If you are a foodie person, you absolutely need to visit Georgia and Armenia. They are both a must.
Follow me on Instagram to see what we have been up to in the last few days.
This week travel tip is a bit of inspiration with some new and fun travel trends spotted across the internet.
And after you read the newsletter, head over to your favorite podcast player and follow us so you don't miss any episode.
This week's one is a treasure trove for anyone who has ever considered moving to Europe.
|
Fun new travel trends
With social media, we all get exposed to lots of new ideas and here are some to inspire your next trip.
Snack-packing
 |
One of my most favorite things to do when I travel: trying all the local snacks and foods you can fit into the trip.
I love going into supermarkets to see what's on sale, or stopping at road side street food stalls to see what's on offer.
On my recent trip to Polynesia I stopped at all the places I could stop, visited several supermarkets and tried lots of things, from sweet empanadas to colorful rainbow cupcakes, from Vietnamese fried rolls to the local fried dough version or the ice coconuts sold by the side of the road.
In Armenia and Georgia, their supermarkets are stocked with all sorts of dried fruits and nuts, love it!
Lore chasing
This is a bit harder to define but it is a trend younger people are embracing to simply let the trip and the destination dictate their itinerary.
It starts with saying yes to things that you would have normally said no to, to being open to meeting strangers and going where they are going and to finding your own story.
This is a trend that focuses on looking for the crazy stories you can then tell others.
It is a harder to follow trend if you are shy or more introverted, but it all starts with a yes, and the lack of a plan.
Sight doing
 |
That is, traveling to do hands-on things such as cooking, painting, handicrafts, or any other artistic endevour. More and more travelers include such experiences in their travels, so they become more active than passive.
Instead of just taking things in or observing, you become part of the culture by actively participating in it.
We have included such immersive experiences in all our tours since the beginning, with cooking classes being something that strongly features on pretty much all of our tours.
Food is such an important part of a place and culture, and no better way to learn more about it by getting down and dirty with your own hands. Plus, no mater how gifted or not you are in the kitchen, a good chef-teacher can help anyone prepare a delicious meal. And food always tastes better when you made it yourself from scratch.
Miles on milestones
 |
Or turning a major milestone into a trip.
A typical one is a destination wedding, but it can also be a solo-moon to celebrate your pregnancy or a solorette to enjoy some me-time before the wedding.
You can do this with your friends with a destination bachelorette, but don't have to, a trip for one is fabulous too.
Or make it a birthday celebration, or a divorce celebration trip.
We have so many guests celebrating a major milestone by booking a trip with us, often to a place that had meaning for them, but not always.
Trips to celebrate divorce to the country the ex had always promised he would take her.
Trips to celebrate surviving cancer.
Trips to honor a loved one who passed away.
Birthday trips to make it extra grand.
Make it count!
Pain-cations
Perhaps linked to midlife crisis...?
This one sounds far less appealing to me than going supermarket hoping, but alas, it is a growing trend.
Pain-cations are gruelling adventures people embark on to find themselves, prove something to themselves, find out if they can, challenge themselves or rethink what they want to do with their lives.
Think running a marathon through the desert, or going on a survival trip where you need to fend for yourself, or crossing the Atlantic on a canoe.
Quietcations
This is more my thing, though I am somewhere in between the pain-cation and the quietcation. I neither want to be tortured, nor do I want to sit and do nothing.
I like my trips active, with lots to see and do, even if it is a 3-hour lunch conversation with someone, or a hiking afternoon to a viewpoint.
But quietcations are definitively a thing.
More and more hotels focus on silence and quiet sleep as a selling proposition, and as we become more and more overwhelmed with the noise on social and in the cities, an escape somewhere quiet is increasingly appealing.
Think about cabins in the middle of the forest without cell service or going to the middle of the savannah to a safari lodge that is disconnected from the grid.
Niche interest
 |
I often come across tour companies or experiences designed for really niche interests such as insect tours, or grief retreats, writer's retreats or the most popular: wildlife encounter trips such as those designed entirely around meeting a certain animal like the orangutans in Borneo or the whale sharks in Australia.
No matter what your interest is, there is for sure a place or a tour designed for you.
Tags: Solo Female Travelers