Name: 13 Essential Bucket List Trips to Make Before 30 | World Travel Guide
Uploaded: 2025-08-07T18:40:57.000Z
Duration: 14 min 48 s
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You want to travel the world, but you don't have that much money.

You're rich with the most valuable resource of all, time.

However, once you turn 30, your time is sucked up by work, family commitments, and most people put off big travel dreams until retirement, by which time they are too old to enjoy the best things about travel.

I recently turned 30, and I can vouch you do start to slow down.

You don't have as much energy, and I realize there's certain trips that you should take before you turn 30.

Whether you're fresh out of school, in the depths of a quarter-life crisis, or like me, believe that age is just a number, this video will inspire you to get out and see the world while you still can.

So if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button, turn on notifications, give this video a big thumbs up, and share it with your travel buddies if you haven't already.

These are 13 trips you need to take before you turn 30.

First up, backpacking through Europe with your best friends.

Now I know it's a little bit cliche, but trust us, this really is an incredible experience.

I still remember my first backpacking trip with my best friends from high school.

It is a great experience for first-time travelers because it's relatively easy to get around, there's a lot of diversity in a small area, and most passports have visa-free travel.

But most importantly, it's a great trip to take with your best friends because as you get older, unfortunately, life happens, people get busy, priorities come up, and it gets harder and harder to dedicate time to go travel with friends.

But pretty much everyone dreams of going to Europe, so it's the perfect trip to take after graduation before work, school, and life take everyone in different directions.

Travel by train using a Eurorail pass, make new friends at hostels, and learn to say cheers in as many languages as your liver can handle.

Trust me, this will be a trip you're going to remember for decades to come.

In your 20s, you don't have a lot of cash, but you do have a lot of time.

That's why it's important to take a big trip before you're 30.

Sure, Europeans get to enjoy month-long holidays throughout their entire career, but in the United States, once you start working, you're going to get two weeks of vacation time per year maximum for the rest of your working life.

That's why you should consider taking a month or two to travel before you really get focused on your career.

If you have student loans, we're not suggesting that you default on your creditors and flee the country never to return again.

But we are suggesting that you put this moment into perspective.

You might not know exactly what you want to do with your life, but you're also freer than you will ever be again.

In the UK and Australia, it's quite common to take a gap year, a year between school and life, to work and travel abroad.

If you want more information about how much it costs to travel the world for a full year, you can click on this card to see the full video.

A gap year is not an option for most people, but don't worry.

A big trip does not have to take a full year or cost a lot of money.

The key to long-term travel on a budget is picking a part of the world where you can get by on $25 to $50 a day, places like Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the cheapest country of all, India, where you can easily get by on $1,000 a month.

Do the big trip now because nobody on their death bed ever wishes they spent more time in the office.

But what if you can't convince your friends to come with you?

There are a few times in your life when no one is depending on you, when you don't have a job and a mortgage and a family all looking at you to pay the bills.

That's why of all the experiences on this list, traveling alone is one of the most important ones to do in your twenties, unless you get divorced and start to try to figure out the meaning of life again, and then go on an eat, pray, love mission for a year because that could happen, too.

Traveling solo takes you away from the expectations of society, of family, and even of your friends.

It allows you to discover who you are and what you truly like.

And most importantly, it teaches you to be comfortable being alone.

Southeast Asia is the ideal place for a solo trip.

There's plenty of other travelers around.

And sipping a beer on the Mekong River is the perfect way to figure out what it is you want to do with your life when it's time to settle down and get a real J-O-B.

Who said anything about getting a real job just yet?

Between school and a career, there are plenty of opportunities to work temporary jobs that allow you to continue to travel.

If you want to learn more about those, click on the card up there.

You could sail around the Mediterranean on a private yacht and dine on fresh scallops, the leftover scallops from the yacht owner, but nobody's count.

You could teach English in Japan or tend bar at a beachfront cabana in Rio de Janeiro.

Rather than living to work, work to live and see where it takes you.

For example, after I studied abroad in New Zealand, I worked a season in Queenstown, basically doing odds and ends, anything to pay the rent and buy my snowboard lift passes.

New Zealand and Australia are a great location for the working holiday visa, and there's more information about that in a video that we're going to shoot soon.

So subscribe and turn on notifications if you haven't already.

If you don't have a lot of savings and aren't ready for a 9-5, consider a working holiday visa.

Working holiday visas are only valid for people under 30 years old, so what are you waiting for?

Plus, if you're worried about taking time off to travel and how it's going to look on your resume, just remember that most employers value life experience, and going traveling gives you a ton of life experience.

At some point, everyone should travel like a free spirit.

No plans, no expectations, and not a lot of money to make it happen.

Your 20s is a time to read Thoreau and Kerouac, to scrape together your meager savings, pack your life into a backpack, and hit the road with thumb outstretched.

Use couchsurfing.org to find free places to stay, woof.org to find farms where you can trade a day's labor for room and board, and hitchhike from A to B.

If you travel like this, you really don't need much money at all.

This trip is important because it teaches you how to trust, to trust yourself, to find a way forward, to trust strangers to help you when you're in need, and to trust life to give you what you need when you let go of your expectations.

Embrace serendipity, say yes to life, and enjoy the journey, because if the destination is marriage and a family, the time to take this journey is right now.

Good luck convincing your significant other to go hitchhiking and couchsurfing.

But if you do find someone who's down for that, you've got to keep her.

Unfortunately, when you hit 30, one of the first things to go is your energy, that unbridled passion to just do stuff all the time.

Trust me, I just turned 30, and all I want to do is sit on the couch in my pajamas, watch Netflix, and take baths with Epsom soap.

That is why you should travel to a festival in your 20s.

The wilder, the better, and ideally one that lasts for about a week.

Or travel to the craziest carnival on your continent.

It could be Rio, it could be New Orleans, or it could be Venice, Italy.

Glastonbury in the UK, Coachella in California, or if you're really going for it, Burning Man.

Just remember, be safe, stay hydrated, and wear sunscreen, folks.

Travel is one of the best ways to meet a potential lover.

If you meet on the road, chances are you already have something in common, that you like to travel.

Whether you believe in fate or not, you'll never know what a chance encounter could be unless you go for it.

Our parents met on a train in the 1970s in Switzerland, and if my mom hadn't asked my dad to see his map, chances are we wouldn't be here.

So go visit that beautiful foreign exchange student you met in college, and next time a handsome guy asks you if you want to go on an adventure, say yes.

And if you're already in a relationship, travel can be a great way to find out how compatible you really are, especially when things don't go smoothly.

If you are in a relationship and want some tips on how to travel better as a couple, click that card.

Beyond traveling for who you love, travel for what you love on a dirtbag trip.

A dirtbag trip is when you use all of your time and money to pursue one of your favorite hobbies, usually at the price of comfort.

The term originated with hardcore rock climbers who would camp out in Yosemite Valley in California to climb the face of El Capitan for months at a time.

Whether you rock climb, surf, snowboard or scuba dive, it's all about trying to spend time doing what you love.

As you grow older, work and family take up more of your time, and hobbies become vital for your well-being.

Your future self will be happier and healthier for it.

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13 Essential Bucket List Trips to Make Before 30 | World Travel Guide

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