In this COVID-19 world, many of us who have wanderlust (like me) are sitting at home canceling trips and fighting for refunds. No trip to Singapore, no trip to India and even the short weekends away to New Orleans and Blackberry Farm have gone with the wind. My feet want to move and going up the stairs just doesn’t work. So here are some ideas to keep the travel bug under control:
Make Photo Books
Pull out the pictures from all those trips and make photo books. You can use Shutterfly, Amazon Prints, Snapfish, Picaboo or similar online products. Or you could be more creative and use CEWE or Artifact Uprising where you can create your own format and text and include your itineraries and other details. It is time to get these memories in print, reminisce and re-live your travel experiences from home.
Map your Previous Trips
Where have you been in the world? Order a world map and mark all the places you have been. Then consider adding a list of where you want to go and try scheduling some of these trips for some time in 2021. You now have become your own Carmen Sandiego. Where in the world can you go?
Play Travel Games
Consider buying games that foster your desire for knowledge of the world and all it has to offer. Try The World if you want to focus on places and geography. If you are interested in sustainability in your travels, consider introducing the concept to your family through a game like GBO Hawai’i or Ecosystem. And don’t forget the board game Risk, which not only provides a world perspective on countries battling for power but reinforces your inner need to have power over your future. There is even a new Game of Thrones version.
Read Travel Books
Travel from home by starting with National Geographic’s Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips. Lonely Planet has a list of the 500 Best Places to See, and you can download it to your Kindle for free with Amazon Prime. To capture the places and what you loved about them, think about re-reading Eat, Pray, Love. Or capture what you love about Tuscany in Under the Tuscan Sun. Then cook pasta for dinner. To learn more about places, try focusing on history books. One good example is The White Nile and The Blue Nile by Alan Moorehead which bring you back to the exploration of the Nile and Africa.
Watch Films Set in Far Away Locales
If you want to recreate your recent trip to Egypt, consider sitting down and watching Lawrence of Arabia. It will help you recapture your experiences. Or if you recently went on safari, try Out of Africa. You will be transformed back to Africa. For Italy, try Tea with Mussolini. I have also enjoyed a Swedish new video series on Amazon Prime called The Restaurant. Now I am ready to go to Stockholm and have some rosti (potato pancakes, I think).
Share your Experiences
I have found that sharing where I have been with others (principally my grandchildren) helps me relive my experiences and helps them develop a love of travel. I have bought them a subscription to Little Passports where they receive discovery boxes each month on places in the world. Now they want to go there, and I am ready to take them there at some point, I hope.
You may not be able to travel in-person right now, but you can see some breathtaking places virtually from home. Finally, don’t hesitate to look for travel deals. This will not continue forever, and you need to be thinking of when and where you will travel next and snap up a deal. Remember: this is only temporary.
