By Mark W, June 13, 2008 at 08:30 AM

Last week, a friend of mine on one of the social network sites posted their status as "wants to travel." I gave them a simple two word response: So Go. But it got me thinking that there is no logical way to justify travel outside of work related travel. Of course, those who travel for work, their status might well be "don't want to travel."

But I began thinking about the whole idea of recreational travel and the process which we go through when the travel bug starts digging into us. Here we are, going through our daily grind and suddenly, in a small part of our brain, in the back corner a little phrase starts to throb. For some, it may be "Europe would be nice to visit." Or perhaps it could be, "I've never seen the Serengeti at dusk."

And it grows until it becomes unbearable requiring action on your part. That could be to act upon it and take that vacation or to ignore it until it brings itself to the front again. It will come back, because we're humans and we need to challenge ourselves with new experiences from time to time.

Travel is water for your psyche.

Of course, once you start thinking about travel, your logic starts misfiring reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea at this time. So, let's take a look at some reasons why you might put off traveling at this time.

I've never been there before; I wouldn't know what to do

If you've read some of my earlier blog posts, you know this is a reason I won't accept. So what if you've never been there before, that's the challenge and excitement of learning something new.

I understand, however, that without at least a moderate plan, some folks are not able to enjoy the moment. If you're one of those folks, consider finding a tour group to take your trip on. While you don't get the maximum freedom you would if you went independently, you may enjoy the sites even more without the hassle of arranging where to stay, etc. The trips I've taken to Europe have been with tour companies, which I'll write about.

I don't have anyone to go with

There's no doubt that traveling with people you know is certainly a great way to enjoy next countries and experiences. It's great to be with someone who you can share an inside joke with or after you get back home, someone to relive the memories with.

But you don't have to limit your experiences to those in which you can get another person to travel with. Again, I suggest looking at a tour company to travel with. The trips I took, I took solo. Not only did I get to experience Europe for the first time, I got to meet 50 new people from all over the world.

I'll note, of course, that I traveled as a male. Females might not feel as comfortable traveling alone, but on my tours, there were several women who started their trips alone. If you do take a tour by yourself, make sure you get one that will pair you up with another solo traveler, that way you avoid the single-supplement (which I hate).

They need me at work (company)

No they don't. I mean, if you're a week away from a major new product launch or release of a new internal business intelligence software application, then, okay, probably not a great time to take a vacation. But no matter what you think, you do not need to be at work every day.

They don't.

Stop shaking your head.

The only way your company can't function without you is if you run your own business and you're the only employee. This brings me to...

They need me at work (sole-proprietor)

Yep, as your own employee/boss, it's very hard to get away from business to take a vacation; I know this as well as anyone, having run my own business for several years. The fun part of that was the one week vacation I took. During which time, someone decided to spam millions of people with one of my domains featured as the return-to address.

Back then, mobile computing and internet access wasn't that widely open, so I wasn't able to really log in and check how things are going.

I get home to an e-mail from my online provider telling me that my mail file grew to over 4 GB before they split it and archived it. The other one was still growing at 2GB. (Props up to my provider back then for not just cutting off my account. That's why I'm still with them.)

I can't afford it

You're right, you can't afford it. Because it's spending money on things that you normally wouldn't have spent. So you really just have two options: Save up for over a year to take a vacation or finance your vacation with either credit cards or loans.

If you're an American, we know the first option isn't right for you, because according to all of the studies, American's don't save money these days.

I've done my trips on credit cards. I don't necessarily recommend it because you can certainly get a short term loan with a much better interest rate then credit cards. But odds are most people will use credit cards to pay for their trip. Just make sure you get a good interest rate on your cards.

Another option is if you've got an upcoming birthday, people are saying that instead of gifts, people are asking for money instead for their trip. This is more popular with college or high school kids, obviously.

The point is there are lots of ways to finance your vacation. Whether it involves longer term planning or paying for it after the trip, you've got no reason to say that you can't afford it.

Because in the end, the value of a great trip returns more then the interest you'll pay for it.

So go!