Local travel. Microadventures. Backyard blogging.
Whatever you choose to call it, local travel is all about making the most of what’s waiting right outside your door. It’s about embracing the attitude that each day is an adventure waiting to happen. It’s about turning the tables, and making the most of the 5-to-9, instead of focusing solely on the 9-to-5.
When we travel, to other countries and other continents, we have our eyes wide open and our senses attuned to everything – the sights, the sounds, the smells – and I believe it’s a good idea to apply that approach to daily life too.
This is where local travel comes in.
Being unable to cross borders or board a plane doesn’t mean you can’t have an enriching travel experience; a day trip can be enough to refresh your perspective and recharge your batteries. You can book a long weekend away in the nearest town, or brave a night camping in the countryside. You can indulge in a ‘staycation’ in the hotel down the street, or simply explore a new neighbourhood.
Not only does applying the traveller’s mindset to everyday life give you more opportunities for adventures, but it’s much cheaper and easier than jetting off to another country. When all you have to do is hop in your car or jump on the subway, an inexpensive weekend is enough to reinvigorate the mind before heading back into the office on Monday morning.
While I can’t deny that foreign travel stirs the soul, I have to admit that some of my favourite adventures have happened close to home: an afternoon in Ness with my Mum; sailing to St Kilda with my Dad; a solo drive to the beautiful Bostadh beach.
Here in New York, the city that never sleeps, I’ve taken my ‘local travel’ mantra to heart, exploring as many of the boroughs and nearby towns as possible. It’s why the tag line on this blog talks of “inspiring you to see the world, at home and abroad” – the inclusion of the word “home” is a very deliberate one.
In just one recent autumn weekend, my husband and I went boating in Central Park; took the subway to the predominantly Chinese neighbourhood of Flushing in Queens (it felt like jumping on a plane back to Tianjin, where we first met); and enjoyed a hour or so of hiking in the fresh air by the Hudson River. Filling two days with completely new experiences was exciting. It created that thrill of the unknown that’s usually only associated with foreign travel, and I loved it.
Ultimately, local travel is all about appreciating the little things in life.
A spectacular sunrise, a charming street, a walk in the woods. Sometimes, the best adventures are closer to home than we might imagine.
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I agree! I live in NYC too and this city makes it SO EASY to live every day like you’re on vacation – but it’s so easy to slip into the “Netflix and Seamless” habit too.
Thanks for your comment, Leigh Anne 🙂 Happy to hear you feel the same. I don’t think you could ever run out of things to do in NYC!
I’m reading a lot of posts on local travel recently and I love it! I think it’s great to do great trips but unless you’re a nomad you can’t do that all the time – but you can still engage in adventures whenever you want if you only just try! We do this often since we’ve lived in Scotland – having weekends in Oban, taking the Jacobite Steam Train to Mallaig – spending a weekend away in Perth, going to Edinburgh to try something new and visit something interesting. It makes day to day life so much more interesting! 🙂
Thanks for your comment, Camila 🙂 You’re right, it really does make day-to-day life more interesting! It was in Scotland that I first really got into local travel too – I was back at home in the Hebrides after travelling, so I decided to look at the islands as if I was a tourist, and I’ve been hooked on local adventures ever since! (I’ve always wanted to g on the Jacobite Steam Train to Mallaig too!)