Is there anything better than taking a trip to a new and exciting destination? Alas, occasionally, life gets in the way of our travel ambitions. Sometimes it’s a time issue whereas other times it’s because, well, travelling can be expensive! If you don’t have as many opportunities to hit the open road as you’d like, then perhaps it’s time to get a little creative with your approach.
While the peak travel experiences will involve boarding a plane and visiting a destination in person, there are other ways to scratch your travel itch. Indeed, it’s possible to have a traveller’s mindset even from your own home.
In this blog, we’ll run through some tried and tested ways to explore planet earth without stepping outside the front door.
One of the best things about travelling is getting to taste all the delicious, different dishes that other countries make. So why not try making these dishes at home? There’s a whole world of flavour waiting to be explored! By taking the time to prepare a tasty Mexican, Indian, or Thai dish, you’ll get a taste of elsewhere, right from your dining table. As well as making the dish, you can create an international atmosphere by playing the music of the country you’re “exploring” and perhaps mixing up the local cocktail, too. You’ll be unlikely to make the dish quite as well as the locals do, but you’ll certainly have fun trying — and eating it afterwards!
Enjoying elements of other cultures in your home is one thing, but can you replicate the thrill and excitement of the world’s more exciting destinations? With the aid of the internet, yes, you can. While you won’t be able to recreate, say, the dizzying, spectacular lights of Las Vegas (at least not without an expensive electricity bill), you can enjoy some of the excitement that Sin City offers by playing at an online live dealer casino. Another way to sample the fun of elsewhere is to look up some card games from other cultures. There’s Lotería from Mexico, Pişti from Turkey, or Briscola from Italy, to name just three.
If you’re a culture vulture, then you’ll love visiting the local museums and art galleries when you’re on your travels. But in the digital age, you don’t necessarily need to be at the museum in real life to see all that it has to offer! Many of the world’s leading cultural institutions have put their collections online. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you could explore the Louvre, Sistine Chapel, the National Gallery of London, or the Nasa Museum. It’s not quite the same to see the Mona Lisa through a screen as it is in real life, but you’ll find that it’s a handy way to get a dose of culture when you’re stuck at home.
Learning a language is good for several reasons. It’s handy when you’re travelling, gets you respect from impressed friends and family, and it’s a good way to understand another country. Languages aren’t just a means of communication; they are part of the culture. Indeed, you can learn a lot about a country just by looking at how it structures its sentences and the types of words that are used. So why not try picking up a language? You’ll have fun, learn a thing or two, and have a useful skill that you’ll reach for again and again when you’re travelling for real.
And that’s it! The next time you want to explore the world, but your bank balance or schedule isn’t playing ball, try one of the methods above instead.