I know you are home most likely due to lockdown, quarantine or self-imposed isolation in your rational attempts just like many of us out here to contain the spread of this global pandemic disease.
However, you heart may be yearning for more adventures, the aroma of freshly made foreign food as you walk the street of a foreign city, the feeling of novelty that travels provides and you may be daydreaming of destinations and bucket-list experiences you want to tick off; and it may be frustrating that you can’t even hang out with your friends or colleagues to ease up the social anxiety. Well, that’s why we have taken the time to write the following 15 ways you can feed the wander lustre in you to inspire you to see an alternative way to experience the world around without travelling (yet):
Practice Meditation, gratitude and mindfulness
There is nothing more wanderlusting than getting lost in gratitude; you will discover so many positive feelings and emotions that will overwhelm your current reality and make you realise how blessed you are. While you may not have the ability to travel, you can travel in your mind by being mindful of the thoughts and feelings you allow into your space and through meditation, you can discover a whole of calm, peace and endless possibilities for your life.
So I highly recommend trying the habit of and stay consistent with daily meditation using Calm, Omvana or Headspace meditation apps. Also by taking notes and guarding your thoughts daily, you can wander in the most lustful destinations and bucket-list experiences you can ever imagine without even stepping out of your home.
Immerse yourself in your present experience and enjoy it!
It is so easy at times like this to only dwell on the negatives and the fear of the unknown future; however, that is the greatest disservice you can do to yourself and your wanderlust dreams of experiencing the world. So while you are at home, enjoy the moment, think about your time as the much-needed vacation away from anyone & everything else; let it be a time to really tune into your inner self, voice and creativity. Stay in and recharge. Get the much-needed sleep, start a healthier morning routine, cook your favourite meal, clean up your space and do away with the excess, have a long shower, do your nails, start working on that business idea you’ve all wanted to create, take that course that can help, and just uck up in it, cook for yourself, develop a healthy
Take a virtual tour to any of these 2500 museums
Can you imagine going to a world class museum without leaving your couch? Yesss! It is possible. SO your quarantine doesn’t have to be full of boredom, excessive movies and browsing the internet. You can immerse deeply into art, culture and a little form of education according to a Fast company article that reported that Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 2500 museums & galleries around the world to bring art to everyone through virtual tours and online exhibitions from some of the world’s most famous museums. With millions of people all over the world on lockdown, art is a form of therapy that can heal and feed one’s wanderlust so well. Museums all over the world are sharing the most Zen art to help people relax and you don’t need to be depressed or quarantined to take advantage and immerse yourself into this magnificent opportunity.
From experiencing 6 floors of Contemporary Korean art through Google Virtual Tour to exploring the masterworks from Dutch Golden age at my world’s most favourite Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam through Street View Tour. From the Guggenheim museum in new york through it Street View feature allowing visitors to experience it famous spiral staircase; to Musee d’Orsay, Paris giving you through its virtual tour to see some of the oldest Monet, Cezanne and Gauguin; you will find something that will feed your soul.
Be sure to bookmark this article, go check out GOOGLE virtual tours and read more about all the ways you can access over 2500 museums here.
Watch Travel Movies
Oh yes, movies! I didn’t say, no Netflix or cable TV at all. You should definitely reward your hard work from home with doses of travel movies that can inspire daydreaming, feet itching, trip planning or simply in awe of culture once more. I highly recommend you watch some of the following movies; The bucket list, Encounters at the End of the World, City of GOD, Queen (Bollywood), First, they Killed my Father, the African Doctor, Guatemala: Heart of the Mayan World, Into the Wild, Seven Year in Tibet 1997, The Art of Travel, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty or Out of Africa. Whatever you taste is you will find one of these AMAZING!
Discover the world from the eyes of a Travel Vlogger
A great way to experience a destination on your bucket list is through Vlogs by those who live or travel there. I remember in New York my Godmother loved watching this Aussie Vlogger who was living in the Philippines and exploring off the beaten paths. It is an incredible way to rediscover your own country or a foreign country. Frankly, I can only recommend one vlog to you that I absolutely love, i.e the Passport Heavy by Jubril Agoro, a world traveller, digital nomad and marketing mogul. I do not watch any other vlogs on youtube; thanks to my slow internet and heavy workload: but trust me on this, if you are bored at home or find yourself dipping your hands into your travel savings account; head to youtube go discover travel vlogs to get your wanderlust to take over.
Get a lot in words carefully knitted by a travel blogger
Hats off to all Travel Bloggers who use their pen to write and keyboard to knit words that make you feel like you are on a journey with them. To my very own Gloria Atanmo of the BlogAbroad, to Oneika The Traveller, to Lola Akinmade an award-winning geo traveller and my very own self Fadila who brought you this travel tips; reading travel blogs can inspire your wanderlust while you are home or even at work! PS: Don’t let your boss catch you reading these blogs during work time though..lol! mdr!
Host a Virtual Travel Quiz meet up with your friends
How about hosting a stimulating virtual hangout? A hump on Skype, Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime or whatever works with your friends at a specific time every week to play travel games or do a quiz using history, monuments, cultural heritage, cuisine or unique experiences as a point of reference. You will not only feed your wanderlust but also stimulate your brain to learn something new.
Learn to cook and cook an International Cuisine at home
Do you often find yourself mesmerizing over a destination you are yet top going or perhaps feeling nostalgic about a destination you visited some time ago? FOOD can be the answer to feeding your wanderlust. Go to youtube and do some research about the food culture, choose a meal that you can find similar ingredients where you live and get cooking. You can head here to learn some popular African dishes. I used to live in the Gambia and sometimes I find myself salivating thinking about my favourite dish Yassa: so I learnt to make it from youtube and now I cook it while listening to Senegambian music whenever I feel nostalgic or have a yearning to go back in time to enjoy. It works!
Watch a Foreign Movie in a foreign language
Sounds crazy! But try it at least once. If you are English or French, watch a Brazilian movie in Portuguese, or perhaps indulge in an Arabic documentary movie acted and scripted in Arabic with no translation. It is a whole different experience that allows you to fully immerse in the moment of the scenes to understand the way of life, thoughts and actions of other people so foreign to you. If you love action movies, watch a Chinese kung-fu movie in mandarin. I have watched movies in Spanish, Mandinka, Wolof, Arabic, Swahili, Portugese: it is a unique experience that can feed your wanderlust from the comfort of your couch.
Read Travel Books
If books are your thing: get transported into another world and feed your wanderlust and quest for adventure. You can read or listen to e-books or you can simply order some from amazon or buy it at a bookshop next door. Here are a few recommendations: ‘All God’s Children need travel shows by Maya Angelou’, ‘Wild by Cheryl Strayed’ by Cheryl Strayed , et all, ‘The Year of Living’ by Helen Russel, The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, ‘the Art of Travel’ by Alain De Botton. Check out @hey_ciara recent post here for more book recommendations.
Take up the challenge to Learn a New Language
It’s only for this tip to come after the last; when I was learning french I used to watch movies, listen to the news and a point even changed my phone settings to french. Learning a language allows you to immerse into a new culture on a very deep level that allows you to often even think in that language. Take up one foreign language you want to learn, download Duolingo or any other language app and study daily for 15 mins and you’d be surprised how that can get you living in the minds of the country or culture you want to experience.
Create your Travel Bucket List
With #socialdistancing now highly recommended: what’s the best time to really thinking about the list of destinations and activities, you want to experience in your lifetime. Think about the things you have always wanted to do, the new skills you want to develop, the mountains you want to climb, the sunset you want to see, the dance moves you want to learn and the cultures you want to experience. I am asking you to create that list base on your current resources or circumstance; I am encouraging you to create a list all and more of the things that when you do will truly make you happy, give you a sense of fulfilment and feed the child in you.
Your bucket list will keep growing as you tick off some items; so for a I challenge you to write down a list of at least 100 places, activities, food, skills, cultures etc you want to experience within the next 5 years. This exercise will feed your soul ad inspire a sense of limitless possibilities. Don’t take my word for it; try it yourself and share in the comments below how you feel when you are done.
Research and start planning your next trip your
You may not be able to travel now, but psychologists say that you may gain the most joy from the time of planning a dream trip. So get started learning about the country you want to visit now, its culture and history; that way you have social context before you arrive.
Host an International Dinner
If you leave a neighbourhood where you have foreign nationals: make the move to communicate to your neighbours the idea of cultural exchange through hosting International dinners every other month or every quarter. If you can get 3-4 households with different nationalities to buy the idea of cooking their local dishes and bring over to dinner with others; that can be a great way to experience the world around you without travelling. You can offer to be the host for the first event and overtime circulate hosting to others. Over dinner, you all can share a fun fact about your cultures and engage in other enriching cross-cultural exchange activities.
Host a Traveller from another country in your home
The co-sharing economy has enabled not only travel but business and crosses cultural exchange to become more accessible than ever before. Platforms like Couchsurfing, WorldPacker, Workaway among others enable you to host travellers from around the world in your home or place of work for skill and cross-cultural exchange. If you cannot travel the world, no problem, you can bring the world to your home. Head over to our travel resource page to sign up to some of these programs.
Bonus Tip: You can also consider becoming a culture or language teacher or a cultural experience provider to tourists and travellers visiting your city. This way you can engage in cross-cultural exchange without even travelling at all!
Conclusively, I know there is Coronoavirus now so a few of the above ways may not be highly recommended at the moment, my goal is to expand your perspective on what’s possible by showing you the many ways you can experience the world around you even when you’re not travelling; because I know someone of you all may have full-time jobs that only allow you a few weeks off during the year and you may not (yet) be able to financially support all your travel goals.
As much as I would love for you all who want to travel to experience the world more; I also take the social responsibility to share with you other ways you can feed your wanderlust and the feeling of novelty wherever you may be home or abroad; you can choose to live your best life every day!
Be sure to share this article with at least one person you know who will find this useful. You also want to ensure you subscribe to our mailing list and bookmark this article so come back to tell me more about your experience in the comments below after you try the above ways!
Happy Wanderlusting home or abroad!
