If you love to travel and can’t wait to go on your next adventure, you’re not alone. People worldwide love a good trip. They save up their vacation time from work and even quit their jobs to make travel a priority.
You don’t need to be a seasoned pro to have the time of your life while away from home. In fact, there are many ways to ensure that your travels are just what you hoped they would be. By keeping an open mind and having a willingness to try things that you’ve never done before, you’ll significantly improve your trips by making them thoughtful, intentional, and fun.
Ten ways to enhance your travel experience include:
- Documenting your journey in a journal or online through blog posts. Share what you’ve discovered with others or keep it to yourself. The choice is yours as travel is a deeply personal experience.
- Immersing yourself into the culture, traditions, rituals, language, and environment of the country that you’re visiting. If you’re going to walk the walk, you might as well talk the talk, right? Doors of opportunity swing open for you if you come armed with some knowledge about the history of the area you’ll be visiting. Get to know its people and what makes them unique.
- Stop with the digital distractions. There are times and places to check email, update social media, and take photos. You’ll quickly learn how fast your time away from home goes. Enjoy every moment by detoxing from the digital world as much as possible.
- Go off the beaten path. Avoid touristy areas in favor of smaller towns, villages, and countrysides. You’ll find exciting things around every turn. They’ll be your own discoveries, too, because you won’t find them in travel brochures or guidebooks.
- Shop the local markets. That’s where you find the best foods and souvenirs. You also get the added benefit of people-watching which can be a fascinating addition to your journal or blog. Some of the most beautiful photos you’ll take are in the marketplaces wherever you go.
- Plan at least one activity that is unique to the area. You’ll never get the opportunity to do so again, right? Not unless you come back to the same spot. You can go to the tourist traps but make sure that you do something culturally-relevant, too.
- Send postcards describing what you’ve seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched to family and friends. Practice being a storyteller. Let them know more than what you did for the day. Tell them how it made you feel. Give them a chance to live vicariously through you.
- Try doing what the locals do for a day. See if you can shadow a local businessperson or person of power. Accept an invitation from a family to eat with them. You’ll learn so much more about where you’re visiting.
- Walk or bike to your destination. You won’t pass the amazing sights by that way. When you ride a bus or take a cab, you miss a lot. You won’t if you’re walking or biking everywhere.
- Give yourself plenty of time in your schedule for spontaneity. If you plan every minute of your trip, you’ll miss out on something wonderful. Give yourself a chance to really explore. See the world with new eyes.
Make your travels even more memorable going forward. You have options that allow you to keep your experiences engrained in your memories for years to come. With a little creativity, you can transform the shortest trip into the most incredible experience. Use the suggestions above to become a better traveler with every new adventure that you book.
