Money Comes Back, Memories Don’t: Why You Should Travel After Uni

So, you’re just going into your final year at university, perhaps you’re wondering whether you should get a graduate job or go travelling? Well, we’re here to tell you why you should travel after uni.

You have plenty of time to make your mind up but, here us out, a post-uni gap year is an amazing idea! You’ll be going out into the big wide world and probably for the first time, you’ll be free from the education system.

If you’re on the fence about whether to go and see the world after you complete your studies, carry on reading to discover our 8 reasons why you should.

1. You Deserve The Trip Of A Lifetime

After studying for three years at university, or perhaps longer depending on your course, you really deserve to take a break and do what you want to do.

Travelling is essentially a long holiday, sure it’s more stressful as it involves more planning going from place to place, but you’re still experiencing different cultures and all the fun stuff that comes with seeing the world and being so far from home.

Not to mention, there’s been a global pandemic for the past few years which made things so much harder whilst at uni, than normal circumstances.

You might feel like a large part of your life came to a halt, and it did. We’re big believers that money returns, but your time doesn’t.

So, why not go on a trip of a lifetime? Whether it’s going backpacking or interrailing, there’s loads of budget travelling options you can make use of if you want to go travelling as a young person.

Let’s be real, uni was expensive, and you probably don’t plan on having loads of money to splash around.

You worked hard, go and live your best life!

2. Seize The Opportunity Whilst You’re Young

Not to scare you, but you’ll never be this young and free again.

Whilst you’re a uni grad in your early twenties, you’ve got little responsibilities and commitments, you’ve probably got no children, you’re probably not married, and you probably don’t have a house.

The timing has never been better, we’re not saying you can’t go travelling when you’re older, but there’s more factors that come in to play the older you get.

Your health tends to be a lot better the younger you are too.

Make the most of your young age, for some places, if you want to work whilst travelling, you must be under a certain age for a workplace visa too.

If we can’t convince you to travel after uni, take a look at this TikTok “I’ll get my money back, but I’ll never be in my 20s living my best life travelling Thailand again”.

3. There’s Plenty Of Time To Find Your Passions

As a recent graduate travelling the globe, you’ll have so much time to reflect on your life and your passions.

You can think about what you want out of life and what career route you want to take whilst you explore.

You might find that this time spent seeing the world has changed your aspirations or you may even find new career paths whilst you’re aboard!

You’ll meet so many new people and be exposed to new things, which will open your perspective on so many things, no matter where you go.

There are so many people you haven’t met, so many cultures you haven’t learnt about, so many places you haven’t experienced and so many foods you haven’t tasted yet.

So, of course this experience is going to broaden your horizons and change your view on certain things.

You might come to realise that maybe you don’t want to work in a specific field when you return from travelling and instead, you want to work in this sector or work in this location.

You’ll have so much more time to think about what it is YOU want when you travel after uni!

4. Travelling May Improve Your Wellbeing

If you struggled quite a bit whilst at university, whether it’s dealing with feelings of stress completing exams or assignments, or feeling lonely, or even just feeling like you want to be doing something more, then travelling can improve your mental health.

Travelling has been linked to stress reduction and improving your general outlook on life.

Of course, there are some anxieties that come along with it, but for the most part, you’ll feel happier taking this leap and experiencing something completely different than you ever have.

It’s not just your mental wellbeing that can be improved when you travel after uni, your physical wellbeing can take a boost too because you’ll be more active whilst travelling to new places.

5. You’ll Meet New People

As we’ve mentioned, you’ll meet so many new people from across the world whilst on this travel journey.

You may meet like-minded people who become friends for life and make memories that you’ll look back on for years to come.

Similarly, to meeting friends at university, there’s people who may be in your life that you haven’t even encountered yet!

We stand by the saying that money comes back but memories don’t. You’ll definitely bump into some other graduates whilst travelling too.

With the help of technology and social media these days, there’s many ways you can plan to meet people before you go!

If you do end up meeting new people from different countries, you never know, you might just be able to stay with them next time you go travelling.

You may even make some new connections to build up your network whilst travelling which can help boost your career prospects when you return home!

6. You Can Earn Money Whilst You Travel

Whilst you’re a graduate, you can be selfish with your money because you’ll probably be moving back home with family once you finish your undergraduate course.

So, you’ll be able to save some money by working before you travel, and you won’t have to worry about forking out on rent or living costs like you did at uni.

You can also earn money whilst you travel abroad, and your CV will look great already if you’ve just completed a university degree.

Working abroad whether it’s working within hospitality, working as an au-pair, teaching English or another foreign language, or even working as a freelancer is a great way to save money and experience local culture.

There really are so many jobs available to you so you can travel to new places and gain money whilst on the road too. Travelling doesn’t mean it’s a complete ‘gap’ from the working world!

7. You’ll Gain New Skills

Travelling, especially solo-travelling, can help push you out your comfort zone and gain tons of new skills from self-confidence to time management to communication skills to budget management to cultural awareness and so forth.

The things you learn and the situations you’re faced with daily whilst abroad can help improve your CV and career prospects for when you return home.

You may encounter some problems along the way (don’t worry too much) which you have to respond to practically, which will help you learn some valuable lessons for the future.

We’re not saying going travelling is going to secure you a job as you still have to sell yourself, but mentioning your skills and experiences can help you stand out to employers.

Travelling can also help you to learn new languages, which can be a great skill to have not only in the workplace but in the real world too.

As we mentioned earlier, travelling also helps expand your contacts which can introduce you to different jobs and opportunities.

8. You Won’t Regret It

Once you’ve finished travelling, you’ll probably feel accomplished and super happy you went on this journey of self-discovery and saw things you never would have.

We have to tell you, there’s a far greater chance you will regret not going travelling after uni than going – it’s the right decision!

There will still be plenty of jobs and opportunities available when you get back from your time abroad, so don’t rush into a graduate position if your heart is set on discovering the world.

You’ll be working for a long time to come, so go and travel around the world first!

Although, we recommend spending some time thoroughly thinking through your options and what you want when the time comes, you do have quite a while until you graduate but things might not come clear until you finish university.

One of our top tips is to weigh up the pros and cons of travelling after uni or staying and working, or even completing a master’s degree.

There are tons of post-uni choices, just find the right one for you, there isn’t a set order you have to do things in!

Remember, you shouldn’t let anyone else’s input stop you from doing what you want to do, don’t let anyone hold you back.

You don’t have to go travelling for a whole year either, you could even go for two months or a similar time frame and decide if it’s for you!

So, that’s it, the end of our post on why you should travel after uni. Have we convinced you? We hope we have.

We wish you all the best with the next academic year, it’s came around so fast!

To help you out, take a read of our blog on the best project management tools to help you keep on track of your studies.

We’re sure you’ll love what we have on offer at our Essential Student Living properties, why not see them for yourself?