If you've been following my posts on solo adventure travel, you may be experiencing a bit of wanderlust. Not to worry; a cure's as close as your nearest keyboard—one of your best tools for researching and planning an independent journey. Whether it's your first foray outside the world of organized tours or just another venture into the unknown, a trip embarked on without the help of travel professionals is guaranteed to give you a new sense of power, freedom and wonder.
It's a big world out there. To help you explore it, here are the final tips for solo adventure travel from my baker's dozen. Access all 13 in a picture-packed document from a link at http://wordgeisha.com/WGblog2008.html.
10. Break out of your comfort zone. When visiting a foreign country, things won’t be as they are at home. You may dine at midnight in Spain, hand-pick dinner from the kitchen in Greece and eat with your hands in Morocco. You’ll drive on the left-hand side of the road in London and forgo your bottomless cup of coffee in most European cities. By adapting to local tastes and customs and partaking of native specialties, you’ll enjoy the best quality and service for the lowest price while having the richest experience possible.
11. Be a citizen of the world. If you don’t like something, figure out how you can accept it. If you’re not enjoying a place, learn more about it so you can enjoy it to a greater degree. Remember that every culture and place has something unique to offer—something that will broaden your perspective and possibly give you something to weave into your own character and world view. Optimize your travel experience by stepping outside your ethnocentric cultural bubble and opening your mind.
12. Don’t be an ugly American! Europeans perceive Americans to be rich, rude, loud, naive and sometimes unrefined. Don’t give them any more ammunition than they already have: lower your voice and be respectful of cultural differences. Above all, be humbled by the fact that while millions of Europeans might be curious about America and alternatively amused and worried about Yankee ways, few would trade passports with you.
13. Bring your most extroverted self. You’ll meet more people and have more fun if you open up to folks you meet. Look for people you can connect with in hotels, hostels, coffeeshops, restaurants, bars, museums, tourist attractions, walking tours and anywhere else you find yourself in a foreign city. Opportunities abound when you’re waiting in line for breakfast, tickets and any attraction worth viewing. Be open and open minded in your communication. If excitement is waning on your trip, stir some up by talking to the people you encounter on your journey and making your own fun!
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Top Tips for Adventure/Budget Travel, #7-9
If you've followed my first six tips for solo budget travel, you can probably guess that I am addicted to creative adventure. For those of you thinking about or planning one of your own, here are the next three tips out of my top 13.
To access my entire photo-filled tip list, I invite you to visit my website at http://wordgeisha.com/WGblog2008.html. And now, tips #7-9:
7. Make the most of your budget. You can visit most major European cities for under $100/day per person. In many ways, the less you spend, the closer you get to the local culture and the farther you escape from your own. By living as locals do, you’ll have more opportunities to see authentic cultural differences and gain perspective about the ways things are done in a foreign place than you would on a big, organized tour. Rather than viewing a limited budget as a restriction, see it as an enticement into local markets, bistros, dive bars and front seats at street shows in world-class cities.
8. Relish the joys of solo travel. Independent travel allows you to custom-tailor your trip to your pace and interests. You can go where you want when you want. To maximize those freedoms, do your research and be creative with your itinerary. Put yourself in places where you can meet and communicate with locals rather than relying on service rendered with purchased smiles. If you allow yourself to be herded around like a school child to establishments offering plain-vanilla experiences to travelers and financial kickbacks to tour companies, you’ll diminish your chance to absorb cultural differences—presumably an important reason you’re traveling in the first place. By investing yourself fully, meeting people along the way, you’ll have a chance to see how other people live, think and look at the world.
9. Be a cultural chameleon. Forget McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks! Leave Holiday Inn and Ramada at home! Travel is a cultural Pandora’s box rife with new culinary and recreational experiences; to fully appreciate these, eschew American-style hotels and restaurants and patronize establishments that reflect the culture you’re visiting. Drink Guinness in Ireland, red wine in France, raki in Turkey and ouzo in Greece. Eat crêpes in Paris, gelato in Florence, herring in Amsterdam, octopus in Rhodes and tapas in Madrid. Wherever you go, look for places that cater to locals rather than corporate institutions. By sleeping, eating and playing like a temporary resident rather than a tourist, you’ll maximize your travel experiences.
To access my entire photo-filled tip list, I invite you to visit my website at http://wordgeisha.com/WGblog2008.html. And now, tips #7-9:
7. Make the most of your budget. You can visit most major European cities for under $100/day per person. In many ways, the less you spend, the closer you get to the local culture and the farther you escape from your own. By living as locals do, you’ll have more opportunities to see authentic cultural differences and gain perspective about the ways things are done in a foreign place than you would on a big, organized tour. Rather than viewing a limited budget as a restriction, see it as an enticement into local markets, bistros, dive bars and front seats at street shows in world-class cities.
8. Relish the joys of solo travel. Independent travel allows you to custom-tailor your trip to your pace and interests. You can go where you want when you want. To maximize those freedoms, do your research and be creative with your itinerary. Put yourself in places where you can meet and communicate with locals rather than relying on service rendered with purchased smiles. If you allow yourself to be herded around like a school child to establishments offering plain-vanilla experiences to travelers and financial kickbacks to tour companies, you’ll diminish your chance to absorb cultural differences—presumably an important reason you’re traveling in the first place. By investing yourself fully, meeting people along the way, you’ll have a chance to see how other people live, think and look at the world.
9. Be a cultural chameleon. Forget McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks! Leave Holiday Inn and Ramada at home! Travel is a cultural Pandora’s box rife with new culinary and recreational experiences; to fully appreciate these, eschew American-style hotels and restaurants and patronize establishments that reflect the culture you’re visiting. Drink Guinness in Ireland, red wine in France, raki in Turkey and ouzo in Greece. Eat crêpes in Paris, gelato in Florence, herring in Amsterdam, octopus in Rhodes and tapas in Madrid. Wherever you go, look for places that cater to locals rather than corporate institutions. By sleeping, eating and playing like a temporary resident rather than a tourist, you’ll maximize your travel experiences.
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