Looking for Advice to Make my Travels Meaningful

[LoneWonderer]

Hey everyone 

In March I'll be travelling to Vietnam for 3 weeks with my Family. I'm quite a seasoned traveler having traveled to many countries over the years. However most of the times I've traveled the experiences haven't been that meaningful and honestly I can watch documentaries about many touristic attractions if I want.

What is your top advice on making travelling meaningful and enriching to my life, rather than mediocre like most tourists. What advice do you have that I can use in my travels to grow as a person?

Previously I've done things such as staying with local host families and this was great for integration into the culture and facing new environments with people who have different values. This was great I think.

Another thing I thought of is helping in a local NGO or project in my time there.

I'm looking for general advice regardless of what country one is visiting.

Thank you! 🙏

Edited December 1 by LoneWonderer

[Davino]

Travel alone

Or with a close companion

Get outside of the default trip and enter into adventure mode

Go live there. If temporal travel stop doing it for you, it may be likely that staying and living there is the next step to get the juice

Overall, use travel to enjoy contrast. A mediocre mind feels uncomfortable in cultural contrast and disparity. It is a sign of the mature mind to rejoice in the contrasts of life experiences 

[UpperMaster]

7 hours ago, LoneWonderer said:

Another thing I thought of is helping in a local NGO or project in my time there.

 

Sick idea

[Alex4]

For me, when I was a student and without much money, I travelled as a workawayer volunteering on farms, helping locals and learning new skills. You learn a lot about the place and the local culture this way.

Now that I have more money, I read history books about my destination. Before visiting Rome last summer, I read about 12 books on its history. I know that’s a bit extreme—you don’t need to go that far! But even reading one or two history books can help you connect more deeply with the place you’re visiting.

Edited December 2 by Alex4

[LoneWonderer]

Thank you all for your advice 😊 

[Buck Edwards]

Traveling is quite superficial. It doesn't give you a collective gist of the culture of a place. 

I once traveled to a country but I lived there for a considerable length of time. It helped me understand the cultural context better. 

Most people travel for fun and to get a taste of a place. But there's no real intimacy to it. 

My opinion might offend some people but that's what I think. 

[LoneWonderer]

2 hours ago, Buck Edwards said:

Traveling is quite superficial. It doesn't give you a collective gist of the culture of a place. 

I once traveled to a country but I lived there for a considerable length of time. It helped me understand the cultural context better. 

Most people travel for fun and to get a taste of a place. But there's no real intimacy to it. 

My opinion might offend some people but that's what I think. 

Yeah, I agree with you. We always try to do minimum 1 month in a country and the longer the better. Moving to and living in the country is best.  Outside of travel I'm constantly watching hundreds of documentaries and reading books about countries, cultures, customs etc around the world to try my best to fill in the knowledge gaps and as I'm just not rich enough to travel to every country on earth ATM 😂 

Edited December 3 by LoneWonderer