8 Relaxing Ways Anyone Can Travel From Home During Quarantine

You deserve a deep breath for every week you’ve self-isolated. You also deserve this vacation.

Surprise! We are going on a remote world trip together. Don’t worry about the details, you’re in good hands. I’ve arranged everything.

1. Let’s set the mood with Radiooooo.

A world music project that deserves more attention. If it’s your first time, simply choose any decade and country combination and hop around different eras and cultures. You can also set the “Slow”, “Fast”, and “Weird” filters to your liking.

My personal favorite is “Taxi Mode” (top left, yes, the taxi icon) which allows you to select an array of decades while combining several countries together to then take a ride through their soundscapes.

Why not string together ‘70's Scandinavia to see how hard disco hit them? You might enjoy combining Soviet and American swing & jazz between the '20s and ’50s. Have you discovered ‘80’s city-pop in Japan yet? After that take a spontaneous trip through West Africa’s colorful highlife and afrobeat jams.

I was inspired to start creating sets as musical tours of different countries like Brazil and France, your experiences might inspire you to throw yourself a solo dance party.

2. Reflect on fascinating stories via Rare Earth.

Evan Hadfield’s series has a cult following, and I won’t lie, I’m part of it.

You might know his father already, famed Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Some of you might remember his viral rendition of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” aboard the International Space Station.

As if that weren’t enough, he is also the executive producer of Rare Earth. However, we are going to focus on Evan here, since most of his 842,000 subscribers know him instead for effortlessly transporting them into different cultures and ideas through his signature mini-documentaries.

By showcasing globally relevant bite-sized history lessons, he helps us make sense of humanity as a whole. He has mastered the art of making under-appreciated stories easier to digest with simple yet thought-provoking delivery.

You’ll often be left with more valuable questions than answers, and you’ll end up looking forward to the credits at the end of his videos, which as a sign of his skepticism and humility, never fail to contain the following statement:

“Please note that Evan is often kind of an idiot”.

3. Understand the soul of adventure and travel alongside Bald & Bankrupt.

PewDiePie named him as one of his favorite Youtube channels and he has already soaked up over 1.5 million subscribers, but you’ll be shocked to find that Bald’s channel has no intros or special effects. His content is so ridiculously raw and adventurous, it might even inspire you to experience your own region in a new way.

After you see him pursue ridiculous goals with minimal planning and in places not even locals would visit (let alone with a camera), you’ll quickly understand the pure charisma and traveling spirit Bald is famous for. His subscribers don’t celebrate his uploads, but rather sigh in relief. At this point, it seems most of those subscribed are just there to check up on him and make sure he is still alive and well.

I would describe his channel as tagging along with David Attenborough’s reckless third cousin as he takes you through some of the least highlighted or celebrated corners of the world, constantly reminding us that it is an overwhelmingly kind and welcoming place*.

*particularly if you are a bald and outgoing British man, who speaks Russian.

4. Kickstart a foreign language by learning its 800 most frequently spoken words.

I don’t have to remind you that learning languages is life-changing, and though I just did, the odds are you already have one in mind you wish you were able to communicate in fluently.

I speak 4 languages fluently and will never stop learning. I grew up with English and Spanish, later adding Dutch and Portuguese. I’m currently learning 4 more: Russian, German, French, and Norwegian.

One of the most efficient shortcuts I use to hit the ground running when learning a new language is to start by familiarizing myself with the top 800 most frequently spoken word families. For instance, if you learn the word swim, then you’ll find it easier to figure out what swimmer, swimming, and swam mean.

It’s a priceless headstart since you’ll then be able to understand (and maybe even participate in) common conversations much sooner than people who waste too much of their momentum struggling with grammar.

For example, there are just over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Native speakers tend to know somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 word families. However, if you focus on learning the 800 most used word families in English, you’ll be able to understand about 75% of the language that is actually used in everyday conversations.

You can learn other less common words on the go once you understand the core of most conversations and can figure them out through context. Personally, this has been more effective than completing entire language tracks on Duolingo, and only second to total immersion in regards to efficiency. Flashcards techniques, or word association visuals as seen in this Russian video or this Dutch video help speed up the process even more.

If you’d like some inspiration, have fun with some unique words from different languages for a start:

5. Travel through time with Voices Of The Past.

Imagine the culture shock of seeing the first foreigner approaching your isolated nation, carrying the first guns you ever saw fired, riding the first horses you ever saw galloping. To hear people of the past describe each other with the same detail and attention with which we would nowadays report extraterrestrial encounters is not just fascinating, but comedic gold.

Travelers know that intense culture shock can create hilarious and thought-provoking perspectives and situations. Historians know these perspectives can tell you as much about the culture in question as they can offer a glimpse into the culture of the person describing it.

6. Learn some Geography Now!

It’s been about 5 years of me and the other 2.1 million subscribers cheering Barby on as he tirelessly attempts to profile every single country on the planet, giving equal attention to nations as different as Russia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and North Korea.

To dip your toes into this highly educational and family-friendly content, pick a country you’ve visited or always dreamt to experience and I guarantee you will learn something new about it. I’ve seen every single one.

7. Plan a trip and get lists going on Google Maps.

If you don’t find it exciting enough to simply enjoy being one of the few living beings in history to have access to a massive map of their entire planet, complete with photos, names, funny reviews, and detailed street views, then I have a couple of ways you can spice up your google maps life.

Have a friend give you an online tour of the place they grew up or live in. That will surely bring up some stories.

If you’re feeling more practical, I find it handy to make Google Maps lists. Say you want to go to Vienna one day, make a list of parks and museums you want to visit. Alternatively, you can make a list of your favorite vegan restaurants, family businesses, dive bars, or nightclubs you want to support once quarantine is lifted.

You can save time by sharing these when friends or family are in town, or you can make them public for everyone to enjoy your fabulous taste. You can even line up places you haven’t visited in your area, so you have a stroll already planned out for when you finally get to go outside.

If you’re more ambitious, you can even plan general routes for all the great adventures left on your bucket list. Plan a Silk Road trip through all the cities along the ancient route. Figure out how to see most of Europe by hitchhiking its highways. Imagine your motorcycle route through North America or South America. I’ve been doing this for fun for years now, and I’m really hoping it’s not just me who enjoys it this much.

8. Drink your wanderlust!

We’re probably all cooking at home anyway, we might as well have fun honing our skills, exploring new cuisines, or eating healthier to keep ourselves in good spirits (although quarantine calories don’t count), and maybe even going vegan, so that we can do our part in saving ourselves from eating our way into future pandemics.

Start simple, fun, and sinful with Korean dalgona (aka whipped) coffee, the only thing spreading faster than that-which-shall-not-be-named. The jolt of energy had me cleaning my entire home and cooking up a storm. Beware, it is absurdly addictive.

I love cooking food from places I’ve never been to, it teaches you new tricks. Here’s a list to start with, but as we all know there is certainly no shortage of free online recipes and cooking channels.

You can also challenge yourself to cook far below your usual budget. Learning how to turn cheap ingredients into satisfying and balanced meals is an incredibly useful life skill. Progress in this area can help make your future travels more affordable and your daily life more frugal.

Here are some easy budget recipes:

That way you can save up to pay for that 27th pistachio gelato you’ll crave after that 14th marinara pizza you’ll gorge on when you finally make it to Napoli as we celebrate this whole ordeal becoming a thing of the past.