Pictured: ELx Travel Co-Founder, Lexie
My first trip out of the country was to Kathmandu, Nepal for a semester abroad in college. I can’t recall all the details, but I told my advisor I was open to anywhere that would host me even though I didn’t speak another language. He asked, “How about Nepal?”, and I said, “Sure, that sounds fun.”
I still remember trying to navigate Newark Airport and following my Dad’s advice, “just look like you know what you’re doing and you’ll be fine.”. Even though I had to ask at least two gate agents how to get to my next terminal (it involved a bus, through security again, and a 20-minute walk), and the kind man in the seat next to me on my 15-hour flight probably thought I would hurl as I clutched my backpack for dear life, I made it to Nepal in one piece.
Flash forward to the years following that semester and I have lifelong friends with shared positive - and semi-shocking - life experiences, some of whom I’ve now flown across the country for their weddings. That trip sparked a decade-long personal and professional relationship with travel that has permitted me to see some of the very best, and some of the more harrowing, parts of the world.
I recognize my privilege in the ways I’ve been able to travel; It doesn’t escape me that a “work trip” doesn’t typically entail an overnight flight, rafting in the Nile, or staring up at the Colosseum. For many, travel is often an annual experience as an escape from the everyday. In our new remote world, travel has become a morphing of work and leisure.
Whatever form travel takes for you, I hope you can take one of the lessons I’ve learned and apply it to your own experience. Maybe it will help you see something through a new lens, or maybe it will save you from an uncomfortable flight. Through it all though, I encourage you to take pictures, stay up late, get up early, try new things, embrace the uncomfortable, and keep exploring!
—-------------------------
#1 Travel is the best form of education
I got decent grades in school, went to a competitive college, and even pursued a master’s degree, but travel remains the best form of education I’ve ever received. You can read about 8th Century Iberia in history class, but it doesn’t compare to feeling the centuries of energy radiating from the walls as you walk through the arches and pews of the Mosque - slash - Cathedral in Cordoba.
A documentary doesn’t do justice to the safari guides of South Africa pointing out testosterone dripping from an elephant’s ears as it lumbers 20 feet away from you (true story). It also doesn’t do justice to the jolt of adrenaline as the guide slams the car into reverse because you need to “Get out of there quickly”.
Books, movies, and lessons are beautiful, but traveling and seeing these people, places, and things in person instills in us emotions, memories, sights, sounds, and more. Travel creates lessons that last a lifetime.
#2 Travel is never perfect - if you want to have fun you need to let go
Delayed flights, long lines, crappy hotels, food poisoning, getting lost, blisters, the list goes on. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. That phrase perfectly sums up what it is to travel. With so many factors involved, it’s nearly impossible to have a perfectly smooth trip, vacation, or adventure.
Why waste your energy and time getting and staying frustrated? Things will go wrong but accept that sooner or later they will work themselves out; Your flight will be rebooked; You’ll still get to enter that museum; Maybe that hotel sucks but it’s in a great location; Food poisoning is a lesson learned; If you got lost, at least you wound up somewhere new? And so on. At the end of the day, the hiccups are what make you appreciate the good things that happen, and at the very least they’ll be a story to tell.
#3 Everyone should try dining alone at least once
Especially outside of the U.S., dining alone is not as strange as it sounds or feels. Bring a book with you or just enjoy the peace of people-watching; Listen to the sounds of the restaurant or street, and treat yourself to a luxurious meal. Even a simple cup of coffee, glass of wine, or afternoon snack can be a delight alone.
Dining alone is a great way to decompress and get acquainted with yourself. Enjoy your favorite cuisine judgment-free, or ask the waitstaff for their suggestions and try something new. Take as little or as long as you’d like to sit, eat, and enjoy. If you can enjoy the company of yourself for 1-2 hours and realize that people are paying you little attention, you’ll find yourself walking a little taller and stronger in everything else you do.
#4 Traveling with friends is a rare kind of joy and silliness
There is some kind of superpower in the delusional moments that happen when you’re traveling with friends; Those moments where you are so overtired or overwhelmed, and the littlest things can set you all into a frenzy of laughs and camaraderie.
In my travels with friends, we have slept on park benches after red-eyes, danced on the bar top of Coyote Ugly, tracked down ham and cheese croissants at 5am after staying out all night, woken up at the crack of dawn to sit side-by-side for a sunrise, missed trains, planes, and taxis together, and more. There is something beautiful about creating and sharing these experiences with friends - going through the same chaos and wonders of the world together that you’ll always be able to look back on.
#5 Sometimes the simple things create the longest-lasting memories
From so many of my travels, I don’t always remember the big namesake moments, but there are little things that created big feelings that have stuck with me.
I remember sipping an espresso at a cafe next to Milan’s Duomo by myself; I remember biking with a friend to an industrial food park overlooking the water in Copenhagen and feeling like I was a kid again; I remember the peppercorns in my gin & tonic at the hillside pub in County Cork; I remember sitting in a plaza of Rome late-night with colleagues, staring at the Pantheon; I remember a street musician playing flamenco guitar in a plaza of Valencia on Valentine’s Day.
Don’t underestimate the small details of your trip, and how powerful they can be. Take the pictures, buy the tour tickets, and see all that you can, but when you find yourself in the quieter moments or times when your emotions tug at you, those are the memories that will stick around for a while.
—-------------------------
I could go on and on, but I hope at least one lesson here has struck a chord with you and you’ll carry it into your next adventure. Now that I’ve written some of these down, there may even be a part two!
Ready to have your own adventures? Schedule your FREE Travel Consultation today to speak with the ELx Travel team and start planning.