3 activities for travelers stuck in self-isolation
The Covid-19 pandemic has left a lot of travelers grieving for lost adventures, as day-by-day more countries shut their borders, and vacations are postponed or even cancelled.
It may be safe to say our Easter or even Summer vacation plans have been cancelled this year, but there are a few ways we can keep our wanderlust alive.
Take a look at our top 3 tips for travelers in self-isolation.
Bring your memories back to life
If you’re creative, this time during self-isolation could be draining. If this is the case, why not set your mind to bringing some memories back to life from your past adventures?
Create that photo album you keep putting off.
There’s nothing quite like rediscovering photographs from your travels and having the memories come flooding back. It’s one of the main reasons we take photos in the first place: to help keep our memories alive.
Nowadays, creating a photo album can be as imaginative as you want it to be. Send your photos off to be printed and paste them all into an album or scrapbook, or go that little bit further and have a hardback book made, and bring your coffee table or bookshelf to life.
If you fancy having your beautiful memories captured in book form, try Shutterfly, Snapfish, Mixbook or Printique for high quality products that will look great on your coffee table or shelf.
Finish your travel diary
If you like to write about every day events when you’re on your travels, you’re probably the kind of person who likes to pick up tiny mementos along the way too.
Grab your travel diary and spruce it up by turning it into a scrapbook with those maps, leaflets, menus and receipts you kept for a real glimpse back into your adventures.
Turn your photos into artwork
For those of you who really like to take things to the next level, try turning your vacation snaps into artwork.
Whether drawing or painting it from scratch in your favorite medium, or using it to create an abstract collage, you’re the boss. It’ll give you that creative high you’ve been missing and help give your memories that personal touch.
Plan your next big adventure
Travel may be prohibited for the time being, but one day in the (hopefully near) future, we’ll all be free to travel as were not so long ago, which means it’s time for you to plan your next adventure.
Whilst we’d certainly suggest that you hold off booking anything for now, it doesn’t hurt to dream, and right now is the perfect time to learn everything you want to know about your big bucket list destination.
Create a mood board
Hype yourself up by creating a mood board on Pinterest, or go old school with some magazines, scissors and glue and find the best images or pieces of information you can about your dream destination.
Build your own version of the perfect vacation and see how it inspires you.
Learn about the land
Every country has its own unique culture and language. Now’s the time to soak it all up and learn everything you can about your bucket list destination. Get to know the locals from afar, learn about their currency and traditions, find out which time of year is best to visit. Where are the hidden gems? Which towns are undiscovered yet worth a day trip to?
The sky’s the limit on what you can learn about your next big destination and there are a few easy ways to look into it:
- Scour the internet for bloggers who’ve discovered the best bits, for review sites that give you the truth about every restaurant and hotel out there, and for inspiration and guidance on the best times to go from those who’ve lived it themselves.
- Buy a guide book – Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Rough Guides, and Fodor’s are some of the most popular guidebooks in the world, with plenty of insights and travel tips for everyone from newbies to intrepid explorers.
Learn a new language
To really get to grips with your future destination, why not learn a few core phrases of the local language?
Understanding the local tongue, even at a basic level is an incredibly helpful resource that could help you out in a sticky situation, or at least make the locals like you a little more. And it’s something that many travelers don’t think twice about.
If your native language is English, count yourself lucky, as approximately 1.5 billion people can speak it too. But what about the other 6 billion who can’t? Learning a foreign language keeps your brain young, and it’s impressive. It shows that you care about where you are and the locals whose land you’re exploring.
Smartphones have undoubtedly made learning languages a lot easier. Not only can we have our mistakes corrected in real time, but we can hear correct pronunciation from a native speaker, and have phrases repeated to us as many times as we need so we can nail it. It’s the perfect way to learn a language!
With that in mind, here are a few great apps that you can download immediately to get started.
For language courses:
- DuoLingo – everyone’s favorite owl has a wide range of comprehensive language courses and it’s completely free to use.
- Babbel – another classic and worldwide favorite, Babbel promises to get you conversational, fast.
For Flashcards to help the visual learner:
- Memrise – this free platform offers clips of native speakers pronouncing words, as well as providing you with flashcards to help keep your brain engaged.
- AnkiApp – this app will track your progress and keep all your flashcards in their specific categories for easy access.
For real time help from native speakers:
- HelloTalk – works as a language swap. Grab a native speaker to help you learn their language in exchange for lessons from you on your language.
- HiNative – A Q&A platform where native speakers help you with any problems you’re having whilst learning their language.
However you decide to make the most of self-isolation, just remember that your next adventure isn’t as far away as you think.
You may be spending the next few weeks surfing nothing but the web, or climbing nothing but your own staircase, but you are safe, and there will be plenty of time in the future for unforgettable memories.
