back I had the opportunity to work fewer days at the same place and a few years later left completely to go back to school.
No regrets at all.

A long time ago, my then girlfriend asked me to give up my job, rent out my house and travel the world with her. I immediately said 'No'. It just made no sense to me. Weeks later she passed suddenly at the age of 27. Suffice to say, I was devastated. We'd not been together for a long time (18 months) but...

12 months later, after saving every penny I could, I gave up my job, rented out my house and headed to the other side of the world. What followed was five years of on/off travel. I'd work to save money and travelled as much as I could.

My regrets are obvious but I also wish I'd done it much earlier in my life. I was once sat in a hostel cafe in Paris and a16yo back packer came in. I was so jealous of the freedom he had and the great travel experiences he had ahead of him. I didn't start til I was 29.

Travelling changed me in so many ways and I encourage everyone to go out and see the world. You'll learn more about yourself than anything else.

Yes I did it at the beginning of 2022 and came back home 13 months later. I travelled around Asia and it was probably the best year of my life. Absolutely no regrets. I did this at 39 years old, had plenty of savings and also rented out my flat for income so I was in a good position to do it.

Coming back home was hard initially adapting back to reality again. The job market wasn't great and it took me about 3 months before I got a permanent job. I spent about £18,000 on the trip in total and I've since made all that money back again.

Would I do it again? No, it was a one off thing for me and kind of a midlife crisis. I'm now happy in my job and ready to settle down with the right person. And as I'm getting older I now prefer comfort over the backpacking life.

Yep, did it in 2023 for 6 months after leaving a stable corporate job in marketing. I interviewed about 4 weeks before I came home and walked into a job immediately. I had some decent experience though and was not a junior anymore. No regrets at all but it was definitely mentally challenging at times and I learned a lot about myself.

I only regretted not updating my resume before I left, and not preparing for interviews a little more while traveling. I don't regret quitting or traveling at all.

Yes, twice quit and sold all my possessions. I was gone for 9 months the first time, second time 5 years :)

Absolutely no regrets. 10/10 would do it again.

You can work to live or live to work, it’s your choice.

I did it! I was basically going to quit my job one way or another, but I ended up deciding to take another job in the industry four months later. Given your industry, I think the key is to make sure that your professional network is kept up. But, I never had anyone view the fact that I took a few months off work negatively.

I went to Europe and, being a planner, I had a lot of my trip planned out in advance. I used a Google spreadsheet to keep the hostel reservations and flight/train/bus tickets organized in one place.

I’m quitting my soul sucking IT job next week and taking off for a 4 month trip across Latin America and Europe. I’ve saved $10,000 and will be teaching English online very part time for an additional 200€ a month. I’ve secured a job teaching English in Vietnam starting in August so that was easy. I’ve already booked the first month worth of accommodations and I’m just going with the flow for activities !

I've taken a year off to travel and this is really a much bigger topic than can be covered in a comment on reddit. Great experience, no serious regrets, just minor tweaks. (And I've since learned how to plan trips like this in a more streamlined way than I did originally.) I went from juggling multiple part time jobs to travel to pivoting into a more stable career path in marketing. Saved $12k before leaving and made the rest of my budget freelancing while traveling. Finding work on return varies between industries, positions, and individuals. You might chat with a recruiter in your industry to learn how long job searches are taking. Happy to share more via chat another time.

Yes.

My first trip to Europe I quit 2 jobs AND took a semester off from university actually to spend 3 months backpacking through Europe.

I regret not staying longer. I regret going back to school and work. I regret not expanding my travels more to see more of Europe and traveling further afield.

I would 100% do it again, even today with my family. We own home and cars and have savings. We are healthy and I have a skillset that I can come back home and immediately either find a new job or work on the side to start re-earning a livable income.

But not everyone is as ready to leave it all behind for an extended trip as I am :)

When I went on that first trip, it was supposed to be 4 high school friends spending 2 weeks seeing our favorite soccer clubs and the tourist highlights along the way.

Budget was $3,500 - all in: flights, hotels, rental car, food, etc. I didn't have that kind of money, my parents didn't have that kind of money. But all of my friends' parents did.

I took a semester off of university, doubled my part-time job's hours, picked up a second full time job. I worked 6-7 days per week for several months.

Then I found 'Europe Through the Back DOor' by Rick Steves, consumed its 300+ pages in a single weekend, and realized I could spend the entire summer on that same $3500 budget.

I told my friends thinking they'd stay the summer with me. They laughed and made fun of me.

I bought a backpack, a Eurail pass, a Hostel Card, and a moneybelt, and a open-jaw, round trip 'from anywhere on the East coast of US to Western Europe and back' airfare 'voucher.

I flew out a week before my friends, and learned all about solo backpacking, hostels, Europes trains, sleeping on trains for free, eating affordably. \Then met my friends in Rome and we traveled together for 2 weeks.

THey left and a cousin from home flew out to meet me. We traveled together for another 2 weeks.

Then I traveled solo for the rest of the summer. I didn't see as much as I could have in retrospect, but i saw and experienced a LOT.

Next to my wife and kids, it was the single most pivotal moment in my life.

Now I share my stories and experiences and advice from 25 years of European travel on Youtube and Twitter and am building a web app to help others travel to Europe on their own affordably and with confidence.

The only thing I regret is not traveling more before having a family & not dragging my family around more as my kids have grown up.