Travel is a great way to learn about the world. You may read books and blogs about culture, art, food, history, architecture and adventure, but actual travel will connect you to each of these on a deep, personal level.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…
Mark Twain
I “get” it: to travel is to knowingly step out of your daily routines and habits. Travel is purposely pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Mark Twain famously stated that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…” and that was in the days when travel was much more challenging than it is today. After spending 11 years leading small group luxury tours in Europe, I have come up with some advice I typically share with upcoming guests preparing to travel to a foreign country.
Here are some practical tips and some experiential tips: Let’s do this!
-1 > Be Curious
Curiosity is a big help when visiting other countries. Being curious and interested about the myriad ways people function through the day in circumstances different from our own is a way to enjoy all the new experiences. We must remember things aren’t “weird” just because they are different.
Author Paul Theroux wrote “Travel is transition, and at its best is a journey from home, a setting forth.”
I might also suggest if you focus your mind on searching for beauty in any place, you will find it, whether it’s beautiful people, food or even just the color of the sky.
Beauty is everywhere that we wander. But it truly becomes easier to find if we actually look for it, whatever our idea of beauty is.
-2 > Plan Ahead and Get Fit
Before your trip, start walking to shape up! If traveling alone or in a group, the better you can move, the more YOU will be able to enjoy any location. Other countries do not have an “Americans With Disabilities Act,” and thus have fewer elevators (“lifts”), escalators (“electric stairs”) and people movers than are found in the U.S. Climbing some hills on foot, walking on uneven cobblestones and getting from one place to another are more pleasurable for you if have a habit of walking.
Even stepping up on a bus, train or boat will be easier if you exercise at home a bit.
This tip should also include taking care of your body with healthy food and sleep before you head out, and while traveling too. By all means, enjoy the amazing wine where you are!
But moderation goes a long way when going to new places. I take a small travel pillow with me, that I know will help me sleep regardless of how hotel or apartment pillows are.
-3 > Be in the Moment
It sounds incredibly simple, but these days as so many of us are very addicted to social media, I would suggest you give yourself a challenge to be only half as addicted. My perfect world would be to leave it behind completely, but I suspect that is almost impossible for many these days.
While you’re traveling, budget a small amount of time to post or scroll, but make it less than you do at home. If you are very concerned about posting selfies, then I would suggest you are not engaged enough in where you are.
Scrolling through a feed means you are looking at something not actually in front of you. Doing that is fantastic at home, but while away, I hope you are seeing, tasting, and taking in so many new things that you’ll sleep the sleep of happy exhaustion.
I’ve given a lot of thought to this, as the situation has very much changed since I began leading travel eleven years ago. My first experience was a gentleman who was looking at his phone while we were touring the ruins of Pompeii, in Italy. I innocently asked what he was looking up and he said, “the baseball scores.”
As it was his vacation, and I was the worker, it’s not my role to decide how he should enjoy his travel, and I guess his ability to check those scores while surrounded by antiquity made him more comfortable or happy, and that’s valid. But, I believe you will get more out of the location you are in, if you are fully present.
There is an Italian term called “La dolce far neinte,” which translates as “the sweetness of doing nothing.” It’s a huge challenge for Americans, but much of the rest of the world is able to just sit back and people watch and enjoy. I recommend trying to learn it.
-4 > Avoid the Crowd
I suggest small group travel is preferable to traveling with forty or even thousands of other Americans at a time. Cruise ships are fine for a small taste of locations, but then dinner and the end of an evening and morning with the same few thousand people takes away so much opportunity for experience.
Most tour locations are far more authentic after cruise crowds have departed. Evenings in cities and small towns are often the most beautiful time of a day, when locals have finished work and are out enjoying each other and evening weather.
In other countries, many families do their visiting outside their smaller apartments that so many live in. On the flip side: Early morning walks will give you the same “before the crowd” experience.
-5 > Be Flexible
Take a dose of flexibility with each morning coffee. I think that is an idea I first saw from Rick Steves, the travel writer and tour owner. It’s a lovely, simple idea that speaks volumes. It will leave you open to planned and unplanned moments. Try to let go of having constant control of your day to let new experiences in. The unplanned moments are often the most memorable.
-6 > Look Up and Back
Sometimes look up and behind you. The views are amazing. It is almost shocking to realize how little we do this, and it is always worth taking a look around and up.
Technical tips
Do a bit of research about where you are heading, but not exhaustive research. Unless you are a very rigid personality, some surprise is a delight.
- Knowing a bit of language like “hello”, and “please,” is very useful. Most countries are more formal than our own, and a few simple words will be very helpful upon greeting anyone.
- Research the location you visited some after you get home too. You can learn about and understand more of what you saw. Those of us from the U.S.A. often have heritage from other countries as we are such a mix of so many cultures. Enjoy understanding your heritage.
- Clear shower caps from hotels make terrific shoe bags. You can cover the foot part and still see what the shoe looks like while keeping dirt off your clothing. It wraps right around your shoe or boot bottom.
- I also love hotel slippers. Once used, they are of no use to the hotel, as they are just tossed out and cannot be used again. Hotels encourage you to take them, and you never know when you might want to have them handy.
- Grab a business card and map from each hotel so that you have the address of your location if you happen to get lost. Organized tours will typically do that for you, but it never hurts to get one yourself too.
- Eat breakfast even more regularly than you do at home. I’m not a regular breakfast eater at home, but when traveling, I believe it is in your best interest to have a bite of nutrition and leave some flexibility about your next meal.
- Simple but remember….use the technical facilities (bathroom) before you head out in the morning. It might sound like a “ mom” thing, that might appear obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many don’t think of it.
Those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to travel in our lives are so very lucky. It helps us see even our own lives and homes in new light.
I like the author’s orientations. I work to be “in the moment” and I appreciate her comments to “be curious”, etc. I would probably enjoy being on one of her tours, because the most important thing for me in travel is experiencing another culture.
Thanks for your comment! Sandy’s tours come highly recommended. Having known her personally for nearly thirty years, I can guarantee she is always engaging, exhilarating and exciting, not to mention an enviably enigmatic queenager!
🙂 keep reading! More to come. Janette is a free spirit!