Adulting + Travel
As we get older and make friends with folks who move away, there is always a wonder. Will our friendship last or will it fade away. Making friends as an adult is so hard that when someone moves (even if its for their dream job) you feel like a small part of you is going with them. It feels like things will never be as good as they were when you could see each other on a weekly basis. In my adult life I have lived in 4 different states and for some of them very different parts of the same state. Many friendships were lost, but the ones that remained require an effort such as check in texts, facetime dates and even a DM or 2.
As adults, we can finally plan trips with our friends and while everyone sadly may not be a travel friend. What is holding you back from visiting them for a weekend? What is preventing you from seeing what their new life is like? Just because they are hundreds of miles away you can still maintain a friendship! In 2024 I made a point to visit friends in different places and try to do some trips with them too.
1) Plan a trip together. We took a trip to Orlando, FL as a group to celebrate a birthday and had the best time. We got on rides together at Universal Studios and while the days were long we had the best time trading corporate horror stories and laughing about life in our respective cities. The best part of this trip was that there wasn’t too much coordination. We all agreed on what ticket and fast pass to purchase and then once we got there the fun was built in. Maybe a few texts about flight plans, and minor details were done but it was relatively easy to plan for this trip. We didn’t stay at the same location, we didn’t have a firm itinerary but we went with the flow of the weekend and it was a super memorable birthday!
2) Plan your trip around an event. Do you and your friend love the same artist? Why not go to a concert in a new city? We got our concert tickets, shared reels and TikToks on things that we wanted to do and 3 planning calls later we were on the way to New Orleans, LA. It doesn’t have to be a long trip or one that is a 12 hour trek to a new continent. Start small and simple; create a planning note to share fun things to do and then firm up your activities a month or 2 in advance of the trip.
3) Visit your friends! So you are sad that your friend moved away. Don’t just stalk their socials, GO VISIT! I like to use Googleflights to track my flights when I am thinking about going somewhere. Google will email you when there is a drop or increase in pricing, once you confirm the dates with your friend put a watch on flights! You can explore their new city together, meet their new friends and create some memories as well. You can help with scoping out new activities, they can show you around and its a great escape from the day to day of your current life. On my first day in Colorado, we actually worked remote together before going to a museum that my friend who lived there, had never been to.
Traveling in this manner feels like a special treat. You get to spend quality time with your friends and there will definitely be a story about that time we went to (insert random place here). During my year of travel I also found that I appreciated my home comforts a little more because I had time to miss those things. For the experiences that I wished I could have in Arizona, I was able to have them with my old friends in their respective states. Traveling definitely requires saving, planning and coordinating with others schedules. If you plan early enough and there is enthusiasm on both ends you are already halfway there. I loved exploring with my friends in 2024 and while adulting can get in the way, there is value in spending that quality time with friends. “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
