The way I see it, there are two main categories of travellers: the vacationers and the explorers. The vacationers travel abroad to rest from their jobs, their responsibilities, or to escape bad weather. They take a week, sometime two, and go somewhere sunny and relaxing where they can lie on the beach, or a lounge chair by the pool, drink cocktails, maybe read a book. They want to be catered to, rest, relax, and not have to worry about anything. Their best choice is a packaged vacation or a cruise, a short chartered flight from home. The country they travel to is irrelevant. They just want time out.
Explorers are a whole different breed. They want to relax and recharge as well, but they are also intensely curious about the cultures they visit. They are looking to make discoveries, to learn things, to be surprised. They like trying out new foods, new activities, and being somewhere different from home.
What is “stress” to a vacationer becomes “excitement” to an explorer.
To me, a true traveller is first and foremost an explorer. You may be an explorer at heart who hasn’t yet had a chance to travel. Or perhaps you would like to venture out further but are facing various obstacles, like a lack of time, money, or even some fear of the unknown. (If that’s the case, then this website is for you!)
Here are what I consider the ten qualities of a good traveller (in no particular order):
- Curiosity: This is probably what makes you hit the road in the first place. You want to know what it’s like “over there”. It keeps you moving, sightseeing, asking questions.
- Patience: In many countries, life doesn’t move at the same pace as it does at home; people have different priorities. You need to take it all in stride and make allowances for the cultural differences.
- Resourcefulness: This is essential when you travel independently, and in turn is developed by independent travel. I wasn’t a very resourceful young person (since my parents always over-protected me) but after 21 years of travelling, I feel like I can deal with pretty much anything that gets thrown at me.
- Open-mindedness: You are open to learning about different customs, and respecting them, even if things don’t always make sense to you. In fact you seek that “difference” as something interesting and worth learning about. You don’t just assume that the way you do things at home is necessarily “better”.
- Self-confidence: This relates to resourcefulness. You know you can handle yourself in unfamiliar situations, make the best of it, and have a great time. This comes from knowledge and experience travelling on your own.
- Young heart: By this I mean somebody who is willing to try and learn new things. Somebody who is not stuck in her old habits and refuses to consider other ways of doing things. It relates to open-mindedness.
- Eagerness to learn: Like curiosity, being eager to learn keeps you moving, visiting the sights, and trying to understand the intricacies of your destination. It’s fun!
- Good sense of humour: You have to be able to laugh at yourself, or you’ll be very unhappy exploring foreign lands. When all the rules change on you, you lose some control, and it’s quite easy to make mistakes. I’ve had my own embarrassing moments!
- Flexibility: Things don’t always work as planned. In fact they rarely do! You must be able to quickly make changes to your plans and itinerary if necessary, and not get all frazzled because the world doesn’t conform to your carefully laid out schedule.
- Adaptability: It always take some time to get used to a new place: new meal schedule, different climate and altitude, different rules of the road, etc. The faster you can integrate the differences and feel comfortable in your new environment, the more you will enjoy your trip.
You do not need to have all of these attributes to go travelling of course. Many of these traits will develop as you venture out more, especially if you travel independently. However, if you discover that you do not have any of these qualities, then you probably should buy that holiday package to Cancun!
Can you think of any attribute I forgot?
at 11:27 AM
Hi
I live in Asia and Pacific, never been traveling solo (apart from short,weekend beach getaway) till this year where I travelled solo to Osaka/Kyoto for 5 days. Just last month I did a one week solo to Belgium and Netherlands and continue 2 weeks with a friend to Italy （whom traveled with me last year to Europe). This time, we couldn’t quite see things eye to eye and had a few conflicts here and there so overall though still an excellent trip , minus the arguments we had which obviously affected our friendship a bit. As the travel bug still strongly live in me, I decided to take another Europe trip next year(take advantage of the promotional airfares) and this time will be purely solo. Though there’s some lonely time, the joy far outweight the cons. This time , though sounds a bit crazy given the limited 2.5 week time I have, I promise myself to see the cities I wanted to see and not to skip because my travel mate had been to those places so I had to oblige.
This is my rough route
Fly to Madrid(2-3 days) visit Toledo as a day trip then to Barcelona for 3-4 days.
Next to Lyon for 2 days,
Bern for 2 days,
Lugano for 1 day,
Milan for 2-3 days and last stop to Budapest(flight, the rest by train). I skip Vienna and Prague as I visited last year. For me, I am most excited going to Barcelona and Budapest, and other cities like Bern, Milan, Lyon are optional but I really like to visit as well since I missed it in the previous trips, I don’t want tone regret the rest of my life. As Europe is far from Asia and pricey, it’s unlikely I can continue to make frequent trips the next few years. Appreciate your thoughts on my itinerary
at 5:48 PM
Hi there! Thanks for sharing your plans. You won’t regret travelling solo and seeing the places you want to see. Your itinerary looks fine, except I would give Lyon one more day and Milan one less day. Lyon has a beautiful old town and is one of the centres of French gastronomy. Milan is mostly modern and not all that interesting for a visitor, except perhaps the Duomo (cathedral) or if you’re really into fashion or shopping. Where in Asia do you live? (Just curious.)
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