My Best Travel Secret
Relax and Enjoy Yourself!
My best travel secret is to relax and repeat to myself: "I'm on vacation. I'm on vacation!" until I believe it. I can't tell you how many trips can be spoiled by taking everything, including yourself, too seriously. Learn to slow down. Take a deep breath. Find a friendly café and sit down. Purchase something to drink. Look around. I mean look around.
Here is a favorite café of mine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, called the Girl from Ipanema Café. I spent a lot of time relaxing here, viewing the world as it walked by. So can you...Do it today, right now. Go out. Practice. Look around. What do you see? You just might see a wonderful world that works. Surrounding you and exciting you, bright and new. Really... Honestly... You choose your reality. You see a bad world, it becomes a bad world. You see a good world, it becomes a wonderful world. Make it your best travel secret. "...nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people."
Mark Twain - Letter to SF Alta California, May 1867.
Beautifully said! As you see, the reverse is also true. Travel inspires beautiful environments, fantastic feelings with interesting people. People you want to meet.
Go out there. Discover it. Do it! Your best travel secret doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You don't have to travel far. Go to a place that's full of people, doing things. A college campus, a shopping mall, a Parisian Café, a sports event, a worker's restaurant in Hong Kong, any place. Find a great location and sit down. And say to yourself. "I'm on vacation. I'm on vacation!" until you believe it. I can't tell you have how many trips (even short ones) turn fantastic by a simple change of attitude, a simple change of view.
I ran into a dog cart pulled by Dalmatians in a park in Hong Kong one day. It sure changed my point of view, that's after I stopped laughing so hard. (I tell you, travel is great!)
Your troubles begin to melt away as you gain a better perspective on your life. Are your problems really that big? If so, maybe you are missing opportunities, just because you haven't opened your eyes to other possibilities... The best travel secret is: positive attitudes rule. They really do.
Not all problems are solvable. Not all dreams can be met. But I hope that, as you explore this web site, you will discover new and old ways of inspiring your life, even when things aren't so good... That's the secret of good travel. Relax. Open your mind and discover a great world! People ask me all the time, "What's your favorite place you've visited?" I tell them, "It depends on what I am interested in at the time." They say, "That's not answering the question..." I don't have the heart to say to them, "That it does depend on what I'm doing, where my heart is, what my mind wants to see." For you see at that moment, that's the best place for me, at that place, with that person, talking to them about travel, seeing their responses, feeling their enthusiasm, waiting on my words. At that moment, I don't want to be anywhere else. I want to be with them, talking travel, enjoying a perfectly wonderful world. The Swiss Alps are great. The Beaches of Rio are unbelievable. The sands of the Sahara desert stretch forever. Chicago restaurants rock. All great places. But the place I want to be is where I am, now. A very good lesson, indeed.
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill." It's always better someplace else. Wrong! Every place and time has its advantages and disadvantages.
People, who don't travel, don't get this best travel secret. It's not about places, it's about people and the feelings you have when you're with them, even if the only person there is you...The trick in travel is to enjoy yourself and be flexible, as you travel. Oh, yes. I plan. I research. I read lots of travel books. Travel here, travel there, travel everywhere. But once I start traveling, I take pictures, open my eyes and smell the roses, not necessarily in that order. When I see something new and unexpected, I usually go for it. I have a travel plan, but it changes as I travel.
It's not just a mindset; it's a way of life. It's the best travel secret that I know.
Another best travel secret - Ask the Open Question.
Another best travel secret - Ask an Unbusy Police Officer
Finding a Travel Companion Take turns taking the lead when traveling with someone.
Here are some important travel points: What to do? Where to go? When to go? Who can you trust?
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