In my previous article, I reviewed my world tour where I told you that I was going to stay in one place to have different experiences from your daily life in France. In this article, I will explain my perspective on travel.
Take your time and have new experiences on a world tour
When you are on a world tour, you are supposed to have much more time than when you are on vacation. When you are on vacation, you generally have a maximum of 1 month or 2 if you have school holidays, whereas during your world tour, you have at least 6 months up to 2 years maximum.
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Avoid stacking vacations and enjoy one place.
When you are on vacation, you stay 2 to 4 days maximum in the same place and you chain either 5 to 10 cities or places during your stay. The advice I can give you on a world tour is to avoid doing the same thing, avoid stacking destinations instead of visiting 50 places in 6 months (which is 3 days per city + transport). It would be better to prefer staying 1 week in one place to soak it in, so about twenty places maximum unless these places are not that far apart; prefer to stay in the same place if the next place is only up to 100 km away. You will have less hassle packing your bag, booking your next place, and lugging your bag around, for example. Recently, I went to Tulum, 65 km from where I am in Playa del Carmen; the trip takes at most 1 hour. I preferred to stay where I was and make the round trip; the people I was with chose to sleep in Tulum. I can tell you that we spent as much time or more waiting for everyone to be ready to go to the hostel than if we had just done the round trip. In the end, they said it would have been better to stay in the same place (Playa del Carmen). Change places only if your next place is far away!!
That is why if I travel for just one year, I prefer to focus on destinations and this is what I explain in this article why go to Asia for 1 year instead of doing a one-year world tour. For example, I spent 1 year in Latin America during my two-year world tour.
@Cenote Jardin de Eden near Playa del Carmen in Mexico
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How to soak it in? By trying new experiences!!
You can, for example, learn the local language, which I am doing by staying one month in Playa del Carmen in Mexico to learn Spanish; you can also take dance classes like I will do in Cuba. You can explore the city more and party like I did in Sydney by staying two weeks. Volunteer in an animal sanctuary in Africa, or work in a youth hostel for room and board for a week. I can give you plenty of other examples: get your scuba diving certification in a few days and enjoy the beach, take cooking and yoga classes, do sports to stay fit, and other outdoor activities, etc. There are many activities you might not have time to do on vacation but can do on a world tour.
@Flight to Cancun
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Why take your time?
When you go on a world tour, you are very excited to visit as many places as possible and go from country to country, but in the end, you will realize that you did not enjoy some places that were worth it because you wanted to go to the next place, and this is a mistake travelers often make. They book all their plane tickets, and since they only have 3 weeks in a country, they rush as if they were on vacation and in the end only see the tourist spots of the country and do not soak in the culture or interact with locals. If you like a place, stay there at least a week, there is always something to do!
That is also why I recommend not having any ticket for your world tour or just the next country ticket to avoid trouble if asked for a return ticket at customs.
Taking your time while traveling and staying at least a week in the same place will allow you to get closer to other foreigners or locals more easily; you won’t just be passing through. You can try several culinary specialties of the region and really get an idea and experience of local life.
As Robert Browning said, “Less is more” in a film, it is also an architectural principle to achieve maximum effect with the least possible. I fully agree with this phrase; it is better to do things well than to overdo it, better to visit one city well for a week than three cities, for example.
@Beach in Riviera Maya in Mexico
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Why have new experiences?
When you travel, you have to step out of your comfort zone. Whether you travel in a group or with someone, if you only stay among yourselves, you will miss part of the experience. Go towards others and meet the unknown; that is the essence of travel. The only difference between a new experience or a new place is the people you met, the special things you do.
I often say that my best year of travel was in Australia or my best month of travel was in Thailand for several reasons because I had so many new experiences and met new people that made these trips the best. For example, I conquered my fear of heights by bungee jumping, I attended the full moon party with other travelers, etc.
@Bungee jumping in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Go towards the unknown and make discomfort comfortable
Ten years ago, I would never have imagined for a moment that I would do two world tours and have traveled almost 4 years during these last 10 years, yet I did it.
At that time, I had hardly traveled, I did not do sports, I rarely went out, but everything changed because I wanted to discover the unknown. I gradually transformed by accumulating new experiences each time.
If I could do it, you can do it too because I think I was very behind in life experiences. Yet 10 years later, I think I am now ahead of most people :D.
Some advice:
- Avoid giving yourself bad excuses, like “I don’t have time,” for example; you don’t have time because you don’t make the effort.
- Do things you are not used to doing; it will open you up for the future.
- Take your time to do things but not too much! Do things step by step.
- Think differently; I really think this made the difference between me and others.
- If you think everything is possible, it will be.
- Don’t be too optimistic; make a plan according to your skills and possibilities.
Here are some tips that will allow you to have new experiences.
Some experiences change lives, and it changed mine; why not yours?
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