Indie travelers value local information over received information.
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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 whole heartedly agree. If you talk to locals you will receive accurate information, whereas sometimes you can read about things, which ongoing to the place in question you find that things are not as you had read. If possible if going to visit a place for the first time try and contact expats living in the area, that way you may not end up dissapointed.
Sure, I get it, but it’s not always true. Not by a long shot, as I think ‘locals’ have become a slightly overly attributed means for good travel. (In some places they’ll point you to TGIFs and have never bothered to see/consider things that make their town unique!) Often it takes an outsider to ‘see’ a place. So if it’s not ‘received’ information, then it’s at least knowledge gleaned from some pre-research that can lead into the greatest travel experiences. Even ‘independent’ travel experiences.
I can give about 100 examples of this but will just tell a recent example.
I had read about James Caleb Jackson recently — the inventor of breakfast cereal, my favorite food of all time — and went to its birthplace Dansville, NY two days ago. The focus locally is minimal on travel: a balloon festival (which looks great), the first Red Cross chapter, and some historic buildings on Main Street. I liked it. But once I asked about cereal — nothing a local would have ever thought to volunteer — I had librarians combing the town, physically, to find where I can have cereal in Cereal Town (arranging it) and pulling in a local historian who had an 1870s tins of cereal which we went across town to see.
There it is a mix. A wonderful and quick (two-hour) visit turned into a super travel experience. None of it wouldn’t have happened if I showed up to see where it would go.
Locals have a lot of prejudices which outsiders don’t have.
Some locals are in a different mindset then you.
They have different interests.
Travelers are more open to things.
I definitely think you need to do your research before any trip, but locals will give you the flavor of a place in a way that no amount of research can provide!
In the very small town of Higuera Blanca, Mexico, I met a local named Lupe who told me how she had lived her entire life in the town. When she was little, she was a member of one of four families in the entire town. There were no paved roads or running water. She now has five children of her own and the town has grown substantially! She owns her own laundromat and dreams about days when she used to bring her clothes 1/2 mile to the stream.
What better way to learn about local history than through the stories of locals!