How to ‘Travel’ when You’re Not Travelling

‘Travellers repose and dream among my leaves.’ – William Blake.

Two Types of Traveller

There are those of us that travel constantly, never settling in one place for very long, always on the move and heading for pastures new. These people are usually the sort that have blogs and websites that make them cash on the road – self-employed entrepreneurs who’ve given up the nine to five desk job and now roam the world as full-time nomads.

And then there are those of us who have been well and truly bitten by the travel bug but are not ready or willing to give up the stability an office job affords – or the regular pay cheque! I fall under this category.

Travel is my escape from the ‘real’ world, but the ‘real’ world isn’t one I am willing to give up. Sure, I may moan about working in an office from time to time and there are shortcomings to a regular 9-5 job. However, ultimately, I’m happy. I like my job, I very much like the security of my job and I’m good at making the most of the annual leave time I’m allotted. I won’t be giving up the day job anytime soon to travel the world.

It’s all well and good, but my decision to keep my stable job and security leaves me with one burning problem. How on earth can I satisfy my travel cravings when I’m doing my regular old week in London, chained to my desk and commuting every day? I’ve had to find some answers. I am sharing some of my solutions to scratching that travel itch so that if, like me, you want to have the best of both worlds, you can!

Read Travel – Blogs

It would not be an exaggeration to say that there are literally thousands of blogs out there that you could read to get a travel fix, including mine! Blogs are a wonderful travel resource that simply wasn’t available just over a decade ago, and one that you can tap into anytime, anywhere. Read blogs to get inspired, plan your next trip, read hilarious/sad/shocking/eye-opening stories from other countries and cultures and explore the world through the eyes of another person.

I have a few travel blogs that I read regularly, including Adventurous Kate‘s blog primarily aimed at solo female travellers, Nomadic Matt‘s blog for people travelling on a budget and Young Adventuress‘ blog where she often shares stories from New Zealand and Antarctica.

Additionally, I love Alex in Wanderland (most recently she’s written some beautiful pieces about grief after losing her mother to cancer last year), Flora the Explorer (her storytelling is incredibly moving and she also shares her experiences of loss and grief) and This Battered Suitcase (her ‘The Last Time I Saw You’ series are heart-wrenching and stunning pieces of writing). I’ve written previously on this blog about these three bloggers and why they inspire me. Give them a go, then go find your own favourite travel blogs to follow!

Read Travel – Books

A great travel book transports you to distant, exotic lands and indulges every sense. You could read fictional or non-fictional books, they can be equally as good as each other, but they must always make you feel as though you’re in the country, experiencing everything alongside the author.

A really excellent book will also teach you things that you never knew before. A country’s history, culture or politics. Upon finishing the book, you should be left with a desire to go to some far-flung country you’d never even considered visiting before you picked up the book.

I read many travel books. Most are non-fiction, but more and more I am incorporating fictional books into my reading habits. While they’re not pieces of travel writing as such, fiction can be set in any country and at any point in history. I’ve learnt so much more about foreign lands from reading fictional books than I ever previously thought possible!

The books I love

For reference, I enjoy reading books written by Levison Wood or Bill Bryson. I love any book about train travel. For someone that doesn’t much like cycling, I pick up a strangely large number of books where the person is cycling around the world. One of the best books I read in 2019 was the true story of Ernest Shackleton and how he and his men survived the Antarctic wilderness and lived to tell the tale. I’m trying to incorporate more female travel writing into my book selections, taking courage from their solo exploration of the world, their strength, resolve, purpose and bravery all fueling my passion for travel.

More and more, I read fiction from other countries, tales from other lands. Morocco, the secret souks and passageways of Tangier. North Carolina, the marshes where the sky, sea and land blur into one and become indistinguishable. The Greek Islands, heady with the scent of herbs and the hot sun hanging low in the sky.

You can find full lists of the books I’ve read in the past two years in my 2019 annual review, or my 2018 Reading Challenge write-up. I have also posted full reviews of most of the books I’ve read over the past few years in my Monthly Recap or Quarterly Review posts.

Browse Travel

Different to actually planning travel, browsing involves some miserable rainy Monday lunch time when you want to be anywhere but at work. Google ‘Bucket List Travel’, ‘Top 10 Places to See Before You Die’ or check out Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel. After opening your sandwich and bag of crisps, proceed to spend the entire lunch hour drooling over humpback whales in Antarctica. Or gaze longingly at sun-drenched white-sand beaches with impossibly turquoise water. Alternatively, your head is up in the clouds as you imagine scaling the epic heights of the Himalayas in Nepal. You come back down to earth with a bump when you remember you’re still in work and it is only Monday, but for a while there…

The best websites for browsing include Wikitravel, National Geographic and Lonely Planet. You could scroll through the great Thorntree Forum to discuss travel to your hearts content with a multitude of other travel fanatics.

The point of browsing travel isn’t so much that you’re planning a particular trip or definitely saying to yourself that you’ll head to that tropical island or this far-flung country next. It’s more… A fantasy. A daydream to alleviate the mundane day to day. A trip that may never come into fruition, but hey, it’s nice to think big. You never know. One day your dream trip might become a reality!

Watch Travel

Nothing captures the epic, sweeping African savanna quite like that drone shot, or shows you the breath-taking beauty of nature quite like a time-lapse camera set up to film the Northern Lights. It makes sense to indulge in watching travel documentaries from time to time. Quite often, even when we do actually travel, we can’t necessarily afford such luxuries such as a helicopter trip to see the landscape laid out below us for ourselves.

There are so many wonderful travel documentaries and films out there. Go type ‘travel’ into BBC iPlayer or 4 On Demand and a wealth of different programmes will present themselves to you. Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ are all overflowing with different travel programmes for you to indulge in. You don’t need to look far to find something you’ll want to watch.

Personally, I love anything with Michael Palin, Levison Wood, Joanna Lumley or Anthony Bourdain. You can watch ‘Race Across The World’ or indulge in a David Attenborough narration of the natural world. You can explore the world without ever having to leave your sofa.

Listen Travel

I can’t be the only one who listens to certain songs while I’m travelling, only to have them remind me of a trip when I hear them later on? Head back down memory lane, listen to the music that you played or heard while you were travelling. It is a really great way of stepping back in time and can be very evocative. I have so many songs that remind me of my time in New Zealand. I included some of them in my ‘Aroha Aotearoa‘ post when I left after eighteen months living there. And Edem ‘Over Again’ will forever remind me of my trip to Ghana in 2012!

Alternatively, if you don’t fancy reading a book about travel, why not try listening to some of the great travel books in audio version instead? Amazon Audible has a fantastic selection of audio books – you’ll never be at a loss for something to listen to with them!

Eat and Drink Travel

If you live, as I do, in a large, cosmopolitan city you’re super lucky. Right on your doorstep there is a wealth of delicious foods from around the world to be had. Gone are the days of meat and two veg (at least here in the UK).

If you’re stuck at home and are unable to travel, it has never been easier to head out to a restaurant for dinner or to simply pick up your phone and order takeaway. Greek, Moroccan, Thai, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Turkish, American, Canadian, Mexican… The list is endless. Food from all these countries and more are well within our grasp. We don’t even have to leave our sofa if we don’t want to.

Alternatively, you could practise your cooking skills and try to recreate recipes from your travels yourself. In Morocco, I practically lived on deliciously refreshing cucumber and tomato chopped salads. When I got back to the UK, I prepared cucumber and tomato salads like those that I’d had in Morocco on an almost daily basis for a while. Eating them at home reminded me of our wonderful trip and allowed me to hold onto Morocco a bit longer. Nowadays, if I’m ever missing New Zealand, I indulge in a good coffee, have a large glass of Marlborough sauvignon blanc or go the whole hog with a huge brunch. The food and drink that reminds me of my favourite times in NZ.

Tasting food from our travels is an emotive and exciting way to recreate a moment of your trip and hold onto a holiday a little longer. I’m personally at my happiest when biting into a bao bun, or picking up a forkful of pasta, or sipping a delicious crisp wine. Find your food happiness and indulge!

Learn Travel

You could travel the world and never bother yourself with learning anything about the cultures, the languages or the histories of the lands you are visiting. But what’s the point in that? If you’re going to travel, you should educate yourself a little bit about the countries that you visit.

This could be simple. You could download the Duolingo app and brushing up on your French conversational skills before visiting Paris. Alternatively, you might want to complete a more complex, in-depth study of the politics and foreign policies of Russia before going. It’s entirely up to you and your interests.

In the past, I found that my education about places I had visited tended to come after I’ve been to that particular country. Now, I try to make sure I’m up to speed with current affairs and have a basic understanding about the destination I am travelling to before I go. A greater understanding and increased knowledge helps me enjoy the country I’m visiting better. I can also be confident that I am not breaking any rules or social customs, potentially offending someone or worse. Learning about a destination also fuels a desire to return in future. Win!

Plan Travel

Some people don’t like to plan their travels too extensively. I’m definitely not like that, however. I find half the fun of travel is in the planning. The moments to savour before heading off. I get excited about the places I’ll be visiting, what I’ll see and do and where I’ll be eating and staying. It all adds to the build-up and makes the time before the trip go that bit faster.

Planning for a longer trip or even just doing some research into your next destination can help to keep your wanderlust at bay. If you know you have an incredible trip lined up, it’ll give you a focus and take the edge off your itchy feet.

There are some fantastic resources out there for planning. Rome2Rio is great for checking routes and finding alternative transport options. Skyscanner is my go-to website for flight price comparisons and a starting point for all my flight bookings. I consistently use Booking.com for all my accommodation needs, occasionally straying to AirBnB if Booking.com doesn’t quite have what I need.

For specific advice on what to do once at your destination, Google local travel guides or tourist boards for inspiration. In London, the best place to get great information on upcoming events and cool things to do is TimeOut London.

Actually… Just Travel!

Travelling doesn’t have to be a hugely expensive or time-consuming activity. If you don’t want to use all of your annual leave early in the year, you need to be clever about putting your weekends and bank holidays to good use.

You could go somewhere on a Friday evening and come back on Sunday night. If it’s a bank holiday, make use of the extra day to squeeze in a trip somewhere. Just make sure you plan in advance, as bank holidays can get busy and expensive! Take one or two annual leave days and tag them onto a weekend to have a mini-break somewhere. You don’t need to have months and months off at a time to explore the world. Little by little can work as well!

Additionally, don’t think that every time you travel you have to even go abroad. There is bound to be a lot to explore in your home country. It can be a lot cheaper too. You don’t need to book flights, get travel insurance or expensive injections if you stay in your home country! It’s also more likely that you’ll have family or friends you can stay with, which eliminates accommodation costs. And I guarantee that no matter where you go, there’ll always be very cheap or free activities to do. So just bite the bullet and go somewhere if your craving are that bad!