Lonely Planet - The Big Trip: Your Ultimate Guide to Gap Years & Overseas Adventures

It started with the Grand Tour. Way back in the 17th century, upper-class British kids would complete their education by heading over to parts of Europe to experience museums, paintings and, more importantly, wines that theyd only studied or read about in school. For a few months theyd tour the continent, though most only went as far as Italy (probably something to do with the wine). All of them returned with enough stories, souvenirs and sores to last a lifetime.

Fast-forward a couple of hundred years. Cheap flights have meant that even more people are taking a year off and seeing a world outside of school books and dull history lessons. Whether its a gap year, an overseas experience (OE), an exchange program, a working holiday, a sabbatical, a year out or a year off, people want to head off to India, Italy, Israel or a thousand places in between to see what the world is really like. Today there are even more reasons to head overseas.

But hang on, cant you just see all of that on TV or find out everything you need to know about the world on wikipedia? Only if you want to fake it. Theres no substitute for getting out there seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling what the world is. Some of the smells and tastes wont be good BTW, but at least youll have done it. You can shut the most boring book-smart expert up at parties just by saying Have you actually been there?

For many travellers, what starts out as a vacation ends up a vocation, a passion becomes a profession. Take the economics graduate who thought he was bound to work in an accounting firm but did a stint with a music distribution company during his gap year. He was so inspired hes been in music business ever since, so his year off changed his future entirely.

Sarah Bruce was a traveller who didnt just have a year off but used the time to check out a field she might be interested in. I volunteered overseas for five months with Trekforce Expeditions. This really changed my perspective and my priorities and it opened a door for me to work in the charity sector, doing marketing.

The jobs you do, the people you meet and the experiences you have can show you careers and life choices you never would have seen back home. Opportunities open up when youre travelling. But as Tom Hall warns us, The trip didnt answer my questions about what I wanted to do with my life but it remains the source of some of my happiest memories. Today Tom manages Lonely Planets London office, so perhaps travelling did nudge him slightly in the direction of a career choice.