How to Preserve Your Wanderlust Spirit In Uncertain Times
It’s been a challenging couple of weeks for travelers as well as the travel industry. With news of the expanding outbreaks of Coronavirus making an impact abroad, and now in the USA, it’s a concerning time. How are you dealing with it? Is it impacting your life and travels at this point? Are you stocking up, scrubbing down and washing your hands constantly? Personally, I had a much-anticipated trip to Northern Italy in late March postponed by the host. It is disappointing and yet understandable.
High above the French Riviera
It’s been a challenging couple of weeks for travelers as well as the travel industry. With news of the expanding outbreaks of Coronavirus making an impact abroad, and now in the USA, it’s definitely a concerning time.
How are you dealing with it? Is it impacting your life and travels at this point? Are you stocking up, scrubbing down and washing your hands constantly? Personally, I had a much-anticipated trip to Northern Italy in late March postponed by the host. It is disappointing and yet understandable.
As I connect with so many of my wonderful travel clients about this turn of events, I’m relieved that most all of them are staying the course for upcoming travels. They are choosing to travel smart, have the necessary insurances in place and stick with their plans.
How do you preserve your wanderlust spirit in challenging times?
One of my favorite things about travel is the anticipation. It's natural for us to want to look forward to something to keep us engaged, energized and (on occasion) daydreaming about the future. In my mind, there is almost nothing better than to have a travel adventure on the horizon.
This current epidemic will calm down and then the opportunities for travel will be huge. What to do for now? Take a breath and be ready to jump on the next wave of opportunity. During this uncertain time, we don’t have to stop dreaming of and planning for future travel adventures.
Here are a few tips to keep your wanderlust spirit alive:
1- Look further ahead on your travel calendar. Rather than focus on a postponed spring break trip turn your focus to summer travel dreams.
2- Rather than a rapid-fire booking, take the time to thoroughly research a destination: scroll through Instagram and bookmark favorite views, points of interest, hotels, restaurants, and excursions. Use Pinterest boards to collect your favorite tips on a destination and refine your travel and packing style in anticipation of upcoming travels. Savor your travel planning experience.
2- Read books set in specific destinations to fuel your wanderlust. Imagining the sensory experience, sights, sounds, tastes, and scents, of a destination, only serves to enhance the anticipation. Best Travel Books from Town and Country Magazine
3 - Refine your long-term travel calendar. Where do you want to travel in 2021? Where does that bucket list trip fit in? Consult your travel advisor (us!) to help create your long-range travel plan.
In the meantime, if you are like us, you are stocking up, ordering groceries online, door dashing dinners on occasion, and eliminating unnecessary running around. It’s a good time to tackle those projects around the house, spring cleaning, and experiment with some new recipes. We find ourselves spending more time reading and watching films about travel and gearing up for our upcoming travel adventures on the horizon for a bit later in 2020. Stay healthy!
Fresh songs to sing while washing your hands for 20 seconds
What Your Travel Advisor Wants You to Know
A Handy Shopping Guide for Stocking Up During the Coronavirus
If you are refocusing your travel horizon contact us to start planning your next dream getaway.
French Riviera from Chateau Eza in Eze
More Travel Inspiration from Curated Travel:
GIVE: The gift of Travel and Memories to Last a Lifetime
Happy Holidays to you! We hope you are enjoying simple pleasures, festive moments and special times with family and friends so far this season.
With all the festivities and merrymaking this time of year it’s also easy to get caught up in the frenzy of listmaking, shopping, wrapping and more. Just keeping track of all the holiday events can be stressful at times. Are you feeling it too?
Happy Holidays to you! We hope you are enjoying simple pleasures, festive moments and special times with family and friends so far this season.
With all the festivities and merrymaking this time of year it’s also easy to get caught up in the frenzy of listmaking, shopping, wrapping and more. Just keeping track of all the holiday events can be stressful at times. Are you feeling it too?
When it comes to gift-giving this year we’re focusing more on experiential gifts than more ‘things’ that take up space. How about a cooking class, massage, concert series tickets or a weekend away?
At Curated Travel we are currently creating several trips that are gifts for the holidays: a multi-gen family cruise to the Caribbean for summertime, a holiday mother-daughter trip to New York City, and a romantic getaway for two to wine country. Swoon! One of our favorite ‘gift’ trips we put together this last year was a surprise Mediterranean Cruise from one sister to another. We can assure you these dear friends of ours had a fabulous time. What a fantastic gift trip and a way to make memories for a lifetime together.
Contact us to put together a memory-making trip for you to slip under the tree this year.
Merry! Merry!
For some travel inspiration I wanted to share a few images from our travels this last year that I ran through the ‘Waterlogue’ app.
Aren’t they pretty?
A Feature from Curated Travel in Upgraded Living Magazine!
It's such a treat to be featured in Upgraded Living Magazine this month. I've worked with the magazine on makeovers while writing my Style*Mind*Chic blog, but this is the first piece that is all about travel.
Isn't this cover delicious? It's all about summer fun!
Curated Travel in Upgraded Living Magazine!
It's such a treat to be featured in Upgraded Living Magazine this month. I worked with this stylish magazine on fashion makeovers while writing my Style*Mind*Chic blog but this is the first piece that is all about travel.
Isn't this cover delicious? It's all about summer fun!
Turn to page 56 for my thoughts on savvy summer travel.
Five Easy Ways to Boost the Joy and Pleasure of Every Trip You Take
Move a little bit every day you’re on holiday, especially if your job is the kind that has you sitting at a desk all day long like mine is. This isn’t about working out; it’s just about doing what your body and brain want you to do, which is move around a little. Lounging is great — there should definitely be time for lounging — but only lounging for days on end has an ironic de-energizing effect on the body. (It’s part of why desk work can be insanely exhausting, even though you technically didn’t do anything physical all day long.)
Ever feel yourself stuck in a vacationing rut?
Maybe you try out different places, but they all kind of seem the same.
Maybe you find the planning exhausting.
Maybe you stress out over small things so that your energy gets sapped.
Maybe you cram too many things into too little time, and you come back more tired than when you left.
Maybe you bring work with you, even when you say you’re not going to, so that you wind up giving away precious vacationing hours to your job.
I’m going to be bold and say: This is not what a vacation should feel like.
Here are 5 secrets to becoming a Zen master of vacationing.
Trust me — you’ll never regret taking these on.
Move a little bit every day you’re on holiday, especially if your job is the kind that has you sitting at a desk all day long like mine is. This isn’t about working out; it’s just about doing what your body and brain want you to do, which is move around a little. Lounging is great — there should definitely be time for lounging — but only lounging for days on end has an ironic de-energizing effect on the body. (It’s part of why desk work can be insanely exhausting, even though you technically didn’t do anything physical all day long.) Whatever your level of fitness, pick something to do every day that gives you a burst of activity: walking, swimming in the ocean, a bike ride, playing with your kids, morning yoga or stretching. If you have some physical limitations, plan ahead and find walker- or wheelchair-friendly spaces to explore, even if it’s just for 20 minutes each day. Your body and your brain will thank you. Activity actually helps boost your body’s ability to fully relax and soak up the restorative purpose of vacationing.
Get present to real, peaceful, natural beauty. You might not be the camping type (I'm not at this stage of life!). Or the sporty type. Or the outdoorsy type. That’s 100% okay! You don’t have to hike the Grand Canyon to sit in total awe of it. Even the biggest, loudest city has peaceful places to just be in the presence of natural beauty. If the weather’s nice and you have the option, sit outside for your meal or pack a picnic. Just soak in your surroundings and the view; pay attention to light, sounds, sensations, and smells.
Cultivate your appetite for “different.” This one can be challenging — but it pays huge dividends when it comes to creating vacations that are full, satisfying, and memorable. This is less about booking some extreme trip and more about being willing to approach every trip as a learning experience, to being open to the possibility that every vacation can actually make you a better person. Seek out conversations with interesting strangers. Learn some phrases in a new language and practice them and see what happens. Try new foods. Take in a performance that features local music or dance. Take the risk of not knowing and being willing to ask. As Fernández-Aráoz observes, “The world’s most productive people are deeply curious and collaborative and constantly seek out new acquaintances and allies — even when they’re on vacation.”
Put your money into experiences, not things. Again, this one can be challenging. We’re taught in our culture that having more stuff will make us happier, even though research has proven this over and over again to not be true. Vacations in and of themselves are experiences — so that’s one step in the best direction — and getting a few small things to remember your trip is certainly not a bad thing. But keep an eye out for ways to maximize your experience of each moment within your holiday. When the moment comes to decide if you want to blow a ton of cash at the duty free shop or a souvenir shop — ask yourself what kinds of experiences you could buy that will be with you forever and that will continue to bring you happiness long after they’re over.
Treat your vacation like a vocation. Notice there’s only one letter that separates the time you spend relaxing, re-energizing, and reconnecting and the thing you were born to do. The word “vacation” comes from the Latin vacare, which means “freedom from obligation and duty, release, to be free and at leisure.” The word “vocation” comes from the Latin vocare, which means “to call” — as in, your personal calling, your purpose, the things that bring you deep joy and bring out the best in you and everyone around you. Think of the joyful energy you would put into your calling — the intention, the planning, the attention to detail, the gratitude. Consider the other word we frequently use for vacation — “holiday” — and note that it means “holy day.” It’s okay to approach your upcoming trip as something that can hold a bit of magic, because it just might.
If you’re looking for ways to maximize your traveling experiences, but you’re not quite sure how to get there, I’d love to help! If planning stresses you out, I can be your best ally. I love this work and can help connect you with the places and experiences that will stay with you for a lifetime. Let’s talk today — you can reach me by clicking here.
Stay tuned for some very exciting news about Curated Travel happening behind the scenes!!