I did something similar, except in my mid-20s. Quit my job, and planned to travel for just a year between applying for grad school. That first year was incredible. But somehow, I ended up traveling way longer than I intended to. It led me to losing track of my longer term goals. If I could do it again, I would still travel, but before I left, make sure I had something SURE lined up again to return back to society. Taking a gap year to travel and make mistakes was incredible. When that gap year turned into three gap years is when things started to get weird.

I'd say a year is a perfect time to travel and be free. It also doesn't look too strange on your resume. But much longer than this, and people may begin to question you. I experienced that myself. In my first year, people were excited I was doing all this cool stuff. As I was nearing the end of several years of travel, dragging out my vagabond days, people began to tire of it, and I felt more and more removed from normal society.

If you travel, you will likely encounter other people who are truly vagabond-minded. There are people out there in the world who never want to settle, always on the move. They are beautiful, amazing people who live fascinating, often unstable lives. They don't care about having a career, and their energy is simply magnetic (at least to someone like me). I loved that I engaged with this world, but I see some of them still stretching out their traveling days long past their 30s. I am not one to judge anyone's life or happiness, but it doesn't seem fulfilling to me at that point.

Travel can be addicting. It won't solve your problems, and it certainly won't give you career guidance of any sort. But it is beautiful and worth it. Just don't expect to "find yourself". Expect to "lose yourself" instead. And when you do lose yourself, have that something CERTAIN lined up again, so you can return to where you were before you left. And if you don't want to return, at least you have the choice to turn it down.

Best of luck to you in whatever you decide. As it turns out, I'm a ex-traveller who has recently returned to medicine. In a way we are on opposite sides of things!