Total Immersion: How To Make Your Life More Like Travel

photography
photography
See your hometown through a different view. Photo courtesy of Zephyrance.

For many, it can be difficult getting time off from work to go travel.

If you’re lucky you’ll get two weeks, although even those seem to be difficult to use with busy seasons and deadlines. Instead of being upset about your lack of time off, learn how to make your everyday life more like travel by simply changing your attitude and the way you perceive the world.

With these tips, you can take the term “staycation” to a new level, constantly living in a world of discovery and wonder.

Do you have a suggestion to add to the list?

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1) Try Something New

When we travel to new places we get the chance to have new experiences.

Even if you can’t leave your hometown, you can still try something new.

Sign up for a class that sounds interesting, sample the cuisine at an ethnic restaurant you’ve never been to or research a facet of your hometown you haven’t discovered yet.

Meetup.com is also a great tool for this, as you can join groups focused on different topics that maybe you don’t know much about but would be interesting in learning more.

Some experiences you may have with help from Meetup.com include discovering your city’s spiciest restaurants, learning about the healing power of Reiki or discovering great local hiking trails.

Need more inspiration?

Here is a list of creative ideas for the ultimate staycation!

2) Go Abroad Without Leaving Home

Find a way to experience a new culture without leaving home.

You can do this by visiting a cultural institution, taking a Mexican cooking class or French pastry course (or buying a cookbook), practicing a new language or learning the art of Tai Chi or Argentinian tango.

You’ll be able to immerse yourself an interesting cultural facet without leaving home — and you may even discover a new talent.

3) Use All Your Senses

Did you ever notice that when you travel all your senses come alive?

For example, when you eat a meal you’re not just tasting it, you’re really looking at its presentation, inhaling its aromas, listening to the conversation of other diners and feeling the textures of the dish.

You appreciate everything you come into contact with all five senses because it’s new and exciting.

Start doing this at home, and even things that may not seem interesting or new will take on a new appearance.

adventure
The world is full of adventure. Photo courtesy of Walraven.

4) Do Something Adventurous

When we travel, we tend to be more willing to leave our comfort zone, trying new and adventurous things.

Bring this attitude home with you and sign up for something thrilling:

Skydiving, bungy jumping, ziplining, canyoning, rock climbing — anything that will add some excitement to your time spent at home as well as give you something to cross off your bucket list.

5) Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder

When you travel, everything around you seems beautiful and interesting:

Supermarkets, bakeries, statues, museums, sunsets, forests, people, cars — even dive bars and restaurants.

Begin exploring your hometown with this same sense of wonder.

The best way to do this is to travel on foot so you don’t miss a single shop, statue or opportunity to interact with someone.

6) Take Up Photography

When traveling, most people tend to photograph everything from their meals to parks to sidewalk cement.

As stated above, everything is exciting and beautiful. Exploring your hometown through photography is one great way to breathe new life into the ordinary.

Invest in a DSLR camera, take a class and see what kind of interesting shots you can get of places you’ve been 100 times.

7) Get Off The Couch

Because when people travel they only have limited time in each destination, they tend to not waste any of it by filling their days with fun and exciting experiences; however, once back home the tendency is to fill our free time with television and lounging on the couch.

While it’s important to make time for relaxation, you can make your life more like travel by filling that couch time with some more active experiences.

Take up a new hobby that gets you outdoors, or vow to visit a different educational institution once a week.

You may make some fascinating discoveries about your city you never knew before.

tacos
These might possibly be the best tacos in town. Photo courtesy of ginnerobot.

8) Give Yourself A Mission

While you may think you know everything there is to know about your hometown, you most likely don’t.

Help yourself become an expert by giving yourself different challenges, like finding the city’s best tacos or most scenic hiking trail, in order to give yourself a fresh perspective on a place you already know.

Who knows, maybe Lonely Planet will knock on your door and ask you to write their next city guide for where you live.

9) Interact With Locals

Travelers often have a fascination with interacting with locals, these strange people who hold insider information about the culture and place their visiting.

Even though the locals in your hometown are most likely more similar to you than, say, the locals in Bolivia or Italy (unless you’re from those countries), that doesn’t mean they don’t have something to teach you.

Everyone has a unique story, as well as something they’re knowledgeable about that you aren’t. Take the time to get to know some of these people and make some friends in the process.

10) Skip Your Regular Table

When traveling, one of the most exciting parts of the trip is often trying the restaurant offerings of the destination.

Although you may look forward to Sunday’s Italian dinner at Gino’s or the buffet at China Palace, skip your usual reservation and try something new.

Vow to try a new restaurant each week, making discoveries about different types of cuisines and venues available to you right in your city.

Jessie Festa

Jessica Festa is the editor of Epicure & Culture as well as Jessie on a Journey. She enjoys getting lost in new cities and having experiences you don’t read about in guidebooks. Some of her favorite travel experiences have been teaching English in Thailand, trekking her way through South America, backpacking Europe solo, road tripping through Australia, agritouring through Tuscany, and volunteering in Ghana.

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