My First Travel Experience
My first ever travel experience by myself was flying to Madrid to meet up with a friend in 2016. I had two weeks so we decided to go to a surf camp in Portugal for a week and I was going to travel within Portugal by myself for another week. Before the trip, I planned out everything for that week. Everyday jam-packed, From the buses I was going to take to the activities I wanted to do, everything was going to be perfect and I was going to make the most out of my time.
Unfortunately, as fate likes to toy with people trying to get out of their comfort zone, my trip was derailed from the start. Long story short, the plane was delayed, the airline lost my baggage, I missed my train that evening, booked a new flight for the next morning and had a bit of an adventure pulling an all-nighter in Madrid including showing up too late to a party with models.
Getting to the point, the rest of the trip went off without a hitch (Other than not having my bag). I had so much fun that one week relaxing in a villa, learning how to surf. For the other week though, my days were filled with rushing to see places and do activities. I saw some really cool museums and pretty coastlines but the memories that will stick with me are those from exploring around and creating unexpected moments.
Random beach volleyball 😀
All the chaos from this initial experience surprisingly did not deter me from traveling. Instead, I started traveling a different way, embracing freedom and adventure instead of the planned itinerary. I want to share a few tips on how to improve your travel experience for people who are more adventurous. Since I love the outdoors more than anything, the advice is going to be geared towards destinations with a big outdoor focus.
1. Rent a car
This is the most important step to give yourself the freedom and flexibility. The biggest advantage of having your own car is to be able to get away from the touristy places and explore the less traveled areas. Also, who doesn’t like not having to haul all your things everywhere. 😛
2. Bring a backpack and a tent
This tip is not about saving money on accommodation. Although, I spent $270 on accommodation in three weeks of traveling in New Zealand and four of those nights were at a hostel, so that’s a plus. The reason I love camping for the freedom, you no longer have to worry about accommodation being booked up and you can sleep in some of the prettiest places in the world (The ones that involve walking are better). You will be like the Instagrammers who shows off tenting at a pretty scenery, the difference is that you will actually sleep there hehe. Couple things to note, research the country you are planning to visit. Some countries make tenting a lot easier than others. Look into things like camping regulations and climate. For example, New Zealand makes it really easy to camp with their regulations but it’s much harder in the US.
3. Give yourself enough time
Guilty free rainy day at a mountain hut
Part of having the freedom to explore is having the time to explore. With more free days means more spontaneous overnighters diving deep into particular parts of the country and less need to over plan to maximize the use of your time. Sounds simple but “enough time” is also relative to the area. Usually, when people have more time they tend to increase the scope of the trip as well. Be conservative with your location, stick to one country, one region of a country you are passionate about and really explore the area. This brings up…
4. Get rid of the checklist mentality
One important mindset of traveling adventurously is to do away with a checklist. Ths mentality makes people want to go to more places with the time they have instead of exploring. Be okay with shying away from the tourist attractions and avoid making your trip about viewing and photographing all the big attractions. The big tourist attractions are really good. They are what the country is showing off to the world but they are not necessarily the best as sometimes they are popular because they are convenient. When planning your trip, come up with a list of things you want to do, not a list of things you want to see. This simple change in phrasing will help you get more out of your trip as it makes you focus on experiences rather than sightseeing.
Spend more time looking for the wild and unexplored
5. Make your itinerary as lean as possible or don’t make an itinerary
One of the rules I go by is to only book set plans the first few days of the trip, this way I’m never in a rush to get anywhere. During my Portugal trip, I ended up regretting some of the bookings as I realized that I wanted to stay at places for way longer but was not able to. Having the flexibility of not havinbg an itinerary is incredible. For example, in New Zealand, we got to the Mount Cook area but it was supposed to rain for the entire week, so instead of staying around in the rain, we drove to Wanaka since it was not raining and then went on an incredible backpacking trip to camp at the bottom of a glacier. Without Itinerary to hold you down, you open yourself up to so many brand new experiences you never planned for.
6. Busy season doesn’t have to apply to you
Especially for outdoor focused activities, the busy season usually means good weather season. If it comes down to busy season or bad weather, I would choose to go during the busy season. Sounds contradictory to the whole freedom aspect but what I find is that even in the busiest time of the year, you can discover beautiful places that are free from the crowds. I visited New Zealand during Christmas holidays but was able to find so many places where we hiked to and camped at and saw no one.
7. Visit popular spots at dawn or dusk
You would think it would be the busiest time since sunrise and sunsets are so pretty. The truth is, most tourists will not wake up that early or risk staying out after dark. If you are the more adventurous kind, try starting a hike at 5 pm and get back to your car by headlamp. You experience will completely change and you will see some of the coolest sceneries and feel like you are in the wild at the same time.
Icelandic volcanic arches – “action pose” at dusk
8. Buy a good hiking guidebook
When you visit a country with incredible outdoors, you have to hike to see its real beauty. What I find a lot of times is that information on the internet only mentions the popular spots. For both Iceland and New Zealand, I was able to find guidebooks by authors who are more aligned with my style of traveling, exploring off the beaten path. Because of the guidebooks, we were able to find so many cool, less well-known places that we otherwise would’ve drove by. For Iceland and other European countries, I recommend Rother Walking Guide. For New Zealand, we used NZ Frenzy which definitely won the gear of the trip award.
Last of all… good attitude is everything
We naturally like to plan things out when we go on a vacation so sometimes it’s difficult and stressful to leave your itinerary open and embrace the unknown. Being flexible and patient is the key to turning your trip into something extraordinary. Confronted with new experiences and opportunities, being happy and optimistic in all circumstances will allow you to explore further and be excited about whatever adventure the trip throws at you.
#fun
