We often approach travel as where we take a trip. But what about instead approaching it as where the trip takes us – or rather, “where travel can take you”, which is the motto of AFAR (Playing off the John Steinbeck quote: “People don’t take trips – trips take people.”). It makes a case for experiential travel. It’s often what separates a tourist from a traveler. This type of travel isn’t based on a look or terminology, but more of a perspective. As Daniel J. Boorstin wrote: “The 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.” They aren’t mutually exclusive of one another and one isn’t more superior then the other. Some days I’m a tourist, but most days I’m a traveler. Today I’m excited to talk about this idea of experiential travel and even more excited to be partnering with AFAR to give away a one-year subscription to their magazine.
I’ve seen what I consider a lot on my travels. I’ve seen Trim Castle (Where Braveheart was filmed), the Statue of Liberty (Both the one in New York City and the one on the Île aux Cygnes, River Seine in Paris), the Eiffel Tower, Mount Rushmore, and Arenal Volcano, just to name a few. But what are my memories of these places? Were there significant moments of those specific trips or were they more of just a photograph or item checked off a list?
In the movie The Lookout, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, Chris Pratt, keeps lists to help him remember things because he has short-term memory problems that are the result of brain damage from a car accident. His roommate Lewis, played by Jeff Daniels, encourages him to not write down things he experiences as lists, but more like stories. Lewis states: “Don’t think of it as a list. Think of it as a story instead… Everything is a story. Stories are what help us make sense of the world.” Stories are what we remember. It’s what we tell our kids and grandkids when we get older and it’s what we most remember from our travels. The fascinating thing about this insight from Lewis in The Lookout is that Lewis was blind.
As easy as it is for me to list famous landmarks and attractions I’ve visited from around the world, those aren’t the most significant memories from my trips. What’s memorable are the conversations and experiences I have. The ones that have a story that even a photo can’t tell. Many of my greatest travel moments have little to no photographic memories. Those travel memories have been stories like crossing the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border with ticos, asking a question to a couple older Irish women that turned into a two-hour conversation, and being invited to dinner by a stranger in Pretoria, South Africa. I’ve said it many times and will continue so until the day I die that travel is less about the places, and more about the conversations and experiences. That is, getting down to what I call ground level and seeing and experiencing a place through the eyes of that destination.
It’s for this and many other reasons that I like the vision of AFAR. Of all of the travel publications on magazine racks at newsstands, AFAR is the one that I can relate to because it represents how I travel. I’ve often found myself reading about a hotel, restaurant, or activity and said aloud: “Now that’s the type of travel I can afford.” That’s not something that I find myself saying with many travel magazines. You can imagine my delight at our San Francisco Meet, Plan, Go event last fall when AFAR co-founder Greg Sullivan shared with the crowd that starting AFAR was the result of his own career break and stint of long-term travel.
I’ve been wanting to partner with AFAR for a while to do a giveaway and the timing has worked out to finally do it since they have recently launched an iPhone app. The app is an extension of their online community, which I’ve been using for months to plan and share my trips. I’ve used it ask questions about destinations I’m traveling to and typically get a wide-variety of targeted answers from travelers and locals who know that destination well. The website and now the mobile app allow you to publish and share highlights from your trips. AFAR magazine features some of the best highlights in each issue.
With the launch of AFAR’s mobile app, I’m excited to share with you two giveaways. One, I’ve already mentioned, for a one-year subscription to AFAR magazine, which I include more information about below. The second is from AFAR and is a 6-week photo challenge with the grand prize winner being awarded a trip to India on SWISS International Air Lines, plus five nights’ at Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces. AFAR’s photo challenge is in its second week, with this week’s prompt asking travelers to upload highlights through the mobile app that showcase delicious foods and/or surprises uncovered while getting from one place to the other.
For the next week I’ll be running a giveaway here on my blog for a one-year subscription to AFAR, which includes 7 issues. To be eligible to win, you must have a U.S. mailing address. You can have up to two entries, one by commenting below and one by tweeting. The giveaway will close next Thursday, March 1, at 11:59 p.m. PST. I’ll then randomly choose one winner who will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond.
Giveaway Details
- One winner will randomly be chosen to win a one-year subscription (7 issues) to AFAR.
- To be eligible to win, you must have a U.S. address.
- The giveaway ends next Thursday, March 1, at 11:59 p.m. PST.
- The winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to respond before another winner is randomly selected.
- I will make an announcement here on this post and on Twitter when the winner has confirmed.
- First way to enter: Leave a comment below about where travel has taken you. It can be anything. Maybe it was just to the world’s largest rocking chair on Route 66 in Fanning, Missouri. Or maybe it was to experience healing because of past pain. Or maybe travel took you to finding the love of your life. See the first comment below as an example.
- Second way to enter: Tweet about where travel has taken you. It can be a similar comment or something completely different, but just make sure you tweet with the hashtag #traveltakesme and the link to this blog post. You can use the following shortened link to shorten characters http://j.mp/AAqyvo. See my example on Twitter to get you started.
- Tweeting/commenting more than once doesn’t give you more chances to win. If you tweet once, you get one entry. If you tweet 100 times, you still just get one entry. So this means you can get up to two entries: One for commenting and one for tweeting.
Per my ethical duty, I was not paid to write this, nor was I given a free subscription to AFAR, although I am in fact a subscriber. AFAR didn’t even ask me to write this. While I recommend giving them a follow on Twitter and Facebook, I can’t be held responsible if you’re immediately inspired to book a trip. This post came under the influence of many listens to The Head and the Heart’s “Rivers and Roads”, which makes me think about traveling. I highly recommend it to help get the creative juices flowing as you think about where travel has taken you. If that’s not doing it for you, see where travel has taken the honey badger.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Travel has taken me to see that there is a certain beauty in the world that goes beyond just the scenery of destinations.
Travel has made the world a smaller place. Even though we may have cultural differences, deep down on a human level we are all striving to find the same things – happiness, connection, meaning, love.
Travel makes me feel more alive.
Travel has taken me across “Rivers and Roads,” but most importantly it’s taught me to approach my daily life at home with a sense of wonder and exploration.
Agreed that it makes the world a smaller place. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Caribbean (insert joke here about how rough it was) and suddenly being 1 hour away from South America by air made it seem like a much less far flung place. Same for when I went to Cuba in 2001 during a study delegation trip. Having been there, it’s now a real place with real people, not some abstract place on a map or in the news. Even going to school in Austin brought me in touch with my cousins and roots in that part of the world.
Travel takes me to the places I studied while getting my history degree… Many of which I dreamed of visiting during my long nights in the library.
LOVE Afar. If I had any money I would subscribe myself! Travel has taken me to Australia, where I learned to be more independent, filing my own taxes, paying my own bills, finding a job, basically not having anyone to fall back on.
Me too! Although I had traveled a good amount throughout my life, taking myself to the furthest point away from my home is where I learned to be completely on my own for the first time. For this I am so grateful for travel and for Australia.
Travel takes me out of my comfort zone, and this is where my creativity kicks in. I’ve travelled to 45 countries and counting, and love the stories I come back with and the new friends I make. I then use my writing and photography skills to tell these unique stories. So, you can imagine that I’m a big fan of AFAR. I got to meet Joe Diaz in Mexico at an Adventure Travel World Summit last year. Good, good stuff. I also appreciate your blog. Thank you!
Kristen
http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/adventuregill/
Travel has taken me to a new level of appreciation. I have seen ancient civilizations, long-held traditions and natural wonders. To see what lies outside of your house, your city, your country… that is to understand all ways and styles of living.
Spencer … so far travel has taken me no where. No where, because i have never truly traveled. I have barely even been a tourist. I have, until very recently, lived a very small, very closed down life. And then I made a leap and reached for a new world. And I am just getting my bearings there and I know in the depths of me that the heart of this new life is me finally finally going somewhere. Being a traveler in the tradition of the beautiful quote you shared in this post: “The 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.” … In my small world I have “seen” the way you describe … the landmarks (or big moments) not being what’s memorable, but the people and stories and subtle details you notice in and around that big thing. I see that way where I am. NOW, I want to see the rest of what’s out there. See the world that way.
I just turned 39 year old and I’ve never really traveled anywhere. I plan to change that this year. When I left my old life, my gift to myself was: a passport. (I’d never had one before). I literally gave myself a passport to the world. And I am determined to get my first stamp in it this year.
And so, tonight, I went to the bookstore and for the first time in my life, perused the travel magazine section. The publication that stood out to me leaps and bounds above the others was AFAR, for all the reasons you say it resonates for you. I sat in the store and the very first article I opened was Meghan Daum’s article about her ill-prepared hike and I cracked up laughing reading it right there in the middle of the store. It was an awesome story.
And so I came home and found AFAR on Facebook to like them and the very first post I noticed on their wall led me here to this wonderful post by you. And THIS is what I need as my own travel story (however late in life its start may be) begins … stories from other travelers that have heart in them. Your blog is wonderful. I’m excited to continue reading it.
This is what it’s all about. There’s never a too-late to travel. So glad you’re taking the steps to see the world you want to see. Spencer is a fantastic resource and motivator. Enjoy filling up that passport and happy travels to you!
I let my Afar scrip expire while on SAS, so count me in on the contest!
Sorry, didn’t answer the question…
Travel has taken me to the ends of the earth: from the 80 degree north parallel to the tip of South Africa–and then all the way around it by ship!
Travel took me from being a fairly sheltered young man to having knowledge and concept of the larger world in 2 months of backpacking though Europe in 1998. It has only helped me grow more as a person since then.
I didn’t have a passport until I was 28 and then I went to Manila on a business trip. I felt so grown up! I loved meeting everyone there and just walking around noticing how utterly different it was from my life in the US. Travel takes me out of myself and sets me down somewhere new – I love going anywhere even if it’s just down to LAX from SFO!
Travel has taken me to places I only dreamed of – the beaches of Barbados, which are filled with laughter from my new, native friends; the grungy streets of New York City, which I promptly fell in love with; the clacking of train wheels gliding along the rails in the Pacific Northwest; the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the first rays of sunlight in the U.S. Travel has brought my husband and I closer together, sharpened our survival skills, & made me a much better citizen of the world.
My whole life has changed because of travel. Traveling took me from the “I’m going out of town 2 hours away for the weekend” mindset to “I’m getting ready to board an international flight from the word-class city of Sydney to Los Angeles with people who regularly check their world clocks on their ipads” mentality. Truly an incredible feeling and accomplishment for me.
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