Keeping in Touch while On the Road
Sometimes we have to travel solo, without our partner or our children. Or maybe you aren’t going along but you are leaving someone special behind for awhile. Whether you’re gone for a week or a month, sometimes that is hard. Or maybe you’ve not travelled as much as you want because you are scared/worried/afraid of leaving someone behind.
I’d like to encourage you to embrace those feelings. But instead of spending your trip in a funk, I want you to put those feelings into a place that will actually make your trip even better. Travel more…and keep in touch with these tips.
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Travel is Play
During my recent visit to Rochester, New York, I made a stop at the Museum of Play. It’s one of those museums that is great for children and adults alike. If you find yourself in the area, I highly recommend you stop by, as the Museum of Play is helping to educate the world on a little known fact: playing is good for us. And I think that travel is like playing, for adults.
The Benefits of Travel and Play
The Museum of Play highlights Plato, who once suggested, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” I think you could easily say the same about spending a week (or a day?) with someone on the road. Especially if that’s someone you either really like or really don’t. 
Research states that play is important for learning and human development. Some of the positive outputs of play – both children and adults – that the museum highlights include:
- increase in creativity
- improved health
- clarity of mind
- exercise problem solving
- build communication skills
So, like I’ve been saying all this time: travel is good for your health, so travel more!
The Elements of Travel and Play
The museum has a framework that explains what happens when you play. I think this framework is an excellent device to explain what happens to us when travel.
Anticipation
Ahh – the travel dreaming and planning part. Aside from the hours spent pouring through brochures, websites, and recommendations from your travel concierge, I know some people call this the honeymoon stage. You imagine how sweet the air will smell, how the sun will warm your skin, how incredible that hidden hike will be or how tasty the recommended restaurant will be. Swoon – hooray – skip, skip – you’re going on vacation.
Surprise
And then the plane touches down, or the train pulls away towards your destination. And you start to notice a bit of stress – anticipation. Your heart skips a beat when you first get a glimpse of that thundering waterfall, or as the temple glints through the trees. It’s bigger than you thought it would be, or small, or shiner, or more crowded, or…nothing’s exactly like it is in the brochure, right? That’s part of the whole experience.
Pleasure
Live the moment. Be in the moment. Travel is an experience, and here at STE we’re all about experiences. So soak them up – that is what they are there for. Revel in the view, marvel at the intricate design, look into the eyes of the people.. be there. That is why you have come.
Understanding
Now you know why a destination has a particular stereotype. You’ve debunked all the myths, you can now see how those things line up from the pictures, and you can definitely speak from experience on places that are love-it-or-hate-it. It isn’t about ticking an item off your bucket list. It’s about adding another awesome experience to you as a person.
Strength
You feel great! You hiked over those last steps, you got over your fear of heights, you mastered a foreign tongue enough to close the deal, you got where you wanted to be! And if things didn’t go perfectly – the weather, notoriously – or you got lost, or whatever, who cares! You are still alive, and everyone knows if something goes wrong it makes for a better story.
Poise
Reflection. How has this travel experience affected you? Would you repeat it? Would you recommend it?
Sharing. Photos, video, story-telling. What do you now have to say?
Do you think travel = play? Has travel affected your own personal development?
Photo Credit: mikebaird,tibchris
Filed under Topic: Travel Lifestyle § 4 CommentsThe Definition of Vacation
Few people know that during my teenage years, I spent four years studying Latin. It was one of those opportunities that at the time, I din’t know why you need it, but it felt right, so I went with it. While I’ll never use my Latin skills full-time, I do often find that background invaluable for picking up clues in foreign languages I don’t understand, but moreso it often helps be better understand my own language.
One English word that has a Latin derivation is definition of vacation. When you go from Latin to English, you often get a lot of different synonyms – English has a lot more words than Latin did. I’d like to briefly explore the three “ideals” that are represented by Latin root of vacation, vacare.
va·ca·tion
\ vā-ˈkā-shən \
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Why Ritual Is Important to Travel
As I start another long summer trip, I’ve been reflecting on a lot of things. One was my recent article on how to travel with confidence – which clearly resonated with people. The other was the process I always go through before preparing for a big trip (or small, for that matter). And something dawned on me: the importance of travel rituals. You probably know exactly what I mean but don’t realise it: those things that you do before every trip. Jetside Johnny told us about the people that visit his bar before every flight, but your travel rituals might be different:
- Your favourite breakfast stop before a long roadtrip…
- Dusting off your favourite travel journal and putting it into your backpack…
- Buying magazines to pass the time on a long flight…
Mine always involve coffee, journals, and good breakfasts. It doesn’t matter what it is, but we all have them. And here’s why I think they’re important.
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Finding (or Losing) Yourself in a Journey
We often trivialize when a person says, “I am trying to find myself”. Most of the time I believe that person is sensing a misconnection in their life. A dissatisfaction that craves a true experience that gives them purpose; you can almost taste, think of, or feel, but it is just beyond the reach. Like when you know an answer but cannot, for the life of you, articulate what you feel. You are become a seeker.
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How to Travel with Confidence
I have a little confession to make: I’m a worried traveller. I get that kind of nervous, sick feeling in my stomach whenever I book a new trip: what if I don’t like it there? what if they don’t like me? what if something bad happens? It’s just part of my nature, because I’m a worrier. I’d say recent changes in my lifestyle (like running this community as a full-time job, for example) has changed my perspective quite a bit, and I now try to only worry about the things that I have control over. I’m still a nervous traveller though, but despite that I still work up the confidence to hit the road. All the time. I think that everyone deserves a break, so I’d like to share my own personal tips on I try to travel with confidence.
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What You Spend on your Vacation Isn’t What Matters
Plane Ticket $1,000, Accommodation: $20, 2 x 1 hour Trekking Permits: $600. Having a silverback charge you, while you sit in the jungles of Uganda watching a family of gorillas play: Priceless…
Going to see the gorillas in Uganda was always on my must-do-travel-experience list. My husband, however, was not too sure. He was worried about the cost of the one hour encounter. We were at the start of our 4 month backpacking tour of Africa, and we knew how well budgets could quickly fall to pieces. To put it into perspective, $600 would have lasted us approximately one whole month in Africa. All he saw was us spending too much and going home a little early; all I saw was the joy I would gain from sitting with these gentle, playful giants of the jungle, and connecting with life on a far deeper level.
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The World is Big: Appreciate Where You Are
Sometimes as a travel writer it is hardest to write about the place you live. However exotic it might have been when you arrived, when you call it home, the extraordinary starts to become mundane. Hard to believe, you might think, that somewhere as wonderfully mysterious sounding as Zanzibar could start to seem commonplace and everyday. Yet after a procession of months and then years, regularity gradually erodes novelty.
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Inspired by the View
The human eye is designed for distance. Unfortunately, I work on a computer many hours a day using a focal length that can be measured in inches. I live in a city where my view bumps up against buildings rather than enjoying the sweep of the landscape. And when I get outside Toronto into relatively flat Ontario, my vision is stopped short by trees. That’s why I love to travel to mountains where I can stretch my eyes and really see the horizon. When I do, I’m inspired. § Read the rest of this article…
Travel Means Different Things to Different People
My Facebook status summed it up quite nicely: Adriatic bliss.
There I was, thousands of miles from home, from work, from the norm… Soaking up the late summer sun in Split and savoring every second. Just listening to the screams of delight as the cool water lapped children’s ankles put a smile on my face. I was beyond content. Everything that afternoon in Split just made me feel right.
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