A new normal- Your GTG’s top 10 tips for alternatives to travel in 2021
Greetings Globetrotters and hoping this finds you well after a year that battered our societies, our economies and our planet. On top of officially regulated travel bans and necessary health orders, many of us might be weary and short on travel funds to venture very far. Your GTG would argue that we need to reign ourselves in a bit in that regard anyway. With that in mind, it seemed like good timing to come up with some alternative ideas that both give us some flavour of travel and contribute to our well being.
1- Visit your local museum
Ok so we all went there once on a school excursion, but when was the last time you spent some time in your local museum and checked out what was there? A visit there is a great way to reconnect with your local community, usually not too expensive and could prove to be quite educational at the same time.
2- Take a local walking tour
Whether its following around an enthusiastic birdwatcher, a local Indigenous elder, or someone guiding a local pub crawl, a local walking tour is both great exercise and a different way to view your local area. Taking a walking tour is also often a great way to support small local business and start-ups.
3- Start a community garden
What better way to bring the people to you? Community gardens provide food and physical activity with the added bonus of being able to (literally) see the fruits of your labour. Starting a community garden is a sure way to increase your own gardening knowledge and bring you in contact with neighbours you might not have even met.
4- Take a local arts and craft class
Travel is as much about the experience as the place. What makes the experience is what we do and how we spend our time. Get your hands dirty with a local pottery class, test your creativity with an up-cycling sewing bee or join a local theatre group for a great opportunity to express yourself, make new friends and develop your skills.
5- Take a language class
If you’re a GTG regular, you’ll know that I recommend getting together some local language before travelling somewhere anyway. Language is a gateway to a culture meaning you can learn about a place and a people by learning how they express themselves. Taking a language class can give you some of that cultural immersion you would experience on an overseas trip and introduce you to a new bunch of people.
6- Take a dance class
Much like language, music and dance show you how a people express themselves in movement. Added bonuses here include the physical exercise, the opportunity to get loose, the great music you’ll hear and the people you’ll meet. All the same perks of an overseas trip.
7- Start a travel book club
Many of us get so busy in our own trips or trip planing that we can forget about the value of storytelling and how important that is to the travel experience. Luckily, there is no shortage of great and epic tales for us to dive into. Starting or joining a travel book club will not only motivate you to read more but it will connect you with like-minded people and to a degree, transport you vicariously through the pages.
8- Make a new pen pal
As we’ve touched on a bit, travel is all about the people. For many of us, some of our closest or long-standing friends might be people we have met while travelling. Corresponding with someone in a different place is also a great window into what is happening there, stuff you might not see on your local news. Options here include re-connecting with people you already know through your social media channels or if you want to start from scratch you could visit a site like http://www.penpalworld.com/ or https://www.globalpenfriends.com/.
9- Read up on the local history of where you live
How many times have we shown visiting friends or family around our home area or been asked about where we come from and we had very little to work with? Reading about the history of where you come from, apart from being educational, will give you those fun facts to share when the time comes. Bonus tip here- remember history is told by the victors so please give some thought to the source.
10- Eat somewhere or something new
Those of you nursing your pandemic sourdough starters have a headstart on this one. The idea here is to suss-out new places and ways you can experience culture by-ingestion. Another great way to support local business. For those with more limited budgets or access to restaurants and cafes, try some new recipes at home coupled with some music to match your culinary choice.
Some of these ideas might seem obvious but it might be a new concept to think of these things as aspects of travel and tourism. After all, there’s more than one way to become ‘cultured’ 😉 You can share your ideas using the contact form below. Thanks again for joining us and until next time!
