Sometimes we want to travel but life circumstances don’t allow as to go and see new places as our soul is craving.
It can be a moment with a not so good economical situation, or family responsibilities, or working conditions, or a global pandemic as we are living as I write this article.
The last is affecting almost everyone on earth at the moment and, especially travelers are suffering the urge to stay put and stop traveling for a while. I agree with this need and highly recommend you follow your government and the WHO guidelines.
Usually, I’m fine when I’m not on the road and I stay at home for some time. I have plenty of things to do, many articles to write for you, and I profit my time because when I’m traveling everything gets harder. But things are different when you CAN’T go.
When you are passionate about traveling and times require us to stay home and not traveling for a longer period, we start feeling it deeply and soon. There are some things we can do to keep our wanderlust alive and suffer a bit less, so I’m sharing with you the things I do to stay sane during the non-travel times.
Read travel stories
I find inspirational to read other’s people stories about places I dream to go. I can relate to their experiences and even feel how I would be if I was there.
Reading other travelers’ stories can keep you happy as you add new places to your bucket list and find ideas for when you can travel again.
Some of my favorite experiences you can get some inspiration:
- Doing a silent meditation retreat for 10 days in India
- The most perfect honeymoon in the Maldives
- Traveling in one of the best luxury trains in Maharastra region in India
- Getting a traditional bamboo tattoo in Chiang Mai, Thailandia
- Walking through the coast in Portugal, the Fishermen’s trail or Trilho dos Pescadores
Watch travel inspirational movies
There are so many good movies related to locations that might keep you daydreaming and happy while staying at home.
Some of my favorite travel movies are these ones below, which ones are yours?
- 7 years in Tibet
- Eat, Pray, Love (I knew about if when I was in India and someone said….your trip is like that movie!)
- Into the Wild
- Before Sunrise
- The secret life of Walter Mitty
- Midnight in Paris
- Amelie
- Up
- The Darjeeling Limited
- The best Exotic Marigold Hotel
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Forrest Gump
- Mia and the White Lion
- The Bucket List
- Lord of the Rings
- Star Wars
- The Hangover
- Ice Age
- Finding Nemo
- Murder in the Orient Express
- Back to the Future
Organize your photography gallery
When we love taking pictures all the time but don’t have the discipline to organize our photography gallery constantly, you will find this interesting.
When you are not traveling, you can go through your albums and organize your pictures by place, date and even select the best ones, delete the bad ones and with this, you will be bringing up also the memories from that trip.
You could even decide to print some of them to hang some in your favorite place of your home, or make an album from that trip with the best moments, writing some memories, adding quotes and details to make it a better memory.
You can buy here this kit to make you next travel album
Learning a new language
When you are preparing for a trip a great idea is to learn a new language. It will not only help you to stay busy but also to get to know better the culture of the country you are dreaming of, and once you go there it will make it easier to travel and to communicate with locals.
There are several options to learn a language other than taking classes in a local school, you can try with some self-learning platforms and learn a new language online.
Some of the best places to learn a new language online are having great offers, like Babbel for example.
Travel through books and magazines
As well as watching movies, reading a good travel-related book is a great way to spend time dreaming before deciding to go somewhere new.
You can not only choose to read travel novels, but even start reading about the country’s history or culture, getting to know more about the daily news in their media, or even starting to interact with people living there through social media.
Play Travel related Board games
If you are staying at home but you love traveling, perhaps having some fun while playing some board game with your family or friends is a good idea to keep feeding your wanderlust.
There are several games you can play online, but also with your roommate or significant other without needing a big number of people.
Cook your favorites dishes from your favorite country
If you love cooking and learning new recipes, cooking that dish you were always loving while you were in Nepal, or even learning to cook a Chilean Corn Pie even before heading there for the first time it can be a great way to get closer to the culture.
When I have the time, I usually try to take a cooking class, or I simply play around the kitchen ask for recipes and try to recreate my favorite flavors at home.
Food is involving one of the most important senses, smell and flavor are deeply connected with emotions and the feeling of eating again that meal will give your soul a moment of memories and happiness.
Perhaps buying a new cooking book from your favorite country cuisine? Find here the perfect for you
Learn to play an instrument from a foreign country
Music is one of the things can transport us mentally and emotionally to different places. Just listening to music you have heard while traveling or getting to know the music of the place you are dreaming to visit can make you feel closer to the culture and its people.
Then, playing an instrument will be a good idea if you love music!
I’m by no means musician, but I do love to try out new things, so I’ve got some singing bowls while in India and Thailand, Tibetan bells while in Nepal, and I just got a steel Hapi drum to try it out while staying at home.
My biggest dream regarding instruments is having a sitar! What’s yours?
Learn to dance or do a sport from another country
Like music, dancing and even some sports are a reflex of the culture of a culture. When you can’t travel, thanks to our interconnected world and access to the internet you can learn any sport and dance through the internet, or you can find a local school to learn something new.
I started to practice Yoga 20 years ago while I was dreaming to visit India. I went deep into the cultural aspects of it, reading traditional books, learning a bit of Sanskrit, and checking by myself the benefits many people were saying getting from this practice. Now I’m loving the classes at YogawithAdrienne’s Youtube.
My family has Arabian roots, so most women in the family know how to move their bodies and do some belly dance. I started young and it’s something I feel super natural to me and kind of connecting me to a whole culture when I do it. It’s maybe the time to finally take some belly dancing classes?
You could start dancing Tango, Flamenco or doing Capoeira or Muay Thai, and with that, starting to understand more the country you already love or are dreaming to visit in the near future.
Start Planning your next trip
When you love traveling and you can’t right now, most probably you will once things get solved, I’m I wrong?
Planning your next trip, without having a fixed date, but doing the research about specific places, activities, accommodation, and transportation will keep your travel heart alive and busy.
Just start planning without putting a specific date, but you can still have in mind the best time to go there, things you might need, plan what do you want to do there, and reading about their history and culture.
There are studies finding that we get happier when we anticipate something, even more than actually doing it. So they affirm we tend to get happier while we are planning a trip, researching the places we want to visit, checking for the perfect hotel to stay, organizing our itineraries, etc. and that we tend to be more excited when we are waiting to go on that trip than when we are actually traveling, interesting!
When you are not able to travel for any reason, you can still have the joy and plan your next trip for when it’s possible!
You can read blogs, like this one to get more inspiration, you can start checking hotels and make reservations you can cancel if you can’t go in the dates you are planning to go, you can start checking some activities and tours you might want to take, etc.
Staying now at home doesn’t mean you can’t search for information now for when you can actually make the next trip!
Travel to natural parks and museums online
There are several museums and natural parks who are using technology to have online tours for you.
When you can’t travel right now but you love culture, visiting places online can be a fresh breeze between your daily routine.
You can check several museums and monuments in the Google Arts & Culture app, I’ve spent hours a few days ago when I found it!
You can do a Virtual tour of Petra, or do virtual tours through Google Maps in Venice, or the Everest Base Camp between other cool places!
Conclusion
There are a lot of things we can do when there are times we can’t leave home and travel as we would love to.
Feeding our Wanderlust and even planning our dreamed trips may help us to cope and stay happier during those moments, dreaming with new destinations or remembering former trips will keep ourselves calmer and as soon as we can we would know exactly where to go!
What are you doing during the times you can’t travel?
Thank you so much for these amazing tips that you have shared with us, indeed these tips will help me in planning my future, will surely share this with my friends and family as well for their reference.