This year Isaac and I decided to step out of our comfort zone and get back to some traveling. Most British expats we know have an annual holiday back to the UK, in fact most expats we know do this. This year is different, however, we’re going to meet roughly halfway!
When the conversation comes up about your vacation plans for the year ahead people just expect you to say you are going back to England.
The issue creates a difficult debate in your head, you want to see your family and friends but you don’t want to have to year after year use all your vacation time just going back to England, there is a world out there to see after all!
So we decided to visit South East Asia once more. But this time we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to meet some friends and family half way. The only one who took the bait was my amazing but ditsy sister Sally!
A silly hat competition in Vietnam
We enjoyed meeting half way so much that we’ll likely do the same again next year. Here are 5 reasons why we think you should consider this an option instead of just booking flights back to your home country.
1. Affordability:
Let’s face it, flying back to England breaks the bank and money talks! If you took a took two-week vacation then 4 of those days (2 either side, especially more so as we have to reach Cornwall) would be spent traveling and 10 would only be spent actually on vacation. For the price of the flight you only get 10 days of holiday time, your credit card is maxed out, you spent 10 days running around loads of different people’s houses (because god forbid they come to visit you) and by the time you return you don’t feel like you had a holiday at all.
By meeting at a mutually agreed halfway point you save money on flights and save time traveling, if you pick somewhere that is a more affordable destination (like Asia!) then you save heaps of money and all of sudden your two-week vacation is half the cost of what you expected.
2. You both get a vacation – It’s a win-win:
Organising a vacation at a halfway mutually agreed point allows for each person to have a vacation. You both get to each have a vacation rather than one being in work mode and other not being in work mode. When this is the case it can be hard to balance time together. With a vacation it is different you are both on more relaxed, in new surroundings and you embrace your time together so much more!
We were both in holiday mode 🙂
3. You get to reconnect:
It was awesome catching up with my sister in another country, it had been over a year since we had seen each other. To just have that connection with a family member who knew all the latest gossip of Cornish life and the family gives you that warm fuzzy feeling in your heart. We got to spend some quality time together and reconnect and reminisce about the old times!
4. Join a tour:
Group tours take the hassle out of traveling and allow you to make some new friends at the same time. We’d at first dismissed this idea as we wanted to spend as much time together as possible for the short time we have. The group tour gave us plenty of time together and was actually a blessing as otherwise, Sally may have felt like a third leg? We booked an Intro Travel group tour to Vietnam and would highly recommend checking it out.
Our group tour had 20 people in the group in total and to our surprise 17 of them were Brit’s.
Once we met everyone in our group we nearly felt like we were back in England (but with amazing prices and hot weather). We realised we hadn’t bantered and joked around like this in quite a while, there is nothing like meeting a fellow Brit and just clicking. As much as we like to think we’re all different, essentially our humour is all the same and to be surrounded by that each and every day on vacation was a something we didn’t realise we had missed – it was refreshing!
Fun times with our new English buddies!
5. Familiarity:
It’s a strange thing meeting Brit’s in another country, you manage to get all the latest happenings within your country from them and you feel instantly connected with your home country, the cultures and the people. Without even setting foot on the soil, it is a pretty awesome feeling!
Being surrounded by fellow Englishmen really did give us a sense of familiarity.
So, what is the take away from this trip? Consider meeting friends and family half way – somewhere you’re both interested in seeing. Consider a group tour and enjoy every moment!
We also made a short little video of our time away which is on our Youtube page. Press play below and check it out!