Can you do a gap year in your 30s?

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Last Updated on 24th July 2020

Can you do a gap year in your 30s! Yes, yes you can! Next question?! 😉 Maybe you you went straight from A-levels to University and from University straight into a full time job, while your friends unable to get a graduate job went off to have the time of their lives backpacking around SE Asia, working at the Sydney 2000 Olympics or canoeing in Nepal … like my friends did.

Then one year working turns into two, two years into five, and before you know it, into ten! … but then you get made redundant! Yay! This happened to me back in 2009. I was delighted! Although I have to caveat this my saying I had no wife, kids, pets or mortgage so it made things a lot easier. But when you do have a mortgage should you go travelling or attempt to pay it off?

Backpacking when you were 23 “may” have been better than when you were 33. But then that’s better than doing it when you’re 43 … although I’d go at that age too. And a gap year in your 30s (33 for me) will make you appreciate it more as you’ve been working hard for the last 10 years and won’t just see it as a continuation of school/university fun times.

Gap year in your 30s. Where did it take me?

My 6 month rite of passage was the typical China > SE Asia > Australia > New Zealand route and the groups of people I encountered fell broadly into 4 categories:

• The majority were 25-26 year olds who’d been working for 3-4 years, realised that work isn’t “all that,” but had managed to put some funds together
• Next up were the post A-level and post degree “gap year” backpackers.
• That left the reduncancy beneficiaries like me in their mid 30s in the obvious minority
• Finally there were the late 40s/early 50s “hippies” who’d happily been travelling for the last 20 years or so

And how was it travelling “solo”? Well as it happened I travelled with my friend Rob (Hornbower Travels) around China for 4 weeks before he headed off home allowing me to ease into things nice and gently. A short flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi and an excursion up to Sapa lead to me befriending a Spanish girl and a lad from England at which point I realised that travelling solo can be pretty darn good as you meet many more people that way. No offense Rob! 😉

Wanderlust Chloe has a great post on travelling solo … and a thorough assessment by thegrownupgapyear

Solo travel soon turned into group travel

After just 1 week in and around Hanoi culminatring with a boat trip around Halong Bay, I fell in with 4 girls from Sweden and some lads fom Middlesborough and ended up travelling with them more or less for the next 5 months.

So yes go do it! It was a great experience. It will open your eyes to the world and 6 months is just 6 months after all anyway. Although when your longest holidays have only ever been for 2 weeks, then getting 2 months into your trip and realising that  you’re not even halfway is a lovely feeling.

Travelling is really a great leveller and when you’re all in the same fake Havaianas flip flops anyway. Some of you will end up wearing the same Vang Vieng ‘In the tubing’ vests. You”ll all be staying in the same basic hostels and reading the same Lonely Planet guide books. With travelling then age, profession and background really don’t come into it at all … which is lovely!

Anybody else got some thoughts on doing a gap year in your 30s? Or even 40s, 50s, 60s and above come to think about it 🙂

Remember, a fantastic adventure doesn’t always have to be a whole year, or even 6 months. One of my most memorable trips was with a small group of friends to the Kerala Backwaters in India, a holiday that only lasted a couple of weeks.

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