Wonder what to do when you can’t travel? Try These Interesting and Fun Ways to Explore When You Can’t Go on Vacation The travel restrictions of the past few years have been tough on travelers and not being able to hit the road or catch a flight is one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a lover. Travel: Regardless of the pandemic, there are many reasons why you might not be able to just get a visa to Colombia or somewhere else, find the cheapest flights, choose the best suitcase (or pack your handbag), and hit the road, Maybe you’re saving money to travel, or you have a passport that makes travel difficult. Perhaps you have family or caregiving obligations that make it difficult to explore the world. Maybe you’re in the middle of college and don’t want to take time off. Perhaps your financial situation means that it is not as easy as finding a job that allows you to travel the world, for the past few years we have found ourselves stuck at home with the world on lockdown. Flights have been canceled, travel restrictions have been tightened, and some countries have even closed their borders entirely to visitors. Things to do when you can’t go on vacation Of course, things are better now that we can travel almost anywhere, but those days of travel bans and restrictions have left their mark, and we’ve tried to make the best out of the situation, as many have, by finding interests. and other activities to replace being on the road. About why we travel, what we wanted from travel, and from there, we worked hard to find activities to scratch our travel itch. Some of our thoughts were more adventurous, others were more quiet and self-reflective, and some were just…a little. For us, the first step in how to deal with travel withdrawal was figuring out what we loved most about travel. From there, we brainstormed activities that would scratch that specific travel itch. Do you like meeting new people? Learn a new language? Do you try new foods? Explore the city streets? Or is getting out in nature more your thing? Once you find out what you love most about travel, you can try to recreate what you love about it in some other way. For us, discovering what we love about traveling was the first step in finding adventure at home. Here are some of our best ideas for what to do when you can’t travel the world. Explore your local area, if you’re lucky, there may be a lot to see and experience close to home. In the city, there is likely to be a lot of culture, food, and even history to explore. In more rural areas nature is likely to be on your doorstep Local parks are a great place to start If you are lucky enough to own a back yard try laying on the grass watching the bees buzz, or try your hand at gardening Take a day trip if you Able to take some time away a day trip can help you eliminate travel itch, we did a day trip less than half an hour on the road, packed our bags, hung in the hotel pool, and went for a walk along the water. It wasn’t far, at least in terms of distance, but just being away from home was a great taste of adventure. . Camping doesn’t have to be expensive if you’re camping on public land and already have camping gear (or know someone you can borrow gear from). Cook a new dish from your travels Some of our best travel memories are associated with local foods, one of the ways we tried to bring back the joy of travel was by making dishes from the places we visited. Are you looking for special ingredients? In almost any city there are specialized grocery stores. In our small town of about 100,000 inhabitants, we have Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, Arabic, Asian and German markets. You might even get lucky and find specialty ingredients on Amazon, and there are plenty of excellent online cooking lessons to get you started on your culinary adventures. YouTube has many videos from various local kitchens. Plus, there are excellent blogs and recipe sites. I’m a huge fan of Skillshare’s cooking classes, with lessons on everything from Italian cooking to brewing the best cup of coffee, plus so much more. Learning a musical instrument El Nido Beach Sunset Not much of a chef? You can also learn a new instrument and enjoy the music of a particular country, there are dozens of apps and websites, plus YouTube has a great selection too. We picked up a digital piano just before lockdowns started in 2020 (lucky timing) and our kids learned to play by watching online courses. Learn to dance, do you love music but don’t have a musical note in your body? How about learning to dance? You’ll be successful with everything from salsa to boogie depending on where your future travels take you and you’ll get a great workout at home while you’re at it. The spirit of a country, but nothing beats being able to speak to people in their native language. With an app like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, it can teach you some basics in a few hours, and complete sentences after a few weeks out of 20 minutes a day. . Check out our Rosetta Stone review for kids. You may not be able to explain your life story once you get there, but even just learning a few basics of language can turn a forgotten moment into an unforgettable one. Not to mention the more we can chat in a local language we often get better deals and get invited to more events Try learning with a real human teacher also with a company like Lingoda. See Lingoda’s review here. Watch Travel Movies or YouTube Channels Watching travel movies or YouTube videos about travel can be a great way to feel the enjoyment of exploring new places, a word of caution here. For me, watching travel movies, TV shows, and reading travel books is hard sometimes when I can’t travel. For a few months in 2020, I couldn’t read or watch anything travel-related without feeling extremely down, sad, or frustrated (and sometimes all three). Our desire is to go back there and explore it again and they have given us some inspiration about new places we still want to see in the future. Watch some great travel movies There are so many great travel shows that it’s really hard to choose the best travel movies (but we tried) Two of my favorite travel movies are Hector and Search for Happiness and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Travel TV shows are a great option too . I’m still a huge fan of the TV show Destinations, which was canceled a long time ago. Anything at all with Anthony Bourdain is a win in my book, too. Watch YouTube Travel Vlogs Travel vlogs are a great way to get an often unfiltered look at travel. Well, at least it’s not filtered more than a heavily produced TV show, here are the best travel vloggers on YouTube. Pick up a good travel adventure book. While nonfiction travel books are great, even reading fiction books that focus on adventure and travel can help cure travel blues. How about throwing in a local music playlist centered around the area you dream about or read about? Nothing gets you into the country spirit like local music. Whether it is traditional or local, you are sure to listen to music while walking through local shops, while sitting in a restaurant, or even walking in a hotel lobby. A great musical score is the backbone of any great movie, so why not have one while you’re off on your next adventure, take a virtual tour? If you like to be more immersed in your travels, a virtual tour could be for you. Tourism virtual walking tours. Some are free while others can charge a small fee. There are even VR tours you can take that really get you going if you have a VR headset, though it’s not free. You can take a virtual walking tour of Vancouver’s Stanley Park with Talaysay Tours. I took the personal version of this tour a few years ago, and I highly recommend it. Check out more details of our Things to do in Vancouver with Kids article. Make plans for when you can travel again Dreaming of traveling can be half the fun, right? We know people who we’re sure would get more fun out of the planning, research, and logistical aspect of travel than actually being there. We love planning trips, from accommodations to flights to meals and activities, but we don’t put any of it to work. money until we are 100% sure of our plans. However, we look for cancellation policies that allow us to cancel in advance with little to no penalty, just in case you can’t travel or vacation now, it’s never too early to start planning your next trip in the future. Even something as simple as creating an idea board with a few crosslinks to useful websites and information can go a long way to making your next trip a reality and getting you one step closer to stepping out your front door. Any favorite things to do when you can’t travel? Let us know in the comments below!
