Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As with most activities in life, traveling is usually enriched by the involvement of someone
close to you. Having a travel partner who shares your values means having a partner with
whom you can easily share new experiences. Although typical vacation traveling is already
enriched by the involvement of others, the techniques of
Travel Every Day
will make your
travel partner immeasurably more valuable, and hence your choice of travel partner im-
measurably more important. For example, by finding the right person to plan your trip with,
you'll have someone with whom to practice learning a new language, to watch and discuss
movies from the foreign culture that you've chosen, to discuss and plan the details of your
upcoming amazing adventure, and to engage in many other activities that will be described
in the pages to come. Although traveling alone can be valuable from the standpoint of per-
sonal development, the goal with
Travel Every Day
is to make every day a mental voyage
to your destination, and you'll find this goal much easier to attain when you have someone
to share it with. Together, you and your travel partner will create a miniature version of
your destination here at home, both mentally and physically, and you'll find that every in-
teraction between the two of you will bring the energy of your destination into your life
now rather than later. Moreover, this effect will only increase as time goes on and the two
of you become more comfortable with and knowledgeable about the language and culture
of your destination.
Another benefit of having a well-chosen travel partner is that planning and conduct-
ing a life-changing trip together will connect you and your partner at a deeper level than
you may have otherwise thought possible. The fundamentals of culture, such as language
learning, food, traditions, art and music appreciation, participation in festivals and dance,
and so on, are all central components of what it means to be human. As such, sharing these
experiences with your partner will bring the two of you together in a fundamental way.
You will connect with your partner through your daily mental voyages to your destination
during the planning period, through the sharing of rich cultural experiences during the trip
itself, and finally, through the shared memories that you'll be able to enjoy together for the
rest of your lives.
Now, you may have noticed that throughout the discussion so far, I've consistently
used the term “partner” and not “partners.” A very reasonable question is “What about trav-
eling with multiple people?” The response is that while traveling with a group can be bene-
ficial, and can even provide an additional level of security, depending on your destination,
traveling with multiple people also adds a level of complexity to the trip that can some-
times create a less than ideal planning and traveling environment. Two key questions are
how close the friendships in the proposed travel group are, and how skilled the members of
the group are at working together. If you do decide to plan a group trip, be sure that every-
one has the following:
