Once upon a time, explorers sailed their ships to go find new land. Travelling for them was about curiosity to find something unexpected. This was the one reason that travelers were considered daredevils – people who lived their lives on the edge.

Today, travel has become a way for people to escape from their routine struggles. Be it the two-hour road trip that you make on a weekend to a lake-facing resort, or a camping trip near the forest, you look forward to travelling.

As tourism is becoming accessible, the number of tourists taking trips has been on the rise. The global tourism industry grew by 3.4% in 2018, amidst a slowdown in several industries across the globe. Fueled by easier transportation and better vacation policies, travel is becoming easier every year.

For Millenials, apps like Instagram have increased the feeling of missing out. You see so many people travelling around you every weekend. Everyone is going to some place new. Sometimes, if you open Instagram after days, it feels overwhelming. So many people doing so many things with their lives. Everyone is trying to make the most of it.

The question you ask is, ‘What are you even doing with your life?’ You instantly open your laptop to plan the next trip with your friends. You post on several WhatsApp groups to plan a trip, two person respond saying yes, three say they already have plans for the life, while another two ask you the budget for the trip. You end up spending your Sunday looking at places to visit, checking ticket prices, calculating costs per person, to eventually end up on a number. After hours of discussion with friends, you realize that no one is willing to go with you.

After deliberating about the trip for the next couple of days, you decide that you are old enough to go on a solo trip. You recall the movies that described solo travel as the best possible thing in life. You remember how these movies describe travel as a way to find your soul. You go home and watch these movies again and again, singing travel songs along with the hero.

But the next morning, you realize that going alone on the trip would need a lot more money. So you decide to delay the trip. Next weekend comes and you end up staring at people traveling with their friends. One of the friends whom you had asked to go with you posted pictures of her road trip. Your heart burns. For a moment, you think that you’re never going to talk to her again. But you keep thinking about her for the next two hours, while laying in bed and sleeping.

You come to the conclusion that you don’t have any friend in this world. There is no one who cares enough for you. You cannot sleep at night for a couple of days.

On Monday, you wake up with blackheads and a mild head-ache. You send an e-mail to your manager that you are going to work from home. But you know you are not.

You switch on the television and open YouTube, opening any random video and letting it play to the end. You sit there wondering if there is any way to make life interesting.

Thankfully, there is.

YouTube has made it so easy to travel to different corners of the world. All you need to do is know who to follow. If you follow the right people, you will travel to different corners of the world right from the comfort of the couch. In most cases, you will also find that the videos and photos that professionals upload on YouTube are of higher quality than you could ever capture. The greatest part –

You travel for free.

There was once a trend of travel bloggers, which has now evolved into travel vlogging. Looking at the daily consumption of content on YouTube, you can take a look at either of the top travel channels. With content creators becoming independent, chances are high that there will be at least one travel vlogger who would suit your interests. You need to spend time looking for the right one.

As the tourism industry keeps growing, ‘Staycation’ would be a popular concept. Take a couple of days off from work, spend time at your house, in front of your television. Go out for short walks and come back to sit in front of the television. See the best of Paris, Berlin, Seattle, San Francisco, Mumbai, or whichever city you want to see. Chances are, what you’ll see on the television would be better than what you would see in person.

If seeking an escape is the reason for travelling, then Staycation is a perfectly valid way to work. Don’t work for a few days, don’t cook, don’t do anything that you do on the regular days. Eat good food, spend time talking to your family and do what you like doing. Watch videos about your favourite place and imagine you are in that place.

If the primary reason for your travel is clicking pictures to post on Instagram, unless you want to build your brand on Instagram, it doesn’t make sense.

We are blessed to live in times when internet has made things so easy. YouTube is a gift for creators of every kind. For you, who wants to have travel as a way to escape from your usual life, YouTube is the escape you need.

Instead of spending time online creating an itinerary, look at people’s videos and see where they have been. In this case, it is okay to be lazy. To spark your creativity to do the best work you can, be lazy. Let people who want to travel and show you the world do it. You are better off enjoying and appreciating their work.

If necessary, buy a few subscriptions to different streaming services. If you like looking at wildlife, Netflix has a great collection of BBC documentaries. These documentaries have come up after years of observation. Rather than trying to spot a white tiger in the forests of India, you are better off looking at the documentary that explains its life and shows the tiger at its best.

I have been using this mode of travel for short vacations every week. How about you?

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Photo by Ethan Robertson on Unsplash

Thanks for reading :)

Hemant