16 Ways Traveling Can Make You More Ignorant Than Ever
Travel is often touted as the best way to broaden your horizons, expand your knowledge and make you a well rounded individual. It’s true that seeing new places and cultures can be enlightening, but there’s a flip side: travel doesn’t always make us wiser, instead for some it fuels misconceptions, stereotypes and even ignorance. Ironically, making us less informed about the world. What we end up with is only a small portion of the full picture, the layers below the surface are often left out.
Let’s explore some ways travel may make us more clueless than enlightened, and how we can avoid these pitfalls.
Only Seeing the Highlights
Visiting just landmarks and popular tourist attractions in a country takes away from the entire authentic experience. Yes, the Eiffel Tower is beautiful, but if you’re only going to Paris to take that Instagram shot, you’re missing out on the real France. If you concentrate on the highlights, you may leave with a superficial understanding of a place’s culture and history.
Relying on Stereotypes
Visiting Italy and expecting everyone to be a pasta loving, espresso drinking romantic for example is a prejudice that does not belong in travel. It might come as a shock, but cultures are complex and nuanced. Recognizing stereotypes in a culture might be exciting, but you may be missing the more unique, less well-known characteristics of that culture.
Staying in Tourist Areas
If you only focus on the most popular neighborhoods and districts, you will probably miss the real aspects of the local culture. Often, tourist areas are designed to appeal to foreigners’ tastes, which means you could spend an entire trip exploring a sanitized, tourist friendly version of a country. A little further afield, you may find a location that actually tells a more genuine story.
Using Travel as a Checklist
Travel is a list of things to see for many people, who tick off the landmarks without really taking in the experience. This ‘bucket list’ mentality means that you can miss the small but special things about a destination. Don’t just tick each location off, instead wander and observe.
Only Following Guidebooks
Guidebooks are helpful, but you can’t rely on them—your experiences will be limited. Often written with a one size fits all approach, they don’t consider personal preferences or local changes. Venturing beyond the guidebook gives you the opportunity of making unexpected discoveries.
Trusting Everything on Social Media
Social media inspiration is great but remember that Instagram is a platform that shows you the glossy, picture perfect sides of travel. You can get an unrealistic view of a destination if you rely too much on these snapshots.
Assuming That English Will Be Spoken Everywhere
A simple attempt to learn a few phrases in the locals language can go a long way is in showing respect and opening more authentic experience. Assuming that everyone speaks English or your language can come off as arrogant and close-minded. Make the effort to communicate and be respectful of others’ method of communication and language.
Overlooking the History
When we travel, we can sometimes get so caught up in the “now” that we forget about the rich history of a place. All countries have a story and if you don’t learn from the past, you will be limited in your knowledge of the culture. The more you dive into the history of the places you visit, the more you will gain a more meaningful perspective.
Cultural Differences as Strange
Customs and traditions that are different from our own are easy to see as odd or peculiar. Lumping things as ‘strange’ because they’re unfamiliar limits your appreciation of different ways of life. Be open to the idea that what’s strange can be interesting.
Skipping Local Foods
Food is a very important part of any culture, and if you don’t eat the cultural food, you are missing a huge part of the experience. There’s a McDonald’s everywhere but if you’re eating the same food you could get at home you’re only getting half the story. Local foods can introduce you to flavors and traditions you didn’t know existed.
Rushing Through Places
If you’re moving from city to city without stopping to slow down, you may end up with nothing but a blur of impressions and no real understanding. When you take time to savor the atmosphere of a place, you see the everyday beauty as opposed to just its tourist attractions.
Ignoring Local Customs
Customs and manners should be respected. Researching local etiquette will help you to navigate social interaction with consideration, enhancing a more full, sincere travel.
Looking Down on Local Practices
Travelers sometimes think that if something is different, it’s not ‘advanced’ or ‘modern.’ This can breed a sense of superiority which closes you off to new ideas. The differences should be embraced, and it will surprise you what new things you could learn.
Taking Photos of Everything
It’s the fun part of capturing memories, but spending all the time behind a camera can take you out of the experience itself. It is best to put the camera away and be in the moment once in a while, and it helps you take in the details and atmosphere of a place in a way that no photo ever could.
Going on “Poverty Tours”
Visiting impoverished areas for the sake of “learning”, can be exploitative without care and respect. Tours without context or sensitivity for the community can turn real struggles into tourist attractions. Don’t treat serious issues as spectacles.
Not Engaging With Locals
Staying in a bubble of other tourists is easy, but if you don’t interact with locals you’re not getting the full picture of the culture. Talking to people who live there will give you insight that you can’t get from a guidebook, and often makes for memorable stories and friendships.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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But first, what is a photo safari? The phrase “photo safari” is not a common sentence structure but its meaning can be deduced easily. An African photo safari in general context means going on an adventure with the sole purpose of taking high-quality pictures.
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