10 Tips for a Better Travel Experience

Hitting the road once will change your life forever. Fact. You will become more adaptable and thinking on your feet will become second nature. Confidence and self belief will blossom as you overcome the trials and tribulations engendered by life on the road, and you will evolve. Interaction with others, from all walks of life, will become a daily event. The people you meet and the situations you encounter, both good and bad, will slowly begin to define you. Some days may be magical, others may be tough - but each day will leave its mark, and the cumulative effect is life changing.

Whether you travel for a month, a year, or ten years, you will be in for an experience like no other. But pause for a moment and ask yourself: - could it be even better?

Here are ten ways to enhance your travel experience.

Go Slow - You’ve quit your job or got time off work, flown half way around the world, and are now desperately eager to see first hand everything you’ve read and dreamed about. It’s human nature to not want to ‘miss out’ on anything. But by racing though too many countries in a given time you may miss out on so much more. Not only will you learn less about the places you’ve longed to visit, but you will tire quickly and become travel weary. One or two nights in each place also spells out buses, trains or boats at least ever other day, and packing/unpacking will almost become a daily event. Tiring? I should coco.
With more time spent in fewer places you will begin to live in your new surroundings. The extra time in each place may encourage you to explore under your own steam as opposed to being shackled to a guidebook and its top ten tick off list. Worries about wasting time will not be an issue, leaving you free to go wandering and increasing the odds uncovering a lesser known delight.

Have Faith – Be a little more trusting. Everyone is not out to steal your money, or cheat you. Traveling with this unhealthy mindset will cause an individual to become detached, cynical, bitter, and an extremely poor ambassador for their country. Don’t be dismissive or rude when approached – after all, it’s nice to be nice.
Ok, occasionally an unsavory cookie may cross your path, but this can be dealt with upon realization; but, on the whole, those who approach you will fall into other categories: people like you and I wanting to make a living (and helping you with a service in the process), and those that are either curious or friendly (or usually both!) So, let the guard down a little and hear people out. Judge situations on their individual merits and sometimes be a Yes Man, you never know where it may lead.

Get Involved – Keep an eye out for opportunities where you can make a difference. We learn so much from those we meet and places we see, but all too often its one way traffic. Be ready to help others and try whenever possible to give something back. Play to your skills and experience, you may have something valuable to offer. Not only can it help others and boost your karma, but also increase opportunities for meeting people and seeing things from a different perspective.

Learn the Lingo – Even just the basics will lay the foundation for a better experience. ‘Pleases’ and ‘thank you’s go a long way, and, even if they are not delivered correctly or understood, they show that you are willing to make the effort and convey a respect toward the people you meet. If nothing else it will raise a smile or two, and that’s always a bonus. Furthermore, if you still need encouragement to obtain a phrase book, a little of the local lingo may get you a better price for transport, accommodation, and the little knick-knacks you simply can’t pass up.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – Or should that be Chicken buses, Tuk-Tuks, and Becaks? We endeavor to taste all the local delicacies, so why not sample all the local modes of transport, too? Ok, the rail system may be the preferable method of travel for a given country, but find out for yourself why. Furthermore, even if the bus station is in walking distance from your accommodation, throw monetary caution to the wind at least once by splashing out 50 cents for the local equivalent of a Becak (Indonesian Pedal Power) or Moto (Cambodian Motorbike Taxi) to get you there. For those that are still concerned with value for money, I say sit in the front bucket of a Vietnamese Cyclo and get taken across a busy Saigon intersection – for the price of one beer you will have a vision etched in your mind for all eternity. Then, for the hardcore thrill seekers amongst you, invite your Cyclo Jockey to sit in the seat of death while you peddle him across the intersection…

Embrace the Weird and Wonderful - Don’t pass up a chance to try something a little out of the ordinary, be it new food, local customs, children’s games, or anything else. Chew betelnut (torrents of red saliva, anyone?) with little old ladies in Borneo, play Trompo (simple spinning tops) with kids in El Salvador, and cough and choke on samples of savage tobacco from Javanese street vendors. Get into the swing of it and make someone’s day.

Stay Alert – Little can ruin a trip and taint your view of a country and its populous more than being careless with your belongings and learning the hard way. Opportunist theft is a fact of life, but you can reduce the risk by remaining aware of both your surroundings and belongings and not playing into the minority’s hands.

Be a One Bag Wonder – Travel light, travel happy. Cut down on your belongings and life will become so much simpler. Firstly, it makes the mechanics of getting from A to B easier and less stressful. Easier because it’s less weight to be humping around between transport and accommodation and also less size and weight to be swinging around within the confines of a densely populated bus. It becomes less stressful because the smaller your luggage is, the less likely it is that you will be separated from it during journeys– and, judging everybody else by my own pitifully low standards, the less there is of it to forget or lose! In addition, it’s more likely you will be let on an already packed out bus if you have less baggage. This doesn’t ring true in Guatemala however, as you can always fit one more person on the bus, no matter how full it already is.

Walk the Path Less Trodden – Now that you have extra time on your hands in each destination, why not explore a little? Getting off the beaten path doesn’t have to mean single handedly paddling a handmade dugout canoe 500 miles through the Amazonian Basin, it could be something as simple as forsaking the guidebook recommends for the day and instead scrounging a map or fliers and going for an aimless wander in a new city. Some of my best discoveries have resulted from doing just this.
Great sources of info include Tourist Information Offices (although, where available, they vary immensely in quality), What’s On guides, local newspapers, handouts, fliers, and, of course, fellow travelers, to name but a few. Spending less time in the well known and ‘popular’ hangouts will also do your budget a big favor, too.

Keep a Journal – Writing reams of pulp isn’t for everyone, but it doesn’t have to be that way. A journal can mean many different things to different people. It could be a full scale daily diary or simply a child’s notebook from the market in which you put labels from local beer bottles (possibly with drunken scribblings below) – the choice is yours. For the geeks among us (me included) there is the option to travel blog, and for the lazy geeks among us (again, me included) it’s even easier to cut and paste excerpts from emails home to friends and family and keep those as your journal.
Whatever form your personal creation may take, the end result is the same. Long after your memory has faded there will be this well thumbed Opus, this testimony of your travels, waiting to take you once more through this wonderful chapter of your life.