Travel expectations - choose journey over destination.

As promised, my first article will be about travel expectations, the way they influence your experience and if you want to embrace the traveller mindset you ought to focus on the journey rather than the destination.

The cliché is not new, to say that the journey is to be enjoyed and looked at with as much attention or importance as where you are heading, or at least to make an attempt to value it more than just a mandatory step between places, is quite mainstream. For me it was always easier to do this while travelling by train. As 19th century as it might seem, I’m very fond of the everything about taking a train to somewhere: the train station, to see the landscape, the walk to the restaurant wagon for some coffee and overpriced snacks :)

There are many ways to try and enjoy a trip. If you go with friends, have a chat. If not, chat you people along the way — actually do this either way! Take a book to read, write a book, watch the latest blockbusters on the airplane cinema selection. But the first time it really hit me, how far the concept could go, was during a trip last year to Costa Rica. This small and beautiful country in Central America doesn’t need an introduction: great beaches and amazing tropical forests in well preserved protected areas, plus the reputation for being the most developed and best prepared country for travellers in the region.

I could write a lot regarding this trip, from planning (or lack of it) to other countries visited nearby, but fasting forward, the best moments where: the small boat ride from Limon to Tortuguero, the rafting trip down Pacuara river to go from Tortuguero to Monteverde, and the boat ride across Arenal Lake to reach Arenal from Monteverde. So from Tortuguero, Monteverde and Arenal, three destination in a row, the highlights were in between:

• The small wooden boat ride across a large network of canals and lagoons in the middle of dense plain rainforest for almost 3 hours.
• The rafting experience down a river canyon — just awesome!
• The boat ride across Arenal beautiful lake, with luxurious vegetation around and the Arenal volcano on the horizon.

One week in Costa Rica, and the best memories are the small journeys between what are written to be some of the country’s highlights. That can get you thinking…

So we go from trying to take the best of your trip when going from A to B, to actually finding in those moments the best of your travel. But what I realised in my last trip (and source of inspiration for writing this publication and this article in particular) is that the journey is much more than going from one place to another. It’s…everything!

To follow up on my next post!