You don’t have to be a travel expert
I’m not a travel expert. I’m not really an expert in anything, which in all honesty keeps things interesting and rarely boring so I have that going for me.
I like to talk to people and not just people that I know, but all kinds of people. It can be a curse (I once ended up buying a vacuum) or not depending on how you look at it (cleaner floors!)
What I most like about striking up a conversation is to see your reaction.
Are you just as interested as I am about the level of hot sauces at the local taqueria?
Are you just as excited as I am to be using chopsticks?
Are you just as curious as I am to be on this local bus in Rome and have no idea where we’re going?
This is what my mode de vie is all about: to make this world a little smaller and to find those people who are willing to tell me their story. After all, someone will talk to you. People want to tell you how they see the world and if you’re willing to listen, you’ll have the trip of a lifetime before you even get to your actual destination.
The late and great author Charles Bukowski once said, “We’re all going to die, all of us. What a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” Embrace the curiosity, friends. Learn to unlearn what you think a certain culture should act, do, or say. Furthermore, kindness does not cost you a thing and the benefits are endless. So here’s my non-expert thoughts on being a better human and ultimately a better traveler and ambassador for the country from which you hail.
Here are some tips to make your travel a thousand times better!
Name recognition
is the special password for any social transaction. You know that warm fuzzy you get when someone who just met you remembered your name? It reinforces that human connection that ancient societies were built upon and continues to this day despite how many followers you have on social media.
I remember being in the first grade and my teacher, Mrs. Gotto would call on me and I immediately felt like a million bucks. Of course, I’d be so giddy that I would totally forget what I wanted to say, which may have helped me get to where I am today by just going off the cuff, but golly did I like that feeling of recognition.
Be the traveler that remembers names: names of the people who check you into a hotel, who drive you around a city, who help you figure out how to use the audio player thingy in a museum in Venice. In a world with six billion faces, be the one that calls them by name.
Seek out the real flavor
by exhibiting a genuine appreciation for the culture or destination you’re visiting. I mean why else are you traveling to X destination anyway to go to an Applebee’s? If you’re curious about a place enough to pay the money to go there why not kick it up a notch and double down with the ability to small talk your way into the hearts of the locals.
Whether it’s a visit to a small beach town in Costa Rica or a stay in Copenhagen during the winter holidays, what separates a good traveler from a better one is the willingness to research the cultural norms and even learn simple phrases that show you’ve put in the time to understand and connect.
Speaking from experience, just acknowledging that you know the country’s leader and the capital city you’re visiting (which will likely be where you first arrive) are major brownie points and your responses will always be returned with a smile of approval.
Be the UnAmerican American
by removing the stereotypes from your own culture. Every time I think about being a ‘Merican, I always get this image of a bikini-clad, Budweiser drinking Jessica Simpson lookalike. I know, I know, of all the things to associate my culture with it is this and it immediately makes me NOT want to be this poster child for my Americaness.
Bikini-clad fine, but the Budweiser part… In all seriousness though, you hear those travelers coming from a mile away with their flipflops flipping, bare shoulders turning red from extended exposure. Yes, the weather is hot in Abu Dhabi, the sun is strong in Ethiopia, the humidity is thick in Mexico and if it is a sign of respect and veneration of a people’s way of life, wear the headscarf in a sacred place of worship.
Choose your outfit by looking around at the locals sitting in the cafes and walking down the street. Do as they do, cover up and sweat alongside the locals, trust me that tank top is not going to keep you from sweating on those Middle Eastern summer days.
Be thoughtful with your consumption
and practice conservation and mindful towel usage. There’s no need to use more than one towel when staying at a hotel and bring your own soap, shampoo, and conditioner too. Let’s make 2020 the year that we kick the plastic habit, please.
There is no longer an excuse to buy bottled water. Yes, we’ve all traveled to countries that do not have safe drinking water, but it doesn’t make any sense to continue polluting these places with your empty water bottles (or other single use plastic).
As with every culture around the world, we are taught to care for our natural and sacred places, whether it is through the Coloradan Code of Camping, “Pack it in, pack it out,” or the touted, “Be part of the solution, not part of the pollution.”
There’s also technology that has allowed us to filter water while traveling and many of these organizations also function as social enterprises working to clean water within these communities and create local jobs (GRAYL water bottles are my go to), so it’s a win-win to kick the addiction to plastic water bottles once and for all.
Of all the things I’ve mentioned here, be empathetic. Be a good person, and follow the golden rule to treat people the way you would like to be treated. Traveling is a kaleidoscope of cultural interactions with millions of possibilities. We all move through this world in a different way, yet our similarities always outnumber our differences and that’s what makes exploring this place so enticing. Challenge yourself to get outside your comfort zone and strike up a conversation about that hot sauce.