I was recently stuck in the Miami airport for 5 dreaded hours (not because of the particular airport, but because I hate long connection times) and I was talking to Maggie who runs Mighty Girl and maintains her own Life List. We were discussing top 10 life experience lists based on experts in their fields. My focus would be on travel of course; here is my top 10 list in no particular order.
Perspective. This is a word that defines travel. Travel to as many countries as you can. Your understanding of this word will increase exponentially.
Non Touristy Countries. Visit a country off the “typical tourist path” – find a country that appears on the government warnings list, research and avoid the ‘hot spots’ and then meet the people.
Summit. Climb a mountain in the Himalayas or the Andes, the two greatest mountain ranges on the planet. See the perspective you have when you are standing on top looking out over incredible unspoiled beauty, the rawness of the rugged mountains and glaciers. While not the same as actually being there, you can peak at this inspiration now.
Special Places. Find some special places to visit and go back again. Some of our special places are Lago 69 in Peru, Petra Jordan, Milford Sound on a clear day in New Zealand, the experience of swimming and fighting your way up Wadi Al Mujib in Jordan, the eastern Sierra Nevada’s in California, exploring Matanuska Glacier in Alaska, the vastness and openness of the Desert of the Empty Quarter on the Arabian Peninsula, Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania, or motor biking around Paros in Greece with the warm air on your face as well as the wonderful smell of wild herbs.
Meet locals. Go out of your way to do this – it will make a trip more interesting. Often other neat experiences will come from this. I can’t remember all the times I’ve talked to locals and ended up staying in contact after returning from a trip or sometimes visiting with their family or staying over in their home.
Passion. Choose a passion and explore it in depth, whether its wine tasting, sailing, climbing, shopping or any of a number of other interests. Travel is a good time to explore these interests.
Volunteer Vacation. With thousands of volunteer organizations around the world, you can really choose the type of work you wish to focus in on. Some organizations charge, many do not.
Re-Connect. Take at least a month in a remote area giving up all communication technology other than your voice – good places for this are in rugged, remote river canyons. Colca Canyon in Peru comes to mind.
Be open. Be open to new things and try them, get out of your comfort zone – travel affords one excellent opportunities to have experiences you won’t find where you live; by virtue of being on the go and in new environments your senses are are forced to work overtime.
Upgrade. Extricate yourself from coach at least once for an International flight….or get lucky as we did the first time we flew business class by meeting a super nice gate agent. We walked to our seats and thought there was some mistake but after remembering that we asked the gate agent for exit seats and seeing that business class was totally empty the entire flight, we realized we were given those tickets on purpose. Use frequent flyer miles to upgrade.
Make your own list. Take some time to identify “your list”.
Please add your thoughts and comments
Cool blog Thank You for posting.
Interesting site/blog – thanks. I have a list already – my Bucket List – things I want to do before I kick the proverbial. Odd that bloggers want everyone else to know what they are but it’s a great way to break the ice! Everyone has things they’ve always wanted to do…
Thanks Max – your Bucket list looks great, although that 45′ Petrus might be a bit expensive. Have you been to Dominus Estate in Napa Valley – its also owned by Christian Moueix of Petrus.
~ Dave
Expensive yes – but that’s why it’s on the List – things that were easy to attain wouldn’t be on there… Not been to the Napa Valley yet, no. So many places, so little time.
Looking fotoblog Teuvon images
http://www.ttvehkalahti.blogspot.com
and yours comenst thaks
Teuvo
Finland