Travelling every year least once a time or maybe even more, might not be the parameter to make one a good traveler. Travelling has more science to it. We all get fascinated by gleaming new destinations that we see online or in a magazine. But there are few that make it to visit that, and fewer that make the most out of that visit. The traveler who is able to make most out of a trip, is the one who qualifies to be a good traveler. Making most not necessarily applies that your itinerary is jam packed. It is about qualities of the traveler that work in harmony with the experience. Curious, here are the qualities of a good traveler.
Flexibility – Flexibility is the key to great travels. No matter how hard efforts you put in to travel, the best experiences come unexpected, and to handle the unexpected you need to be flexible. The more flexible you are the more raw experiences you are going to have. It might be losing the last train out, blackout in a club, finding no place to stay on a last minute visit, etc.
We believe that flexibility is the key. Flexibility prepares you for all the unforeseen events. It is also a fact that the more flexible you are as a traveler the lesser disappointed you will be. Traveling should be always be about molding into the situation, and learning from it. Trust me if you are going to set stringent rules for yourself then you might not fully enjoy your vacation.
Cultural Adaptness – Cultural Adaptness will make you a great traveler. Trust me, you will win friends all around the world, and you will be referred as a good man henceforth. This world is full of destinations and the most amazing thing about them is that they all have different cultural norms. You might like something from their culture and you might not, but you do need to adapt it during the stay.
Many western people find it amusing when they see a woman in burqa in middle east, but that is a normal thing for them and a part of their culture. In some places you will find it mandatory to pray before having a meal. This might sound funny to an atheist, but that is how their culture is. Most of the people around the world are very sensitive to culture, and in order to jell up you got to adapt that.
Thick skinned – A good traveler is thick skinned. Travelling to places mean exposure to all different cultures and people with varied behavior. This can be overwhelming at times. You are also going to come across people who will disapprove you maybe because of youir foreign language, skin color, or for your accent, or for your strange traditional attire.
You will also meet people who are going to be rude on your face, or will throw tantrums just because you don’t look familiar, but that shouldn’t bother you. I am not trying to be skeptical here, as you will also meet some good people, but the point being is that do not let the bad experience define your vacation. The best thing to do is to just ignore such people and their acts.
Good sense of humor – A good sense of humor goes a long way. I think it’s essential to give you a high quotient of happiness during your trips. The ability to laugh at yourself and presenting something laughable out of anything with your wit, is a great skill that a good traveler can have. You do not need to be a stand up comedian, but the ability to laugh on silly things is really a great asset.
The best part about having a good sense of humor is that it helps you a lot in socializing with people. Everyone in this world likes a person who is light heart, who knows how to crack a joke, who is not offended by things that comes in their way. This quality will help you win friends even when you are thousands of miles away from your home.
Adventurous spirit – A good traveler absolutely needs to be adventurous. It is not necessary if you indulge in a bungee jumping, or river rafting, or scuba diving, to be a traveler with adventurous spirit. But you got to have that spark in you in whatever activity you do while traveling. Travel is going to new places and exploring them like never before. That is also an adventure in itself.
If you are not thrilled about your vacation, then i am sad for you. You should be able to treat every trip as an adventure, where you will put your heart at the edge and just take that plunge into the void of unknown to gather as much good memories as you can. You need to be thrilled by the mere thought of meeting new people, seeing unexplored spots, and trying the most exotic dishes of the place.
Empathy– Being empathetic takes you one step closer to understand life. Same applies with travel. Travel gives ample luxury to think and you have to turn that luxury into something personal and be empathetic to people you meet. Empathy is one of the things of this world that will help you evolve as a person and will also help you evolve as a traveler.
The ability to see through the eyes of the people you meet, with passion, and sharing what it feels like to be, should be on top of your list to be able to become a good traveler. This entire activity helps creates bonds that are due to last forever. Empathy is one of the best ways to create an emotional bond with the people.
Curiosity – Curiosity is another must have. In fact if you do not have curiosity in your mind then maybe you can never become a good traveler. Trust me, visiting any foreign country is not enough, till it intrigues your curiosity. You have to be eager to find new things, learn new things, and grab all opportunities to look further.
Curiosity means that there is something out there which you want to learn about, know about, and do something about it. You have to be curious about people, food, places, history, culture, and the list goes on. A curious traveler would leave no room when it comes to making most out of a trip. It is a curious traveler who will turn up into a story teller when they come back from a trip.
Open to change – A good traveler has to be welcoming towards the changes. Imagine your itinerary compromising of two to three countries with six to seven cities. Every other day will bring change, new people, new culture, new streets. Every destination that you are going to visit will have a different hotel, with different service, and different amenities.
If you will be stubborn to your roots, you will probably never experience the spirit of travel. In fact the primary reason why we all travel is to experience change. We all want few days of our life to be different from the day to day mundane life. The mere essence of travel is change. Travelers who are ready the accept the change will be the ones that enjoy the most.
Patience – Patience is one of those virtues that every person should have, no matter what they do in life, and no matter what their aspirations are. Patience is also a virtue that is exhibited by all good travelers. Travel can at times test your mettle, and test your patience. You could be stuck up in long check in lines at the airport. You can also be stranded in a deserted spot waiting for a taxi to be hired.
There can be n number of situations that travel is going to throw on you, but you got to have patience. Remember not every situations requires you to loose your temper and you also got to be realistic that travel is accompanied with hiccups. The easily you are going to realize it, the smoother will be your vacations, and the better a traveler you will be.
Search of oneself – A good traveler knows himself the best. If you are still in search of your own individuality, your journey has just started, or in more relatable terms it might be first couple of trips of your life. It is rightly said that travel is not onloy about exploring destinations, but it is also about finding your inner true self.
If the count of trips you have made in your lifetime is higher and the search of oneself is still on, maybe you haven’t discovered yourself or in more relatable terms you haven’t explored the world as it needs to be. The closer you are going to be towards the truth of this world, the more awareness you will have about your own self.
Observation – Keeping merely your eyes open wont make you observant, but a good traveler needs to be. Travel has always been about exploring new places, finding newer dimensions of life, and indulging in experiences that you never had before. The best way to learn something out of a trip and keeping your enriched is by observing. It is an art that every good traveler has mastered.
Try keeping yourself open to everything you see, and pay attention to the details. You need to observe, learn from it, and act accordingly. It shapes your outlook not juts about a place you are in, but also as an individual. Post your travels it’s the observations that you are going to make will become the stories you are going to tell the people.
Sense of gratitude – Every good traveler needs to have a sense of gratitude. It will start right from the fact that you are grateful to even travel to a new place, while billions don’t get a chance to even travel out of their city. It is truly a gift of god that you are able to travel, that you have resources that you can put in to experience new cultures, new traditions and admire heritage of this world.
You also got to believe in appreciation of the fact that you have food to eat, that you are fortunate enough to relish dishes of distant destinations which are not even accessible to the people that dwell there. You also got to have gratitude towards everyone who is nice to you. It can be your cab driver, or the housekeeping staff of your hotel, or your tour guide.
Independent – A good traveler is very independent. Not necessarily implies he likes Solo Travel trips, but is least affected by external factors and is able to sustain himself in extreme and even isolated circumstances. A good traveler is not dependent on any given thing that is required for traveling. It can be independence of having a mandatory tour guide to be able to enjoy the trip.
It could be having independence of being relying on cabs in order to explore the destination through all dimensions. IT could be anything that makes people their slaves even without realizing. It is also being responsible for your actions, what you see, what you eat, where you go, and how you do it, which makes you an independent person and a good traveler.
Humility – Humility can change the face of experience you have in your trips. The point is not to let your ego come in between, and to forget the fact that you are better than most of the people. Humility can be in any thing. It could be about being humble enough to ask for restaurant recommendations from the porter of your hotel, or to even carry your own luggage in hotel when its a small backpack.
When you have an open mind, humble personality, and willingness to accept help, the world changes for good. When people will see humility in you they will themselves come forward and open up their arms to embrace you as a person. When people will see humility in you they will automatically let go of their own ego, and will treat you as one of their own.
A good Traveler never has a bad day!
