Travel at its most romantic has always conjured up an image of spontaneity. You sit back in your office chair, close your eyes and fantasize about telling your boss where to shove it before jetting off to an exotic getaway.
But a study from Expedia shows our smartphones are making this more of a reality, by tempting us to drop everything, with a wealth of last-minute deals at our fingertips. And more of us really are telling the boss where to go, as the rising wave of millennial travellers proves the nomad lifestyle can be funded by working on the move.
Climbing Mount Rinjani ©
The Rise of Last-minute Deals
Much like the introduction of debit cards and the early days of internet shopping, smartphones have made compulsive buying more compelling than ever. You want it, you can buy it — and probably at a discount by simply tapping on that touchscreen.
This has had a huge impact on the way we travel, now that something which normally took weeks or months of planning can happen in a matter of minutes. The rise of last minute holidays from companies like Britain’s Holiday Hypermarket, cut-price hotel rooms on Agoda, and car rental search engines like Europcar mean you can book just about any short trip in an instant.
Your smartphone also makes the ideal travel guide, no matter where you go, when Google Maps works offline, and free Wi-Fi gives you all the tourist information you could ever need – including the local sights, restaurant reviews, and even translation apps.
The Art of Making Money on the Move
All of the previous makes spontaneous holidays easier for everyone. But you don’t have to end your travels there because more people than ever are making travel a long term lifestyle and funding it on the move.
There are a number of ways to fund your adventures, and in a digital world the hippest travel trend is to get paid for the luxury. The internet opens so many doors to making money online that your travels don’t necessarily have to come to an end. From web designers to bloggers and online stock exchanges, people (quite literally) everywhere are proving you don’t need to choose between work and life on the road.
And what sets you up better for spontaneous travel than removing work from the list of things holding you back? Free yourself from the nine-to-five and you really can up sticks and go wherever you want, whenever.
Feeling the Spontaneous Itch?
So whether you dream of travelling the earth or just need a break from the norm, spontaneous getaways are easier and cheaper than ever. Which means the only question left to ask is where do you feel like going today?