Indie travelers value first-hand experience over expert opinions.
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We better understand ourselves and others when we leave home to experience the world firsthand. Independent travel is a departure from routine -- an opportunity to learn, have fun and embrace life in novel environments and cultures.
-Indie travel is about replacing broad expectations with nuanced realities.
-Indie travel is about seeing yourself in the context of a rich and complex world.
-Indie travel is about defining your values, exploring your beliefs, and crafting your own meaning for life.
Indie travelers value...
-Options over possessions
-Dynamic possibilities over static goals
-Discovery over escape
-Interactions over transactions
-Local information over received information
-First-hand experience over expert opinions
-Mental and spiritual growth as much as physical adventure
-Private transformation over social status and bragging rights
-The present moment over dreams of past and future
Indie travelers do...
-Pack light and keep things simple
-Adapt as they go rather than micromanage in advance
-Practice caution, but not paranoia
-Know how to slow down and enjoy an experience
-Seek pleasure in simple moments and details
-Make meaningful connections and informed decisions
-Learn the economic, political and environmental context of their host culture
-Emphasize listening more than talking
-Practice courtesy, patience, humility, and good humor
-Seek to understand -- not judge or romanticize -- other cultures
-Give back to the local economy
-Share what they’ve learned with others
I am an indie traveler,
I agree. When I travel I avoid using guide books . I usually stay in hostels where you hear lots of different experiences of travelers. I often see tourist clutching the latest issue of Lonley Planet. They follow the maps & city guides never venturing off the street grid provided. They highlight the ruins & tourist spots they want to visit. Approaching it like homework with even putting time constraints on the list of “things they must see & do” . The guide books “off the beaten path” info is no longer off the beaten path if there in their third edition. I travel light with no watch or laptop, a small 5 year old digital camara is the most valuable thing I own. The less you carry the more mobile you are. I get on any bus at any time. The only thing I do intentionaly is pick the direction I plan on going & tend to try to stay in that direction. I never get round trip airline tickets since I’d have to return to the same airport my travels started. I want to always move forward. Guide books can’t direct my personel adventure. My life & path are mine. I think many love reading others personel adventures & blogs because of that fact. I love getting lost…that’s when my adventure begins.
Thats the way that I see it. I myself don’t own any guide books. I don’t usually have any set plans as to what I want to see when I visit somewhere new. I like to explore around and find places by wandering around. Unfortunately many well known places are becoming spoilt due to too many people visiting them, which results in new amenities being built which for the most part are just to get you to spend more money.
I totally agree. I brought a guide book to my first real adventure in Peru. Unfortunately it was borrowed from the library back home so I had to lug that useless thing in my backpack the whole time – and never read a page in it the whole time I was there.
Nowadays I research online and land in the country with a small backpack, an inkling of the customs, a loose plan of what I really want to see, and a few places I may like to stay. After that everything is about winging it and letting the adventure unfold. Of course I have been known to get on a plane with no plan or accomodation lined up and still had a great adventure.
I think if your karma is good everything will always work out. You will always find what you are meant to find and meet who you are meant to meet. Sometimes I miss notorious places on my journey – but in exchange I got to expereince things that are off the beaten track and just as magical in their own right.