Improving The Travel Experience

Quad-biking In The Namib Desert, Namibia

Arriving at a destination is when both the enjoyment and challenges of travel begins.  After three decades of travel through more than 100 countries, I have developed several techniques to improve the travel experience.

Awareness

Travel can be tiring for one must always carry a sense of heightened awareness along for the journey. The benefits are usually two – the first and most obvious is that you become aware of any potential dangers. The second and often overlooked benefit is that you become more aware of your surroundings and therefore observe things you may have otherwise missed – such as a shop tucked away down an alley, a small cafe dwarfed by larger buildings, or a group of men gathered around a backgammon game.

Common sense should not take a holiday just because you do. Simple rules such as not walking alone along an unlit alley at night, receiving drinks from strangers, or accepting free car rides from people you barely know are not something you would do at home, so why do these when abroad. In some cultures (particularly the Middle East) such offers are the norm, so use your judgement to determine which are genuine and which have nefarious undertones.

Immersion

The more you immerse yourself in a destination, the more rewarding and memorable the travel experience becomes. Eat where local people eat, stay where they stay and loiter where they loiter.  Strive to embrace the differences and shun the familiar.  Immersion provides the difference between seeing and experiencing a destination.

If you are new to destinations with cultures very different from your own, it is important to immerse yourself gradually. Undertake a reconnaissance on the first day, content to be an observer of the various restaurants, transport and sights. The following days delve deeper, which is best achieved through interacting and conversing with local people as much as possible.

However, you want to avoid culture shock that occurs when you become overwhelmed by these new surroundings. If you think this could happen, stay at a more comfortable hotel with familiar television channels that you can retreat to at the end of each day.  As you become more experienced with different cultures, you will be more comfortable staying in locally run establishments from the first day of your trip. I remember my travels in the early 1990s – no Internet and familiar TV programs were extremely hard to access – a very different travel experience to now. Back in those days, I would bring a portable longwave radio, and many evenings I would listen to the BBC World Service. It was my constant wherever I was in the world.

The reason I usually used to travel solo is that immersion is extremely easy for a single traveller, more difficult as a couple or a family and significantly more difficult again with two couples or families. The fewer conversations you have with local people, the harder immersion becomes – and the more people you travel with means less time to converse with local people.  It is why I never travel in groups larger than those already mentioned for immersion is almost impossible with larger numbers. I can understand and appreciate why people would prefer to travel with small group tours,  but to receive the fullest travel experience, one needs to stride a different path.

Attitude

No use immersing in a destination if you do not possess the correct attitude. For me, just because a local person does not have an education, material possessions and has never travelled does not mean that this person is lesser than me – it is because I have been graced with more opportunities. Every single person I meet can teach me something about life, and I always seek to uncover that lesson by learning more about them.

If you think yourself better than other people and look down at them, then they too will look down at you; see the world through suspicious eyes and the world will regard you the same. Further, if you look at the places you travel with suspicion – for example, who is going to rob me, who is watching to attack me – then local people will see the suspicion you carry, and they will treat you the same. However, if you are genuinely interested in other people, they will show a similar interest in you; and if you smile at the world and what it has to offer, then the world will smile back in return.

Yes, there is always some idiot wanting to overcharge you or involve you in some scam. Still, these are in the absolute minority – 99.99% of people you meet mean you no harm, and they only want you to have the best travel experience possible. If you carry this trust with you, it will change the way you perceive people and places and the local people will trust you in return.