Absolutely worth it, however I'd offer a few short tips:
1. Try to stay in one place for a few months, minimum. If you can stay a year or two, do that. Jumping from city to city every week seems exciting at first, but it quickly makes everywhere feel the same.
2. To quote Lao Tzu, when your work is done, forget it. If you work remotely, actively disconnect at the end of the day. It's too easy to be constantly plugged into the English-speaking media world and ignore what's right in front of you.
3. Try to blend in and adopt local clothing, culture, foods, etc. Read books by local authors, watch local films. A bit obvious, maybe, but I've met many people who insisted on only eating Western food, reading Harry Potter, and watching Netflix while abroad. At that point, why even bother traveling?
> 3. Try to blend in and adopt local clothing, culture, foods, etc. Read books by local authors, watch local films. A bit obvious, maybe, but I've met many people who insisted on only eating Western food, reading Harry Potter, and watching Netflix while abroad. At that point, why even bother traveling?
Depends on the purpose/intentions of the travel.
While I feel similarly about much of my own travel as you do, it's worth recognizing for many people, travel (or at least some of their travel) is not about having some sort of cultural experience or broadening their horizons.
For many people, travel is simply about getting to relax on vacation in a setting they like that they can't get at home.
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Your average Brit on vacation in Spain is not there because they have any interest in Spanish culture or Spaniards. They're there because they wanted a warm beach and sun and couldn't get them in their home country.
I'm reluctant to criticize too heavily that not everyone traveling is always doing so out of a desire for cultural enrichment. I certainly am not traveling with any desire for that in mind when I go visit a beach in Florida or a ski area in Colorado as an American.
Hmm, maybe it's an American thing but when I say 'travel' it really doesn't include a beach holiday. That would be called 'vacation' or 'a trip'. 'Travel', to me at least, implies some sort of cultural/sightseeing intent, even if it's just going to Paris for a visit to the Louvre and a few nice meals but talking to nobody.
I'm an American and I make the same distinction. Cultural travel is not on the radar of the typical vacationer, so most people don't make the distinction.
I'd add "tourists" as a third category, ranging from the one week family trip somewhere new to see the sights up to and including those racing city to city, hostel to hostel, site to site, collecting likes on instagram or whatever.
On top of this, I feel that part of traveling is expanding one's awareness and empathy, something the world could use much more of. It really does give perspective to "walk a mile" in someone else's shoes.
> Try to stay in one place for a few months, minimum.
I second this. 2 months is the minimum amount of time per country, and 2 weeks per city if you expect to get anything more than a handful of good meals and a couple adventures out of a place. My better memories were all from places I stayed for over 2 months, and all have more to do with people I met than the place itself.
As someone who was on the road for three years, this was my biggest take away. If anything I'd treat one month as an absolute minimum. I'd prefer not to be anywhere less than 3 months. It ends up taking a week just to get truly unpacked.
From that base, you can still do day trips and weekend trips.
The amount of time maybe varies by the location and the visitor, but... how much do you carry that it takes a week to unpack?
Until I started travelling with my wife (and now a child too), one main lesson I learned was "you aren't going to need it" - every time I went travelling it was lighter than the trip before!
I had one carry on for clothing and a backpack for essentials and some electronics.
I guess more accurately it takes a week to get settled in. Most of that time isn't about physically removing the stuff from the bags but more about where you need to put it and what stuff you might need to go rebuy and organize, in the new country.
Sorry, I read that far too literally! Yeah, that's fair enough. I certainly needed large blocks of staying still, but didn't feel the need to stay anywhere as long as three months - month long blocks were more common for me.
Yes, definitely. I find that around 10 days is needed to feel 'at home' somewhat, know where the market is etc, and 2 or 3 months to feel like you live there, depending on the language. It happens quite quickly. It's very satisfying to have lived in a variety of countries.
Yep, dating apps didn't work great for me at all because I have the misfortune of being both unattractive and picky, but couch surfing hangouts work fantastically, especially for meeting local people. Walking around at least puts you in places where people can talk to you, occasionally they do. Wearing unique or attention grabbing things gives people an excuse to talk to you. I always choose trains and buses to travel, conversations are more common there. Hostels are a very easy way meet other travelers and get your social fix when you need it. Often times the staff are friendly enough and if you stay in one hostel long enough or visit with them, the staff might integrate you into their social life. Most hostel staff like to travel, too. Becoming a regular at any kind of place will almost certainly get you conversations with staff. A lot of people you meet in hostels are traveling from the same country or ones you are going to visit, so you meet those people there.
At least in Europe (can't speak from personal experience elsewhere) you can easily find "Language Exchange" type meetups. Depending on the city, it will be a healthy mix of locals, immigrants, and tourists. If you speak English fluently, you'll typically have a lot of locals eager to talk with you to practice their English, and in turn you can learn/practice the local language in an open environment.
This is lower stress than trying to go to a random bar and strike up a conversation when I don't know the local language very well, and if you're staying long-term, it's a natural way to develop friendships with locals.
How do you avoid getting mugged or murdered from people you couch surf with? Basically avoiding the scammers...? I feel like in Europe, there are so many street scams and that if police aren't even willing to curb that issue, what recourse would you have if someone were to harm you while couch surfing at some random place? The risk feels pretty high to me. I guess you would have to travel really light in these situations?
It's actually very hard to get murdered in Europe if you're actively trying to avoid it. Same for getting scammed. The overwhelming majority of people are decent. The ones who aren't make the news because their behaviour is so unusual.
I highly recommend you give international travel a try!
As someone with mild social anxiety, the thought of doing something like that is utterly alien, even in my own country let alone somewhere else. I don't mean in a "i wouldn't do that" sort of way, but in an "i cannot even imagine/does not compute" sort of way.
I also have/had mild social anxiety. When things open up go stay for a couple days in a hostel somewhere (use hostelworld), make sure to find one with a reasonably large common room and be in it, read a book or do some work. It will probably be therapeutic. Not much is forced and socialness tends to just happen. If someone sits near you or says hi ask "Where are you from? How long are you here? What have you done here?" and roll with it. If you do some research on whats in the area or cool food you want to try, you have an immediate opportunity to invite someone to do an activity. It will feel like sitting on an airplane with the door open to go sky diving to you, exhilirating if you manage to make yourself do it.
A useful psychological hack: you have a bit of a desire to do this, hell, it's scary, right? So invite a friend and make it your goal to plan lots of things - its easier to do do something for others quite a lot of the time.
Be explict you are doing this. You'll probably find there are some great bits, some other bits you cant control that are exhausting, etc.
Then do another trip. Plan to invite that friend. Plan for the good bits and to avoid the worst bits. Then just go by yourself!
The first run through gives you a motivation to do something challenging and consider what you would think people want to do, even if its awks.
The second, you take the learnings and reward yourself
I have mild social anxiety. Maybe more than mild. I have to say sometimes it is easier to be social in another setting. For example, in hostels the expectation is to just start talking for no reason and tell that lone traveler that you are indeed exploring the city and inviting them to join you.
Another thing I've found is taking a class - in my case kickboxing classes led to quite a few new friends.
I don't have as much courage to do that in my home country.
Nope. Until you travel you don't even have the slightest clue what a privilege it is to speak English or be from America. Educated middle/upper class people everywhere except china (where there is almost no english at all) generally speak at the very least broken English, if not fluent english.
That being said:
One of the most interesting people I met was in china, and I'd say complex ideas were 75% communicated in english. Google translate or wechat translate supplemented the conversations.
One of the other people I met was in Korea. His enlgish was probably closer to 50% and complex ideas almost certainly required a translation app. Great memories though.
I would probably have a conversation mediated entirely by google translate once every other week or so, and google translate was generally good enough to get an idea of menu's or communicate to people with absolutely no english ability at all. Nearly all conversations I had in china were translated via WeChat.
Traveling made me regret circumventing the language requirement in college so much.
> Traveling made me regret circumventing the language requirement in college so much.
I can feel this. I did the opposite. Instead of circumventing the requirement, I studied 5 different languages, and then continued 2 on to relative proficiency.
This has been, in my opinion, of tremendous benefit in living on and traveling to multiple continents.
I had an advisor whom I admired who was competent in some 12 or more languages. I was so jealous. I guess I probably still am.
That's very interesting. However I am not sure whether being middle/upper class has any association with being able to speak english. Frankly I don't think there is a class distinction in China (despite an economic one maybe).
I would like to point out if helpful that in China our education of the English language is much more geared towards reading rather than speaking. Students are generally equipped with enough to read and understand given adequate time but probably not speaking. However regional difference also may exist (first tier cities vs second, third etc). I used to feel ashamed about our english level in east asia in general. But then again now I think about people in the anglosphere where French and Spanish are largely taught but no one would expect a large proportion will be able to converse in them :)
> Until you travel you don't even have the slightest clue what a privilege it is to speak English
Agreed; almost everywhere, you can find someone who knows some English. The other time I realized who a privilege it is was looking for a second language to learn. There isn't a clear answer if you already know English. The English privilege you might completely miss is that, outside of China, the internet is English-first.
You are getting downvoted because it's completely unclear why the term "broken english" is offensive or not fit for use. You also did not propose an alternative.
I promise my use of it was entirely descriptive and not at all a judgement of the person speaking it. I have the utmost respect for anyone who can communicate an idea in another language at any level. I see my self as deficient for not being able to do so and think of myself as lesser and a poor citizen of the world for only speaking english.
The term broken means something was once whole and is no longer. There's plenty of alternatives like non native speaker, beginner speaker, etc. I'm generally extremely non PC but this one is a pet peeve of mine.
As a native English speaker living in Russia, it really made me realize how difficult and nerve racking language learning and speaking is. I don't consider my Russian skills "broken", just very incomplete; a WIP.
Broken in the sense "broken line" (https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=broken+line&ia=web); not "once whole", rather "with breaks (pauses/gaps) in it". Like when a conference breaks for lunch, it doesn't mean the conference was whole and now is inferior.
My friend met someone travelling who consciously focussed on creating new and interesting experiences and connections with people, rather than actual places. It led him to some pretty awesome and amazing adventures.
> A bit obvious, maybe, but I've met many people who insisted on only eating Western food[...] At that point, why even bother traveling?
Whenever I have a guide (either professional or a local friend), this is often strangely a lot of work. Particularly the tour companies I've gone with in China insist on trying to get me a Western breakfast. If I wanted pancakes and sausage I would have just stayed at home and cooked my own! Give me the stuff you like. I may not end up liking it, but there's a pretty decent chance I will.
They are probably used to closed-minded arrogant Westeners whining aloud about not getting their cornflakes. Unfortunately.
I also don't get people who won't at least try local customs like eating cooked fish on rice with green tea in the morning, but there are plenty of them. These people usually don't do well in really different countries and complain and whine and compare to home all the time instead of curious observing / understanding. Real travelling, which is about learning and immersing and broadening your mental horizon, and not about conquering some beach with your ass is just not for them.
> They are probably used to closed-minded arrogant Westeners whining aloud about not getting their cornflakes. Unfortunately.
Others have pointed out that lots of cultures have this problem: I read a Chinese newspaper article a few years ago about mainland Chinese bring suitcases full of instant noodles to eat when traveling abroad.
But while there are certainly Westerners like that, I don't think they were the cause of my problem. First of all, lunch and dinner on these tours was typically "Chinese" food, but something which was clearly targeted at a Western palate (which was perhaps even more frustrating). I think ironically, it was probably people who did want to try "authentic" cuisine -- or thought they did -- who were causing some of my problems. My guess is that they had people say they wanted "authentic cuisine", but when given actually authentic cuisine, didn't like it -- it didn't taste like the "authentic" cuisine in the Chinese restaurants at home.
Secondly, it probably does help people to deal with the new thing if they have something familiar. If you want to try something new but have never been outside the US, "three genuine Chinese meals a day for two weeks" is really throwing you in in the deep end. "Western breakfast and pseudo-Chinese lunch and dinner" probably is a much better way for those kinds of people to experience something new.
It's not just Americans. Plenty of Korean's can't live without Korean food every meal. Plenty of Japanese can't live without Japanese food every meal. I know Italian friends who say their parents couldn't live without Italian food every meal. I know the first 2 culture sell tour packages where you'll be served Korean or Japanese food for every meal while on your tour abroad
Heh. My office in Boston is right by where Asian package tour companies stop their buses and send their customers out with docents in their language. And yes, they never stop for food even after walking 5 miles through the city, which is for the best, as it would be an awful time to discover that you're lactose intolerant.
It’s not just Americans. My parents used to travel with a mini rice cooker, small bag of rice, and canned Chinese food when they travel. They have lived in Canada since 1990.
They stopped doing that after the Boston Marathon bombing cause of the airport security.
One of the highlights of their trip to France in 2002 was in Nice. Their hotel was near a Chinese Grocery and was able to get BBQ Pork and Soy Chicken.
Five years ago they went for a two week tour of Australia from China (after visiting relatives in China). Every meal on that tour was in a Chinese restaurant.
I can't imagine a lot of close minded arrogant westerners doing a lot of travel to begin with.
I think it's more likely that they want you to feel more at home. I was visiting an overseas team in Bangalore for a week and the team took me out to ... a steakhouse.
Most of the team didn't eat beef but they wanted to take me somewhere they thought I'd like. I was appreciative of their consideration but ended up ordering the chicken, felt weird otherwise.
> I was visiting an overseas team in Bangalore for a week and the team took me out to ... a steakhouse.
Right, this is exactly the problem I was talking about! And to be fair, there probably are a lot of Americans who would prefer a steakhouse; and many more who want to try "real" Indian food but just aren't ready for how different cultural food tastes actually are.
But when you've eaten chicken feet a dozen times, and incorporated "century egg" into your own personal cooking repertoire, it's a bit frustrating to make your way to a third-tier city in China and be fed breaded deep-fried bits of chicken with a bland sweet-and-sour sauce!
There was a roaring trade in American coca-cola in Beijing because enough people wanted to avoid the local version. As a non-American, I couldn’t taste the difference, but the imported stuff was 3x the price.
Another phrase I heard often was an irate “This would never happen in America!”
Usually I try to avoid American Coca-Cola and prefer Mexican Coca-Cola. If Mexican Coca-Cola is not available, I prefer not to drink it. While visiting US, I buy the overpriced Mexican version.
And yes, the taste is different, even for Coca-Cola light.
I experienced this when traveling Thailand; it was nearly impossible to get food that was spicy enough to match my Atlanta, Georgia (US) expectations. The staff would snicker as they brought the chili's out.
In many ways it made me realize just how good multiple cultures have combined to make my "home" food good.
Food in Thailand is often not that spicy by default. The condiments on the table are what allow everyone to adjust the spiciness to their preferred level. So, I wouldn't say it's necessarily the staff thinking you can't handle it, it might just be how the dishes are always prepared.
As a Thai person, the cooks know that if they have non Thai guests, especially "Farangs", they need to tone down their spicyness. You have to insist them or bring a local to have them make it hot.
If possible (they won't always accommodate) ask the desk clerk at your hotel (assuming they're a local, not always the case especially at hostels) what they eat for breakfast/lunch and where you can get that. After a terrible "English breakfast" of undercooked bacon & burned sausage at a tourist restaurant in a small Indian tourist town, I asked the fellow manning the small hotel what he had for breakfast and where I could get it. None of the tourist places served pav bhaji (or "baji pao" as I'd understood him to call it) but when I found the little hole-in-the-wall place he directed me to I was rewarded with a new experience, a dish I hadn't tried before, and one I really enjoyed and continued eating for breakfast during the remainder of my short stay.
It can take some doing in some places to convince people that you (in my case a Westerner) really are interested in their food, culture, etc.. Learning a bit of the language can help. I was happy to be able to memorize "ek paav bhaajee aur ek samosa aur chaay chaahie" and order for myself in Hindi, hoping that if there were any complications the server would speak English as that's as far as I could go. But people appreciate that a lot, even just learning "my name is, what's your name, how are you" etc.
When I said "my name is sequoia, what is your name" to a taxi driver they would sometimes say "You speak hindi?!" incredulously, to which I'd reply "well I wouldn't go that far..."
My brother convinced his taxi driver he wanted what the natives ate and got the driver's mother to cook a real meal for him. I was elsewhere that day, and I regret missing it (We were on the same vacation, I signed up for a tour that day because there was a sight I wanted to see that he couldn't afford)
If you can pull that one off you will have got the best and mroe authentic experience.
I agree whole heartedly. I'd gone one further and add "become a regular". Get coffee/beer/food from the same place every day and consider enrolling in a language/art/something short course. It's amazing who you can meet over the course of a month or two - I met a bunch of interesting people including my wife.
How do I do this? Specifically the clothing part. How can I best plan ahead to not label myself as a clueless tourist? I imagine my American standard of dress is too casual for most places, but beyond generalizations like that, I'm clueless.
You may not be able to do a lot of "planning ahead" but when you're there you can look at how people dress and emulate that. In some places it might mean buying tighter fitting clothes than you might wear in the states (some places in Europe a lot of men wear much tighter clothing & style their hair more than the average heterosexual man would in North America), or getting flipflops instead of sneakers or vice versa, seeing what sort of bags people carry. I wouldn't think of the goal as being looking exactly like a local so much as not wearing things that immediately peg you as an outsider, like if the adult men in that area uniformly use shoulder bags or briefcases & you're carrying around a backpack.
It can also have a lot to do with nonverbal and body language–observe how close people stand to one another, how much eye contact if any, whether people greet strangers & if so how, how people queue, etc.. It took me a while when visiting India to learn that people don't stand on line the same as they do in the USA. I put my bag down in an airport line to get out a document, and as the line moved forward, people just started going around me, because I was not immediately moving forward with the line. In the USA this would be considered very rude, but in India (at least in my limited experience) it was considered typical–the line doesn't wait for you, move it or lose it. I got with the program quickly after I learned that.
And this should go without saying but don't display expensive or flashy things (jewelry, cameras, possibly fancy cell phone etc.) in an environment you're not familiar with.
Your third point is maybe a little narrow minded. People travel for different reasons and long term travel can be stressful and uncomfortable for a lot of people, including myself. If I just spent all day in an unfamiliar country by myself where I know absolutely no one, I don't speak the language, I've been trying new foods for weeks, and I'm exhausted because I did 15 miles and 8 hours of walking today - yeah, maybe I want some comfort food and to watch some Netflix. It doesn't mean I'm not appreciating my travels. If anything it lets me appreciate my traveling more.
Although this isn't the way I travel, I agree we shouldn't put down other travel styles. For some people the pleasure of travel comes from merely being in a foreign place.
Sorry maybe my sentence structure was confusing there. I meant for only to apply to Netflix and Harry Potter too. As in, it’s okay to watch Netflix on a trip, but not exclusively.
I agree with your points, just want to add: The best way to connect with the culture and people is to get a local job, or studying at a local university or at least taking courses.
EDIT:
Basically become an immigrant, even if it's only for a couple of months. Ideally don't plan your return, make your journeys open ended!
I wouldn't get an office job, I have worked in restaurants and similar, those colleagues are way more fun. Could be fun to try being a salaryman, but it's probably much harder, need work permits etc.
For that matter, I wouldn't get one here either, if I could earn the same as I do know as a sous chef I'd quit in a heartbeat...
I used to work for a company based outside the US, but with a significant US presence. A colleague embedded in another team in the foreign office for three months and ended extending it to four. Probably the easiest way to do it because the company sorted out visa issues (or if he kept it to 89 days, he'd just be traveling for business), and he had a job on both ends of it.
I have a question to people saying "get a local job"
What kind of jobs do you mean? Doesn't it look suspicious for a middle aged guy who looks from a different part of the world trying to get a job he clearly does not need?
To clarify, I don't feel above any job, when I first emigrated 12 years ago I was cleaning toilets and working construction, but I had no qualifications and I didnt meet anyone fun. I am also a TERRIBLE waiter.
I don’t think you need to worry about that, in more exotic locations you will be so out of place anyway and they will have no way to judge if you’re rich or poor. And in any case people generally don’t care that much about others.
And even when they do, just accept it, it’s pretty unlikely anyone will resent you.
> Doesn't it look suspicious for a middle-aged guy who looks to be from a different part of the world trying to get a job he clearly does not need?
Not at all. If you can find a company which needs or wants an employee like you, whether it's due to your language and cultural background, or because of other skills which you possess, generally they'll just be really happy that they found you.
Depending on your nationality, a lot of countries have flexible tourist visas. For example, Americans can visit Armenia for 6 months, Albania for 12 months, Georgia for 12 months, India for 6 months at a time (up to 10 years), and so on.
In Europe, you also have many countries outside of the Schengen area, meaning that you can do three months in one then hop to another. E.g. spend 3 months in Berlin, then 3 months in Kyiv, then 3 months in Paris, then three months in Belgrade.
Not being strict makes it harder. You can sometimes get in and out without the proper proof that you actually left (your passport isn't always stamped when you cross the border). Then when you do finally get someone asking questions you can't prove the dates and they won't let you in.
Just make sure you get the right Visa. I have a work Visa for India, but I'm allowed to got to India for work reasons, I'd need a different Visa to be a tourist. Sometimes countries get funny about that.
As long as you don't need to look for employment locally, it's relatively easy and inexpensive to get a long-term (12 months plus) visa. I enquired with immigration lawyers in three different EU countries where this was possible, and ended up obtaining a three-year visa in a fourth country. I would estimate this cost about 500 EUR.
If you have a lot of money (hundreds of thousands up to millions), you can effectively buy residency in most countries around the world.
Other countries allow border-running to renew your visa, some countries issue longer visa's on arrival, etc, etc.
Mostly, this all depends on your financial means, which country you choose to spend a longer time in, your levels of determination, and the skill of the immigration lawyer you choose.
Talk to other expats who have already stayed long-term in your country of interest. Anybody who has been there for enough time will know their way around the immigration & visa system and people are usually very happy to share what they know.
1. is a good point, but I wouldn't be too focused on it - just realise that it's ok to do that, so that when you find somewhere you like, or when you're tired from the go go go, you do actually stop and enjoy yourself. Eventually you'll feel like moving on and getting back to it.
I've done three long trips quitting a job first (~20 months, ~12 months, ~6 months) and the first two had several month or more stops, and many week or more stops. A mix is good.
1. Try to stay in one place for a few months, minimum. If you can stay a year or two, do that. Jumping from city to city every week seems exciting at first, but it quickly makes everywhere feel the same.
2. To quote Lao Tzu, when your work is done, forget it. If you work remotely, actively disconnect at the end of the day. It's too easy to be constantly plugged into the English-speaking media world and ignore what's right in front of you.
3. Try to blend in and adopt local clothing, culture, foods, etc. Read books by local authors, watch local films. A bit obvious, maybe, but I've met many people who insisted on only eating Western food, reading Harry Potter, and watching Netflix while abroad. At that point, why even bother traveling?