The 7 Best Career Options for People With Wanderlust
All of us have a bit of wanderlust, but for some of us, traveling is an essential part of a rewarding life. Unfortunately, there are two things that tend to get in the way of our ability to travel: time and money. Distant or extravagant trips tend to be expensive, which limits how many trips we can take in a given period of time. On top of that, most of us are busy with advancing our careers, which means we don’t have as much travel or vacation time as we’d like.
With a few strategic changes to your approach, it’s possible to travel inexpensively, which means your biggest limiting factor is likely your job. But if travel is your true calling, there are jobs that can allow you to travel freely—and possibly provide you with enough income to do it in style.
The Best Possible Careers
These are some of the best careers to choose if you love to travel:
- Real estate investing. There are a few different approaches to real estate investing, and many of them afford you the time and flexibility to travel. If you invest in low-maintenance, relatively new properties, you can collect rent remotely and not worry too much about ongoing maintenance. If you hire a property management company, you can spend even more time doing whatever you want, and rest assured that your responsibilities are being handled (and your rent is being collected). You can also use real estate as an excuse to scope out new areas, looking for cheap properties that have a high chance of growth in the future.
- Travel blogging. One of the most obvious potential choices on this list is becoming a travel blogger. The idea here is to travel wherever you’d like, documenting the sights, sounds, people, and opportunities you experience along the way in a format that’s entertaining to a massive audience. If you’re successful, you can make ample money with advertisements and sponsorships—but be aware that this is a highly competitive field.
- Freelance writing. You might also consider a career freelance writing, drafting articles from scratch about whatever topics are currently in demand. The advantage here is that you can do the work literally anywhere, so long as you have a device and an internet connection, though you might struggle at first with the inconsistent income (especially if you’ve never dealt with it before).
- Flight attendant. Another potentially obvious choice is pursuing a career as a flight attendant. Flight attendants are specifically required to make passengers on airplanes more comfortable, and on any given day, may find themselves headed to an exotic destination. The job isn’t as glamorous as it sounds, of course—flight attendants are in high-stress positions, and may not have much control over their hours or destination flights—but it’s certainly an option worthy of this list.
- Cruise ship working. In line with the flight attendant job is working on a cruise ship. Depending on your skills and experience, there are several different jobs you could choose, including a job as an attendant, an entertainer (like a musician), or a culinary artist. You could even be an engineer or captain, in charge of making sure the cruise operates smoothly. In any case, you’ll get to be on a cruise on an ongoing basis, and you’ll get to experience many new destinations.
- English teaching. Demand for English teachers abroad is extremely high, so you shouldn’t have much of a problem finding a position if you’re a native speaker (especially if you have previous teaching experience or credentials). The only real caveat here is that you won’t get to visit many destinations in quick succession; instead, you’ll usually stick around one location at a time, for a year or longer, before moving on, and you’ll often end up specializing in teaching English to one group of foreign language speakers.
- Business consulting. Finally, you could take on a role as a business consultant. This is the position that requires the most experience or knowledge of any potential career on this list. But if you’re experienced enough, you could work for an international corporation and visit locations all over the country—or all over the world.
Making the Change
The hardest part about pursuing these careers is making the jump from wherever you are. Because many of these options are entrepreneurial in nature, you may be forced to abandon your current career and take a risk on an uncertain future. However, if your heart won’t be satisfied unless you’re seeing the world, it’s well worth the risk of failure to pursue these careers. After all, even if you fail, you can always return to your previous field.
