Travelling is a lovely thing, but with all this Insta-hype (“Instagram hype”) around destination travel it feels like you’re not travelling unless you’re on an African safari, sipping cocktails in Ibiza, or soaking up the sun in Santorini.
You don’t have to go to Paris to “travel”!
Travelling on a budget
Set a budget, search Google for some historical sites or interesting places, book your flight, pack your bags and go! For those of us from countries where we need visas to access certain parts of the world then It may not be so simple, but you get the idea.
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I really want us to broaden our scope about travelling. Regardless of how far away you go, it really is about what you take away from the experience. So, whether you’re going half-way across the world or half-way across town you can still have an amazing travel experience.
Expanding your idea of travel
If you haven’t travelled to an insta-famous vacay location, you may feel like you’ve never “really travelled”. But, the world is much more than Greece, Bali and France. Plus, with all this “hyperconnected-ness” the world is coming closer and closer to us. The chances of you finding someone from Greece or France living in/ visiting your country is much higher than it would’ve been several years ago (depending on where you live of-course).
Now, we should also take into consideration that people who reside in our IG-inspo travel destinations may think of where we reside as a desired travel spot. All this time we could be sitting in paradise and not even know it.
I’m from Jamaica and I am going to be honest – I used to take it for granted. Yeah the beaches are cool and whatever but things generally don’t seem that great to you when you’re living it. It just feels “regular” – like this is how things are supposed to be. This was until I went to visit my aunts in Ontario and saw what they called a beach. That was decades ago and I have made it a priority to go to the beach almost every weekend since. So now I know Jamaica is a slice of paradise and I treat it as such. But, the grass always looks greener on the other side.
Start exploring the world that is literally surrounding you right now. What new experience may you have, what may you learn when you start exploring your homeland? Every single time I take a road trip I learn something new about my my slice of island paradise. Exploration can happen in your back yard.
But, for the purposes of this post I’m taking you a little further than my backyard. My husband and I had our first ever #baecation (back when we were just a couple of kids lol) in Los Angeles, so the city holds a special place in our hearts. This means that wherever we find ourselves in the US, we usually somehow end up in LA.
My connection to food is a powerful one (maybe too powerful – ask these 20 pounds I’ve been trying to lost for 10 years lol), so that is usually the main theme for my travels. Well, to be fair, it’s generally a combination of food, shopping and museums.
What are you looking for in a trip?
So any trip to anywhere really surrounds surreal eating experiences. I also love love love taking pictures of scenery, using the vivid cool filter on my phone camera (the IG-worthy filter).
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I say all this (and am about to share all this) to say that travel does not have to include a 6 hour flight to set your soul on fire. A quote from Jennifer Lee – “Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire”. Whether it be food, meeting new people, taking selfies in weird places, experiencing new cultures, taking in the world around you, learning more about self, connecting with nature or whatever it may be.
Explore the world you can afford.
[As I said before, food is really the focus of our travels so check out a few of these images of some pretty iconic places to eat when you visit LA]
