Traveling

Traveling is something that has been on my mind, like a lot of people, for the past eight months. Nearly none of us have been able to do it. And the ones that have, well we kind of look at them like they are assholes right now.

Now we are all in a holding pattern. Should you wait, should you go? What will even be open when you get there?

If your idea of great travel was spending time in the hotel, well nothing has changed for you. But as for the rest of the travelers, it is going to be harder to see the sights, learn about culture, and people if all you seem to get is the view from the window and the TV screen.

So, it can be damn well discouraging. There is a lot of that going around. But ways around that have been cropping up as we get longer into this CoVid-19 crap.

Planning is becoming one of the fun things to keep your mind focused and thinking of travel. Even if you know you still can’t go, plan a trip. Don’t book flights or hotels, or anything like that. Just plan it. Imagine that you don’t have to worry about the cost or the time off that you need. Before you know it you will be just diving into researching and learning the places and cultures without even being there.

One of the recent developments has been the rise of virtual tourism. Sure, it is not going to give you the in-depth and real feel of a place. But this has been one of those things that have the hope of keeping tour guides and companies in business.

Think about having your own personal tour guide walk you around their city. You might not be able to get to Florence, but just imagine being able to virtually walk around with a local. Sure, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it gives you a little local character.

The other idea is to stay local. This could be great or a real bore depending on what local is to you and what you like to get out of traveling.

So, I will have to frame that staying local thing in the context that I live in Colorado. My local is fairly open with a lot of open space. I have been placing a limit on how far I will go. That, and when I do travel, I minimize contact and practice social distancing as much as possible.

I used to live in Chicago, this year I’m really glad that I’m no longer there. But while I might have open space and a lot, I mean a lot, of wilderness areas to go to, I do really miss the museums, arts, and culture that a big city has to offer.

I think that this is really why I’m starting to think about virtual tours and guides.

I know that you can go on Google Arts and Culture and get a lot. But here’s the deal. Museums and tour guides are not getting paid when you do. This is a bigger issue of getting paid when the web gives you too much for free. I’m all for the availability of things, but the result has crashed the artistic economy. Read the book Death of the Artist by William Deresiewicz.

But still, right now I’m not traveling more than a few hundred miles. That rubs because I had a relapse of the international travel bug after many years of not having wanderlust.

I’m lucky to be able to travel that far. As I’m writing this some places are shutting back down, going into lockdown for the next month as the second wave of CoVid-19 seems to be ramping up. But even now Colorado cases are going up. So that circle of travel is going to be getting smaller for me too.
Until then we can plan.

It’s painful to see how hard CoVid has hit the travel and tourism industry. But maybe this is a good time for use all to sit back and think about where we are. And we have had a lot of time to think.

Some places were just overrun by tourists. Maybe we need to become travelers instead. Giant cruise ships docking up and unloading thousands of people at once in Venice have made the city a lot of tourist dollars, but the cost of living and the quality of living for the residents has been negative. That and for the traveler, the charm, romance, and feel of the city is lost. And wasn’t that what you went there to experience?

So do some planning. Travel local if you can. Stay healthy and fit. This will pass. And then think about being a traveler rather than a tourist.