SEXIER, RICHER, FUNNIER: 17 WAYS TRAVEL CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

It's been said before, but it's worth repeating: travel is like a drug.The more we do it, the more we need to do it. Like any narcotic, it also has side effects: Exotic diseases, post-vacation blues, 17-hour layovers in Chicago O'Hare International Airport. 
So why risk it? 

For better or worse, travel is something that changes the way we see the world, and the way the world sees us.

Stay at home, by all means, but those cocktails being mixed right now as the sun sets over a perfect white sand beach aren't going to drink themselves. And you'll go on being exactly the same person you've been for as long as you can recall.

So book that ticket now and experience some of the ways listed below that travel can change your life.

Travel makes you...

1. Sexier- Suddenly your accent's hot.
2. Find Love- There's just something about being in a strange land that brings people together.
3. Lose Love- Nothing exposes personality quirks like travel. Spend two weeks together on the road, then decide if it's time to get married.
4. Sleep better- Cold, hard airport benches or beds with Egyptian cotton sheets. If the journey is long enough, either will do.
5. Kinder- That bewildered traveller holding a map upside down in our home town. We know how she feels.
6.  Multilingual- Until Google translate raises its game, nothing forces language acquisition faster than needing to find a bathroom or talk to that boy/girl across the bar in a foreign country. *winks
7. Richer- Because beating the hidden fees, from currency exchanges to booking a hotel, becomes a way of life.
8. Poorer- Those plane tickets don't come cheap. Neither does hitting the splurge button in every restaurant. 
9. An Insufferable Snob- "Oh please. You haven't really tested Parmesan until you've been to Modena and nibbled it straight out of the hands of the town's famed cheese makers."
10. Sad- It's possible to be home sick even in the most beautiful places in the world.
11. Change your mind about famous places- The first remark from four out of every five visitor upon seeing Red Square Moscow for the first time: "It looks so much bigger on TV."
12. Appreciate sensible footwear- When you're half way up a pyramid in Tikal. Guatemala, or pounding the pavement in Prague, your opinion of those stylish heels or old army boots tends to change in a hurry.
13. More Entertaining 
14. Redder- Sunscreen, people, sunscreen.
15. Think twice about your hometown-  Sometimes the distance between your travelling self and your hometown can make one or both seem surprising insignificant.
16. Fatter- Pasteries in Paris. Dim sum in Hong Kong. Plate lunches in Maui. Keep 'em coming, we are on vacation.
17. More Fulfilled- Why should we return to our office cubicles when we can be yoga instructors to seniors by day, reggae bartender by night.