Traveling By Chance
Posted on Nov 6, 2011 | 10 comments
Why do we travel?
Is travel simply about moving our bodies from place to place, or are we seeking something more?
Travel is more accessible today than at any other time in history. We have steadily improved our ability to travel faster over time, and with this our world has indeed shrunk. Far off lands no longer seem that far off. We can bounce around the earth on a whim.
However, with this relatively new accessibility we have lost something. No longer is travel a leap into the great unknown. Today, we have our travels laid out for us months in advance. We know our flight times, we have pictures of our hotel room, and our dining reservations are made way in advance at the suggestion of TripAdvisor. We have lost our sense of adventure.
It's funny. The easier travel becomes, the harder it is to remember what travel is all about.
The other day I learned about Exiles from my friend Emiel van den Boomen. Exiles, described as tell-all, ongoing travelogue, is just the type of travel I think we have drifted away from. Here is a young man, Colin Wright, who moves to a new country every 4 months and shares the ins and outs of his adventures with his readers. And what's even more amazing is that he lets his readers decide where he moves. Talk about traveling by chance.
I know to many of us the idea of allowing the winds of fate to blow us along on our travels seems . . . irresponsible, but aren't we looking for something unexpected when we travel?
It seems to me that the majority of us travel to escape from our daily reality. In travel, we are seeking something different, something new, anything that will take us away and offer us change. So why then do we continue to travel the safe and narrow path?
What real change can come about we when decide to spend our precious travel time frequenting some pampered resort compound in Jamaica? How can we expect to discover anything new when our "adventures" are planned for us before we even pack our bags?
We have become so scared of taking chances, we don't even ourselves to explore the unknown during our playtime. Instead of just going out and exploring the playgrounds of the world, we have limited ourselves to traveling via a 4" inch screen and lonely planet guidebooks. We have lost our ability to take risks, to go, to truly travel. The world of travel has become so fast and easy, we have become more interested in the ability to say we went or are going somewhere, rather than actually going and experiencing what each place has to offer.
What would happen if we woke up on a Saturday morning and just drove?
What would we find?
What change lies waiting for us down that road?
Next time you get a day off with the family, try something for me. Go visit Zufall Adventures. It's a real simple game I recently discovered that will help you begin to change the way you travel. I don't recommend products here often, and I have no relationship with this company, but I just LOVE what this game is all about! Go give it a try. Have an adventure. Bring the kids. Take your time. Forget where your going and just enjoy the fact that you are able to go.
SEE The World.
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Wow. Just checked out Zufall. Pretty cool.
We don't always travel on a whim, but when we have a lot of travel going on at once, often a place will sort of fall through the cracks when it comes to us really planning our time at a destination. This happened when we were going to the Redwoods on the back end of a camping trip in Oregon. We thought a lot about Oregon. Never really got around to thinking/planning for the Redwoods.
Looking back, I think I've almost always enjoyed the places I have not really planned for because I go in with absolutely no expectations.
Clark Vandeventer recently posted..What are you trading your life for?
It's great right! What a simple idea that can really change you life.
Travel produces so really great accidents.
You're onto something here. It's so easy to go to a place and somehow have not been anywhere 'new' at all. Airlines, resorts, hotels, maps, apps and guidebooks have made travel easy but also commodified and homogenised the experience. I love the idea behind the Zufall app, about deliberately introducing randomness into your travel experiences, or even the way you go around the supermarket or whatever. This was you really can make quite authentic travel discoveries in your own backyard. It's one of the things we love about walking or travelling by bike... you can't cherry pick your travel experiences, you have to see it all. And you will get lost.
Stuart recently posted..Photo Friday: No risk, no consequences, no adventure?
I agree about the bike thing. That is ideal. You are forced to experience it all. As time passes, the braver I get. Can't wait to get out there and roll those zufall dice!
Really great poins!! It is one of our goals to really experience the places we visit.
Tracey recently posted..Fear of failure – Cured by a travel adventure!
Well, if you make it to Boston we won't plan a thing!
It is true of travel, you have to kind of let it happen to get the most of it.
Or POINTS.
Tracey recently posted..Fear of failure – Cured by a travel adventure!
Great post Justin! You see that inspiration is always just around the corner
You have exactly written down the reasons for us to go slow-traveling next year: 6 weeks in Asia with our kids with only the first 2 or 3 nights booked. Let local discoveries and people guide us. We even might use Twitter to ask people where we should go!
Love your post, please continue and take this further...
Emiel
Emiel recently posted..Hollywood, Seth Godin and the end of factual travel guides
I love the idea of asking people on twitter. I'm stealing that one!
6 weeks, 2-3 nights booked. Perfect. When I went there was no planning, we just went. Where we stayed was the farthest thing from our minds.
I need to wake up and take a flight straight to Concepcion, Chile!!!