I would say if you don't have huge uni debts and can save a bit of money. Hold of starting your career, especially at the moment, and travel. Makes so much difference in your out look on life and make you confident. It also improves your people skills, as well as your drinking skills!

I agree, broadening your horizons makes you way more worldly, overseas experience and experience of communicating in other countries and cultures are all skills that will help you to stand out from the crowd.  There are fantastic organizations like Global Vision International who offer expeditions and projects all over the world.  They are running an online seminar on Milkround.com on 17th June ... see here for more http://www.milkround.com/jobs/360354/Global-Vision-International-Make-it-an-online-date-with-Global-Vision-International%e2%80%a6

The problem for me is that I feel too shy and nervous to do all that on my own! I am not the sort who ventures out of my comfort zone...so I didn't want to jet off to some remote country. I don't mind it for holidays of course, but I think I'd miss everyone too much if I did a long period of travelling.

I agree that this might be a good idea at the moment due to the current economic situation, and I know several people who have done it already.

You could also try taking a TEFL course so that you could teach English abroad; funding your travels and giving you a bit more stability if you are a bit nervous about going alone. I recently took one with this company www.onlinetefl.com and found it brilliant. There are different lenghts of courses you can take; I took a 120 hour course which involved a 20 hr weekend (yes it was long but well worth it!; the tutor was so inspiring all of my doubts about whether I was doing the right thing went) with a tutor and then the rest is study online, that you can do in your own time (though within 6 months) and you have an online tutor for help too so you feel really supported throughout. I'm now hoping to go to Europe for a bit to build up my confidence in teaching and then I want to go further afield to the far east, possibly China. I found this site useful too in learning about my TEFL options and travel advice www.working-abroad.com Good luck with your decision and happy travelling!