5 Interesting Ways to Travel From Your Living Room

Traveling back in time to journeys from long ago is a great way to experience old travels in a new light!

All of us are itching to travel. Some of us have discovered a new illness called Travel Withdrawal Syndrome. We didn’t realize just how much we were addicted to travel. Now we break out into a cold sweat thinking of how long it might be before the next dose.

I am suffering from this big time. My mind has been trying to come up with ways and means to feel like I am still free to travel.

Here are a few ways that can help us all experience the same highs that we felt when we ‘actually’ traveled.

Share Pictures from Past Trips on Your Chat Groups

During the monsoon season, a lot of my friends tend to clamber into their cars and take off on ‘monsoon chasing’. I imagine that they are absolutely crushed that they can’t do the chasing this year.

So I posted on the group that they should share some pictures from their favorite monsoon trips.

This caused quite a flurry of activity. Several breathtaking pictures were posted. Lots of comments went back and forth. And there was a mad scramble to get photos in.

There was also a bit of drama. Some women pointed out that a particular photo was really good. Suddenly, many of the men in the group were laying claim to being the photographer who produced that photo. :)

The excitement lasted for almost 2 days with photos and comments coming in at all times because group members are in different time zones.

If you plan to try this on your groups, make sure you think of a specific topic (I picked monsoon chasing). Also, remind photo posters to add a caption about the place and time! When I see a picture, I always like to know where it was taken. I may want to go there too!

Plan the Next Trip With a Group of Friends

Recently we had the mandatory monthly catch-up with a group of girls. For the record, the five of us have never managed to make a trip together so far. But that doesn’t stop us from talking about it, all the time!

The recent call took the cake. One of the girls made us all pinky-promise that we would make a trip happen as soon as the world got over the pandemic. All of us heartily waved our pinkie fingers, and a photo was taken.

After that solemn ceremony, we spent the next 20 minutes discussing where to go. Masai Mara was ruled out since one of us has been there already. Northern Lights was ruled out because it is unpredictable. What if we go all the way there and the lights elude us?

With lots of arguments for and against, and hardly anyone listening to anyone else, we finally narrowed it down to Antarctica! :)

Whether we go or not is immaterial. What will keep us going for a while is that insane conversation about where to go!

Build a Photo Wall or Photo Chart or Some Such

We carried out this project a few months ago, and it gave us days of excitement. First off, there were several healthy (read loud and impassioned) arguments about the theme. On what basis would we choose the photos that would make it to the wall?

Only Europe photos? Only India? Photos with all 3 family members in it? Only nature? Only monuments? You get the drift.

After the dust settled, we had zeroed in on photos of all travels, any theme (nature or otherwise), across the last 3–4 years, and with no family members in it.

The action didn’t end here. We again spent hours perusing hundreds of photos and picking our favorites. If you plan to do this, I assure you this will take time. Each time you visit some trip, you are immediately sucked into the vortex of that trip. Memories come rushing in, and you find yourself recalling what happened in great detail.

After spending a few hearty evenings on this activity, we finally had the shortlisted photos. Apparently, that was just step one!

Since we were doing a whole wall, we had to paint the wall, mark out the location for the nails, and also get all the photos printed and framed.

The end result gives us a lot of joy. And lots of conversation every time someone visits the house. We gather around the photo wall and talk about the photos and the trips. Super fun.

If you don’t want to do something so elaborate, you can make a simple photo chart and find a small section on the wall to hang it.

Tip: Pinterest will kill you with ideas. We spent more time looking up design suggestions on Pinterest than actually executing the photo wall project. But it was time well spent. It was funnnn!

Swap a Story

Nothing better to relive old memories than to narrate them to someone. You can provide the trigger for this narration.

Organize a call amongst people who you know are travel buffs.

Only one rule on the call. Each person has to share the goofiest or strangest experience from one of their trips.

I have not actually done this on a call. But in those days when friends used to meet in person, we have had conversations involving interesting travel tales. It provides hours of entertainment.

You will find that people have had the strangest or the warmest of experiences, and they were just dying for a forum to share this story.

Go ahead and be the catalyst. Of course, you can share your stories too. Admit it — you were waiting for an audience as well :)

Recall a Memory From a Recent Trip

What was the most recent journey you undertook? Who did you go with? Get that group together and ask them to state the first memory from that trip.

This happened by chance on yet another of those video calls that are keeping the collective morale up in these times.

4 of us got together on a call and went all nostalgic about our most recent trip. We had been to Budapest last year. On a whim, I asked each person to quickly quote their top memory. What comes to mind first from the trip?

For me, it was the Ruin Bars of Budapest. For another, it was the Danube River Cruise. For the third person, the first thing that came to mind was the beautiful Synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. We had spent some silent moments there wondering about those times. And for the fourth, it was the long walk to a famous cafe that was so crowded that we turned around and left quickly. That was some memory to relish!

Go round-robin and make sure everyone recalls the top memory. You will be surprised at the things that people recall. Your top memory may not always be the top memory of the rest of the group. Which is a good thing! A diverse set of top memories means you spend time recalling finer details of the trip that you might have forgotten.

This is Why We Make Memories

As a travel addict, I have been suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms. We have not even embarked on any day trips out of fear of a covid attack.

However, I have participated in several travel-related discussions with multiple groups of people over the last few months. Talking about travel, past or future, definitely helps.

Heck, we went on all those trips and clicked tons of pictures because we hoped to sit back on a rainy day and relish those memories. Rainy days are here now!

Let us put our feet up, fire up our laptops, go through old photos, and feel all warm and fuzzy as we recall those wonderful trips from the past.

And soon, before we know it, it will be time for our next trip…