My father had a transferrable job, which meant a new place every 4 years along with a leave travel allowance. We went around Gujrat, Rajasthan in India extensively till age of 4 and then to South Indian temples, Himachal-Punjab, Darjeeling-Sikkim-Orissa, Maharashtra on the Leave Fare Concession option he used to get. We started travelling outside India from about 10-15 years ago. My tryst with travel continues now taking larger space in my life than ever
My grandfather also worked in a transferrable job which meant my father was used to travelling and it somewhat came into my DNA
My first international travel was to Switzerland on an exchange program from undergraduate college for about a month. The excitement and butterflies in the stomach around going to one of the most beautiful places was priceless! Our seniors who went a year ago had gotten all Swiss pass which got limited to a pass for canton of Vaud for us. Despite low student budgets, we still managed to go around Switzerland over the weekends
I got another chance to go to Europe during my post graduate days, this time for 3.5 months. A three month Eurail pass and no attendance policy at the university meant we were on the roads for more than 2.5 months. We had batchmates staying in different countries across different universities in Europe making accommodation cheaper. It was once in a lifetime experience to backpack across 20+ countries when you are still young, brimming with energy to walk 5-6+ hours in a day
With Eurail pass, it was ok not to plan too much, get onto almost any train you feel like, backtrack if you went astray without worrying about costs. We didn’t have smartphones with internet at that time, so planning still had to be meticulous if going for multiple days beyond weekends. Some trains needed reservations which further mandated planning
Once I joined work, we made sure to travel on almost every chance I get to take a leave. I did some solo trips when my father was still working as they couldn’t match my leaves and join me. I travelled solo to Turkey- Greece when I was 28. This gave me the confidence to plan and execute travel independently
Once he retired, it made planning travel together easier. It is quite normal to stay with parents in India at any age. We now go travelling almost whenever I manage to get leaves from work which is 2-3 times every year. We steal some smaller breaks during extended weekends for local travel
My parents are more energetic than me! I am typically the last one to reach while hiking mountains. Travelling with family makes each place much more memorable for me