Another Suitcase In Another Hall: Is Living Like A Nomad Good For You?

Whatever stage you’re at in your life, whether approaching retirement or just starting out on this journey they call life, looking for new and exciting experiences should be par for the course. A lot of people like to have a holiday a year, some do it by travelling, and others do it as part of their work, where they are living an Alan Partridge type experience, literally living in hotels. But, is this type of life actually good for you?

The adventures we can have meeting new people, and living out of a suitcase can be thrilling, albeit for a while. Maybe spending a lot of time in posh hotels with tufted carpet, a comfy double bed, and your choice of TV channels sounds like an ideal existence but let’s face it, if we have learnt anything from Alan Partridge, we can’t get an Irish coffee at 3 in the morning no matter how hard we try!

Despite the isolating aspect of being in and out of hotels, we could find that our diet stays somewhat limited. If all we see on hotels, bars, and hotel bars, that thought of forcing down yet another sandwich can turn our stomach. On the other hand, we could use this opportunity to get out and experience culture first hand. Granted, if we spend a lot of time travelling up and down the same country, we’re going to find that fast food chains, pub lunches, and corner shops/garage mini marts are the norm. And we can soon grow sick of this.

But those people that thrive on living out of suitcases, they seek the thrill of adventure in a new place and meeting new people. Every person is their best friend, although just for a very short period of time. But is this really healthy? When we live this type of existence, the idea is far more romantic than the reality. Sure, we can enjoy our own company, and go at our own pace, but if we do this all too often, and this becomes our regular existence, there’s no concept of home anymore. When you think about those people that go on tour, whether it’s musicians, actors, or business people in and out of conferences, it takes some time to readjust back to normality.

So if we go back to the romanticised version of the nomad, popularized by Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, is the idea of going from place to place a truly healthy existence? It’s not. But we can’t argue with the fact that most hotels are particularly plush nowadays, so if you want to live the nomadic existence, at least you can do it with some style.

Some people love the idea of travelling for work, but if we have learnt anything from those that do it constantly commuting for a living, on and off planes, it’s not just partially isolating, but it’s bad for our health. So if you want to have some sort of livelihood where you live out of a suitcase, try to do it on your own terms.