The True Spirit of a Traveler

Hey Travel Gurus!

You’ve heard it a bajillion times from your teachers, parents, and sometimes even your friends – improve your attitude. Now whether that reminder comes in a polite or exasperated manner, it’s still an important reminder nonetheless. As annoyingly familiar as this may sound, the way you think about a situation can and will change how you feel about it and what you choose to take away from it. The same goes for attaining the best travel experience. To have the ultimate travel experience one must have the ultimate attitude and here are three ways to do that.

1- Right mindset. Making the best of any situation requires having an optimistic mindset point of view. That means assessing your surroundings and drawing the positive out of whatever state you’re in. When traveling this is extremely important. On a trip you are especially susceptible to things not going perfectly or according to plan. If you get caught up on every complication that arises, you will have just a bad an experience as your attitude. It’s so unnecessary and not progressive to spend time fussing over what went wrong when you could be making memories from the things that went right. You are most likely in or headed to aa beautiful place there is no need to dwell on the fact that your tire went flat getting there. Be thankful that you have the resources to get help and continue on your way.

2- Spontaneity. This is a vacation and not an assignment that needs to be done in the most efficient and direct way possible. It’s supposed to be a time to do things you normally don’t have the chance of doing. Try to take up every opportunity. Live in the present rather than the past or future. Most importantly, be in the moment and just go with the flow. Don’t follow a strict schedule and just take up every opportunity as it comes along. If you were planning to just chill in your hotel room but come across an opportunity to explore the local culture, take it! Be more open and willing to try new things. You’ll regret not trying the – very dubious - famous local dish more than possibly not enjoying a single meal. Be wild, fun, and don’t overthink or over plan everything. Try to engage experiences that are unique because believe it or not you will remember tanning on the beach - no matter how beautiful - just like every other time you tanned on the beach.

3- Agreeableness. In other words be polite. You will most likely meet people whose jobs are to make your trip as enjoyable as possible. You will also meet other people like you who are just looking to have a good time. Just be kind. Nobody wants you to have a bad experience so don’t be unnecessarily crabby towards them. This goes for people who are vacationing with you. Healthy human interaction can enhance any experience and this especially true for traveling. Try to get along with other humans around you; it will make the trip easier for you and them.

The true spirit of a traveler doesn’t require much, just a part of us that can sometimes be masked or forgotten about by the troubles of our everyday lives. May you unlock your traveling spirit and use it to the best of your advantage.

Until the next adventure,
Taz

Taking a Load Off

Hey Travel Gurus!
As I’ve stressed many times before, traveling is an extremely effective and rewarding way of breaking your monotonous routine and experiencing the unknown world around you. As simple as this concept may seem, many people still underestimate the impact and necessity to break out of the routine shell once in a while, so I’m here to tell you why it’s crucial to just sometime take a load off.

Whether you are a student whose life is basically the memorization and regurgitation of seemingly useless facts day in and out or you’re a middle aged workaholic who lives on coffee fumes and depends on work for a sense of security, a trip can always be of use. Traveling does not necessarily translate into a time-consuming and overpriced endeavor. For most people, this can't be afforded financially or timewise. Rather, planning a simple camping weekend with your friends or a hike through your local park can be an easy and effective way to ease your mind and body of the rigorous errands of everyday modern life. 
Breaks like these are extremely important for your mental health. Our brain like any other organ can only take so much before malfunctioning - usually in the form of 3 AM mental breakdowns. Taking some time away for yourself will allow you to reconnect with the human version of you rather than the repetitively functioning zombie you've come to identify yourself with. It's important to get a chance to recollect your thoughts and sanity and be able to readjust your perspective and place in the world, and traveling is a great way of achieving this.
Traveling can also help renew motivation and can be a great way to deal with mental stresses. Though traveling can sometimes create a bit of anxiety itself, it really helps in terms of removing yourself from a stressful and panic inducing environment. Traveling and can also refresh your thought processes and priorities which can really help with depression as a result of being totally consumed by your personal circle of life and events. Being in a place where you are free of your regular responsibilities, expectations, and labels can be extremely liberating and helpful in building up a healthier and more self-loving mindset.
A healthy mind and body always can only be achieved through being in a positive and healthy environment, and let's face it, most of our lives do not accommodate or allow for this basic human need. One can only take so much before they need to be reconnected with their human instincts again. Traveling is a great way to get in touch with your mind, thoughts, and emotions which are all components of a healthy and happy lifestyle. So get it there and be happy. For yourself and no one else. For goodness sake you deserve a load off.
Hope you'll get the load off you need this week, and if not hang I there until you do.

Taz

A Vacation to Remember - Picture Perfect

Hey travel gurus!

 A vacation that lasts past its occurrence usually requires some help as our brains are not supercomputers. While the most important moments in our lives don't necessarily need a photo to help us remember them, pictures can be a great method to help  us relive a specific moment or scene in a travel experience. Photographing can be a great way to keep track of important or sentimental happenings during your trip. Pictures are also a great way to look back on a vacation and they allow you to pinpoint certain moments during the trip that mean a lot to you.

Pictures are also a great way of sharing fond memories or precious moments with other people, which is clearly proven through the boom in social media platforms specializing in just that - sharing your moments.

Taking photos on a trip however requires balance because you don't want to look back and realize that you experienced your weekend in Europe through your camera lens rather than experiencing and  perceiving the environment through your own senses. Pick and choose your moments. For example, if you happen to meet Angelina Jolie during your road trip to California, taking a picture to remember the moment (and more importantly use as proof when telling your friends about the encounter) is a must-do. But if you're in a tropical island getaway and witnessing the most beautiful sunset of your existence, a picture isn't necessary. To your friends, it will look like just another sunset pic, and while trying to take the perfect picture to post on Facebook, you'll be missing out on a once in a lifetime experience, ruined yet again by your unhealthy technology addiction.

Photographing can a double edged sword in that its use can both help and harm your travel experience. Be sure to utilize its power with caution and use your own rationale. Before you whip out your phone at the slightest inkling of an Instagram-worthy picture opportunity, just ask yourself whether or not you want to enjoy this moment in the moment or would you rather give that up to be able to have proof of it in a picture later on. Whatever your preferred method of memory storage, make sure it makes you happy and is truly picture perfect to you. 

Do what makes you happy gurus and until next time

Taz

A Vacation to Remember - The People You Love

Hello travel gurus!

         

An important part of traveling is making sure you’re going to be in a comfortable and at the very least enjoyable situation, and one of the ways of ensuring this is by going with people who both make you feel comfortable and allow you to enjoy yourself.

Traveling can be a rather personal feat since you are after all putting yourself in a foreign location and through this, exposing your truest and most reflexive feelings. A trip is also a means of bonding and adding more experiences to you and someone else’s shared reservoir of memoirs. Even if you’re going on a solo trip, sometimes the best bonding you can do is between you and yourself since there is nothing better for the human mind than some reflection and self-love. However those who are traveling with others will probably find this post more useful.

When picking someone to travel with it’s important to pick people you are your most comfortable with. Whether this your family or roommate, picking people you can have fun with is important for the following reasons.

1-     There are no do-overs. In most cases, when you travel somewhere, it won’t be somewhere where there will be routine visits. Even if you end up visiting the same place next year, you won’t be the same person and won’t be experiencing it the same as last time. When you travel with people you can’t unwind with, you waste a whole trip’s worth of fun and memory-making. You won't be able to go back and do that thing your companions made fun of, and you'll end up regretting not trying it at all more than if you had tried it and failed

2-  Good people = good mood. The equation of emotional well being also applies to your traveling endeavors. It's well-known that hanging out with negative people will inevitably make you a negative or negatively-feeling person. Human interaction is an important way to enhance an experience such as traveling and doing it with bitter people will only make it a bitter experience. Bring along people who are happy and nonjudgmental and will push you to have the best experience you can possibly have. When you're traveling there's no need to add on any extra stress like putting up with others' poor attitudes. Good vibes always.

3- Meaningful experiences are the best experiences. What better way to achieve this than bringing along someone meaningful? Bringing someone that means a lot to you will make the whole trip mean more to you and increase the bond you already have with that person. Whether this is your soulmate or precious yet obnoxious family, traveling with people you love creates even more reasons to love them.

Hope this helped and if it didn't do anything except to convince you that bringing your passive-aggressive cousin Sally isn't the smartest choice, I think I've done my job.

Until the next adventure,
Taz

A Vacation to Remember - My Favorite Travel Experience

Hey travel gurus!

Today I wanted to do something a little different than what I've been posting so far. This is a true account of probably my favorite trip of all time.

Have fun reading!

Taz

Of the many relatively extravagant and exotic trips I've have been blessed with the opportunity of experiencing, the one that sticks most in my mind may come as surprise for you and even myself. It was a very recent trip that took place at the end of last summer. My parents had decided to stick with a low key summer plan as my two tiny sisters would make large-scale travel quite the inconvenience - and more accurately, an impossibility. We had absolutely no plans for that summer and if you remember from my last blog post - Taking the Cultural Backstreets  - the spontaneous and spur of the moment trips tend to be the most emotionally rewarding. 

This proved to be especially true during my time spent at the Riverside Resort in Wisconsin. My family and I were driving home from the Wisconsin Dells amusement park and waterpark when our hunger from the lack of breakfast started to set in. Since it was already noon, we decided to just have lunch. A couple minutes of trying to work Siri, my dad found a very highly rated restaurant. Little did we know that when entered Shifflet’s Bar and Grille, we would also find the place we would be spending a week and a half. Despite our grogginess from the very loud and energetic trip we had just been on, our excitement about the great meal and gorgeous venue it was located on couldn’t be muted.  Beautiful and isolated cabins looking over the beautiful Wisconsin River where the smell of barbeque and bliss intermingled with the distinct scent of sandy shores and filled up my soul. I was enamored with the water activities taking place outside from waterskiing to tubing and so many other things I had always wanted to try but never have. Fast forward through the delicious meal, we were grudgingly leaving when my dad simply said: “We’re coming here next weekend.” No build up or anything. Just pure reaction to the situation we were faced with and I couldn’t be more excited. 

We all actually had a pretty busy week and our preoccupation with our routine errands and social outings made the trip come as even more of a relief and surprise. We packed more minimally than usual and were out of the house within 1 hour – record time for a family of seven with two babies.

          One annoying car trip later and I was in rustic paradise. Seeing our cabin for the first time was such a rush. Like a very mature 16-year old I started screaming and running around exploring every nook and cranny of the gorgeous wooden cabin. The high ceilings and wooden accents perfectly complemented the clear waters bordered with light flaky sand. My dad had reserved the biggest cabin on the property and with this came the perk of having first –rate access to a beautiful and secluded bay within the river. The only word I can use to describe where we were is serene.

          My favorite moment during the trip was crossing the river to reach a peaking dune of sand within the river and finding myself surrounded by a circle of clear water bordered by green mountains. The fact that I was alone and experiencing this while the sun rose just made it that more potent and long-lasting in my mind. Something about the moment made me feel infinitely important yet insignificant at the same time.

          Looking back, I realize how simple the whole experience was, but I also realize that’s why I loved it so much. I didn’t have to worry about constantly taking pictures next to landmarks I wanted make sure I would remember, but rather enjoyed everything through my own two eyes. Nothing about the trip was overpowering or forced which allowed the simple pleasures of the venue to shine through. I hope to visit this amazing destination again next summer and re-experience what made me fall in love the first time.

          

                 

A Vacation to Remember - Taking the Cultural Backstreets

Hey travel gurus!

Vacations are a great opportunity to make life lasting memories and enjoy an experience unlike your normal scheduled life. The whole point of a vacation to experience something new, expand your horizon, and of course, have a great time. The recent establishment of hundreds of travel agencies has attracted many travelers who find appeal in the idea of having someone else do all the trip planning. The problem with these commercial establishments is that they are trying to make as much profit from your trip which may decrease from your experience. These companies, while convenient, are selling pre-packaged and impersonalized trips that thousands of others have been on.

            As I’ve said before, traveling is your chance to get a sense of the diversity on our planet and broaden our minds. Our Earth is inhabited by amazing people, cultures, and people and to not take advantage of it all in while you can is a shame.
            How do I achieve this? you might be wondering. How can I travel and successfully experience something different that will stick with me for the rest of my life? It’s pretty simple: don’t pick the easiest choice. Don’t pick the most popular hotel to stay at. Don’t eat at the restaurant that offers the same food as home. Instead of going to the crowded pristine beach, try cliff jumping in a more secluded area of the shore. Try zip lining rather than tanning and remember that you probably won’t be able to go parasailing back home.  Rely on public transportation rather than bringing your car with you. Take a taxi and talk with the driver rather than just driving yourself. Go shopping at the local market rather than the big grocery store chain.  Go to the true cultural areas of the city rather than living inside your touristic bubble. Talk with the natives, even if you have to use a dictionary every other word. Roll along with things that didn’t go according to plan and try to get a laugh and good story out of it. Don’t over plan everything and make the most of every moment. There are no specific rules on how to have a “good” time because the best experiences happen as a result of spontaneity and don’t follow a replicable equation.

I guess what I’m trying to say is to take risks, because our lives aren’t long enough to always take the plain, boring, and mainstream path. Who cares if you didn’t fully enjoy a certain trip? At least you’ve gained knowledge on what you don’t like and you can sleep happy at night knowing you tried something different. Just have fun and live your life. You’ve heard it so many time but actually make the most of your time alive and take things easy. Nothing enjoyable came out of being uptight.

May your life be filled with adventures in the cultural backstreets. Until next time gurus.

Taz

A Vacation to Remember - Introduction

Hey travel gurus!

As you can probably tell from the title, I'm introducing a new 4 - part installment all about - thats it you guessed - having a vacation you'll remember. I’ll be talking about places to go, what to eat, and even what you should be wearing. I’m really excited to discuss this topic with you as I have so many personal stories to share and a lot of expertise on how to have fun – but really doesn’t everyone? Through this series I hope to give you some tips and tricks on how you can experience your destination to the fullest and in a way where it's awesomeness will be forever etched in your mind. I'll give you some ideas and even share some experiences of my own in narrative form. I hope you enjoy the blog this week and get some practical use out of it too.

That's all for now gurus!

Taz

Packing Procedures - Dividing up the Duffle Bag (or whatever it is you're packing)

Hey travel gurus!

Alas the final installment of this series is here, but no matter, I can assure you great content will continue to flow in like the Floridan waves your next trip will hopefully take you to. Anyways, back to this post. The packing predicament can be very tough to tackle when you don't know how to approach it, especially spatially. The limited space you're presented with to pack for a full stay can seem a bit daunting, but once you get acquainted with the idea, organizing your suitcase can be a cinch. To help you, just follow my five steps to a doozy-free divvied up suitcase.

1.) Choose what you're bringing, This process should be based on where you're trip is. Consider all factors such as location, climate, and space in the transportation vehicle. For example, bring clothes that can be layered for places with unpredictable climates and choose clothing that corresponds to the environment you're going to be in. Recall from the last post that you should pack items that double in utility - outfits that can transition from day to night, makeup items that can be used for more than one purpose, etc. Remember that wherever you're going, your luggage is going too and although you may not see it now, you're gonna wish that you hadn't brought two full size suitcases to your sightseeing getaway.

2.) Inventory your items. Though this may seem tenuous, childish, unnecessary, or all of the above, it is a very important - and very easy - way to organize your packing process. Listing your items super quick on a piece of paper helps you visually keep track of items you're packing and helps you easily see which ones you're missing. Things you thought you forgot can be unknowingly buried in the rest of your hodge podge of a suitcase and similarly, you can forget to pack something you though you already did. Keeping a list is a practical and intuitive way of tracking your progress and  makes the next step that mucheasier

3.) Determine what categories your items fall into and how many categories there are total. Most people pack a 5 – 6 categories of items with them on a moderate trip. Here are some examples of different categories you might be packing:

- Clothing (you can divide this category up even further, bottoms, dresses, etc.)

- Undergarments

- Shoes

- Makeup/Toiletries

- Hair care products

- Accessories

- Bags/Purses

- Significant items

- Miscellaneous

4.) Section a place in the suitcase for each category. An easy way to do this is buy a suitcase divider - yup they sell those - to place in your suitcase. These can usually be bought online, and though a little pricey, they're a great investment in the long run. These dividers are similar to shoe dividers in that they provide a confined area for each category to remain in while preventing them from getting mixed up with items next to them. This not only helps you now, but later on in the trip when you're frantically trying to find your blouse before that museum tour starts. This helps you stay organized and all around less frantic-y during your trip - never underestimate the power of one less thing to stress about.

5.) Pack and stack. That's it, all the previous steps have led up to this monumental task and though a little anticlimactic, you can still pat yourself on the back for successfully and properly organizing your suitcase. All there is left to do is place each item category in its appropriate spot in the suitcase, zip it up and go out and enjoy your vacation. And you know what? Enjoy that extra dessert at that average but overpriced restaurant. You earned that you responsible human being you.

Until next time travel gurus,

Taz

Packing Procedures - Packing under Pressure

Hey travel gurus!

So you've done it again. You've put off the packing of a 3-week trip to the hour before your scheduled departure. You spend 30 minutes scrolling through Twitter - cause priorities - and now you're left with an empty suitcase, a continually ticking clock, and the early symptoms of a nervous breakdown. You want to spent a good 10 minutes of those crying like a baby at how procrastination has once again ruined your life, but you don't, you get up anyway and pack that suitcase like nobody's business. Well you'd like to anyway. You just don't how to do it in the limited time while still packing the things you need. Well never fear, travel Taz is here! Aside from the cheesy transitions, I am here to help you with your packing problems and to do that we’re gonna use the 4 dos and don'ts of packing under pressure.

1.) Do pack versatile items that can be used for different occasions. In doing this, you save time in packing different items for different situations and environments you may find yourself in while traveling and insure that you find what you need for each of them. For example, a pair of jeans can be worn out casually while sightseeing and later dressed up with a formal blazer and heels for dinner, and a maxi dress can double as a swimsuit cover up and a cute outfit to wear out dancing.

2.) Don’t try to go bold with your style. In a situation of constricted time, you do not want suddenly decide to pack that pair of flared jeans you were too scared to wear for 3 years – because chances are your heart won’t suddenly open up to the idea of wearing them while in a foreign location. Instead go for the denim you know is comfortable and the sandals that you know fit you well and don’t induce blisters. This will help you save time in trying to find items to bring along with you as you can automatically tell which clothing items are your go-tos. And finding clothing you’re familiar with will help ease the tension and stress of having to get ready away from home.

3.) Do try to remember to bring the hidden essentials. So many of the things we rely on a day-to-day basis fly under our radar and under pressure, your mind won’t immediately think ‘Oh I’ve got to remember to pack my deoderant and underwear!’ even though your trip would be pretty awful without either of those. Remember to pack toiletries and other items that are part of your daily routine to help keep a constant throughout your trip. Traveling already is prone to uncomfortableness, so don’t make it worse than it needs to be.

4.) Don’t sweat the small stuff. Most likely you’re going to find yourself in your hotel or tavern and realize with anguish that you forgot makeup remover or you favorite pair of walking shoes or even your camera. Keep in mind that other human beings are staying where you are and you can most likely find a convenience or retail store just like the one at home where you’ll be able to find great replacements for whatever you’re lacking to make your trip perfect. And even if you don’t, remember that you’re in a spectacular place, about to embark on an amazing and memory-creating adventure and the fact that you don’t have your favorite pair of earrings shouldn’t spoil that.

Stay snazzy travel gurus,

Taz