Cape Town - Do you find yourself wincing at the thought of staying in a hostel?
Eyeing red-eye flights with dread?
You, my friend, have hit your travelling thirties.
Flights
Twenties: What’s that? A dirt-cheap flight to Hanoi? Sold. Red Bull will get me through the 21-hour flight via Addis Ababa and Bangkok.
Thirties: I would rather bathe my eyes in lemon juice than cope with a stopover. Therefore, I’ll semi-reluctantly hand over extra for a direct flight that doesn’t leave at the hell o’ clock in the morning from an airport 180 miles away from home. (…ah go on then, I’ll upgrade to an exit row seat while I’m at it.)
Packing
Twenties: I’m totally capable of making like a snail and Tetris-ing a year’s worth of stuff into a rucksack. I’ll just sacrifice my straighteners and wear my pants inside-out every other week. Easy.
Thirties: It’s a spinner wheel suitcase or bust, baby. And I’m way past caring about looking pretty – give me a neon monstrosity that I can spot on the baggage carousel from fifty meters off.
Accommodation
Twenties: Dolby surround sound snoring. The phantom itch of bedbugs. Showering in flip flops. Sleeping with a phone under the pillow. But who cares? This sucker’s R110 a night!
Thirties: Quirky hotels and Airbnb – the thirty-something traveller’s dream. I’ll have a room in a glass treehouse shaped like a melting icicle, please.
Tours
Twenties: The Contiki bus is coming! And everybody’s jumping! Until the third day, anyway, when the hangovers, colds and lack of sleep combine to form a truly unique aura of despair. What country am I in? Is it France or Germany?
Thirties: It’s all about the cultural tours, my friend. I want to dance my way around the reggae clubs in Jamaica. And tour the best food trucks in Durban. And sail up the Ganges in a traditional riverboat.
And then I want eight hours’ sleep before getting up to sample the sunrise in Kenya‘s Maasai Mara National Reserve.
Photos
Twenties: All of my friends are with me, so I’m going to obsessively tag our pictures on Facebook so that everyone left behind is painfully aware of how much fun we’re having. It’ll be a veritable selfie-splosion.
Thirties: As long as I Instagram a #hotdogorlegs shot, I’m happy. Alternatively, a dreamy shot of me and my plaid shirt receding into the sunset of Mauritius, walking the surf on beaches of Cape Town or perched on a mountain top in Tanzania will do nicely.
Transport
Twenties: I’m packed into a Greyhound alongside the Marlboro Man, a woman with DIE NOW tattooed across her knuckles, a couple of Amish families straight out of the nineteenth century, and someone who may or may not have expired between Jacksonville and Tallahassee – and I’m loving it.
Jack Kerouac, eat your heart out.
Thirties: Give me a car, a Springsteen album and the open road. And if the vehicle of choice happens to be a campervan? All the better. I’m going to make random overnight stops at the bottom of waterfalls and in abandoned ghost towns just because I can.
Nightlife
Twenties: Thursday: ice-breaker games by the pool. Friday: full moon party. Saturday: treasure hunt at the hostel. Sunday: Bloody Mary brunch. Monday…
Thirties: Happiness is: a bottle of the second-cheapest Pinot Grigio, a balcony with a view, and me tucked up in bed before midnight.
Souvenirs
Twenties: This hand-luggage- only queen is all about the post-security duty free. Coconut M&Ms for the office, an improbably large Toblerone for the family, and a bottle of red wine for the mothership.
Sorted.
Thirties: Thank you all that is holy that I left extra room in the suitcase for that large yet reasonably priced box of local liqueurs for my mum. And a hand-woven basket for my nan. And a framed vintage travel poster for me.
Returning to work
Twenties: Landing at 7am and breezing straight in to the office is totally doable.
Thirties: I need to take a week off to recover from my week off.
Getting too old to spend a ridiculous amount of time on a stopover? TheCheapflights smart value filter balances flight price and journey time to give you the best-value options.
Adapted from a press release for IOL, Cheapflights.co.za