travel can be the greatest thing that we ever make with our lives, or at least one of them. There are lots of ways that we have learned to make the most out of our travel experiences, so here are a few of them…

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Table of Contents

1. Prepare!
2. set your travel goals – travel with purpose!
3. get local recommendations – burn your guidebook!
4. meet the locals
5. pack your backpack. Leave your baggage.
6. Ditch your preconceptions and judgements
7. Make a plan, then tear it up!
8. find your limits, then break them!
9. record your experiences
10. learn to say YES!

1. Prepare!

We all love that whimsical, fairy tale image of spontaneous travel, where we just drop all commitments, point our finger at a spinning globe with our eyes closed and magically vanish to wherever it stops…and why wouldn’t we? It’s a stunning image after all! In truth though, without preparation we wouldn’t get much additionally than spinning the globe. Be it medical, financial, safety, paperwork, visas – or any other less-exciting details we don’t necessarily write about in our journals – if we take some time and effort to prepare for the crucial things, then we are complimentary to put all of our time, energy and attention into the really good stuff, knowing that the boring (important) stuff is taken care of.

2. set your travel goals – travel with purpose!

Travelling can be completely care-free, with little purpose, no agendas and minimal direction, which at first is amazing, as you reset your body and mind and slowly shed your skin of whatever pressures and expectations came with your life back home. After a while though the excitement fades, the days start to blend together, our human tendency for complacency kicks in and our amazing new life starts to feel ‘normal’ again. This is where our goals come in, our sense of purpose and achievement. having a goal and a purpose gives a direction to our travels – to learn a language; to learn new skills; to climb mountains; to build a school; to become a better person (whatever that means) – when you travel with a goal and sense of purpose, you get something out of each day that you’ll remember forever.

3. get local recommendations – burn your guidebook!

Ok, so maybe ‘burn’ is a little strong! The guidebooks have their uses, but the best way to experience a new place is find the little spots that only the locals know, how to travel like a local, where to get the best local food at real prices, where the local parties are, maybe even the best way to speak to local girls or guys! You’re never going to get your hands on this kind of local know-how from a guidebook, because as soon as it’s in a guidebook, it’s simply not local anymore.

These days, a lot more and a lot more travelers are out there in search of the most local experience possible and there are apps and web sites springing up everywhere, promising to bypass the vacationer traps and connect you with everything local. a lot of of these are meet-up apps – like Couchsurfing without the couch, or Tinder without the sleaze. but all of these seem based around meeting up with people, which puts an expectation upon you to meet up, when all you really want to do is ask a basic question, like, ‘Where’s the best Phở soup in Hanoi?’ or, ‘Where can I dance real salsa in Medellin?’ The stuff you really want to know.

Friendly sellers in Tangkuban Perahu.
A new smartphone app called Tripext seems to be different from all the rest, by doing exactly that – connecting you to a network real ‘local experts’ wherever you are, where you can ask and answer questions, either privately or in a public forum. No couches, no sleaze, no meet-ups, just convenient access to real information, wherever you are – Simple! Of course, once you’re talking to locals on Tripext, you could decide to ask to meet up, but there’s no expectation, which brings me to my next travel tip……MEET LOCALS!

4. meet the locals

If you do want to meet and hang out with local people then you’ll find that it’s the best way to really get involved in a place, its culture and way of life. The beating heart of any place is the people in it, the way they talk, how they socialize, how they interact with everything around them. They know all the best spots to eat, little hidden gems that you only find out about from someone who lives there.

5. pack your backpack. Leave your baggage.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash
Travel can be the utmost escape for all kinds of reasons, but it’s typically what we’re escaping from that can cause problems for us down the road – our problems aren’t going to go away just because we do. Unpaid bills, family problems, illnesses and persnull