People Who Travel for a Living: Do They Still Love to Travel?
- lindseyadventures
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
One evening not long ago, Deanna and I found ourselves talking about something neither of us had really thought about before.
When your life revolves around travel...do you still enjoy traveling?
Or...
Does it eventually start feeling like work?
It's a fair question. Since Lindsey Adventures has grown, we've spent more time on airplanes, buses, cruise ships, trains, and hotel elevators than we ever imagined.
Ironically...We've also started taking more little getaways than we ever did before.
A weekend in a nearby town. A scenic back road.
A place we've always wondered about.
Sometimes we travel simply because we love researching a place we've never been. (Yes...we're the kind of people who read restaurant menus months before a trip.)
That conversation got us wondering...What about the people who literally travel for a living?
So we reached out to three of our favorite Collette Tour Managers—people who spend months each year showing travelers the world—and asked them one simple question:
"When you're not working...do you still want to travel?"
Their answers surprised us.
The Planning Paradox
You might assume professional tour managers have vacations planned years in advance.
Not exactly.
One of the biggest surprises?
Planning can actually become the hardest part.
Cristina Lambathakis, who many of you met on our Rome & Amalfi Coast adventure, laughed that by mid-season she's simply exhausted.
"I'm always fighting between the desire to go on an adventure...and the need to just lie on a beach barely moving around like a sloth."
Honestly...We felt that.
After months of airports, schedules, reservations, and logistics, sometimes even searching for flights feels like another work assignment.
Benedikt Urban, who many remember as our delightful guide through Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, described it another way.
He doesn't struggle deciding where to go.
He struggles transitioning out of "work mode."
His life flips 180 degrees between leading tours and returning home. His perfect vacation?
A cabin
A lake
Mountains
A good kitchen
A book
No alarm clock
His goal isn't to see more. It's to slow time down.
Travel Is Still a Need
Here's what surprised us most. Not one of them said, "I'm tired of traveling." Quite the opposite.
Cristina put it perfectly: "I have to travel for myself. It's definitely a need."
John Fitzgibbon, our unforgettable, affable and incredibly knowledgeable Ireland guide, took it even further. His famous saying still rings in our ears:
"Cover the Earth before the Earth covers you."
John and his wife Joanie—who also spent over four decades as a tour guide—have visited all seven continents...more than once.
When their season ends? They recharge somewhere warm with sunshine, a pool, and absolutely no schedule. Then...
Once they're rested...
They're planning safaris in Tanzania, wildlife adventures in Kenya, Antarctica, Egypt, or wherever curiosity points next.
For John, travel has never been about collecting passport stamps. It's about collecting experiences.
As he told us, "It's not always the destination, but the experiences and the people we meet along the way."
We couldn't agree more.
The Places That Instantly Feel Like Vacation
Everyone has that place.
The one where your shoulders relax before you've even unpacked.
Cristina's place is Scanno, a tiny mountain village in Italy's Abruzzo region.
She described evenings walking through the village after dinner...Families strolling together...A heart-shaped lake...Cool mountain air...
Sleeping with the windows open because, unlike Rome, you actually need a sweater at night.
"It just feels like vacation," she told us.
Benedikt doesn't even need a specific town.
Give him:
Mountains
A lake
A cabin
A kitchen
He's happy.
For John?
A Caribbean pool chair after a busy touring season. No itinerary. No sightseeing. Just sunshine and a cold drink.
Funny, isn't it?
The people who show others the world's greatest attractions often recharge in the simplest places.
How the Pros Choose Their Next Trip
Here's another surprise. Professional travelers don't necessarily follow travel trends.
In fact...John told us he almost does the opposite.
His rule? Don't go somewhere simply because everyone else says it's amazing.
Do your homework. Watch documentaries. Research the culture.
Learn the best season.
Find out why people love it—not just that they do.
He joked, "You wouldn't buy a new car without a test drive."
Why choose a vacation that way?
Cristina has another strategy.
Now that her daughter is 17...She lets her help choose.
Art museums. Concerts. Neighborhood cafés. Shopping.
Some of their favorite travel days aren't scheduled at all. They're simply spent wandering wherever curiosity leads.
Benedikt admits he's become even less picky. Sometimes it's his partner's choice.
Sometimes it's somewhere he has a local friend.
Sometimes it's a destination that helps him understand a future tour.
He summed it up beautifully:
"Having someone local show you around beats any itinerary I'd build myself."
A Vacation...from Your Vacation
Benedikt gave us our favorite quote of the entire conversation.
He believes there are really two kinds of vacations.
The first is adventure.
Seeing.
Learning.
Moving.
Experiencing.
The second?
Stopping.
Breathing.
Reading.
Cooking.
Doing almost nothing.
He called it:
"A vacation from a vacation."
We laughed because...isn't that true?
Sometimes you come home needing another few days just to recover.
So...What Did We Learn?
After talking with all three of these incredible tour managers, one thing became clear.
People who travel for a living,
don't love travel because they're constantly moving.
They love travel because it gives them something different.
Sometimes that's adventure.
Sometimes it's peace.
Sometimes it's wildlife in Tanzania.
Sometimes it's a quiet Italian village.
Sometimes it's simply sitting beside a lake doing absolutely nothing.
The destination changes.
The feeling they're chasing doesn't.
Deanna and I realized something else, too.
Maybe that's why we enjoy our little weekend getaways now more than ever.
They're not about checking another country off a list. They're about staying curious.
Trying a new restaurant. Driving a different road. Finding a place we've never been.
Because in the end...Travel isn't really about miles.
It's about moments.
Never lose your sense of curiosity.
Or as our friend John likes to remind us,
"Cover the Earth before the Earth covers you."
Comments