Travel Tips: Research vs. Going with the Flow

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Let's say we've now picked a place.

00:00:07.560 | Let's say we have decided the why

00:00:09.520 | and we know why we're going.

00:00:11.260 | What kind of research do you think

00:00:12.920 | people should be doing in advance

00:00:14.280 | versus leaving up to that serendipity

00:00:16.440 | you described earlier?

00:00:17.640 | - What I like to do is,

00:00:18.680 | so I'm just gonna give you an example

00:00:20.080 | of from the 52 places trip I did,

00:00:23.800 | because I mean, I think it's very out of the ordinary,

00:00:27.280 | of course, but I think there's a lot

00:00:29.200 | that can be learned for it.

00:00:30.120 | One of the things was that I,

00:00:31.920 | because I was going to 52 places in 52 weeks,

00:00:34.320 | I didn't have time to prepare, right?

00:00:36.280 | I luckily had someone at the times who was helping me

00:00:40.160 | and she would send me like a really great,

00:00:41.880 | like one pager of like,

00:00:44.600 | here's what you need to know about currency

00:00:46.040 | and here's what you need to know about,

00:00:47.240 | you know, public transportation

00:00:48.480 | and here's like the top 10 things to do

00:00:50.840 | when you Google the place, right?

00:00:52.080 | Like these are the big tourist hits or whatever.

00:00:55.080 | I would try to like knock out those 10 things

00:00:57.560 | in like an afternoon and be like,

00:00:59.600 | okay, so I've done the brass tacks,

00:01:01.400 | I've seen that now, like,

00:01:02.480 | let me actually have an experience, you know?

00:01:05.240 | And I think that goes back to this idea

00:01:07.120 | of like travel being more serendipitous,

00:01:11.640 | more spontaneous, more connective than it is extractive.

00:01:15.680 | I think a lot of the times we think of travel as extractive

00:01:17.840 | where it's like, I need to go in there,

00:01:19.040 | get things that make me fulfilled and leave

00:01:20.880 | and that's, and wash my hands of it

00:01:22.680 | and plan the next trip.

00:01:24.600 | And I think leaving things open has been,

00:01:27.600 | has always led to the best experiences.

00:01:29.720 | In terms of preparation, like, yeah, have a place to stay.

00:01:33.160 | If it's city-based, find a place to stay.

00:01:35.920 | I think beforehand, if you can, go as local as possible.

00:01:39.760 | And I don't mean Airbnb.

00:01:40.840 | I mean, Airbnb is fine if that's what you want to do.

00:01:43.560 | But I think there's nothing better than staying

00:01:46.640 | at like a family run bed and breakfast.

00:01:49.240 | I think it's the best, you know,

00:01:50.680 | bathrooms down the hall, you know,

00:01:54.160 | dad's making you breakfast in the morning.

00:01:55.840 | Mom's giving you tips of where to go shopping.

00:01:57.760 | You know, like that vibe, I think opens up so much

00:02:02.440 | just in terms of local recommendations,

00:02:04.600 | in terms of the feeling of being a local,

00:02:07.000 | in terms of supporting local economies,

00:02:08.960 | you're staying at like a family run hotel

00:02:11.240 | versus the Hilton or whatever.

00:02:12.720 | Like that thing goes a long way

00:02:14.200 | in terms of where you're putting your money.

00:02:16.520 | So I think that's a great place to start.

00:02:20.800 | I've had incredible experiences literally just from,

00:02:23.040 | you know, an innkeeper in Bulgaria,

00:02:25.120 | who over the course of five days of me staying there,

00:02:27.960 | kind of gains my trust.

00:02:29.040 | And all of a sudden he's showing me old family photos

00:02:31.840 | and he's showing me into the basement

00:02:33.000 | where there's like a fresco on the wall

00:02:35.000 | from like the Ottoman times.

00:02:36.880 | And he like keeps it under, like behind glass,

00:02:39.320 | 'cause it's like his greatest possession now.

00:02:41.120 | And it's in this house that he's owned

00:02:42.960 | and his family has owned.

00:02:44.200 | So just like these experiences that you unlock

00:02:45.960 | by like going local, by going small.

00:02:48.120 | I feel like you didn't ask me

00:02:51.320 | where you should stay,

00:02:53.400 | but I do think that is kind of where most people start.

00:02:55.400 | And I think thinking even the why in that decision

00:02:59.800 | goes a long way.

00:03:01.040 | You could just look at TripAdvisor

00:03:02.840 | and go with the one with the most reviews with five stars,

00:03:05.680 | but then you're just kind of doing what everyone else did.

00:03:08.560 | - Right.

00:03:09.560 | And is there a time and a place sometimes

00:03:11.240 | for staying in like the city center,

00:03:14.400 | being really close to things?

00:03:15.440 | I don't know if the, you know,

00:03:16.880 | kind of bed and breakfast are always

00:03:19.080 | kind of located in that area.

00:03:20.680 | But you know, maybe you do both.

00:03:21.840 | Maybe you do the rural bed and breakfast

00:03:24.640 | for a couple of days,

00:03:25.480 | and then you stay in the middle of a city

00:03:27.160 | where you're not really gonna be spending time

00:03:28.440 | at the hotel anyway.

00:03:30.360 | But I think to go back to kind of what my first steps are

00:03:33.800 | in feeling that I'm connected to a place,

00:03:36.400 | what I learned to do pretty quickly on my reporting trips

00:03:39.920 | is that, and I think this is, it's reporting specific,

00:03:43.040 | but I think it's travel,

00:03:44.640 | like general tips for travel too,

00:03:47.760 | is when I get to a place, especially if it's a city,

00:03:51.280 | first thing I do is I leave the camera in the hotel room.

00:03:56.120 | I put the phone away in my pocket and I just walk.

00:03:59.040 | I'll give myself like an hour and a half, maybe two hours,

00:04:02.680 | no destination in mind.

00:04:04.320 | I just wanna get the pulse of the place.

00:04:05.920 | I just wanna feel it.

00:04:07.040 | And maybe I'll get distracted and like sit down for a beer

00:04:09.320 | and watch the city go by that way,

00:04:11.120 | or a coffee or sit in a park for a little bit,

00:04:13.800 | but I just wanna be there.

00:04:15.280 | And that means not looking at my phone.

00:04:16.520 | The great thing about Google Maps

00:04:18.520 | is that you can get completely lost

00:04:20.440 | and then use it to find your way back, right?

00:04:22.200 | So I just like, if I think a street looks interesting,

00:04:24.600 | I'll walk down that.

00:04:25.560 | If I see a scene happening at the local park,

00:04:29.440 | I'll sit down and watch that for 20 minutes.

00:04:31.240 | If I strike up a conversation with someone,

00:04:33.360 | I'll let that go and see where it takes me.

00:04:36.560 | But it's just such a small thing,

00:04:39.840 | but it goes such a long way.

00:04:41.760 | If you're just thinking like,

00:04:42.800 | of course you're gonna wanna document things,

00:04:44.400 | you're gonna wanna post things to Instagram,

00:04:46.440 | you're gonna wanna share it with friends, all this stuff,

00:04:48.400 | but just wait a couple of hours.

00:04:50.760 | Do it starting that evening.

00:04:52.680 | Give yourself at least a few hours

00:04:55.080 | to feel like you're there and you're in the place.

00:04:57.080 | And maybe you'll see places where you're like,

00:04:58.440 | oh, I need to come back and photograph that.

00:05:00.520 | I need to come back during sunset

00:05:01.680 | 'cause I bet the photographs here are great then,

00:05:04.080 | or whatever else that you need to do.

00:05:05.880 | And I'm thinking of that professionally, of course,

00:05:07.640 | as a photographer and a writer,

00:05:09.280 | but I think everyone's into documenting their trips,

00:05:12.240 | so everyone's thinking of that.

00:05:13.200 | But if you give yourself time to just be,

00:05:18.120 | it's really amazing how much better you get the place.

00:05:21.800 | You understand it and you feel it in a way that you don't,

00:05:24.840 | again, if you're just extracting content from it

00:05:27.480 | from the moment you hit the ground.

00:05:29.560 | - You didn't mention this,

00:05:30.400 | but one thing I like to do is,

00:05:32.520 | where possible and where not ridiculously inconvenient,

00:05:36.640 | get to wherever you're going using public transportation

00:05:39.600 | when you first arrive.

00:05:40.720 | Taking the train, taking a bus.

00:05:43.000 | You see people in their normal environment

00:05:46.080 | versus if you were to take a taxi

00:05:48.640 | or call an Uber in another country,

00:05:50.640 | you're just sitting in the back, just moving.

00:05:53.960 | So I feel like your trip starts sooner when you do that.

00:05:57.080 | - And I think it's, yeah,

00:05:58.080 | public transportation is a great tip.

00:05:59.520 | I think you really get to know a place.

00:06:01.960 | There's cities that I know geographically

00:06:04.680 | through their subway maps versus their actual maps.

00:06:07.680 | I know that this stop is here and this stop is here,

00:06:09.920 | and that's my understanding of geography.

00:06:12.880 | And I think it's something that as people get older

00:06:17.040 | and as people have more money and all these things,

00:06:20.600 | you stop doing that.

00:06:21.520 | Like when you're a backpacker

00:06:22.720 | and you're living off the $20 in your pocket,

00:06:25.520 | you're taking public transportation or walking

00:06:27.400 | because you're not about to drop half your budget

00:06:29.680 | on a taxi, right?

00:06:31.080 | Now, I think, at least for me who's older and whatever,

00:06:33.960 | it's much easier for me to be like,

00:06:35.040 | "Oh, I'll just take an Uber."

00:06:36.400 | But if you force yourself to, there's a lot we can learn

00:06:39.120 | from our early days of travel,

00:06:40.400 | backpacking and whatever else when you're pinching pennies,

00:06:43.440 | including the fact that like,

00:06:45.000 | yeah, public transportation is gonna save you money,

00:06:46.840 | but it also like, you just get to understand,

00:06:48.880 | you're seeing the places in between.

00:06:50.360 | You're seeing the kind of people that come on

00:06:52.440 | on certain stops and get off at certain stops.

00:06:54.840 | You're like, you get a really better understanding

00:06:56.720 | of the place just by getting on a train or a bus

00:07:00.360 | or like, you know, in South Africa, the combis,

00:07:03.840 | the little mini vans that go around.

00:07:06.680 | You just get such a better understanding.

00:07:08.440 | And people will help you too.

00:07:09.520 | And that's another thing that I think it's intimidating.

00:07:11.440 | Of course it is.

00:07:12.280 | But if you're lost, people will help you.

00:07:14.040 | I mean, I remember trying to find my way

00:07:17.560 | around the metro system in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,

00:07:22.400 | which is incredible.

00:07:23.280 | I mean, in the case of like former Soviet countries,

00:07:26.320 | take the subway just to see the metro stations.

00:07:28.400 | They're like works of art.

00:07:29.360 | It's unreal.

00:07:30.800 | So I'm taking the metro around in Tashkent

00:07:34.080 | and I was just so confused.

00:07:35.280 | I was like, I didn't understand the maps.

00:07:37.440 | I was sitting there with like, you know,

00:07:40.400 | two handfuls of coins and bills,

00:07:42.840 | just like unsure about the denominations.

00:07:45.000 | I was jet lagged.

00:07:46.520 | And someone like saw me immediately and came up to me.

00:07:48.800 | And like in broken English was like,

00:07:50.480 | where are you trying to go?

00:07:51.320 | I like, I said the name of the stop

00:07:53.080 | and just held out my hands with all the coins in it.

00:07:55.520 | And he just like picked out what I needed,

00:07:57.400 | put it in the machine, gave me the ticket

00:07:58.920 | and led me on my way.

00:07:59.760 | You know, it's like you put your trust in someone,

00:08:01.720 | someone's gonna help you out.

00:08:03.920 | And just that interaction too, like I still remember it

00:08:06.520 | and I'll remember it probably forever.

00:08:07.800 | Just that small interaction that you're not gonna get

00:08:10.720 | if you just call an Uber.

00:08:12.400 | - Yeah, those things happen.

00:08:13.640 | So we had the same thing happen in Aleppo, Syria.

00:08:17.480 | We got into the city, we took a taxi from Turkey

00:08:21.560 | and we, which fun fact, taxis from Turkey,

00:08:24.640 | I mean, I'm sure this is different now,

00:08:25.840 | but taxis from Turkey to Syria,

00:08:27.200 | because gas was like 10% of the cost, right?

00:08:31.120 | It was so cheap.

00:08:32.280 | The taxis would go for free almost.

00:08:34.360 | It was like, you know, the cost to go from Turkey to Syria

00:08:36.920 | was almost nothing as long as you had no bags

00:08:39.760 | because there were special taxis

00:08:41.280 | where their entire trunk was just gas tanks.

00:08:43.520 | And so you would go into Syria and it would be super cheap,

00:08:46.280 | but you'd get dropped off and we had,

00:08:47.880 | we were staying couch surfing in a suburb

00:08:50.320 | and we had no clue what we were doing.

00:08:51.760 | And a random person came up who spoke no English,

00:08:54.800 | but kind of got the sense that we were lost,

00:08:57.160 | called someone, handed me the phone.

00:08:59.440 | So just a stranger's handing me a cell phone

00:09:01.760 | and I answer it and this person says,

00:09:03.200 | "Hey, you don't know me,

00:09:05.200 | but my brother says he thinks you're lost.

00:09:08.040 | So he called me and if you want,

00:09:10.160 | you can tell me where you're going,

00:09:11.920 | I'll tell him and he can help you get there.

00:09:14.000 | But he would love if you stopped by his house

00:09:16.560 | and have some tea first."

00:09:17.680 | So like it was this experience

00:09:19.680 | that I think many people could just not be open to

00:09:23.600 | or think it's scary.

00:09:24.600 | And I wanna get at some point before we stop

00:09:27.200 | to talk about, you know, risk and safety

00:09:29.040 | and that kind of stuff.

00:09:29.880 | But being open to those things

00:09:31.160 | has been some of the best experiences we have.

Travel Tips: Research vs. Going with the Flow

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