Iceland’s Pridrangar lighthouse is often described as the most isolated lighthouse in the world. It is a historical and iconic landmark that has stood guard over the country’s rugged coastline for over a century.
Located on the western coast of Iceland, the Pridrangar lighthouse is an essential navigational aid for ships sailing in the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Located on Iceland’s rugged and beautiful coast, it is a must-see destination for anyone visiting this unique and fascinating country. Here are a few fun facts about this fascinating and beautiful lighthouse:
The Pridrangar lighthouse was built in 1906 to help guide ships safely through the narrow and rocky waters off the coast of Iceland. It was the first lighthouse to be built in the country and was an important step in developing Iceland’s modern maritime infrastructure.
The Thridrangar lighthouse is only accessible by helicopter. Also, it is actually uninhabitable. No one lives here.
The Pridrangar lighthouse is located on a small island called Vigur, which is located off the coast of the town of Isafjordur. The island is home to a small population of birds, including puffins and other seabirds, and is a popular destination for birdwatchers.
The Pridrangar lighthouse is powered by renewable energy sources, including solar panels and wind turbines. It is one of the first lighthouses in the world to be powered entirely by renewable energy and serves as a model for other lighthouses around the world.
The Pridrangar lighthouse is known for its beautiful and distinctive design, which features a white stone tower with a red roof and a black-and-white striped pattern on the lower portion of the tower. The lighthouse is visible for many miles out to sea and is a well-known landmark for sailors navigating the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic.
The Pridrangar lighthouse has played an important role in Iceland’s history and has been the site of many important events. In World War II, the lighthouse was used as a lookout station by the Icelandic Coast Guard and was also used as a radio station for ships sailing in the North Atlantic.
Today, the Pridrangar lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction and is open to visitors during the summer months. Visitors can tour the lighthouse, learn about its history, and enjoy the beautiful views of the surrounding coastline.
Overall, the Pridrangar lighthouse is a fascinating and historic landmark that is rich in history and beauty.
Nazca is the capital of the Nazca Province located in the Ica District of the Ica region of Peru.
The Nazca Lines are a group of very large geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles, and leaving differently colored dirt exposed.
For decades anthropologists, ethnologists, and archaeologists have studied the ancient Nazca culture to try to determine the purpose of the lines. In general, one common hypothesis is that the Nazca people created them to be seen by the deities in the sky.
Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are also figurative designs of animals and plants. The individual figurative geoglyph designs measure between 0.4 and 1.1 km (.2 and .7 mi) across.
The combined length of all the lines is over 1,300 km (800 mi), and the group cover an area of about 50 km2 (19 sq mi).
The lines are typically 4 to 6 inches deep. They were made by removing the top layer of reddish-brown iron oxide-coated pebbles to reveal a yellow-grey subsoil.
The width of the lines varies considerably, but over half are slightly over just over 1 foot wide. In some places they may be only 1 ft wide, and in others they could reach up to 6 feet wide.
Some of the Nazca lines form shapes that are best seen from the air, though they are also visible from the surrounding foothills. The shapes are usually made from one continuous line.
The figures vary in complexity. Hundreds are simple lines and geometric shapes; more than 70 are zoomorphic designs, including a hummingbird, spider, fish, condor, heron, monkey, lizard, dog, cat, and a giant human.
Other shapes include trees and flowers. Furthermore interesting to note, the largest lines are about 370 m long.
Because of its isolation and the dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau, the lines have mostly been preserved naturally for ages.
How To Get Here
The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 km (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana, approximately 400 km (250 mi) south of Lima.
The main PE-1S Panamericana Sur runs parallel to it. The main concentration of designs is in a 6 mi by 2 mi rectangle, south of San Miguel de la Pascana hamlet. This is the region where most of the notable geoglyphs are visible.
Nazca People
A Nazca Female Figure (made of sperm whale tooth, shell and hair)
Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas glyphs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture.
Nazca society developed and flourished over 1500 years. Their history can be divided into four phases: the Proto Nazca (100 BC – 1 AD), the Early Nazca (1–450 AD), Middle Nazca (450–550 AD), and Late Nazca (550–750 AD).
Strongly influenced by the preceding Paracas culture, which was known for extremely complex textiles, the Nazca produced an array of crafts and technologies such as ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs.
They are known for two extensive construction projects that would have required the coordination of large groups of laborers:
Nazca Lines, immense designs in the desert whose purpose is unknown, and
Puquios, underground aqueducts for providing water for irrigation and domestic purposes in the arid environment.
Note: Several dozen Puquios are still function today. Think about that! Talk about ancient engineering!
Palpas glyphs
The Paracas culture is considered by some historians to be the possible precursor that influenced the development of the Nazca Lines. In 2018, drones used by archaeologists revealed 25 geoglyphs in the Palpa province that are being assigned to the Paracas culture.
Many predate the associated Nazca lines by a thousand years.
Some demonstrate a significant difference in the subjects and locations, such as some being on hillsides.
Paracas Candelabra, Peru
Chinchas glyphs
Further north from the Nazca, Palpas region and along the Peruvian coast are other glyphs from the Chincha culture that have also been discovered.
The Fall of Nazca Civilization
From 500 AD, the civilization started to decline and by 750 AD the civilization had fallen completely. This is thought to have occurred when an El Niño triggered widespread and destructive flooding.
Evidence also suggests that the Nazca people may have exacerbated the effects of these floods by gradually cutting down Prosopis pallida trees to make room for maize and cotton agriculture.
These trees play an extremely important role as the ecological keystone of this landscape: in particular preventing river and wind erosion.
Gradual removal of trees would have exposed the landscape to the effects of climate perturbations such as El Niño, leading to erosion and leaving irrigation systems high and dry.
The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely:
Alberta– a province floating on an underground sea of oil and gas. The Rocky Mountains and foothills on its western flank, two metropolitan cities in the middle, cowboy culture in the south, vast forests to the north, and green farmland in the center and east.
Saskatchewan– Canada’s agricultural breadbasket with wide-open skies, thousands of recreational lakes, huge natural parks, and two compact main cities.
Manitoba– home to more history and heritage, plus several of the continent’s largest lakes. The south is mostly farmland with some woodlands, and in the north, you have vast forest wilderness leading to tundra, polar bears, and beluga whales along the Hudson Bay coast.
These provinces are partially covered by grasslands, plains, and lowlands, mostly in the southern regions.
Though the word “prairie” means grassland, this region also contains mountains, hills, lakes, shoreline, and metropolitan cities.
Viaduct Bridge Valley Railroad, Alberta, Canada
Before You Go
Travel to the Prairies is precisely the opposite of an archetypal British“city break” to Spain, Central Europe, etc., with its cheap short-haul flights and railways, compact historic city centers full of castles and churches, and cheap drinks and accommodations.
Watrous, Saskatchewan
Here distances are vast, prices are high, and the architecture is…functional. But what the region does have to offer in spades is the unique freedom that only wide-open space can provide, like a cool climate version of the Australian Outback or American Southwest.
A lightning strike in the Prairies
In fact, the best international equivalents to the Prairies in terms of landscape and climate are the Taiga and Steppes of Russia but here you’ll find a Canadian level of amenities and services, and all in English if you desire.
You can drive for an hour without seeing anyone
How To Get Here
Sunset in Manitoba
International and transcontinental flights go to Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, and to a lesser extent, Regina and Saskatoon.
You can enter from the United States at numerous land crossings. Roads through the Rockies include the Trans-Canada Highway, Yellowhead Highway, and Crowsnest Pass Highway.
Canadian Rockies
From Ontario, the Trans-Canada or a detour through the United States is the only land options.
The Via Rail services from Vancouver and Toronto to Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton run twice a week on The Canadian service. Because the service is limited, the train provides more of a sightseeing service and is not practical for day-to-day traveling.
Countryside prairies
Getting Around
The best way to travel in the Prairies is by car. The Prairies are served by Highway No 1 and 16 from west to east.
There are also Via Rail services in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton. The Canadian connects these cities twice a week.
Rider Express: Bus service along the Trans-Canada Highway from Vancouver to Calgary, and between Edmonton and Regina via Saskatoon.
Other bus companies provide limited service on some other routes. Transit in the largest cities is good and it is not necessary to have a car, but in other places, it is highly recommended.
Farm life
Sunset in prairies
Day Trips
The most famous day trip in the region is also a north-south route through the Rockies: the Icefields Parkway, which is considered at “must-do” drive between Jasper and Lake Louise.
Jasper National Park, Alberta
If you’d rather see the Rockies on the horizon but drive through the Foothills where cattle ranches predominate, take the Cowboy Trail (Alberta Highway 22). A further extension north from either the Icefield or Cowboy routes this is the so-called “Scenic Route to Alaska” on Alberta Highway 40 leading to Northern Alberta.
Note: Long-distance travel by bicycle, horse, or on foot on these highways is legal but almost impossible for most people because of the distances involved.Try the Trans Canada Trail, instead, but again be mindful of the vast distances involved.
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – a hilly island surrounded by a sea of grasslands, straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, as well as the famous Dinosaur Museum at Drumheller, and the World Heritage dig site at Dinosaur Provincial Park near Brooks.
Dinosaur Provincial Park
The Alberta Rockies, including Banff National Park the oldest and most popular national park in Canada, famed for stunning mountain scenery such as world-renowned Lake Louise, and Jasper National Park a less crowded alternative to Banff for mountains and wildlife.
Cabin life at Lake Louise
Riding Mountain National Park is renowned for its “watchable” wildlife and forms the core of the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Wood Buffalo National Park – home to the rare wood bison or “buffalo”, the largest national park in Canada and UNESCO World Heritage Site, mostly inaccessible by road, but great for trekking or canoe camping.
A Bison by the water
Churchill – claimed as the Polar Bear and Beluga Whale Watching Capital of World, this is where the cold Arctic waters of Hudson Bay touch the Prairie provinces. Go here for a cold-weather safari.
Do a canoeing circuit at Lac La Biche, Alberta.
Shop at West Edmonton Mall, North America’s largest which includes an indoor roller coaster and waterside park, cinema, bowling alley, ice rink, shooting rang, go-kart track, and more than 500 shops.
Whether you’re South Carolina is a coastal southern state well known for its delicious food, beautiful beaches, and historic landmarks, making it a perfect choice for your next US-based-trip — and that’s just scratching the surface.
And don’t get us started on all the hidden gems like unique roadside attractions, notable architecture, and roaming wildlife.
We’re certain that as soon as you discover all the wonderful sights, bites, and adventures awaiting you in the Palmetto State (the official nickname for South Carolina referring to the state palmetto tree), you’ll be planning your visit.
Before you book your travel, keep in mind that because of the heat and humidity that states in the Sun Belt Region experience over summer—just like the other southern states—it’s typically recommended that visitors plan their trips in spring (between March and May) or fall (between September and November).
Whether you’re visiting for your annual family trip or are checking out the lay of the land before applying to colleges, you can count on having plenty to do.
Seeking Adventure?
Are you thinking of road-tripping through South Carolina? If so, you’re in luck because there is plenty to see, especially off the beaten path.
Depending on your interests, you can create your own adventure as you travel throughout the state, or even through just one city. To help you find the best interest-based travel recommendations, we’ve broken down activities into several groups:
Camping
If you’re an avid camper, you’ll want to take advantage of the beauty that awaits you in the great outdoors of South Carolina.
Whether you’re seeking out a water-side venue or a mountain view, one of the 47 State Parks will have what you want. From rustic cabins in Table Rock State Park to lakeside villas at Dreher Island State Park, the unique camping experiences that await will win over any nature-lover’s heart.
Historical Landmarks
You probably know about the many famous museums and widely visited historical sites that Charleston is known for, but why not add a few less-crowded stops to your list.
Make time to visit Fort Fremont (which was abandoned and said to be haunted), the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum (and other sites that are part of The Green Book Tour), and the Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site.
Natural Wonders
Of course, the Angel Oak is on your must-see list, but there are many other natural wonders to make time for.
The “Tunnel of Trees” on Botany Bay Road is something you have to see if you like to bask in the beauty of nature.
And don’t forget to make your way to the Canyon Lake in Devil’s Fork State Park where plenty of hiking trails, waterfalls, and some of the best South Carolina trout fishing in Lake Jocassee await you.
Next stop by at Boneyard Beach, one of the best secret beaches in South Carolina. It’s located near the northern end of a little known South Carolina island called “Bull Island”.
Lastly, visit the ACE Basin, one of the largest undeveloped estuaries along the Atlantic Coast of the United States.
Roadside Stops
Driving through South Carolina, you’ll see there are a variety of attractions that will give you an excuse to pull over and stretch your legs. Nostalgic Station will take you back in time with vintage eats, memorabilia, and more.
Looking for more of a thrill? The Alligator Adventure Animal Park in North Myrtle Beach is worthwhile.
If you’re a fan of House of Cards, don’t forget to stop by the Peachoid in Gaffney.
Then there are the quirky roadside stops that you won’t see anywhere else like the:
World’s Smallest Police Station in Ridgeway — roughly the size of a bathroom (in use until 1990)
UFO Welcome Center in Bowman — consists of a 42-foot-wide flying saucer built out of wood, fiberglass, & plastic
Kazoo Museum in Beaufort — one of the largest collections of kazoos in the world
Side view of the UFO Welcome Center
Eating Out
You know when you go to the South, eating is a major part of your trip, and luckily, South Carolina has plenty of variety. From classics like good southern BBQ and fresh seafood to more modern fare like noteworthy vegan cuisine, you can find a delicious meal wherever you end up.
BBQ Charcoal Grill
Good Southern BBQ
If you’re craving some of the best barbeques in the country, you’re heading to the right place. South Carolina boasts countless BBQ establishments (there are hundreds of them) that are sure to please.
Did you know that South Carolina has a reputation for being the only state to offer all four types of barbeque sauces (mustard, vinegar and pepper, light tomato, and heavy tomato)? If you didn’t even know there were four types, then you’re in for a real treat.
While you may have heard of Lewis Barbecue in Charleston or Swig & Swine in Mount Pleasant, there are plenty of other BBQ spots to explore outside of their popular cities. Seek out smaller roadside establishments like Belly’s Southern Pride in Lexington, Big Bill’s Low Country Bar-B-Que in Georgetown (which is known for its buffet), or Cannon’s BBQ & More in Little Mountain.
Fresh Seafood
Like most coastal states, South Carolina also serves up a delicious plate of fresh seafood. From Po’ boys to Shrimp platters, your tastebuds will be delighted pretty much anywhere you decide to go, but if you want to find some little-known spots that have great reputations, start with these restaurants:
Flowers Seafood Co. (Edisto Island)
Lee’s Inlet Kitchen (Murrells Inlet)
Dave’s Carryout (Charleston)
Vegan Cuisine (Greenville)
Fried Shrimp Platter
As you can probably imagine, traveling through the South can be difficult when you have dietary restrictions, so you may have to search a little harder for your food options.
However, if you’re vegan, you’re in luck because we have the scoop on Greenville (also known as G-Vegas) which has become a hot-spot for vegan cuisine. You’re covered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Try a refreshing smoothie at Kuka Juice to start your day, some jackfruit tacos at White Duck Taco for lunch, and end the night with delicious vegan pizza at Sidewall Pizza.
Plan Your Trip to the Palmetto State
In recent years, tourism has been breaking records as visitors flock to this beautiful southern state. According to the Courier and Post, over 7.3 million visitors explored South Carolina in 2018 alone.
Hopefully, these tips for seeing South Carolina off the beaten path have inspired you to add the Palmetto State to your travel bucket list and create an itinerary that’s carefully curated to suit your interests (and taste buds).
Sunset in Charleston
However you choose to spend your time in South Carolina, you can expect to find three things to be true, southern hospitality will follow you wherever you go, the food will be some of the best you’ve had, and the experiences you have will stick with you forever.
Author Bio
Alexis Maness has a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications and is a contributing editor for 365businesstips.com as well as a marketing expert for Undergrads Moving. Alexis specializes in topics related to business, marketing, finance, and hospitality and tourism.
Like many others, I began 2020 with grand ideas and plans. One of those plans included visiting Switzerland to ski in Zermatt for my first wedding anniversary.
Then the Coronavirus came through and turned everything upside down.
On the morning of our anniversary, it was a crisp spring day in North Carolina. One of those days where the sun rises but that warmth doesn’t quite touch your skin.
Thankfully the sky was a clear baby blue with puffy white clouds scattered to the horizon.
Instead of waking up with a view of the Matterhorn and skiing for the day, we set out for the Blue Ridge Parkway with a picnic basket full of food and a full tank of gas. We started out just over the Virginia line in Galax and headed south.
Blue Ridge Parkway
One of the most beautiful drives in the USA
Rolling fields – used as farmland for years – lined the Parkway until we got into a more wooded area where walls of rhododendrons grow tall. In the summer these really put on a show with their dark pink flowers against the forest green leaves.
With nowhere to be, we pulled off at each overlook and read the signs that the National Park Service have installed.
You can learn all kinds of cool things like how the National Park Service purchased farmland surrounding the Parkway so they could preserve the look for future generations or areas that are best for viewing birds of prey.
Top 7 Spots on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Linville Falls
A series of waterfalls, the upper and lower, are located a short distance off of the Parkway. It’s an easy hike that’s perfect for kids and families, but be sure to watch your kids near the water.
There are some more strenuous routes if you hike to the lower falls and if you explore more of the Linville Gorge Wilderness there are camping options and hikes for all skill levels.
Doughton Park
With abundant interconnecting trails, Doughton Park is a hidden gem when it comes to hiking or backpacking. The park is skipped over by many for Stone Mountain State Park that is located right next door.
Bluff Mountain Trail
Don’t underestimate the options here. And obviously it is the perfect spot for an afternoon picnic.
The further south we went, the more dramatic the overlook views became with the mountains slowly growing taller around us. Just south of Doughton Park (MP 241.1) we stopped at the Alligator Back Overlook and parking area.
Alligator Back Overlook
The view from the overlook was amazing but the real gem is found when you head up the Bluff Mountain Trail. The sign said a 20-minute walk to Bluff Overlook so we grabbed our backpack with food and water and started off.
It wasn’t long until we were out of breath (or maybe that was just me) because of the steep trail and don’t get me started on the stairs. However, the reward was well worth it. After walking through a heavily wooded area, it was like a movie scene where the characters see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Suddenly we stepped out into that light and were greeted with an incredible view of the beautiful mountain tops sprawling into the distance. You could count the peaks for miles.
This provided a magnificent view but the ground was completely made of stone so not the best picnicking spot. We continued on for about 10 minutes until we made it to a shelter with another fantastic view and the perfect spot to sit for lunch.
View from the picnic spot
The sun was shining down making it much warmer than when we began our journey that morning. My ham & cheese sandwich in hand, I drank in every last drop of Vitamin D and relished the view over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
That heart-pounding hike was more than worth the effort.
As we made our way back down, bellies full, and laughing all the way, it wasn’t hard to realize how lucky we were. Lucky that the Blue Ridge is our backyard playground.
Turns out you don’t have to be in another country to have a proper celebration. You can find adventure right outside your back door.
Rough Ridge
In the shadow of Grandfather Mountain, Rough Ridge can be reached by the Tanwha Trail in a parking area directly off of the Parkway.
Once you reach the top there is a beautiful view of the mountain and the Linn Cove Viaduct.
Linn Cove Viaduct
The Linn Cove Viaduct is a long, concrete segmental bridge which snakes around Grandfather Mountain. It was one of the last major construction projects on the Blue Ridge Parkway which runs 469 miles (755 km) linking Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Craggy Gardens
If you love flowers, specifically rhododendrons, then visit here in early June. These beautiful pink blossoms line the hiking trail like you’re in the middle of a romance movie.
Plus it’s an easy one that takes you to breathtaking views. My favorite kind of hike.
Waterrock Knob
At the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway right before you get to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park you’ll find the Waterrock Knob hike. These beautiful views are best enjoyed at sunrise or sunset.
View from Plott Balsams Overlook
Travel Tips for Blue Ridge Parkway
Morning fog
Best Time to Visit
The Parkway can be enjoyed during any season. Spring and summer are best for flowers and great hiking weather.
Fall brings beautiful colors that cloak the trees in red, orange, and yellow as far as you can see.
Fall colors view from the Blue Ridge Parkway
In winter the views are even better if that’s possible. Be sure to check the National Park Service Website for road closures as it is commonly closed due to ice, snow, or other safety hazards like landslides and fallen trees.
Where to Stay
Sunset view in Blue Ridge Mountains
There aren’t many hotels close to the Parkway unless you stay in Cherokee or Asheville on the North Carolina section. You will find many adorable cottages and Bed & Breakfasts though.
You’ll have to make a tiny detour into small towns to pick up food for the most part as there aren’t many restaurants directly on the Parkway but Western North Carolina offers some incredible cuisine.
Many of the Inns also have restaurants like Fire Mountain and Pisgah Inn mentioned above. You can also try interesting places like the Gamekeeper which serves items like bison steak and ostrich sausage or Louise’s Rockhouse which sits on the literal corner of three counties.
Speed Limit
In most areas the speed limit is 45mph. In crowded places, it will go down to 35mph and through pedestrian areas, it will be 25mph.
Resources
The Blue Ridge Parkway website is incredibly helpful to map out your route and find things to do. The National Park Service also provides great technical information about what is open and the Visitor’s Centers.
Author Bio
Anna is a travel blogger based in North Carolina who helps busy women take advantage of every moment given off work. She loves packing as much as she can into a short itinerary and making the most of any vacation. You can find more of her work at her blog,Stuck On The Go, and follow her journey on Instagram.
The visit to a museum has always been an enchanting experience for every visitor since humans started collecting and preserving ancient artifacts and memories of bygone people, wildlife, and cultures.
A visit to a museum always leaves a visitor gawking at the unexplored parts of both the past and the present. That’s why if a museum houses elements from paleontology, geology, archaeology, climatology and various other natural spheres, then the visit to such a museum becomes the greatest source of pleasure and excitement.
The best part about these museum is that you can visit them with kids as well, which makes it a great choice for family travel.
India is blessed with the presence of 8 such natural history museums across its prominent cities. Even though each of these 8 natural history museums is a great place to explore, in today’s blog, we’ll highlight the top 4museums because of their rich collection and beautiful ambiance.
Leopard at Gass Forest Museum / Photo by Booradleyp1 CC-BYSA 3.0
National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi(1972–2016; sadly, it got burned down in 2016)
Ready? Let’s being.
Indian Museum, Kolkata
The Indian Museum in Kolkata is the oldest museum present in India. Not only is the Indian Museum the largest in India and best among all museum in Kolkata, but, it also acquires a significant place in the Asia-Pacific zone. Started out in 1814 by the Asiatic Society, this museum has emerged as the most-stocked museum in India over the years.
As soon as the visitor sets foot on the steps leading to the museum, he or she is greeted by the huge, white pillars structured as per the British architecture. The various halls of the enormous building are tagged as per the different contents stored in them.
While a visitor may get awestruck looking at the weapons and coins of the old era at one hall, another visitor may get scared looking at the giant skeleton as soon as he or she enters the Paleontology section.
However, even though these things are beautiful in their own ancient way, the biggest source of attraction at the Indian Museum is the Egyptian section. The reason why every visitor rushes to the Egyptian section is because of the mummy that is displayed within the glass chambers.
There is a particular sort of chill in the air that automatically makes every tourist keep quiet and pay respect to the Egyptian mummy resting there peacefully.
Apart from the specimens, the architectural bounty of this museum, especially the white-washed walls and the huge pillars surrounding the lush green courtyard, leaves every visitor dreaming of returning to this exceptional place again and again.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai
Started out in the early 1900s as the Prince of Wales Museum, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya is known for its massive collection. This museum too has different sections and specializes in the collection of art and culture.
However, a huge natural section is also present at this museum which is a beautiful deviation from the age-old cultural partiality of any museum. Thus, as a whole, the collection of this Indo-Saracenic style architectural museum along with the adjoining lush, green lawn makes the city of Mumbai a proud owner of immense diversity.
The Gass Forest Museum was established in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in 1902. This museum is an influence of the forest department and, hence, houses a great variety of biodiversity.
This museum is blessed with some of the best collection of stuffed animals in India that enlivens the tour and makes the visit an enriching educational experience.
The Napier Museum, founded in 1855 in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, is one of the oldest museums in India. Inspired by the Indo-Saracenic architecture, this museum boasts of a wide variety of the specimens of art and culture.
The natural air-conditioning system of this museum makes the visit a pleasant experience even in the hot, summer months.
This museum also has a zoological garden which was established in 1857. This is one of the oldest zoological gardens in India and, thus, has a huge collection in the field of natural history.
Thus, this varied flora and fauna, and, the cultural and natural biodiversity makes the Napier Museum a must visit for every tourist.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be comprehended how beautiful India is in terms of the natural museums. Because of the marvelous collection of natural specimens in each of these aforesaid museums, India boasts of being a proud owner in the field of displaying the untold stories of the past.
Author Bio
Rohit is a curious traveler who takes a keen interest in getting to know the past and comparing it with the present. He takes out time from his busy schedule to unearth true knowledge and share the same with his readers. You can read his stories and experiences at his travel blog Trans India Travels.
With growth comes prosperity. With prosperity comes an increase in travel and tourism. With an increase in travel and tourism comes pollution, ecological damages, and pandemics.
No, this post is not about Coronavirus. This blog is about the future of travel. This blog is also about how you can practice and promote sustainable travel.
Sustainable Tourism
By 2050, with all other economic sectors having greatly reduced their CO2 emissions, tourism is likely to be generating 40% of global carbon emissions.
The main cause is an increase in the average distance traveled by tourists, which for many years has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of trips taken.
In other words, more people are traveling to faraway international destinations than they did in the past.
Travel and tourism is related to traveling for leisure, business, or visiting friends and family. Tourism also involves primary transportation to the general location, local transportation, accommodations, entertainment, recreation, food and dining, and shopping.
Approximately, 72% of tourism’s CO2 emissions come from the transportation aspect of travel (moving from point A to point B), and 24% from accommodations related activities, and roughly 4% from local activities including eating.
Airline travel alone accounts for more than half of all travel-related CO2 emissions. Do whatever you can do to minimize this part.
How To Promote Sustainable Tourism
The world is massive and has endless possibilities. There is so much that we haven’t seen, and if we don’t travel, we aren’t going to either. Looking at Instagram photos and YouTube videos can only do so much for our wanderlust.
Traveling is adventurous, exciting, and stimulating, and I believe that everyone should make an effort to reach out beyond their borders. That said, it is important to be environmentally conscious while you are traveling. Hence, the promotion of sustainable tourism is essential.
In today’s post, I am going to discuss 10 practical ways to promote sustainable tourism.
Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting somewhere as a tourist and trying to make a positive impact on the environment, society, and economy.
This can be done either by staying at a place longer than a few days and visiting adjacent countries, attractions, cities in a single trip instead of making multiple long-distance round-trip flights.
The future of our planet and climate change is in our hands
When Possible, Take Direct Flights
Planes are responsible for a significant amount of carbon emissions, and they are an essential part of traveling, yet we can start moving on sailboats to avoid these emissions.
So, how can we make our travel more sustainable and decrease the impact we have on the environment.
Did you know? Planes emit most of their carbon emissions during takeoff and landing. This means that connecting flights are more damaging to the environment as compared to direct flights.
Therefore, whenever you have the option, choose a direct flight, these flights maybe a little more expensive than connecting flights. Still, they are more convenient and use less fuel as well, which is also suitable for sustainability.
If you are planning to stay at a hotel or a hostel while you are traveling, make sure that the place you chose is environmentally conscious. This will allow you to decrease your carbon footprint. Moreover, you should try to be sustainability-conscious as well.
For example, try not to waste any energy, water, or food. Make sure that you don’t cause any noise pollution, either.
Finally, you should also try to find accommodation that is locally owned so that you can support the local economy.
Only Use Reusable Stuffs
Reusable coffee cups
While you are traveling, you should try to minimize the use of disposable items such as plastic cups, bottles, and straws.
We know that plastic isn’t good for the environment, therefore, when you are traveling, make sure that you keep some useful accessories with you, like a grocery bag for shopping, a glass water bottle, a travel mug, etc.
Leave the Place As You Found It
A clean beach in Greece
This is an essential rule to follow when you are traveling in nature; for instance, if you are hiking or camping. You should try your best to have no adverse effects on your surroundings.
This means that you shouldn’t damage any local plants or trees and be as eco-friendly as possible. In short, you should leave the place as you found it.
Support the Local Food Vendors
A local fruit seller
If you are a foodie like me, you can appreciate the local cuisine and street food or exotic locations. Whenever I am traveling, I take some time to check out the local street foods, and when I’m visiting a restaurant, I choose one that is locally owned.
Instead of eating at fast-food restaurants owned by global conglomerates, I prefer eating at local establishments so that my travels can benefit the local economy.
Moreover, trying out local foods allows me to experience a whole new array of flavors and cuisines. So, make sure that you give it a try as well.
Pack Light and Smart
Carry only the necessities
One of the first lessons to becoming a master traveler is to pack light. You should always aim to travel with a single backpack or small trolly case.
If you do have a large bag, then traveling in the local transport will be more difficult for you. You will have to take a taxi or use an online ridesharing app, which can result in extra carbon emissions.
Moreover, this is bad for your budget, and if you are using ridesharing apps like UBER, you are once again benefiting large companies rather than the local economy.
Therefore, pack light, but more importantly, pack smart. This is a skill that you will develop with time, so keep making an effort. For instance, once while traveling, I got a painful ear infection; luckily, I knew how to treat an ear infection at home.
Now I always keep some medications with me, because it can be challenging to find a good doctor sometimes, like when you are on a camping trip.
Volunteer to Help Local Communities
A group of UN Peace Corps Volunteers in Ukraine
One of the best ways to travel on a budget and have a significantly positive impact on the world is to volunteer with organizations like the peace corps. Not only will they fund your travels, but you will get a chance to help communities in need all over the world.
If you don’t want to make a long-term commitment with the peace corps, many other non-profit organizations will allow you to volunteer for a shorter time.
Use Sustainable Transport Wherever Possible
A bike parked in Amsterdam, Holland
When you are visiting another country, you will need to move around. Now, what form of transportation should you choose? Your objective should be to minimize your carbon emissions; therefore, for longer routes, choose public transport vehicles like busses and trains.
You can also use public transport to move around locally, but these days, most big cities have electric scooters that everyone can apply through an app. These are quite affordable and convenient as well. You can also consider renting a bicycle for the day.
Respect the Practices of Local Culture
When you are traveling to a foreign country, you will encounter different religions and cultures. To be a sustainable traveler, it is also essential that you respect the practices of the local people.
This means that you should try to be discreet when people are praying or doing cultural rituals. Also, make sure that you follow the appropriate dress code when you are visiting places of worship.
In short, don’t be insensitive and do some research.
Gondola in Venice / Climate change and its impact on Tourism
Raise Awareness About Sustainable Travel
Lastly, apart from following all the tips mentioned above yourself, you should always try to raise awareness in others.
This can be achieved by sharing your sustainable traveling experience with others through vlogs and your social media accounts. Moreover, you should talk to fellow travelers about sustainable traveling as well.
Author’s Bio
Katherine Joseph writes this article. She has been wearing hearing aids for over twenty years and still is a veteran of the audiology industry. She gives a holistic view of the hearing aid industry and the equipment available at DoctEar.
Some of you may be familiar with Francis Bacon, while others may not have heard of this name before. Therefore, let me first introduce you to Francis Bacon, also, the father of empiricism.
“Knowledge is power.” – Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and statesman. He argued science could be achieved by the use of a skeptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves.
His works are credited with developing the scientific method and remained influential through the scientific revolution.
Statue of Francis Bacon in the Library of Congress, Washington DC
Below is Bacon’s essay on travel, published in his book called the Wisdom of the Ancients (1609). There is a lot to chew on here. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Francis Bacon on Travel
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of the experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
Young men travel under some tutor or grave servant, I allow well, so that he be such a one that hath the language, and hath been in the country before; whereby he may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the country where they go, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place yieldeth; for else young men shall go hooded, and look abroad little.
Have Travel Diaries
Have a camera and travel diary
It is a strange thing that, in sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in overland travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they omit it as if the chance were fitter to be registered than observation.
Let diaries, therefore, be brought in use. The things to be seen and observed are, the courts of princes, especially when they give audience to ambassadors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monuments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns.
And so the havens and harbors, antiquities and ruins, libraries, colleges, disputations, and lectures, where any are; shipping and navies; houses and gardens of state and pleasure, near great cities; armories, arsenals, magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses, exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of soldiers, and the like; comedies, such whereunto the better sort of persons do resort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go, after all which the tutors or servants ought to make diligent inquiry.
As for triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and such shows, men need not to be put in mind of them; yet they are not to be neglected.
Learn the Language
If you will have a young man to put his travel into a little room, and in the short time to gather much, this you must do: first, as was said, he must have some entrance into the language before he goeth.
Soak the Culture
Then he must have such a servant, or tutor, who knows the country. Likewise, as I have said before, let him also carry some cards, maps, and books, describing the country where he is traveling to which will serve as a good key to his inquiry.
Also, let him keep a diary; let him not stay long in one city or town, more or less, as the place deserves, but not long; nay, when he stays in one city or town.
Let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another, which is a great adamant of acquaintance.
Let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen, and diet in such places where there is good company of the nation where he travels.
Let him, upon his removes from one place to another, procure recommendation to some person of quality residing in the place whither he removeth, that he may use his favor in those things he desireth to see or know: thus he may abridge his travel with much profit.
On Travel Acquaintance
As for the acquaintance which is to be sought in travel, that which is most of all profitable, is acquaintance with the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors, for so in traveling in one country he shall suck the experience of many; let him also see and visit eminent persons in all kinds which are of great name abroad, that he may be able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame.
For quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be avoided; they are commonly for mistresses, healths, place, and words; and let a man beware how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons, for they will engage him into their own quarrels.
On Returning Back
When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth.
Kids having fun in Thailand
On Humility
And let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture, and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers than forward to tell stories.
And let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts, but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country.
Many of these parks are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They can be visited for safaris and to see the African flora and fauna.
The mighty lion in Botswana
Some nations also have considerable areas designated as private parks, game reserves, forest reserves, marine reserves, national reserves, and natural parks.
We have selected the most popular Game Reserves to be included in this list of National Parks because we believe you should not skip them. They are equally as impressive as any National Parks on this list.
National Parks in Africa
Listing all countries alphabetically (A to Z).
Algeria
Sahara desert, Algeria
Alhaggar National Park
Belezma National Park
Chrea National Park
Djebel Aissa National Park
Djurdjura National Park
El Kala National Park
Gouraya National Park
Taza National Park
Theniet El Had National Park
Tlemcen National Park
Angola
Sunset in Angola
Bicauri National Park
Cameia National Park
Cangandala National Park
Iona National Park
Longa-Mavinga National Park
Luenge National Park
Luiana National Park
Mucusso National Park
Mupa National Park
Quiçama National Park
Benin
Antelope calf drinking mother’s milk, Benin
Pendjari National Park
W National Park — also called W of the Niger National Park spanning Niger, Benin & Burkina Faso
Botswana
A leopard in Okavango Delta in Moremi National Park, Botswana
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Chobe National Park
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Makgadikgadi Pans National Park
Moremi National Park— in the heart of the Okavango Delta
Burkina Faso
Oryx Antelope (almost near extinction in the wild)
Arli National Park
Deux Balés National Park
Kaboré Tambi National Park— formerly called Pô National Park
W National Park — also called W of the Niger National Park spanning Niger, Benin & Burkina Faso
Burundi
Kibira National Park
Risizi National Park
Rurubu National Park
Cameroon
Mount Cameroon, Africa
Bénoué National Park
Bouba Njida National Park
Boumba Bek National Park
Campo Ma’an National Park
Faro National Park
Korup National Park
Lobéké National Park
Nki National Park
Waza National Park
Cape Verde
Fogo volcano
Fogo National Park
Central African Republic
St. Floris National Park
André Félix National Park
Bamingui-Bangoran National Park
Dzanga-Ndoki National Park
Mbaéré Bodingué National Park
Chad
A Caravan in Chad’s Sahara
Aouk National Park
Goz Beïda National Park
Manda National Park
Zakouma National Park
Democratic Republic of the Congo
A chimpanzee in the wild
Garamba National Park
Virunga National Park
Kahuzi-Biéga National Park
Kundelungu National Park
Lomami National Park
Maiko National Park
Mangroves National Park
Salonga National Park (North and South sections)
Upemba National Park
Okapi Wildlife Reserve(Note: This is not a national park. This is a reserve with core protection and multi-use areas)
Republic of the Congo
A Mandrill Monkey in Congo
Conkouati-Douli National Park
Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park
Ntokou-Pikounda National Park
Odzala-Kokoua National Park
Ougoue Lekiti National Park
Côte d’Ivoire
Assagny National Park
Banco National Park
Comoé National Park
Îles Ehotilés National Park
Marahoué National Park
Mont Nimba National Park
Mont Péko National Park
Mont Sângbé National Park
Taï National Park
Djibouti
Day Forest National Park
Djibouti National Park
Yoboki National Park
Egypt
White Desert National Park, Egypt
Gabal Elba National Park
Lake Burullus Protectorate
Lake Qarun Protectorate
Nabq Protected Area
Ras Muhammad National Park
Saint Katherine Protectorate
Sannur Valley Cave Protectorate
Siwa Oasis
Taba Protected Area
Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reserve
Wadi El Gamal National Park
Wadi El Rayan Protectorate
White Desert National Park
Equatorial Guinea
Monte Alen Park
Eritrea
Mountains in Eritrea
Dahlak Marine National Park
Semenawi Bahri National Park
Ethiopia
Simien Mountain Gelada, Ethiopia
Abijatta Shalla Lakes National Park
Awash National Park
Bale Mountains National Park
Mago National Park
Nechisar National Park
Omo National Park
Simien National Park— stunning mountain scenery and important wildlife populations in Ethiopia
Yangudi Rassa National Park
Kenya
Maasai Mara
Aberdare National Park
Amboseli National Park
Lake Nakuru National Park
Meru National Park
Mount Elgon National Park
Nairobi National Park
Samburu National Park
Sibiloi National Park
Tsavo National Park (East and West)
Maasai Mara Game Reserve(Note: not a National Park but the most popular destination in Kenya)
Gabon
A herd of African Buffalo
Akanda National Park
Batéké Plateau National Park
Birougou National Park
Crystal Mountains National Park
Ivindo National Park
Loango National Park
Lopé National Park
Mayumba National Park
Minkébé National Park
Moukalaba-Doudau National Park
Mwangné National Park
Pongara National Park
Waka National Park
Gambia
Abuko National Park
Bijilo National Park
Kiang West National Park
Niumi National Park
River Gambia National Park
Ghana
Life in Ghana, West Africa
Bia National Park
Bui National Park
Digya National Park
Kakum National Park
Kalakpa Game Production Reserve
Mole National Park
Nini-Suhien National Park
Guinea
Badiar National Park
Haut Niger National Park
Guinea-Bissau
Cacheu River National Park
João Vieira Marine Park
Orango Islands National Park
Lesotho
Sehlabathebe National Park— a remote mountain reserve great for hiking with rare wildlife, impressive waterfalls, and ancient rock paintings and stone shelters
Malawi
Lake Malawi National Park — pictured above
Kasungu National Park
Lengwe National Park
Liwonde National Park
Nyika National Park— a large highland national park in Malawi
Mozambique
A Nyala Antelope in Mozambique
Gorongosa National Park
Limpopo National Park
Namibia
Antelopes in a flowers meadow in Etosha National Park, Namibia
Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park — including the Fish River Canyon Park
Bwabwata National Park — composed by ex “Caprivi Game Park” and ex “Mahango Game Reserve”
Etosha National Park — abundant wildlife in the “big white place”
Fish River Canyon Park — the second largest canyon in the world
Khaudum National Park— maybe the most remote of all Namibian national parks, known for its tourist-terrorizing elephants
Mudumu National Park
Namib-Naukluft National Park— contains the famous Sossusvlei valley and the world’s highest dunes
Nkasa Lupala National Park
Skeleton Coast National Park
Waterberg Plateau Park— another good place to watch wildlife
Niger
W National Park — also called W of the Niger National Park spanning Niger, Benin & Burkina Faso
Nigeria
Zebra is common across sub-sharan Africa
Chad Basin National Park
Cross River National Park (Okavango and Oban sections)
Gashaka-Gumti National Park
Kainji National Park (Borgu and Zugurma sections)
Kamuku National Park
Okomu National Park
Old Oyo National Park
Yankari National Park
Rwanda
Rwanda is the best place in the world to see Silverback Gorillas
Akagera National Park
Volcanoes National Park— in Rwanda is full of impressive rainforest and volcanic scenery of the Virunga Mountains and is perhaps the best place in the world to see rare mountain gorillas. Across the border, in Uganda, it is known as Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.
Gishwati Forest
Nyungwe Forest National Park
São Tomé and Príncipe
Obo National Park
Senegal
Basse Casamance National Park
Isles des Madeleines National Park
Langue de Barbarie National Park
Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary
Niokolo-Koba National Park
Saloum Delta National Park
Seychelles
A beach in Seychelles
Curieuse Marine National Park
Morne Seychellois National Park
Praslin National Park
Ste. Anne Marine National Park
Sierra Leone
Gola Rainforest National Park
Outamba-Kilimi National Park
Western Area National Park
Somalia
Daallo Mountain
Hargeisa National Park
Hobyo grasslands and shrublands
Jilib National Park
Kismayo National Park
Lag Badana National Park
South Africa
A Yellow Billed Hornbill in the mountains of Pilanesberg in South Africa
Addo Elephant National Park
Agulhas National Park
Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
Augrabies Falls National Park
Bontebok National Park
Camdeboo National Park
Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Karoo National Park
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Knysna National Lake Area
Kruger National Park
Mapungubwe National Park
Marakele National Park
Mokala National Park
Mountain Zebra National Park
Namaqua National Park
Table Mountain National Park
Tankwa Karoo National Park
Tsitsikamma National Park
West Coast National Park
Wilderness National Park
Hluhluwe–iMfolozi Park
South Sudan
Bandingilo National Park
Boma National Park
Nimule National Park
Southern National Park
Nile Crocodile in Sudan
Sudan
Dinder National Park
Lantoto National Park
Radom National Park
Suakin Archipelago National Park
Swaziland
Hlane Royal National Park – known for its Rhinos
Tanzania
An Elephant Family in Serengeti, Tanzania
Arusha National Park
Gombe Stream National Park
Mount Kilimanjaro National Park
Lake Manyara National Park
Mahale Mountains
Mikumi National Park
Mkomazi Game Reserve
Ngorongoro Conservancy
Ruaha National Park
Rubondo Island National Park
Serengeti National Park— the biggest national park in Tanzania, perhaps the archetypal African game park; becomes the Maasai Mara National Reserve over the border in Kenya
Selous Game Reserve
Tarangire National Park— one of the best places in the world to see lions
Togo
Fazao-Malfakassa National Park
Fosse aux Lions National Park
Kéran National Park
Tunisia
Bou-Hedma National Park
Boukornine National Park
Chaambi National Park
El Feidja National Park
Ichkeul National Park
Jebil National Park
Sidi Toui National Park
Zembra and Zembretta Islands National Park
Uganda
A mountain Gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Kabelaga National Park
Kidepo Valley National Park
Murchison Falls National Park
Queen Elizabeth National Park
Rwenzori National Park — home of the almost mythical, otherworldly scenery of the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda
Zambia
Blue Lagoon National Park— very accessible
Kafue National Park— the largest national park of the country
Lavushi Manda National Park
Liuwa plains National Park
Lochinvar National Park— excellent for bird watching
Lower Zambezi National Park
Luambe National Park— used to be the president’s private game reserve, now pristine wilderness without mass tourism
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park
Nsumbu National Park— used to be very popular in the 1970s but has declined in the last decades
North Luangwa National Park— one of Africa’s great safari destinations
Nyika National Park
South Luangwa National Park
Zimbabwe
Victoria Falls National Park— one of the world’s largest waterfalls (pictured above)
Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings.
Below are some of Thoreau’s thoughts on travel and being present in time. We hope you’ll enjoy this selection just as much we enjoyed compiling it for you.
You Don’t Need Money to Travel
One [of my friend] says to me, “I wonder that you do not lay up money [but yet] you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg today and see the country.”
But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is 30 miles; the fare 90 cents. That is almost a day’s wages.
Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the mean while have earned your fare, and arrive there some time tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season.
Living Deliberately
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
On Wandering in the Wild
Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him. One who pressed forward incessantly and never rested from his labors, who grew fast and made infinite demands on life, would always find himself in a new country or wilderness, and surrounded by the raw material of life. He would be climbing over the prostrate stems of primitive forest trees.
I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.
Our Perception Changes
There is hardly anything that shows the short-sightedness or capriciousness of the imagination more than traveling does. With change of place we change our ideas; nay, our opinions and feelings. We can by an effort, indeed, transport ourselves to old and long-forgotten scenes, and then the picture of the mind revives again; but we forget those that we have just left.
It seems that we can think but of one place at a time. The canvas of the fancy is but of a certain extent, and if we paint one set of objects upon it, they immediately efface every other. We cannot enlarge our conceptions, we only shift our point of view.
The landscape bares its bosom to the enraptured eye; we take our fill of it, and seem as if we could form no other image of beauty or grandeur. We pass on, and think no more of it: the horizon that shuts it from our sight also blots it from our memory like a dream.
In traveling through a wild, barren country, I can form no idea of a woody and cultivated one. It appears to me that all the world must be barren, like what I see of it. In the country, we forget the town, and in town we despise the country.
The Pleasure of Traveling
I have all my life delighted in traveling, though I have never enjoyed that pleasure upon a large scale. Wood, water, wilderness itself had an inexpressible charm for me, and I had a dreamy way of going much farther than I intended, so that unconsciously my return was protracted, and my parents had sometimes serious cause of uneasiness.
On Taking Long Walks in Nature
It is true we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises. Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearth-side from which we set out. Half the work is but retracing our steps.
We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return—prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms.
If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again—if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for a walk.
I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend 4 hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.
I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh hour of four o’clock in the afternoon, too late to redeem the day, when the shades of night were already beginning to be mingled with the daylight, have felt as if I had committed some sin to be atoned for,—I confess that I am astonished at the power of endurance, to say nothing of the moral insensibility, of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops and offices the whole day for weeks and months, ay, and years almost together.
The New World
Sir Francis Head, an English traveller and a Governor-General of Canada, tells us that:
“In both the northern and southern hemispheres of the New World, Nature has not only outlined her words on a larger scale, but has painted the whole picture with brighter and more costly colors than she used in delineating and in beautifying the Old World. The heavens of America appear infinitely higher, the sky is bluer, the air is fresher, the cold is intenser, the moon looks larger, the stars are brighter, the thunder is louder, the lightning is vivider, the wind is stronger, the rain is heavier, the mountains are higher, the rivers longer, the forests bigger, the plains broader.”
The Joy of Nothingness
Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller’s wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time.
I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance.
I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished.
The Cost of Anything
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
If you are like us, chances are you love road trips and you want to visit all the National Parks in the United States. But, the United States is a vast landmass and if you work a full-time job or run a business, you have limited vacation days. Plus, traveling requires planning and money.
In 2019, we finished our quest to visit all 50 US States as “the First non-US born Couple”. During our 5 years long adventure, we made numerous road trips, drove more than 15,000 miles, visited more than 100 US Cities, and explore over 30 National Parks.
We thought, sharing our journey will be a helpful resource for other wanderlusters who are planning a similar adventure.
Death Valley National Park, Nevada
US National Parks Road Trips
Before we jump into the best ways to visit the America’s National Parks and various google maps routes, let’s take a quick step back and reorient ourselves on what is our goal here.
The goal here is to visit most (if not all) of the US National Parks.
There are 61 National Parks in the United States. If you’ll try to drive to all of them in one stretch, it will be more than 15,000 miles of driving and it will easily take you over 3 months. But, we are not going to propose that. Enjoying nature is opposite of rushing!
Therefore, the purpose of this guide is to help you save money and time while enjoying the beauty of the North American continent. It’s not a record making or breaking quest, it’s a carefully thought-out itinerary for anyone who has a busy life and day-to-day responsibilities. Jobs, businesses, family, health concerns, and so on.
Depending on where you live or if you are flying from abroad, you can start anywhere (on any of the loops) and then make your way towards Eastcoast, Westcoast, Midwest, or the South.
West Coast National Parks Road Trips Itinerary
Since California has the most National Parks in the contiguous United States, let’s start here.
Below is the trip we planned for ourselves along with our friends who live in the San Jose area. Please note, we live in Boston (on the opposite coast) and the tickets to San Francisco is usually the cheapest among all California airports. So, we made San Fransisco as our start and end point.
Depending on where you are coming from or if you happen to live in California or Oregon, you can tweak the journey to your liking and whatever best suits your situation.
California National Parks Road Trip Itinerary
Since California has 8 National Parks and it’s one of the largest state, this loop only consists of California National Parks.
Pacific North-West National Parks Road Trip Itinerary
This loop includes the States of Washington and Oregon on the west-coast, and the states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
We flew to Seattle from Boston and started south. Portland city should not be missed and there are plenty of scenery near Bend so we added those as out stops. Crater Lake National Park is a short drive from Bend.
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
In Idaho, we made Boise our night stops and Idaho Falls as a stop for Grand Teton National Park.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
From the Grand Teton, you head directly north into the Yellowstone National Park and you should give it at least 2 days. There is just too much to see here. Also, note that in terms of the size, Yellowstone is larger than the state of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
Continuing north, we passed through Choteau and made East Glacier village our pit stop for entry into the Montana’s crown, Glacier National Park. Again, the weather is unpredictable and allow yourself a few extra days so you don’t miss the breathtaking beauty of many green, blue, and turquoise colored glacier-fed lakes.
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
After that, you can head west and if you want you can explore Spokane on your way. Continue further west to North Cascades National Park, then head south to Seattle. Then explore Olympic National Park and Rainer National Parks.
Visit the Space Needle and the famous fish and farmers marker – Pike Place.
Next, we flew to Las Vegas from Boston (the tickets are usually cheap to Vegas from almost anywhere in the United States). This time, we focused on the great Canyons of Arizona and the remaining wonders of Utah, including Westworld’s Monument Valley.
The above two loops gives 12 National Parks which brings your totals to 27/61. This is getting exciting, isn’t it! You have just made 4 trips from your home base (wherever it may be) and you are already 44% done towards your milestone!
The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah
Minneapolis National Parks Road Trip
This time we flew from Boston to Minneapolis as the tickets are again usually cheap and it’s the biggest airport for the next 5 National Parks road trip loop.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota is the best place to see wild bisons and wild horses. Whereas Wind Cave and Badlands in South Dakota is a unique geographical wonders.
Bisons in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
Minneapolis and Michigan bordering with Canada and surrounded by the Great Lakes is amazing during the summer time.
Talk about driving across the entire country from the comfort of your own rental car or RV. After making this 5th trip, you are more than halfway done. Your totals after visiting the above 5 National Parks now stand at 32/61.
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
You have now visited more than half of all National Parks in the United States. Congratulations!
Let’s shift gears and head to the South now for a long road trip before we continue our journey into the Midwest and Northeast and Atlantic South.
Phoenix or Albuquerque National Parks Road Trip
This last trip will wrap up everything in the South, Pacific Northwest, the Rockies, and the West Coast. And you have two choices in terms of where you want to start and finish your road trip: Phoenix, Arizona or Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Depending on whether you are flying in or driving and whichever city seems to be nearer and cheaper, you can pick either one and do this loop. You have 5 National Parks to cover in this trip:
Petrified Forest National Park, Saguaro National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and Big Bend National Park. Two in Arizona, one in New Mexico, and two in Texas. (If you wondering where is Grand Canyon, scroll above to Las Vegas National Parks Road Trip loop.)
You have now 37 national parks out of 61 total. 😉 Talk about wandering around!
The Big St. Louis National Parks Road Trip Loop
The goal of this big road trip is to finish everything remaining except the National Parks of Alaska (eight), Hawaii (two), Florida (three), and Maine (one). By doing this almost 3500 miles long loop, you’ll end up with 47 National Parks out of 61 total.
Now, that’s almost near-80% finished! And, you are just 4 trips away from finishing your adventure.
In the above loop, you have got two newest National Parks of the United States, the St. Louis Gateway Arch and Indiana Dunes in Indiana. On this trip, you’ll also pass through great cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Memphis.
Florida National Parks
Florida has three National Parks. Everyone has heard of Everglades National Park and the gators but did you know, Florida also has two marine area that are protected National Parks: Biscayne and Dry Tortugas.
Alligator in Everglades National Park, Florida
You can fly to Miami and then rent a car and drive to Everglades. Then drive back to Miami and then drive to Biscayne National Park. In the end, head to the Key West and explore Dry Tortugas National Park.
Now you are “50 National Parks visited” kind of person.
Acadia National Park, Maine
Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park, Maine
For your 51st National Park, fly to Boston or Portland, Maine and then drive to Bar Harbor, Maine and enjoy the scenic beauty of Acadia National Park. It’s amazing during the Fall colors.
Since we live in Boston, we have been to Acadia numerous times and in all seasons. Maine has a beautiful coastline and Acadia is the crown jewel.
Woohoo! Congratulations! You have just finished 51/61 and all of the National Parks in the Contiguous United States.
You can pat on your back and take a moment to allow yourself to celebrate. This is quite a milestone! Not many people have seen this beautiful country coast-to-coast and you are among the lucky few!
Alaska National Parks
Fly to Anchorage and rent a car and visit the four national parks near the Anchorage region. These are: Lake Clark National Park, Katmai National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and Kenai Fjords National Park.
Then head south to Juneau, Alaska to visit Glacier Bay National Park. It’s accessible only by ship or plane.
Next, head north to Denali National Park and then continue further north to the Gates of the Arctic National Park. Upon return, either from Fairbanks or Anchorage, you may want to take a flight to the last remaining national park in Alaska, Kobuk Valley National Park.
Denali National Park, Alaska
Hawaii National Parks
What could be a better a place to finish this epic adventure than in Hawaii. Hawaii was the 50th state of the US and it has 4 major islands that everyone visits to: Oahu, Big Island, Maui, and Kauai.
For the National Parks adventure, you’ll be visiting Maui and the Big Island (also called as Hawaii). In Maui, you have Haleakala National Park, and on the Big Island, you have Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park.
Congratulations once again, now you have visited all 61 US National Parks!
A girl who had a learning disability but did not give up, instead she became a risk-taker.
Born in Minnesota, and graduated from St Paul Academy and Summit School she eventually became a wilderness instructor. She was the only women to go on the International North Pole Expedition on sleds.
It was just the beginning of an exciting journey. She crossed both polar Ice caps- North and South, her obsession with The Poles did not diminish.
She conducted the first-ever all-female expedition to the South Pole. Other than being a feminist, she is also a staunch supporter of the LGBT Community.
Explorers are those who dare to tread on the unholy ground. Daniel Boone – started a trade which gained popularity.
He went game hunting, then he sold the pelts in the fur market. Boone became the first American to settle west of Appalachian Mountains.
The route which he marked became the Wilderness Road- filled with attacks from Shawnee Tribes. Where Boone settled later became home to 20,0000 Americans, and it was Kentucky.
Boone had guts to trail through the paths that nobody ever touched, and in doing so, he discovered something worthy. He also founded the village Boonesborough in Kentucky after himself.
RICHARD MOHUN
Born in Washington D.C, Mohun became a commercial agent for U. S in Congo and Angola. During his work as a commercial agent, he led a campaign against the Arabian slaves. He subsequently became counsel to Zanzibar.
His three-year posting here made him middle-man between rivals in the Anglo- Zanzibar war. Seeing his dedication, the Belgian Government gave him an assignment which he happily accepted.
He had to layout a telegraph line from Lake Tanganyika to Wadelai on the White Nile. His ship- Sir Harry Johnson took him from Zanzibar to Africa.
On their way, his crew faced a lot of problems- from cannibals to laying the long transmission lines. It took him three years to do so, and he was the only one standing alive at the end of the expedition.
FREDERICK COOK
Despite the reputation of a Failed Explorer Frederick Cook has some wins under his belts. His clash with Robert Peary did not help his image. And whatever he claimed to achieve, got denied by Peary.
When Cook claimed that he reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908, a year before Robert Peary, his accounts were not trustworthy. His claim of climbing the Mt. Denali is also denied, the picture which portrays the Fake Peak- is the photo of a small peak 19 miles away from Mt. Denali.
But after all the denials there is one truth that proves Frederick Cook did go in an expedition to the North Pole but whether he reached is a big question mark. He discovered the first and only American Arctic Island- Meighen Island.
WILLIAM CLARK
Clark- a native of Virginia joined Military and took part in the Northwest Indian War. But at the age of 26, he retired because of his poor health. After six years in Mulberry Hill, Louisville he, Meriwether Lewis recruited William for Corps of Discovery.
The mission of this expedition was to establish trade with Native Americans, explore the territory of Louisiana, find a waterway from the US to the Pacific Ocean. In the Pacific, Coast Clark became the tough slave owner, but the indigenous people respected him.
Sacagawea was the lone woman in the team of Lewis and Clark Expedition. Born as Shoshone, she got kidnapped at the age of 12. She was the slave wife of the Toussaint Charbonneau who accompanied Lewis and Clark. Sacagawea knew how to speak Shoshone. Hence Lewis and Clark thought it was a good idea to hire Charbonneau as his wife speaks Shoshone.
When they headed for the expedition from the port, Sacagawea was pregnant. Both Clark and Lewis nick-named her baby Pompy. She was the lady who guided Lewis and Clark through every basin, mountain pass and gave them the optimal route.
KIT CARSON
A vagabond in nature, he truly outdid any other explorer of his time. Carson came from a humble family in rural Missouri. At the age of 16, he went to become a mountain man.
Later, after accompanying Ewin Young in his Mexican California Expedition, he became a fur trapper.
His marriage in the Rocky Mountains was to Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.The next ten years passed in a flash when he guided John C. Fremont through California, Oregon, and Great Basin area, giving us the Oregon Trail.
ROBERT EDWIN PEARY
While Cook’s claim of reaching the North Pole is fraud, Peary’s claim became null in 1913. After careful evaluation of his accounts, we know that he never really reached the North Pole. He was just 60 miles away from it.
Though his desire remained unfulfilled, he took eight expeditions to the North Pole. His every attempt was to get closer to the North Pole.
His first expedition in 1886 was to Greenland, he decided to travel solo using a sled, but a Danish Official Maigaard convinced that it is suicide to visit the North Pole alone. 1891 to 1909 – he took four expeditions, of which last two were solely to reach the North Pole.
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK
He worked for the militia in the American Revolutionary War and made valuable contributions by capturing – Vincennes and Kaskaskia.
This led to the British ceding the power of North West. He also led the opening engagements of Northwest Indian War.
There were accusations against him drinking while on duty, which forced him to resign. In later years he led the Lewis and Clark expedition through the Pacific Coast.
His knowledge of the west’s natural history gained him many students like John Pope and John James Audurbon.
DONALD BAXTER MACMILLAN
Born in Massachusetts, Macmillan became a world-class explorer of the Arctic. He studied geology at Bowdoin College. And he went on his first expedition with none other than Robert Peary. After than explorations became a daily thing for him.
In his 46 year career, he went on 30 expeditions. He was the first to introduce the use of radios, electricity, and plane in Arctic.
And he also studied flora and fauna of the Arctic, bringing back with him samples and photos of the Arctic scenery. He took his last expedition when he was 82, and he died thirteen years after that.
We all worry about what do we write in our captions, that it does not seem too long and yet informs about the excitement we feel while traveling.
Below are some beautiful Instagram captions – which are short and sweet for letting the world know that you are traveling and killing it!
1) I got 99 problems, but traveling ain’t one. 2) I have an insane calling to be where I’m not. 3) I read, I travel, I become. 4) I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world. 5) It is bad manners to keep a vacation waiting.
6) I want to vacation so long, I forget all my passwords. 7) Come on, we are never too old for a good trip. 8) Traveling leaves you speechless. 9) Hooked on this city! 10) Tasting our way around the world one glass at a time.
11) A picture is worth a thousand calories. 12) I have restless soul syndrome. 13) Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder. 14) I am in love with cities I have never been to. 15) Puns are cool, beaches are cool, combining them is also cool.
16) When in doubt, Vacation. 17) I have got the dreamers disease. 18) A change in latitude would help my attitude. 19) Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit. 20) Every single moment is an adventure.
21) Every exit is an entry somewhere. 22) Let us wander where the Wi-Fi is weak. 23) Backpacking is the best cure for paranoia. 24) When traveling, Go local! 25) Nothing teaches better than the world, Travel it, learn it!
26) True places are never on a map, dare to explore beyond. 27) There is nothing a road-trip can’t cure. 28) The journey never ends, it is always in your memories. 29) Gypsy souls- make everyone their tribe, and the whole world their native land. 30) Wanderer with a touch of swag.
Happy New Year! You have hit the reset button and you get to start fresh. Congratulations, you have made it to the new year, a new beginning in many ways.
This morning, on January 1st, Neha and I brainstormed and discussed how can we make this year a little different and more interesting than any of the previous years.
A New ‘New Year’
We didn’t want to do any new year’s resolutions this time. Like, lose another 10 pounds or travel to 6 new countries kinda common, boring, silly stuff.
This year, we wanted to do something fun and inspirational. Something that can be replicated by anyone and can be measured and therefore hold us accountable.
After drinking a gallon of water to flush all the alcohol from our system from the last night’s new year’s eve party, and peeing around 15 times, we were finally hit with a lightbulb moment.
We thought of how we can turn an ordinary year into a transformational year. Something that is both fun and motivational for our travel-addict community.
We had a nicely brewed cappuccino by the window while we enjoyed the sunny Boston afternoon. We discussed what challenges are practically doable by most people and beneficial to the doer even if they fail. We brainstormed and selected the following ideas.
One month of eating only at home or home-cooked meal
One month of no Netflix and TV
One month of daily reading for at least 30 minutes
One month of daily mindfulness meditation for at least 20 minutes
One month of doing a random act of kindness
No soda, no alcohol, no caffeine
Monthly Challenges Breakdown
January – one month without alcohol and soda
February – one month of being total Vegan
March – one month of sugar detox
April – one month of running 1 mile each day
May – one month of yoga every day
June – one month of social media detox
July – one month of caffeine detox
August – one month of eating only at home or home cooked meal
September – one month of no Netflix and TV
October – one month of daily reading for at least 30 minutes
November – one month of daily mindfulness meditation for at least 20 minutes
December – one month of doing a random act of kindness
Well, this is going to be both fun and tough.
That said, we want to encourage you to make your own list of challenges and play along with us.
A new day, a new start
Benefits of Monthly Challenges
Whether it’s writing a novel in 30 days or doing 30 days of yoga or 30 days of running or 30 days of detoxing, there is a good reason that 30 days challenges are getting popular. I believe:
Monthly challenges are a great way to instill new healthy habits
Anyone can commit to doing anything for 30 days
The 30 days duration is neither too long nor too short
A monthly schedule is easy to track and follow
These can be turned into fun group activities and can be viewed as games
Well, the clock is already ON. Let’s get started and motivate each other!
Challenge Your Friends
Please share your progress and lessons learned from each challenge on the social media of your choice or just comment below.
Enjoy some of the greatest travel quotes and allow yourself to be seduced by the spirit of wanderlust and vivid imaginations of adventures in far and distant lands.
Each quote will gently guide you to listen closely to your own heart.
201 Greatest Travel Quotes
1) “Bury me where I die.” ― Jane Bulos
2) “Travelers are dreamers who make their desires for adventure a reality.” – Anonymous
3) “When something good happens, travel to celebrate. If something bad happens, travel to forget. If nothing happens, travel to make something happen.” – Anonymous
4) “The Travel impulse is a mental and a physical curiosity. It is a passion. And I can’t understand people who don’t want to travel.” – Paul Theroux
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
5) “Some of us just need more Vitamin Sea.” – Salil Jha
6) “To travel is to evolve.” – Pierre Bernardo
7) “This heart of mine was made to travel the world.” – Anonymous
8) “I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable.” – Carew Papritz
9) “My goal is to run out of pages in my passport.” – Anonymous
10) “To live will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan
11) “The traveler’s rush that hits you upon arrival to a new place is like a drug. And like a drug, the more you expose yourself to it, the more you want it.” – Clayton B Cornell
12) “My passport is screaming to be stamped.” – Cherie Oke
13) “This is your planet; you should really come see it sometime.” – Anonymous
14) “My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.” – Diane Arbus
15) “Travel is my therapy.” – Anonymous
16) “We travel, some of us, forever to seek other places, other lives and other souls.” – Anais Nin
17) “I travel because seeing photos in books and brochures wasn’t good enough for me. To be there was everything.” – Wiremu Ratcliffe
18) “If traveling was free, you would never see me again.” – Anonymous
19) “A traveler is active; he goes strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sightseeing”.” – Daniel J. Boorstin
20) “I depart, whither I know not; but the hour’s gone by when Albion’s lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.” – Lord Byron
21) “Travel brings power and love back to your life.” – Rumi
22) “In traveling, I shape myself betimes to idleness and take fools’ pleasure.” – George Eliot
23) “I have been a stranger in a strange land.” – Exodus 2:22
24) “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.” ― Robert Frost
25) “The man journeyed far, and he heard and saw many strange things on his travels. He learned that – the friend and the enemy are but two faces of the same self. That the path one believes chosen long since, constant and unchangeable, straight and wide, can alter in an instant. Can branch, and twist and lead the traveler to places far beyond his wildest imaginings. That there are mysteries beyond the mind of mortal man, and that to deny their existence is to spend a life of half-consciousness.” ― Juliet Marillier
26) “Not all those who wander are lost.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
27) “I love to escape to wild places – forests, mountains, rivers or the sea. If that’s not possible, I flee into books; vicarious travel is rejuvenating.” ― Jane Wilson-Howarth
28) “Foolish acts and bold adventures almost always appear, especially in the beginning, to be the absolute same thing.” ― Leigh Ann Henion
29) “As you travel along the roads in life, there is a certain kind of peace that comes with knowing you’re on the right path. And when you are faced with adversity, it challenges you but makes you stronger. The road is not always an easy route. Nevertheless, you must not allow your fears to keep you from reaching the destination.” ― Amaka Imani Nkosazana
30) “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
31) “Little by little, one travels far.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
32) “Let your life reveal its lessons. Follow your heart, as it will not lead you astray. Find your passion and let its energy run through you in ways you have never experienced. With that, your real life will begin.” ― Angela Bushman
33) “Our homes travel with us. They are wherever we feel loved and accepted.” ― Kamand Kojouri
34) “As is often the case when I travel, my vulnerability — like not knowing what the hell I’m going to do upon arrival — makes me more open to outside interactions than I might be when I’m at home and think I know best what needs to be done. On the road, serendipity is given space to enter my life.” ― Andrew McCarthy
35) “You are only given one life, one chance at fully living it…take risks, believe in your dreams, explore the world and her people, live out loud!” ― Danell Lynn
36) “Travel is rebellion in its purest form. We follow our heart. We free ourselves of labels. We lose control willingly. We love the unfamiliar. We trust strangers. We own only what we can carry. We search for better questions, not answers. We truly graduate. And, sometimes, we choose never to come back.” ― Anonymous
37) “Not all journeys seek an end. Some are their own purpose.” ― Una McCormack
38) “I’d learned so much from traveling to familiar places that I figured I’d learn twice as much by going to a place I knew nothing about.” ― Gerry Abbey
39) “We are the roads we travel. The choices we make are everything.” ― Megan Duke
40) “There are those who travel but never really arrive. Those who visit a place but never know the people. Travel is so much more when you get closer to life and how it is lived here, wherever here may be. I am moving into the unknown to come into being at home wherever I find myself. Individually, inspired, and imaginative.” ― Anna Asche
41) “I Travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” ― C. Stinnett
42) “Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” ― David Mitchell
43) “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence, but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” ― Henry Ward Beecher
44) “I was an adventurer, but she was not an adventuress. She was a ‘wanderess’. Thus, she didn’t care about money, only experiences – whether they came from wealth or from poverty, it was all the same to her.” ― Roman Payne
45) “Chaos is more freedom; in fact, total freedom. But no meaning. I want to be free to act, and I also want my actions to mean something.” ― Audrey Niffenegger
46) “Never did the world make a queen of a girl who hides in houses and dreams without traveling.” ― Roman Payne
47) “Travel is never a matter of money but of courage.” ― Paulo Coelho
48) “By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.” ― Virginia Woolf
50) “I’m inspired by the people I meet in my travels–hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I’m inspired by the love people have for their children. And I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.” ― Barack Obama
51) “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” ― Pico Iyer
52) “Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light, but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
53) “Be fearless. Have the courage to take risks. Go where there are no guarantees. Get out of your comfort zone even if it means being uncomfortable. The road less traveled is sometimes fraught with barricades bumps and uncharted terrain. But it is on that road where your characters is truly tested and have the courage to accept that you’re not perfect nothing is and no one is — and that’s OK.” ― Katie Couric
54) “There ain’t no journey what don’t change you some.” ― David Mitchell
55) “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” ― Carl Sagan
56) “Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.” ― Maya Angelou
57) “Life is simple. Open your heart, mind, and arms to new things and people, we are united in our differences. Ask the next person you see what their passion is and share your inspiring dream with them. Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself. Some opportunities only come once, seize them. Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them, so go out and start creating. Life is short, live your dream and wear your passion.” ― Holstee Manifesto
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
58) “As for you girls, you must risk everything for Freedom, and give everything for Passion, loving everything that your hearts and your bodies love. The only thing higher for a girl and more sacred for a young woman than her freedom and her passion should be her desire to make her life into poetry, surrendering everything she has to create a life as beautiful as the dreams that dance in her imagination.” ― Roman Payne
59) “Another year is fast approaching. Go be that starving artist you’re afraid to be. Open up that journal and get poetic finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel. You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put here to be part of a vast organism to explore and create. Stop putting it off. The world has much more to offer than what’s on 15 televisions at TGI Fridays. Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene. Be the change you want to see in the world.” ― Jason Mraz
60) “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” ― Christopher McCandless
61) “Although time seems to fly, it never travels faster than one day at a time. Each day is a new opportunity to live your life to the fullest. In each waking day, you will find scores of blessings and opportunities for positive change. Do not let your TODAY be stolen by the unchangeable past or the indefinite future! Today is a new day!” ― Steve Maraboli
62) “There are several ways to react to being lost. One is to panic: this was usually Valentina’s first impulse. Another is to abandon yourself to lostness, to allow the fact that you’ve misplaced yourself to change the way you experience the world.” ― Audrey Niffenegger
63) “It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently-that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.” ― Anne Lamott
64) “No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet.” ― Patrick Rothfuss
65) “The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.” ― Anne Lamott
66) “Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.” ― Robert Macfarlane
67) “You can’t control the past, but you can control where you go next.” ― Kirsten Hubbard
68) “You told me once of the plants that lie dormant through the drought, that wait, half-dead, deep in the earth. The plants that wait for the rain. You said they’d wait for years, if they had to; that they’d almost kill themselves before they grew again. But as soon as those first drops of a waterfall, those plants begin to stretch and spread their roots. They travel up through the soil and sand to reach the surface.” ― Lucy Christopher
69) “Most people fail at whatever they attempt because of an undecided heart. Should I? Should I not? Go forward? Go back? Success requires the emotional balance of a committed heart. When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape. A committed heart does not wait for conditions to be exactly right. Why? Because conditions are never exactly right.” ― Andy Andrews
70) “Everything will be alright in the end so if it is not alright it is not the end.” ― Deborah Moggach
71) “The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown.” ― Paul Theroux
72) “By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.” ― Virginia Woolf
73) “When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys, and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use their best efforts to help their fellow travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers who must live a common life and die a common death.” ― Clarence Darrow
74) “I want my life to be the greatest story. My very existence will be the greatest poem. Watch me burn.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
75) “Along your pathway of life you will observe that you are not the only traveler. There are others who need your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save.” ― Thomas S. Monson
76) “To wander is to be alive.” ― Roman Payne
77) “Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.” ― Yogi Bhajan
78) “Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” ― Bashō Matsuo
79) “It is better to travel aimlessly than to sit idle and daydream about a perfect vacation.” ― Salil Jha
80) “One day in my shoes and a day for me in your shoes, the beauty of travel lies in the ease and willingness to be more open.” ― Forrest Curran
81) “When you travel, you are with yourself. You can’t carry your belongings, your home, your past. Long-term travel is a form of meditation and a life of simplicity.” – Salil Jha
82) “If you want to be a minimalist – travel.” – Salil Jha
83) “With maps and globes decorated around your room as a child and with passport and ticket in hand in the present, it is your world to explore. To travel is to ask for a complex mix of the new and the old, hellos and goodbyes, and sadness and happiness. Leave your shoes behind at home and to walk in the footsteps of others for a while.” ― Forrest Curran
84) “Sure, the Leaning Tower of Pisa leaned like everyone else said it would, the mountains of Tibet were more beautiful than you had ever expected, and the Pyramids of Egypt stood mysteriously in the sea of sand like in the pictures; yet is it the environment or rather the openness in mindset, that makes up the elusive essence of happiness that we experience when we travel?” ― Forrest Curran
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
85) “Is the sunrise of Mount Fuji more beautiful from the one you see in the countryside a bit closer to home? Are the beaches of Indonesia really that much more serene than those we have in our own countries? The point I make is not to downplay the marvels of the world, but to highlight the notion of the human tendency in our failure to see the beauty in our daily lives when we take off the travel goggles when we are home. It is the preconceived notion of a place that creates the difference in perception of environments rather than the actual geological location.” ― Forrest Curran
86) “The beauty of traveling is understood along the way rather than at the end of the journey, just as the purpose of marriage isn’t about becoming Mr. and Mrs.’s, but is about the love that is expressed on a daily basis between two lovers. A journey is not made up of the destinations that we arrive at, but is composed with every step we take.” ― Forrest Curran
87) “It is enough to think that we are mortals and that today may be our last. Live to the fullest while you are alive. Explore, try, travel.” – Salil Jha
88) “I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” ― Oliver Sacks
89) “It is better to travel, than to arrive.” ― Gautama Buddha
90) “I am not going to seek employment again, that is for certain. To live a short life and being told what to do, when to do, and how to do is not a safe life but an absurd life. Quitting servitude is the first step towards freedom and a chance for achieving an extraordinary life.” – Salil Jha
91) “Wandering is the activity of the child, the passion of the genius; it is the discovery of the self, the discovery of the outside world, and the learning of how the self is both “at one with” and “separate from” the outside world. These discoveries are as fundamental to the soul as “learning to survive” is fundamental to the body. These discoveries are essential to realizing what it means to be human. To wander is to be alive.” ― Roman Payne
92) “Just as a painter paints, and a ponderer ponders, a writer writes, and a wanderer wanders.” ― Roman Payne
93) “When I die, I want your hands on my eyes. I want the light and heat of your beloved hands to pass their freshness over me. Once more I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny. I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep. I want your ears still to hear the wind; I want you to sniff the sea’s aroma that we loved together, to continue to walk on the sand we walk on. I want what I love to continue to live, and you whom I love and sang above everything else to continue to flourish, full-flowered. So that you can reach everything my love directs you to. So that my shadow can travel along in your hair, so that everything can learn the reason for my song.” ― Pablo Neruda
94) “God always brings someone into your life that has traveled the same path and knows the rocks you climbed to get to the end of the trail.” ― Shannon L. Alder
95) “To travel a circle is to journey over the same ground time and time again. To travel a circle wisely is to journey over the same ground for the first time. In this way, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the circle, a path to where you wish to be. And when you notice at last that the path has circled back into itself, you realize that where you wish to be is where you have already been … and always were.” ― Neale Donald Walsch
96) “The overdressed traveler betrays more interest in being seen than in seeing, while the true traveler knows that the novel world about her serves as the most appropriate accessory.” ― Gregory Maguire
97) “Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone’s home and backyard.” ― Vera Nazarian
98) “If you can’t travel, read. Reading is like travel, allowing you to exit your own life for a bit, and to come back with a renewed, even inspired, perspective.” ― Laurie A. Helgoe
99) “Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis
100) “It’s hard to go. It’s scary and lonely…and half the time you’ll be wondering why the hell you’re in Cincinnati or Austin or North Dakota or Mongolia or wherever your melodious little finger-plucking heinie takes you. There will be boondoggles and discombobulated days, freaked-out nights and metaphorical flat tires. But it will be soul-smashingly beautiful… It will open up your life.” ― Cheryl Strayed
101) “The explorer who will not come back or send back his ships to tell his tale is not an explorer, only an adventurer; and his sons are born in exile.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
102) “Bad, or good, as it happens to be, that is what it is to exist! To sail into an unknown spring, or receive one’s baptism on storm’s promontory, where the solitary albatross heels over in the gale, and at last come to land. To know the earth under one’s foot and go, in wild delight, ways where there is water.” ― Malcolm Lowry
103) “Real travel would be to see the world, for even an instant, with another’s eyes.” ― Robyn Davidson
104) “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, but I chose neither one. Instead, I set sail in my little boat to watch a sunset from a different view that couldn’t be seen from shore. Then I climbed the tallest mountain peak to watch the amber sun through the clouds. Finally, I traveled to the darkest part of the valley to see the last glimmering rays of light through the misty fog. It was every perspective I experienced on my journey that left the leaves trodden black, and that has made all the difference.” ― Shannon L. Alder
105) “This is what you should know about losing someone you love. They do not travel alone. You go with them.” ― Augusten Burroughs
106) “Let’s not just grow roots but also wings to fly.” ― Salil Jha
107) “I had always believed that I left a bit of me wherever I went. I also believed that I took a bit of every place with me. It was as if the act of touching these places, walking these roads, and asking these questions had added another column to my being. And the only possible explanation I could find for that feeling was that a spirit existed in many of the places I visited, and a spirit existed in me and the two had somehow met in the course of my travels. It’s as if the godliness of the land and the godliness of my being had fused.” ― Bruce Feiler
108) “Find something you love and go for it with all your heart. No excuses, no plan B. Never settle for anything less than you know you can do. It will be hard, but I promise it will be worth it.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
109) “Wanderlust is a form of curiosity. It is naturally human. You cannot keep it buried and expect it to never arise.” ― Salil Jha
110) “Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller’s wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished.” ― Henry David Thoreau
111) “One goes on a vacation to relax but one travels to satiate inquisitiveness.” ― Salil Jha
112) “Most of our life is encountering the expected, the normal; it is the encounter with the unexpected that teaches us the truth.” ― Salil Jha
113) “Roam abroad in the world, and take thy fill of its enjoyments before the day shall come when thou must quit it for good.” ― Saadi
114) “Goals are my north star. My compass. The map that guides me along the road I wish to travel. Goals are motivations with wind in their sails—they carry me forward despite the storms.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich
115) “Just as we are never too young for love, we are never too old to travel.” ― Salil Jha
116) “There is psychological pleasure in this takeoff, too, for the swiftness of the plane’s ascent is an exemplary symbol of transformation. The display of power can inspire us to imagine analogous, decisive shifts in our own lives, to imagine that we, too, might one day surge above much that now looms over us.” ― Alain de Botton
117) “I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I am going is what inspires me to travel it.” ― Rosalía de Castro
118) “But real life doesn’t travel in a perfect straight line; it doesn’t necessarily have that ‘all lived happily ever after’ bit. You have to work on where you’re going.” ― Chris Kyle
119) “No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection.” ― Patrick Rothfuss
120) “I have a terrible wanderthirst; the very sight of a map makes me want to put on my hat and take an umbrella and start. I shall see before I die the palms and temples of the South.” ― Jean Webster
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
121) “Meditation is an essential travel partner on your journey of personal transformation. Meditation connects you with your soul, and this connection gives you access to your intuition, your heartfelt desires, your integrity, and the inspiration to create a life you love.” ― Sarah McLean
122) “The only cure to all this madness; is too dream, far and wide, if possibility doesn’t knock, create a damn door. If the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t make it. If the journey you’re travelling seems to farfetched and wild beyond your imagination; continue on it, great things come to the risk takers. And last but not least, live today; here, right now, you’ll thank your future self for it later.” ― Nikki Rowe
123) “Cutting my roots and leaving my home and family when I was 18 years old forced me to build my home in other things, like my music, stories and my journey. The last years I have more or less constantly been on my way, on the road, always leaving and never arriving, which also means leaving people. I’ve loved and lost and I have regrets and I miss and no matter how many times you leave, start over, achieve success or travel places it’s other people that matter. People, friends, family, lovers, strangers – they will forever stay with you, even if only through memory. I’ve grown to appreciate people to the deepest core and I’m trying to learn how to tell people what I want to tell them when I have the chance, before it’s too late.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
124) “A wanderer may be far from home but is never lost.” ― Salil Jha
125) “Your comfort zone is a place where you keep yourself in a self-illusion and nothing can grow there but your potentiality can grow only when you can think and grow out of that zone.” ― Rashedur Ryan Rahman
126) “The world is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them.” ― J.K. Rowling
127) “Life is whatever we make it. The traveler is the journey. What we see is not what we see but who we are.” ― Fernando Pessoa
128) “When you take the step towards your dreams you will be met with fears because you have never traveled this way before. As you go, you will discover that you had nothing to fear. Through overcoming your fears you give those that follow you hope that if they pursue their dreams, they will achieve their dreams.” ― E’yen A. Gardner
129) “Going on a journey doesn’t mean believing in a path, but having faith in yourself.” ― Salil Jha
130) “This wasn’t a strange place; it was a new one.” ― Paolo Coehlo
131) “I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth. Then I ask myself the same question.” ― Harun Yahya
132) “We are torn between the nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.” ― Carson McCullers
133) “I no longer see any meaning of life but then I saw no reason to die as well. I traveled to faraway lands, running away from friends, family and everyone else and I confined myself to my thoughts, to my feelings and to myself. Hours, days, weeks and months passed and I waited for a moment of magic to happen, a turn of destiny, but nothing happened, nothing ever happens. I waited and I counted each moment of it, thinking about every moment of my life, the good and the bad ones. I then saw how powerful yet weak, bright yet dark, beautiful yet ugly, joyous yet grievous; is a one single moment. One moment makes the difference. Just one moment. Such appears to be the extreme and undisputed power of a single moment. I realized that the power of the moment is not in the moment itself. The power, actually, is in us. Every single one of us has the power to make and shape our own moments. It is us who by feeling joyful, celebrate for a moment of success; and it is also us who by feeling saddened, cry and mourn over our losses. I, with all my heart and mind, now embrace this power which lies within us. I wish life offers you more time to make use of this power. Remember, we are our own griefs, we are our own happiness, and we are our own remedies.” ― Huseyn Raza
134) “It’s hard to be less than happy when you can be happy with less.” ― Chris Brady
135) “Why the obsession with worldly possessions? When it’s your time to go, they have to stay behind, so pack light.” ― Alex Morritt
136) “There is no place like the beach… where the land meets the sea and the sea meats the sky.” ― Umair Siddiqui
137) “In the old days, when travelers would get lost, they would follow the stars and I love that idea. I wish that I could rely on something as simple and magnificent as a star for all of my aching questions.” ― Jennifer Elisabeth
138) “He will one day meet his true love… A fellow traveler on the road… Her eyes will be his ocean… In her ocean he will sail forever.” ― Kem
139) “The spectacular landscape circling the fortress supplies an essential backdrop, inspiring dreamers to wander its ruins for the sake of it; North American tourists, bound down by their practical world view, are able to place those members of the disintegrating tribes they may have seen in their travels among these once-living walls, unaware of the moral distance separating them, since only the semi-indigenous spirit of the South American can grasp the subtle differences.” ― Ernesto Che Guevara
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
140) “Having books standing on a shelf in a room is like having completely different worlds at the ready, waiting to be explored.” ― J.F Hermann
141) “Freedom has its dangers as well as its joys. And the sooner we learn to get up after a fall, the better off we’ll be.” ― Alice Steinbach
142) “I am thankful to all the souls, I meet in the journey of life.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita
143) “But it is a long and difficult road, full of perils, and if a traveler on foot were to look at the length of it, his spirit would be overcome and he would sit down and refuse to go any further. You must not look to the end of the road. Look only to the step in front of you. That you can do. Just one step. And you will not make the journey alone.” ― Deanna Raybourn
144) “All travel is circular. I had been jerked through Asia, making a parabola on one of the planet’s hemispheres. After all, the grand tour is just the inspired man’s way of heading home. ” ― Paul Theroux
145) “The best traveler is one without a camera.” ― Kamand Kojouri
146) “Carrying a camera doesn’t make one a lesser traveler, but looking at a place only through your camera lens does.” ― Salil Jha
147) “All men have the stars but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. But all the stars are silent. You, you alone, will have the stars as no one else has them.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
148) “I believe that life is all about perception and timing. That good things come to those who act and that life’s about more than collecting a paycheck. I believe that the only person you’re destined to become is the one that you decide to be. That if you try hard enough you can convince yourself of anything. That having patience doesn’t make you a hero nor does it make you a doormat. I believe that not showing love proves you’re weak and belittling others doesn’t make you strong. That you are never as far away from people as the miles may suggest.” ― Todd Smidt
149) “Life’s too short to read awful books, listen to terrible music, or be around uninspiring people. I believe that where you start has little impact on where you finish. That sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away. I believe that the cure for anything is salt water; sweat, tears, or the sea. That you should never let your memories be greater than your dreams. And that you should always choose adventure.” ― Todd Smidt
150) “That we leave our homes, that we step through our doors to the world, that we travel our whole lives not because we want to collect exotic T-shirts, not because we want to consume foreign adventure the same Western way we consume plastic and Styrofoam and LCD TVs and iPads, but because it has the power to renew us—not the guarantee, not the promise, just the possibility. Because there are places our imaginations can never construct for us, and there are people who we will never meet but we could and we might. It reminds us that there is always reason to begin again.” ― Stephen Markley
151) “Every journey has its own traveler. Every dream has its own dreamer. We are all belonged to a specific journey and dream. Some people are currently looking for it, some people are just figuring it out, some people are still lost, and to some they have finally found it.” ― Diana Rose Morcilla
152) “If there is anything I have learned in my travels across the Planes, it is that many things may change the nature of a man. Whether regret, or love, or revenge or fear ― whatever you believe can change the nature of a man, can. I’ve seen belief move cities, make men stave off death, and turn an evil hag’s heart half-circle.” ― Chris Avellone
153) “Travel is the discovery of truth; an affirmation of the promise that human kind is far more beautiful than it is flawed. With each trip comes a new optimism that where there is despair and hardship, there are ideas and people just waiting to be energized, to be empowered, to make a difference for good.” ― Dan Thompson
154) “Leave no path untaken.” ― Neil Gaiman
155) “We did all the tourist crap, but I just wanted to sit in a cafe and watch people.” ― Sara Shepard
156) “Do not ask me where I am going, as I travel in this infinite world, where every step I take is my home.” ― Dōgen
157) “When you build a city near no mountains and no ocean, you get materialism and traditionalist religions. People have too much time and lack inspiration.” ― Donald Miller
158) “As a traveler, education is our way of life.” ― Debasish Mridha
159) “Go far—too far you cannot, still the farther. And go sparing — one meal a week will serve you, and one suit, through all your travels.” ― John Fletcher
160) “Know most of the rooms of thy native country before thou goest over the threshold thereof.” ― Thomas Fuller
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
161) “(Un viaggiatore prudente non disprezza mai il suo paese.) A wise traveler never despises his own country.” ― Carlo Goldoni
162) “The soul of the journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.” ― William Hazlitt
163) “The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” ― Samuel Johnson
164) “Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don’t let him go to the devil where he is known.” ― Samuel Johnson
165) “As the Spanish proverb says, “He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.” So it is in travelling: a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.” ― Samuel Johnson
166) “Though they carry nothing forth with them, yet in all their journey they lack nothing. For wheresoever they go, they are at home.” ― Sir Thomas More
167) “Why do you wonder that globetrotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels.” ― Socrates
168) “When I was at home, I was in a better place; but travelers must be content.” ― William Shakespeare
169) “The sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.” ― William Shakespeare
170) “To travel hopefully is better than to arrive.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson
171) “I always love to begin a journey on Sundays, because I shall have the prayers of the church to preserve all that travel by land or by water.” ― Jonathan Swift
172) “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” ― Publius Syrus
173) “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ― Mark Twain
174) “Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.” ― Izaak Walton
175) “The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.” ― Xun Zi
176) “The traveled mind is the catholic mind educated from exclusiveness and egotism.” ― Amos Bronson Alcott
177) “Traveling is no fool’s errand to him who carries his eyes and itinerary along with him.” ― Amos Bronson Alcott
178) “Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travels into a country before he has some entrance into the language goes to school, and not to travel.” ― Francis Bacon
179) “He travels safest in the darkness of night who travels lightest.” ― Fernando Cortez
180) “One who journeying along a way he knows not, having crossed a place of drear extent, before him sees a river rushing swiftly toward the deep, and all its tossing current white with foam, and stops and turns, and measures back his way.” ― Homer
181) “They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.” ― Horace
182) “I am fevered with the sunset, I am fretful with the bay, for the wander-thirst is on me and my soul is in Cathay.” ― Richard Hovey
183) “The wonders of each region view, from frozen Lapland to Peru.” ― Soame Jenkyns
184) “The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” ― Samuel Johnson
185) “Let observation with extensive view, survey mankind from China to Peru; remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, and watch the busy scenes of crowded life.” ― Samuel Johnson
186) “Follow the Romany pattern sheer to the Austral light, where the bosom of God is the wild-west wind, sweeping the sea floors white.” ― Rudyard Kipling
187) “Death is the final journey we all must take. Don’t wait to travel on your own until your final voyage.” ― Salil Jha
Photo: The Art of Travel Partners
188) “The secret to meditation is to drop the mind. The secret to long-term travel is to drop your plans.” ― Salil Jha
189) “Traveling is living a book that is in the process of being written.” ― Salil Jha
190) “Better sit still where born, I say, wed one sweet woman and love her well, love and be loved in the old East way, drink sweet waters, and dream in a spell than to wander in search of the Blessed Isles, and to sail the thousands of watery miles in search of love, and find you at last on the edge of the world, and a curs’d outcast.” ― Joaquin Miller
191) “The dust is old upon my sandal, and I am still a pilgrim; I have moved from wild America to Bosphor’s waters, and worshipped at innumerable shrines of beauty; and the painter’s art. To me, and sculpture, speak as with a living tongue, and of dead kingdoms, I recall the soul, sitting amid their ruins.” ― Nathaniel Parker Willis
192) “To love, you don’t wait until the wedding. To travel, you don’t wait until you retire. Just as you fall in love, you let yourself to be seduced by wanderlust.” ― Salil Jha
193) “(Qui veut voyager loin ménage sa monture.) He who will travel far spares his steed.” ― Jean Racine
194) “Does the road wind uphill all the way? Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?” ― Christina G. Rossetti
195) “Does the pilgrim counts the miles when he travels to some distant shrine?” ― Friedrich Schiller
196) “He whose mind is everywhere is nowhere.” ― Seneca the Younger
197) “I think it was Jekyll who used to say that the further he went west, the more convinced he felt that the wise men came from the east.” ― Sydney Smith
198) “I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, “‘Tis all barren!” ― Laurence Sterne
199) “When we have discovered a continent, or crossed a chain of mountains, it is only to find another ocean or another plain upon the further side…. O toiling hands of mortals! O wearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado. Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson
200) “Many travel the world to seek meaning. In sadness, many travel to seek happiness. But no such place exists in this mad world. Each of us carries the fountain of joy within us and the meaning of travel is to witness the conscious expression of life.” ― Salil Jha
201) “For always roaming with a hungry heart, much have I seen and known.” ― Alfred Tennyson
Going outside works wonders for our body, we are all aware of that. But let’s talk about what it does for our mind. I’m sure we are all aware of how everyone is talking about the outside world these days and the magic it works for our growth and development – both physical and mental.
There are, of course, a large number of ways how your brain improves when you are more open to fresh air and a natural environment, but we will be discussing memory and focus, mainly.
Improve Memory and Focus
We all know indoor games, activities, and exercises that help in improving our memory and concentration, but you should be aware that these two traits can easily be enhanced if you become more perceptive to life in the outside world as well.
Let us talk about the activities which will help you out and how they can do so:
1. Walking in Nature
So, let us begin with the basics. Can a simple walk in a park or around your block help you out? Of course, it can. Walking in a natural environment can be considered a form of meditation. You find it easy to block out the world around you and focus solely on your thoughts.
You can clear out any unnecessary concerns from your mind and start organizing things that truly matter in your brain. One of the reasons why we struggle with memory issues is that we lose some critical ones in the plethora of unwanted thoughts that we have accumulated.
Once you can empty your mind of thoughts that do not matter, you will realize that there are some critical things that you need to work on. Losing junk thoughts will also help you improve your focus on the things that matter.
You can make walks a daily or weekly thing then and use that time to contemplate the world around you. The natural beauty around you will also calm your anxiety and stress which will further enable you to think clearly.
2. Team Sports
Many of us assume that playing team sports for fun or in leagues is for knuckleheads alone. This concept is far from the truth because team sports require a lot more focus than individual sports.
Not only do you have to be wary of your movement and actions during the game, but you also need to be aware of what your team is doing as well. Working in complete coordination with your group requires a lot of focus which exercises your mind and body both.
The chances are that you are not only going to be playing the sport once but many times. So you must always remember the movements and the coordination you have learned.
It eventually becomes reflexive when you play with the same team for a long time but not before giving your brain the workout it needs!
3. Outdoor Memory Games
When we think of memory games, we usually think about sitting in a friend’s living room with a memory board game or a card game or something of that sort.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could play memory games outside so that we benefit from nature while working on our focus and memory?
One game we have in mind is collecting a couple of things from your surroundings, like twigs and stones and flowers. Then, show them to the participants and blindfold them.
Remove an item or two, open their blindfold, and ask them to guess what the missing thing is. You can play this game at various difficulty levels.
Gardening is very beneficial for therapeutic reasons, and many people practice it to remain calm and composed. However, without truly focusing on your garden’s needs, all your hard work will go down the drain.
You plant seeds, and to nurture them into a healthy plant, you must remember to take care of them every day. Some plants also have specific needs which you must keep in mind as well.
Also, you need to focus on how everything is growing so that if there are any anomalies, you notice right away.Gardening is not an easy job, and it can be an excellent exercise for the mind and body.
5. Yoga
Yoga can be an indoor or an outdoors venture, but you must have noticed flourishing Yogis take their practice to the outside world.
They practice their skill outside because it makes them more confident in their art. Other than that, practicing Yoga outside also improves its meditative benefits.
Many Yogis also believe that they can absorb the chakra from nearby life forms such as plants and trees when they are practicing Yoga, and that is why they choose to do it outside.
We lose our concentration and memory the more stressed out we are. So to relieve that stress, why not go out on a fantastic road trip?
It could be a wonderful vacation where you could be surrounded by nature all the time. You can find some time to get rid of additional concerns and go with the flow.
When you get back home, you will notice that you remember things better than before and you concentrate on things better than before as well.
Author Bio
Currently a student of English Literature, in his final years, James Martin is passionate about writing his thoughts into words. He takes up writing projects in his leisure time to accompany his studies. He generally understands the essence of writing on every topic, but especially those that relate to his field. He regularly writes at cannabismo. Check out one of his informative post on depression here.
1) I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city. It is as if I had become invisible. – Storm Jameson
2) Solo travel not only pushes you out of your comfort zone. It also pushes you out of the zone of other’s expectations. – Suzy Strutner
3) To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. – Freya Stark
4) Some journeys can only be traveled alone. – Ken Poirot
5) I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone because they reflect more. – Thomas Jefferson
6) Traveling solo does not always mean you are alone. Most often, you meet marvelous people along the way and make connections that last a lifetime. – Jacqueline Boone
7) I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it. – Rosalia de Castro
8) I had chosen to leave and live alone in a foreign country. And in fleeing thousands of miles across the Pacific, I chose myself, and a chance at a different future. – Alison Singh Gee
9) Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time. – Hannah Arendt
10) Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it. – Eudora Welty
11) But when you are alone, you have to carry each experience with you like a secret, something you have to write on your heart, because there’s no other way to preserve it. – Shauna Niequist
12) I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone because they reflect more. – Thomas Jefferson
13) When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself. – Liberty Hyde Bailey
14) The man who goes alone can start today, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. – Henry David Thoreau
15) Not I, nor anyone else, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself. – Walt Whitman
16) Embrace the beauty of your solo journey. – Mandy Hale
17) The inner journey of travel is intensified by solitude. – Paul Theroux
18) To travel is to take a journey into yourself. – Danny Kaye
19) Travel only with thy equals or thy better; if there are none, travel alone. – Dhammapada
20) No matter where you are, you are always a bit on your own, always an outsider. – Banana Yoshimoto
21) Don’t be scared to walk alone, don’t be scared to like it. – John Mayer
22) He travels the fastest who travels alone. – Rudyard Kipling
23) Loneliness, tenderness, high society, notoriety, you fight for the throne and you travel alone. – Bob Dylan
24) The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone. – Andrew O’ Hagan
25) Never go on trips with anyone you do not love. – Ernest Hemingway
26) The only thing I love is travel, and maybe one or two people. – Anonymous
27) I would gladly live out of a suitcase if it meant I could see the world. – Anonymous
28) I have got a crush on the world. – Anonymous
29) I travel a lot. I hate having my life disrupted by routine. – Caskie Stinnett
30) Traveling alone doesn’t mean living lonely. It is when you travel alone you are most open to others. – Salil Jha
How to portray the feelings of travel-fun in words? Sometimes, it can be difficult to look at the bright side when you have to go through the airport security and wait for 45 minutes for your baggage.
But if you look at your travel misadventures, oftentimes there are some wise experiential gems that you can pick up and perhaps even laugh about.
Need some inspiration to explore the wide expanse of the earth? Here we have compiled the best short travel quotes to get you inspired to hit the road or maybe board the plane.
These quotes are easy to memorize and share. Travel, discover, and explore!
Short Travel Quotes
1) “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama
2) “Traveling makes one modest, you see the tiny space you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert
3) “I haven’t been everywhere, but it is on my list.” – Susan Sontag
4) “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu
5) “To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Anderson
6) “Traveling. It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
7) “The world is a book and those who do no travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine
8) “Not until we are lost, do we begin to find ourselves!” – Henry David Thoreau
9) “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep rolling under the stars.” – Jack Kerouac
10) “I would rather own a little and see the world than own the world and see a little.” – Alexander Sattler
11) “Travel far enough and you’ll meet yourself.” – David Mitchell
12) “Man cannot discover oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide
13) “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
14) Travel is never a matter of money, but a matter of courage. – Paulo Coelho
15) You must go on adventures to find where you truly belong. – Sue Fitzmaurice
16) Little by little, one travels far. – J. R. R Tolkien
17) The World is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark. – John Muir
18) Travel is the most intense mode of learning. – Kevin Kelly
19) Explore the World with an open mind, a sturdy carry-on, and clothes that don’t wrinkle. – Madeline Albright
20) With age comes wisdom, with travel, comes understanding. – Sandra Lake
21) The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. – G. K. Chesterton
22) Travel tends to magnify all human emotions. – Peter Hoeg
23) You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown that reveals you within yourself. – Ella Maillart
24) There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. – Robert Stevenson
25) All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber
26) The more I traveled the more I realized that my fear makes strangers of people who should be friends. – Shirley Maclaine
27) Travel brings power and love back to your life. – Rumi
28) Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled. – Abu al-Qasim Muḥammad
29) If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. – Lewis Carroll
30) We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, we travel to be lost. – Ray Bradbury
Saying that travel helps you grow sounds like such a cliché. However, it happens to be the truth. Before re-settling in Canada with my family, I have spent over a decade living abroad.
During that period, I learned a lot of things about life that cannot be learned in a classroom. Lessons about appreciating others, being grateful for what you have, living in the moment, enjoying your own company, and getting to know yourself can only be learned by being out there and experiencing the world.
Traveling the World & Living Abroad
Depending on who you are and what you have experienced, the lessons learned from traveling can be very different. During every new trip, you will either learn something new or reinforce lessons learned from previous travels.
Each trip will have its own impact and will continue to shape your personality. Here are six valuable life lessons you can learn from traveling the world or living in a foreign country.
As adults that worry about their career and reputation, we must stick to routines and cannot afford to make a mistake. Mistakes cost time and money, and we always have to stick to what we know works.
As adults, we often forget that it is important to aim for self-growth and always be open for learning and experiencing new things. Traveling remind us of the importance of curiosity, because being a tourist is like being a curious child.
When you visit a country you have never visited before, you are looking only at a corner of the world that you know nothing about. This gives you an amazing opportunity to be innocent, poke and explore.
Most people give up curiosity in adulthood, and that is something we mustn’t forget because we need in our life because it makes our mind active, opens up new worlds and possibilities, and brings excitement into your life.
2. How to Appreciate People
If you keep spending your time with the same people, always sticking to the same spots, you will forget how to appreciate others. You will see your friends and family as “them again,” and you’ll forget the things that make them so beautiful and great.
Traveling together will help you remember why you are so close, and traveling alone will help you remember how much you care about them.
Traveling is always an excellent opportunity to make new contacts, and meet new friends. It doesn’t matter if you don’t form a lifelong relationship with someone you met. The value in talking with strangers is allowing you to see them at their best.
You will see how different people are and most of them will gladly help you with something if you are a complete stranger. Traveling will undoubtedly strengthen your faith in humanity, and remind you how good people can be.
3. How to Enjoy the Moment
When you’re always trying to meet deadlines, you often forget about enjoying the moment and just cherishing the present. Traveling remind you that you should sometimes take things slow.
A great meal takes hours to cook. A good book can take a whole day to read. And who even knows how much time you need to stand in front of a painting in a museum before you realize its true beauty?
When you are in a foreign country, and everything is new, you will observe carefully and cherish every moment. At that moment you will realize that are a lot of amazing things around us (even at home) just if you see them the right way.
Although you sometimes don’t see things the right way, the moment you do will help you realize it was worth the wait.
4. How to be Responsible
At home, you feel secure, and you often don’t have to make the hard decisions alone. As a traveler, you will put yourself in uncomfortable situations – you might get lost, struggle with a foreign language, and say “I don’t know”, and apologize more often than you’re used to.
You will make mistakes and wrong turns, but you will learn how to rely on yourself and be responsible for your acts.
As a traveler, you open yourself up to a whole new world. Instead of sticking to your same old routine, you can ignore impositions and expectations, and start listening to your own thoughts and feelings.
Changing your environment will help learn how to understand yourself and discover what really matters to you.
6. How to Be Grateful
At home, you often take things for granted. When you stay long enough in a foreign country, you will start to miss things. You will yearn for your bed, the food you can buy just around the corner, or some music you can hear on every street.
You will suddenly start appreciating your home more and realize that you have been living a pretty good life.
Traveling the world opens your eyes, gives you a valuable frame of reference and provides you a way to see things from a different perspective. Eventually, you will discover that it’s really the small things that give us joy in life.
Author Bio
Brandon Miller is a registered immigration consultant and a Canadian who re-settled in Canada with his family after traveling the world and living abroad for over a decade. His traveling experience has given him a deeper understanding of the world and himself.
