Thanks for all the great suggestions! A_Traveller - I am much too practical to go into debt traveling. I just need to find a job with adequate vacation time!

I am a teacher, and we do love our June and July time away. If you do want to go into teaching, be sure it is because you would love being actively involved with children all day and then taking work home w/ you at night. DON'T go into teaching because of the time off. Teaching is a calling, and if you aren't truly dedicated to the kids, you will burn out very fast. Take the advice of other wise posters here, and start saving now for extended travel in your retirement!

Thanks for the tip kansasmom; if I went into teaching it would definitely be at the college level - probably starting out teaching with a masters & possibly pursuing a Phd down the road..

I may very well be wrong about this. But I suspect that, unless you have lots of &quot;life experience&quot; (as in having worked for years in a profession), you won't find it easy to teach at the college level without a Ph.d. I know that, strictly speaking, most colleges don't require a Ph.d. But the reality is that it's a tough market. I know people <i>with</i> Ph.d.s who've had a struggle finding a college/university teaching job.

Perhaps at a two year community college...

I should have added that, if you get your Ph.d. and a job teaching at a university, the job itself could present you with travel opportunities. My brother is an accounting professor who does a lot of research in a particular area of accounting. He publishes often. And he's had to good fortune to travel all over the world presenting papers at conferences.

It's, for him, a dream job. But, of course, he loves the teaching and the research. The travel is just a wonderful side benefit!

<i>the good fortune</i>!

MY two cents worth...it never goes away. I do suggest traveling in your early years as you are doing, cause arthritis and other complications set in later in life. HA. I remember watching several older folks in their retirement years having such a hard time keeping up. My hubby &amp; I did buy a time share on the second market for cheap and have allowed us to travel to so many other countries we would not have otherwise been able to afford.