This is where I am going…you should come along
I have been blessed to have travel to dozens of countries on every continent except Antarctica. I live for those “trip moments” when you realize that you are experiencing something special and unique that will remain with you more indelibly than any Instagram post. The poetry of the moment comes naturally so that you are able to share it with others. As an experienced traveler I also know that I will have to deal well with the “uh oh moments.” We had a ten-day trip to India earlier this year. Despite years of planning complex trips and itineraries to try to maximize the former and remain resilient for the later, I was looking forward to getting home from this trip before we even left.
It’s not unusual to have anxiety about travel and you may think this was my first trip to India. Not even close. I have been enlightened by and have endured the chaos that is India across many trips. The irony of the country’s tourism motto “Incredible India” has never been lost on me. We woke to the sunrise shimmering across the back waters of Kerala, discovered karikku coconut pudding and finally understanding the skill of eating with your hands, being caught up in the throngs of pilgrims at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, learned about coir rope, and truly experienced the fabled and exotic India that seems to exist innately in our imaginations. But..we gagged on the sour odor of garbage and suspicious puddles while walking along the cliffs in Varkala and also woke one morning to find that we had no transportation. Our expectations may be picture perfect, but you can not curate away everything you are confronted with. You take the good with the bad when you travel because that’s what it means to experience a place.
It is a practiced attitude/temperament to travel with an open mind. But it is also is a patient and tenacious craft to plan to make the most of precious time in a place you may never have the good fortune to visit a second time…to feel like you haven’t missed anything or wasted time…to have the trip go as smoothly as you need it to regardless of how structured or “seat of your pants” you like to move through the world. The trip itself is our opportunity to experience our passions and realize our aspirations, share time with our people, and welcome new ones and cultures into our psyche.
An enjoyable day isn’t a litany of excursions and points of interest, but a seamless and seemingly natural moments that fit together in just the right way, punctuated with trip moments that are spontaneous, as well as intended highlights.
Eating can make or break a trip experience. For me, there are fewer greater moments in life than “discovering” or stumbling upon some unique local treat that leaves the taste of the place in your mouth and feels like an inspired moment. The choices in many places are limitless and wasting the opportunity for a good meal is a travel sin.
Accommodations are not a place to sleep. At the very least they are a convenient location that places us amidst the action we crave or offers a sanctuary away from it all following a day of exotic stimulation. At best, they are extension of the experience that makes the place our home for a few days.
Transportation shouldn’t feel like a death march from point to point but part of the journey and experience. We often think of this as a non-event in a trip-or worse overlook the amount of time it takes to go from place to place. All of our senses are still lit up, whether we are walking through a city or serenely staring out of the window of a bus or train as a new landscape rolls by.
While trip moments may be “happy accidents,” a truly fulfilling trip and travel experience does not happen by accident. It is often the result of patient and tenacious effort which sometimes feels like a doctoral thesis. Years of travel and planning travel, along with a professional fascination with the systemic dynamics of the tourism ecosystem and personal psychology of travel has led me to this point. I have been mindful of the cognitive processes and nuance of the decisions that I have made while planning across lots of trip and scenarios defined by the place, the people traveling together, and the and the type of experience we wanted to have. I developed a view of how to facilitate planning that captures the nuances of what we hope an experience will deliver…and what makes for a practical itinerary considering a host of other factors such as budget, time, individual preference and capacity.
For me to finally make the leap to pursue this endeavor is also a product of the readiness of various aspects of technology, industry evolution, and the elevated expectations of travelers. I have evaluated every aspect of my own planning through these lenses to recognize how they can be delivered as a useful, engaging and delightful process for the traveler that takes us beyond the transactional and brochure-ware approaches. My enduring goal is to help us all live our passions and realize our aspirations through travel…and maybe even make the world a better place because we become more open minded and realize the unique beauty of all the places in the world.
