Why it’s important to explore your destination

What is travel to you?

Is it a vacation to a beach resort, spending quality time with your family, or is it exploring the culture of a city, through museums and galleries? Alternatively, do you class travel as adventure, trekking through mountains and backpacking through obscure towns and villages?

Whatever you class travel to be, it’s basically any time you leave your usual surroundings and venture to somewhere new or different. You don’t have to be trekking the Andes to say you’ve travelled, and it’s a truly personal experience to have, with no label to be given to it.

However you choose to travel, it’s always important to make sure you explore your destination, and you don’t just sit around the pool thinking ‘oh, this sun is nice’. To say you’ve visited somewhere, you need to have walked the streets, tasted the food, talked to the people, and smelt the air!

Prior to visiting a destination, to get the most out of it, you need to put in some research hours, and this is where heading online will give you a greater insight into the activities, attractions, and experiences you should be having when you head off on your long-awaited vacation. Blogs will give you a more personal insight, and you can’t beat personal experience to give you honest answers. For instance, if you were heading off to Singapore or looking to experience the mysterious Far East, then heading online to our Singapore travel blog would give you valuable insight into where you should be heading once you arrive from the people who have been there. Putting in some research hours will not only tell you what you need to know, but it will also help get you excited about your upcoming travels!

If you’re a seasoned traveller and you’re simply used to having regular vacations, there are still ways you can incorporate exploration into that, without leaving your comfort zone too much. Take excursions for example. Most resorts the world over will have a list of excursions to nearby areas of interest and taking a few of these during your time away will show you a different side to your destination. If there are areas of historic interest nearby, why not jump on the local bus and head there yourself or head to the suburbs outside of town – that’s exploration right there!

On top of this you could walk back from the tourist streets to where the locals go for dinner, and try some authentic cuisine in a local restaurant – I guarantee the prices will be lower and the portions will be bigger than you will get on the main streets. Talk to the staff in your restaurant, learn a few words of the language before you go – these are all ways you can immerse yourself in the culture of the place you’re visiting, without having to hike mountains or explore misty rainforests.

Travel is a personal thing, and however you choose to do it, exploring somewhere new is to be recommended. Put down your camera and forget all your travel pictures and travel videos, see the place you’re visiting through the eyes of a local, and you’re truly seeing the place for what it really is.