How to Travel Without Leaving Home
I won’t pretend that anything can fully replace the reality of being in an entirely new place, but I will argue that the magic of travel is half the physical experience of new sights, sounds and flavors, and half a mindset of curiosity. Travel provides us an openness to possibility that comes with seeing things through fresh eyes.
If you’re struggling without travel, I invite you to reflect on what it is that you most love about traveling. It could be exploring -- the challenge of navigating unfamiliar places, meeting new people, and trying different foods. It could be the anonymity that allows you to be your most authentic self. It could be experiencing the unfamiliar – new flavors, languages, and culture habits.
With that in mind, below are 10 ways you can switch on the travel mindset without leaving home.
1. Tap Into Your Creativity and Ingenuity
As travelers, we are well versed in creativity and resiliency. Anyone who has had to MacGyver a broken suitcase, figure out how to get from A to Z, or any of the other host of things that might come up while you’re traveling is a pro at transforming adversity into creativity. Miss camping? Set up your tent in the living room and make s’mores. Relive I-can’t-believe-I-did-that stories or recreate more ethereal settings like a Bedouin picnic on your kitchen floor with pillows. Or join the creative folks over on Tik Tok who are recreating first class flights without leaving home. There are no limits when you let your creativity and imagination reign supreme.
2. Move Your Body
With everything moving online now, you don’t need to physically be in a place to enjoy it. If you loved a class somewhere, chances are you might be able to do it again, remotely. Many places are posting their schedules on Instagram or Facebook. Explore, make the commitment to yourself to show up for a class, and then double check the time zone so you show up at the right time!
You can take bachata classes in Colombia, or find your zen with yoga in Bali or Rio de Janeiro. (All places I’ve visited in my travels and love that I can go now go back to!). Airbnb Experiences is offering everything from cooking to dance classes to history lessons. Plus, by supporting enterprising entrepreneurs, you help to support businesses that are highly reliant on tourism and without other revenue in these challenging times.
3. Connect with Strangers
It’s crazy to think that the Internet has been around long enough for chat rooms to be referred to as “old school,” but you know it’s true! If this was your MO back in the day, Get Adventurely offers the opportunity to meet new travel buddies by “meeting up” virtually all around the world. There’s a little something for everyone—festivals, parties, destination experiences, and wellness and fitness make up the four selections participants can choose from. Considering how impossible it is to hear anything anyone says at a festival or party IRL, let alone have an actual conversation, this may just offer the best of both worlds…
4. Listen to your favorite international artists’ social media handles
Every day, artists around the world tune into social sharing platforms like Facebook or Instagram live for a Q&A session, a tour around their home, or even just to reassure fans that things are all going to be alright. Start-up musicasaa offers intimate, highly curated home concerts, 100% virtual with aspiring, emerging Latin musicians from all over the world. Or for the sounds of a place you’re missing, throw on a Spotify playlist – right now I’m digging “Asadito” to transport me back to being in Buenos Aires this fall.
5. Transport yourself via books and movies
Via books and films, you can let your imagination run wild, transporting you on epic, life changing journeys. Conde Nast Traveller has put together a great list of best travel books and 50 Best Travel Films of All Time. Is there a place that’s been on your bucket list for ages? Allow yourself to experience what it would be like to be there, from the comfort of your couch.
6. Travel with your taste buds
If what you love about travel is sampling the local cuisine, take advantage of your extra time to experiment with making your own version of sushi, the perfect Italian artisan bread, or slow cooked asado. You could also try an online cooking class to learn the flavors and techniques from a local master of your favorite cuisine. If you love expanding your taste buds with unknown flavors, try supporting a local business in your area with take out from a cuisine you’ve never tried like Ethiopian or Vietnamese.
7. Experiment with Language Learning
Do you love being immersed in the sounds of another language? The best way to learn a language is to be immersed in it, so what you’re really looking for are movies, television shows, music, podcasts, and opportunities to practice speaking. Reading the online news in a foreign language in a foreign country can also provide an alternative perspective on how they approach the same news as your country.
To practice speaking, hiring native speakers through platforms like iTalki gives you the opportunity to dive right in, just like you would if you were in another country trying to communicate in a bar, restaurant, or other public space. What’s more, nearly everyone is craving a little more social connection these days, so the potential to meet interesting people who genuinely help advance your language skills is truly there.
8. Create an adventure
When you’re traveling, even the most mundane errands, like going to the grocery store or pharmacy, can feel like an exciting adventure. There’s a sense of uncertainty and thrill in accomplishing the most basic of tasks in a foreign language or unknown place. You can create adventures by exploring a neighborhood or park in your community you’ve never walked through before. Go to a completely different grocery store than normal, or try to hunt down some rare product. Get creative, and you can find challenge and exploration anywhere. Check out geocaching for treasure hunts no matter where you are.
9. Pick up a camera
With the traveler’s mindset, everything looks more interesting, more exciting, and more photo worthy. How would you see your familiar surroundings for the first time? Setting out with your camera and this mindset to notice the beauty all around you.
10. Digest your travel stories
You have thousands of pictures on your phone that you’ve been meaning to put on your computer, back up, print out, scrapbook, make into an album, or some other creative endeavor that always takes up more time or emotional energy than you were expecting. Going through old photos and creatively arranging them to retell your travel stories is one of the most satisfying things a traveler can do to process and integrate the lessons of any trip. Pop on a Spotify playlist with tunes to evoke the memories of that time and place, and allow yourself to relive the experience. After, journal to integrate your reflections. What did you learn about yourself on that trip? What was most challenging? Rewarding? What have you changed in your life as a result of that trip?