TRAVEL TIPS
Some Fun and Creative Ideas on How You Can “Travel” In Your Hometown
Number three will blow your mind!
Contrary to how avid travelers frame their lives on Instagram, a majority of them are not on an endless vacation. I belong to this demographic. Between trips, I live an ordinary life. When wanderlust strikes and my budget doesn’t allow for a getaway, how do I pacify my desire to explore?
Sometimes, I find creative ways to simulate the experience right at home! You might discover your hometown and neighboring regions are more interesting than you thought!
Here are my five tricks to temporarily capture the spirit of travel when you’re stuck at home:
- Shake Up Your Commute to Work By Taking Different Routes
While the idea of working remotely has gained a ton of traction in recent years, only 35% of employees have this privilege. This means the remaining 65% commute to their workplace at least one day a week. This first trick will be easier to implement if you don’t rely on public transportation.
Driving, walking, and biking the same route every day gets monotonous. Map out alternate routes to your workplace. By doing so, your commute will feel more novel. Simply seeing different business strips, neighborhoods, and even vacant land will add some adventure to your routine! You’ll go past that pizzeria on 5th Street and then you’ll learn it’s now a bakery! Hey, that’s new! See, things change in your boring ol’ hometown too!
If you do use public transportation to get to work, try things like getting off the stop before and walking the rest of the way — if it’s not too far, that is! Get picked up at a different bus stop.
2. Treat yourself to a nice hotel for a night
Checking into a beautiful hotel with some essentials packed in a suitcase makes you feel like a tourist! Pretend you’ve never been to your hometown before. You don’t know anyone! Not your family. Coworkers. People you went to high school with. You are a stranger and you are visiting for the day! What will you do? What will you see? Where will you eat? No shame if all you do is watch Hulu in the hotel room! Even doing something uneventful in a different atmosphere can imitate the vibes of a vacation.
If you’re enrolled in a rewards program with a hotel chain (and you should!), then this is a neat hack to get some extra points. This little boost might be all you needed to cash in for a free room when you embark on your actual vacation!
3. Use Google Earth to walk the streets of Paris
Doesn’t have to be Paris. Can be… anywhere! Through your device, you can view the place you wish to visit as if you were literally standing there. Google Earth puts you in first person perspective and grants you 360 degree movement of any walkable path on the globe. I did this a lot during the lockdowns!
Of course, Google Earth is not a comprehensive virtual reality experience. The sounds, the smells, the weather, and all the nuances of actually being there will be absent from this experience. Still, it’s a far more interactive way to see your dream destination as opposed to solely relying on Instagram photos.
4. Drive on the highway with no destination in mind
This is something else I did a lot during the lockdowns as well! If you love road trips, then this suggestion is especially for you. Get on the highway and… drive. That’s it. Destination? You can view it as the journey being the destination. Whoa, deep.
Driving by yourself for the sake of driving even has therapeutic benefits too. It’s fun — and you are doing your mental health a huge favor!
Many highways at various points will be surrounded by nature. Tall trees, winding hills, water views, and mountainsides may be closer than you suspect!
I suggest you use something like Google Maps to navigate your way back home. Getting lost or getting off at the wrong exit will quickly spoil the thrill of your aimless wanderings.
It’s best you deploy this trick when congestion on the highway is minimal. 4pm on a weekday? Bad time. Early morning hours or late night hours are best for most people.
5. Have dinner in nearby towns
How well do you really know towns neighboring you? When we’re at home, many of us confine ourselves to a very small radius for convenience. Just like taking the same route to work everyday can get stale, so can eating at the same nearby restaurants. Unlike the previous suggestion with no concrete destination in mind, now you have one! Go a little out of your way and have a simple experience in a nearby town you aren’t as familiar with.
Conclusion
With the possible exception of the hotel trick, the rest of these are rather budget friendly! Tagging on a few extra minutes to your morning commute or evening outing with friends will help you appreciate how large our world really is. They quell our wanderlust while we save up the money and plan for our next vacation.
Is there something else you do to pass the time between trips? Did any of these tricks work really well for you? Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments!
Love Michael DeFranceschi’s work? Check out his travel blog! Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn!
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