Ironic or what? haha – I swear there is a method to my madness, read on to learn all about it.
Before you head out on your trip I bet you’ve found yourself scrolling the internet for hours, reading travel blog after travel blog for all the tips and tricks you can get your hands on, right? Well from first hand experience we have found that there are just some things that even reading a million blog posts cannot teach you, you just have to learn them whilst on the road.
Wanna know our 5 tips before hitting the road? Read on.
Tip #1: Social Media Pressure.
Before every trip I find myself researching what we are going to see and do whilst we are there, with the wonderful world-wide-web at my fingertips I can manage to find blog posts and websites recommending the ’10 must see attractions in…’ within seconds. But does this mean that you have visit all of them?
Within the first 2 weeks of our travels I felt myself being weighed down by my own guilt of not feeling like we were doing or seeing enough, but then I realised that this didn’t matter. If what you are doing with your time whether it be venturing out on a 4 hour trek or simply sitting in the sun all day reading a book, as long as you are happy then that’s what matters. Each of us travel to new places for different reasons, some people travel the world to trek to the tops of famous mountains, others dive the beautiful oceans and then some people just travel to feel the energy of a place. Watching life go by, living slowly.
The modern world is a miracle and a curse. Within the digital age social media has created the concept of ‘if you’ve visited a place but you didn’t see this, this and this…then were you really there’. People feel socially inadequate if they haven’t captured a kick-ass picture or video to post to instagram for your friends to see. By others seeing what we see, we feel relevant.
All this being said….only a small percentage of us are privileged to travel this beautiful earth. If you are visit a place with only a small amount of time, I can understand why you would cram all the things you want to see and do. But just remember, travel for you, not for anybody else. Put your phone down every once in a while and just take it all in.
Tip #2: If you wish to step foot outside of the 4 walls where you are staying, check on google maps where a hotel/lodgings is located. This will give you some idea if there is any civilisation nearby.
Ever booked a hotel, got there and thought… Where are all the bars, restauraunts and why are we so far away from all of the sites and monuments? Yes we have too. Well remember this tip and you won’t find yourself in this situation again.
Yes, it is great that there’s a lovely homestay with a nice family for only £6 a night for a double room, but have you even had a look where it is on a map? These are things you need to be asking yourself as from personal experience travelling around Sri Lanka where this has panned out a few times.
It’s great that it’s cheap but surely if there are 5 monuments you want to visit and they are millions of miles away then it’s going to cost you to get there – that money you are plowing int tuk tuks and taxis could easily be put into a hotel nearer to locations you wish to visit. This is one of the reasons I love booking.com – it lets me cancel a hotel booking (timescale and policies apply) if it isn’t right for me and find a new place quickly.
All it takes is a 5 minute google maps search to get a brief overview of the area where you are staying. If you are staying at a place that provides meals then great, but if you are not then you will need to be in a neighbourhood or location with restaurants and shops nearby.
Believe us, you will thank yourself you did this.
Tip #3: if you wake up, have plans to see / do something but would rather lay in bed a binge watch netflix and do said thing tomorrow…then do just that.
Are you on your 2 weeks annual leave from work? Planning to cover all of the key places and monuments on your itinary? Or have you quit your job, sold your belongings and taken a year out of the rat race to explore several countries? Whichever one you are, you can take something away from this.
Merely weeks into our trip we learn’t the key to really enjoying your journey (considering that you have the time to rearrange your plans) – say you have planned that over the next 3 days you will explore Mysuru. Tomorrow you will go and see the Mysuru Palace and the following days you will walk up the chamundi hills to get a great view of the city and visit the devaraja markets. But you wake up in the morning feeling tired, homesick and you just aren’t in the mood to do what you had planned. You would rather lay in bed all day and binge watch friends on netflix. Listen to your mind and your body, relax and do the thing that you will really enjoy. You can fit the event into one of your other days in the city. Travelling comes with its lows and its highs.
Tip #4: Travelling is HARD work.
After reading all the blogs and looking at all the glamorous pictures whilst researching for your trip part of you will think that your travel journey will be filled with only adventure, laughter, exploration and happiness. But this isn’t the case.
If you are travelling for the first time or visiting a country you haven’t yet been to, you will learn only so much from the internet. You will only truly understand what travel is when you begin your journey. Not everything will be smooth sailing, you will come up against barriers but remember that you can and will overcome them.
Tip 5#: You will get ill.
There is plenty of information out there about how NOT to fall ill whilst travelling but with all precautions put in place you WILL fall ill on one occasion or more during your travels. Bites from creepy crawlies that you didn’t anticipate, a change in your diet and bowl movements and the inability to really know what’s going into your food to name a few sickness contenders. Fact: If you fall ill, you just have to roll with it. Follow tip #3, relax and get better.
All this being said…the key take away from travel is to ENJOY YOURSELF!
Visiting India anytime soon? Check out our post all about How to spend 2 days in Hampi
The Wards Abroad 
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