From 9-5 to worldwide ✈️

By Ritesh Maharaj, an 18-to-Thirtysomethings traveller

At 30, Ritesh Maharaj was let go from the legal job he'd held for 12 years. No partner. No mortgage. No idea what came next.

So he Googled "longest group tours," found our 65-day adventure through South America, and watched the last available spot sit there on the screen — until one week later, when instinct took over and a deposit went down.

What followed was the kind of trip that's hard to explain to people who haven't done it. New cities every few days. A group of strangers who became something else entirely. And somewhere between the chaos and the quiet moments, a clarity that 12 years of being sensible hadn't delivered.

The part that surprised him most? His Fijian-Indian parents — who he assumed would push for an immediate return to career mode — were the first ones asking where he was headed next.