Linking up with Bonnie, Kaelene, Van and Sammy for Travel Tuesday!
Once a month, Travel Tuesday, my favorite link-up, has a prompt (such as languages or three places or food). Since July has five weeks (thankfully!), there will be two prompts, one of them for today. Today’s prompt is what is your travel style?
Instead of discussing the intricacies of my travel style and my patterns (which, full disclosure, seem to change on every trip!) I decided to share another rendition of my favorite travel game: Imagine If I Lived Here.
Imagine If I Lived Here epitomizes my travel style. I put myself in the shoes of a native and try to see what it would be like to live like that. It helps me at least attempt to gain a new cultural perspective and appreciation for all different ways of life. This informs how I travel more than anything else, because this is the root of why I travel: to see and experience these new cultures, perspectives, views, food and languages. Not only is Imagine If I Lived Here informative, it’s really fun! I love picking out a stranger on the street and daydreaming about what their life might be like. Of course, these are simply daydreams, as I couldn’t really imagine what their life is like (at least until I talked to them), and sometimes it’s easier for me to imagine their lives (or romanticize them!).
I’ve imagined what it would be like to live in Iceland, surrounded by the wild landscape, in a country where a large part of the population can trace their roots back to the Viking settlers (including the resident horses!) and many of the Icelanders believe in elves:
I’ve dreamed of living in Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. There are whales that live nearby year-round, bunnies that fill the university campus, red phone booths, gardens galore and afternoon tea:
I’ve wondered what it would be like to live on the beach in Thailand, with those perfect water views, laid-back lifestyle and easy access to scuba diving:
I’ve placed myself in the Alps of Switzerland, in a green valley ringed by peaks and full of the ringing of cowbells:
I’ve seriously considered living on Orcas Island, Washington, where they have endless views of water and wood, adorable shops, and a shop dedicated to just pie:
p.s. One thing I know for sure about my travel style is that I love to plan! If you need helping planning your next vacation, be sure to check out my travel planning services!
Do you have a ritual or game every time you travel, or a specific travel style?
SO SO TRUE!!! I love doing that too! In fact, I would rather live in all those places for a couple of months rather than just travelling to them. There are so many places where I’d love to live and when I was a child, I spent hours and hours looking at a map and imagining what it must be like to live there, aka which neighbourhood would be cool and where the next school would be. I was a weird kid I guess but still 😀
I love doing this too! Although I live in a beautiful place (Heidelberg) I love daydreaming about other places I could potentially call home. I think that’s why HGTV’s HouseHunters International is so popular. 🙂
Yes, yes, yes! House Hunters International really fuels that fire, doesn’t it?! x
I love House Hunters International so much! I love seeing places I never would have even thought about living…then that show makes me want to go! I just watched an episode about Greenland and it was so gorgeous it’s now on my list of places to visit haha 😉
I agree that I would always love to spend several months in all of these places that I imagine living. I used to play with my parents’ globe by putting my finger on it, spinning it, and imagining I had to move to wherever it landed! So if you were weird, I was too 😉
This sounds like a fun game and one I maybe play without even knowing it while we galavant around new places!
I think it is a subconscious game for sure! It’s fun to play when you realize you’re doing it, too 🙂
“Imagine if…” is a great idea for a series! I would love to go to Iceland one day and see all the elves!
Thank you! I agree. Iceland is magical although I’ve only been there a little and didn’t see any elves…maybe next time 😉
Oh I love this! I do the exact same and I still keep in mind every single place where I’ve told myself ‘yeah I could see myself moving here’ they hold such a special place in my heart! If I was given a job in any of those places I would totally move there in a second. Also, I love to travel and be with locals, whether my friends or couchsurfing and stuff so I usually get to see how the people live and it’s the best! Great pictures!
Yes I think I always remember those places where I could really see myself living as my favorites. I think to even imagine yourself living somewhere (and liking it!) you have to fall in love a little bit. That’s the main problem with the game is that it’s not necessarily possible to just up and move there! Maybe someday if I ever become really nomadic 🙂 thanks so much for your comment and thanks for reading!
This is such a wonderful way to travel! Love this posts Amy!
Thank you so much K! 🙂 it is a great way to travel, I think, but I’m biased haha.
Yes!! I always find myself doing this as well, but I only just realised I did when I read this! It’s so cool to try and imagine what life would be like in someone elses shoes. I wonder if people look at us and do the same thing 😉
I definitely did this before I even realized what I was doing! It’s just the best way to really try to see the culture. I bet you’re right, and that other people look at us and imagine what our lives are like…weird haha!
I do the same thing and P and I always talk about “the ifs” wherever we are visiting. I almost always look at the rentals of places we visit too!
Whenever I see a house for rent or for sale I definitely start playing the game in overtime! What-ifs are just so fun 🙂
First: Your pictures are GORGEOUS and absolutely make me feeling I’m there! The alps… I need those in my life asap!
Second: I totally do this too! I love love imaging what I would do, who I would meet, the life I would have! This is actually what kept me in Italy!
I love that! That’s kind of my dream haha–that this game will convince me to live somewhere awesome 🙂 and thank you so much! I think I just go to gorgeous places so it’s easy to get gorgeous pictures!