The Magic of Arm Chair Travel

                        

If you are like most of us, you probably have a list of 'places I would love to visit someday' tucked somewhere....whether written in the back of a book or filed away in the back of your mind.

Amidst the outbreak of Covid, travel has become sparse...at the least, it's unsafe.  On the flipside of that, maybe you want to travel but right now time, finances, and life responsibilities really do not permit such luxury. I mean, let's face it, personally for me it's been several years since my eyes swam any seashore!

This is where the idea of Armchair Travel comes in to play.  Virtually (literally) any destination you want to see lays in wait right beneath your fingertips...the touch of a few keys, the flip of some pages...and there you are!

Armchair Travel is the idea that we can travel to faraway places and arrive at grand destinations without ever leaving home!  Not only is this experience a way to break free from daily stress and relax, it can also be an enlightening learning experience and a practice of mindfulness!  Through the study of a region you've never visited, you get to experience the world through a filtered lens, and in a way not previously perceived.  

There's a lot of ways to travel from your armchair.  Here are a few fun ways to take that dream vacation..without ever leaving the comfort of your chair!

1.  With the advancement of internet information, good blogs are a dime a dozen.  And best of all, they are free to read!  If you type 'travel blogger' into any search engine, you can easily find hundreds of results.  Allow me to narrow it down to just the best, Blog On Your Own has listed the 29 best travel bloggers of 2020.  My personal favorite is A Broken Backpack, which curates the experiences of a girl living abroad!

2.  Online travel sites.  These are websites that contain a plethora of information about specific travel destinations.  Most websites will outline noteworthy attractions (museums, amusement parks, events) as well as the best eateries (cafes, restaurants, bistros, bars).  Oftentimes they offer a wide range of information and some gorgeous eye candy photos.  You can virtually learn about anything about any place!  One specific website I found in my search of best travel destinations for poets sent me to the travel site for Chile, which proves vast with information and photos!

3.  Travel magazines are another great way to learn about far away travel destinations.  Not only do these magazines offer specific, professional advice/information on chosen destinations of travel but they also include beautifully assembled photos.  Written by the experts, most articles also offer price friendly advice on dining, attractions and hotel accommodations. Feedspot currently has a list of the top 20 travel magazine publications.

4.  You can travel anywhere with a good book!  If you are a hands-on type of reader, you can opt for the bookstacks at your local public library.  Ebooks are also great resources for travel destination research.  The great thing about books is how versatile your topic of subject matter.  Do you want to read a great book that will actually pull you into a story with a travel destination as the geographical setting?  Do you want to read short stories and essays about the personal experiences of those who are traveling to new destinations?  Or, do you want be more specific and read books about a certain region/destination?  If you are looking for free ebooks, Open Library has hundreds of thousands of books available to check out for free.  Scribd is a great ebook reading resource as well, although it requires a subscription that charges only $10 a month to read ulimited books from their library.

5.  Documentaries, YouTube videos, and movies are also wonderful ways to immerse yourself in new geological destinations.  Not only do these provide a visual demonstration of a travel destination, but they can also be education and entertaining all the same.  Try on-demand video services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon prime for full length documentaries and movies.  If you are looking for free travel videos, you can search for 'Travel Vloggers' via YouTube.

6.  So, now that you have all your resources and ways to find information, stories, pictures, even videos, the last sensory experience missing from your armchair vacation is....food!  Of course, if you were really traveling to an area, I'm sure you'd eat a variety of neat and noteworthy restaurants.  However, we are at home so we can't really do that.  So, the next best thing is to either 1) Find a restaurant close to home that serves the type of food you'd find in your choice of armchair travel  or 2) Look up some interesting recipes of popular dishes typically served in the region of your armchair travel destination and try your hand at cooking a few.  The idea is to totally immerse yourself in the atmosphere of your chosen travel destination in every way possible...without actually being there!

7.  Use online traveling sites, brochures, and all your other resources to plan your dream vacation...plan down to every little detail! Whether it's a cruise, a backpacking trek, or an all-inclusive five star getaway to some posh hotel...use your research to plan everything in detail, just as if you were really going!  Plan everything from the choice of attractions you will visit to the hotel you'll stay in.  Choose which museums you'll peruse and which eateries and shops you'll patron.  You can even plan what type of flight, train, road trip you'll take in order to reach your destination!  

Armchair travel can have great benefits.  It can serve as a stress reliever, a newfound hobby (that also allows you to learn heaps of information about the cultures and customs of geographical areas that differ from your own).  If you want to take it a stop further, you can even create a scrapbook of all the vacations you've taken via armchair travel.  You can even create a travel diary.  Or, write your own poetry about specific destinations.  Use your imagination, only your mind is the limit!