I'm 36, took the 'safe' route through college right after high school and then, through a round about cross country jaunt, I went on to a safe place in a large company after that. So take this for what it is worth to you.
If you can get a year to do something you are interested in or passionate about go for it! Formal education will be here for a while even though the alternatives like Kahn and udacity and others are validating a different path.
In the places I have gone, since college, I have always met interesting people with unexpected backgrounds. I highly doubt that you have to go off the beaten path or to the far ends of the earth to find interesting people with a story to tell and worthwhile work to do. But it is exciting to travel 'On The Road' style and i'll bet it sounds cool when you tell stories to your kids or friends over beers years later.
In retrospect, I could have done the cross country trek before college but that may have changed where I went to college and where I worked after college. If I change that I change meeting my wife and miss out on my daughter. The flip side to that is that for someone who is at a stage where they just want to experience life and people and learn more about the differences in the world; now is the best time to do that. Be it on the other side of the world, in the run down part of large city near them or a rural countryside - what will make the decision worthwhile are the people you engage with and what you do for them while you are there.
Things have changed a lot since I decided to go right into college and perhaps it is cheap and easy to find work on the other side of the world these days. I believe that meaningful work to fill a gap year could be found anywhere.