Travel Lessons from a Nomad

From April to June, I’ll have travelled over 8,500 kilometers as a tour leader for Brightspark Canada. Spending about four days a week giving tours in Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City let me appreciate Canada’s landscapes, landmarks, and history. It also changed my outlook on travel. Be it three days or three months, here’s my tips to make the best of the voyage.

Plan spontaneity.
Listen to people’s stories.
Get out of your comfort zone.

One: Travel is about planning spontaneity.

If you’re anything like me, you arrive in a new city with a plan. You’ve already researched with TripAdvisor, reddit, and friends’ advice to structure attractions, museums, and show times. Travelling for 60% of my week forced me to rethink this concept. Simply walking around on my break periods, I discovered new areas of cities I thought I knew. It made me realize the importance of having time to explore. Equally as important as hitting those four tourist attractions in a day is giving yourself time to take in the atmosphere of a destination. The best way to balance the conflicting desires of planning and discovery is scheduling spontaneous times. Planned spontaneity means you’re prepared enough to know what’s around but also open to chance happenings. Maybe it’s giving yourself an hour to wander in a new neighbourhood, randomly asking locals for suggestions, or just jumping on a bike and pointing yourself somewhere. Plan to NOT plan and you’ll be amazed at what you can discover.

Two: Travel is about hearing people’s stories.

I meet between 100 and 200 new people each week on tour. Coach driver Frank spent three months biking in Australia. A tour guide told me his decade-long story of immigration from Central America to Canada. Students frequently discuss differences between their home and our Quebec destination. Understanding stories like these helps me reflect on global citizenship and broaden my perspectives. These stories are part of a collective narrative found in each new destination. Discovering this narrative lets you become part of the fabric of intertwined stories continuously woven by locals and travellers. You can reap the rewards of travel by interacting with these stories, allowing you to reflect on your personal narrative and expand your perspectives. Many of my favourite travel memories are rooted in these interactions, ranging from satirical remarks to grand tales of adventure I experience through the eyes of another. Everybody has a story, regardless of job title, socioeconomic status, or lived-experience. When you’re travelling, enrich yours by hearing theirs.

Three: Travel is about getting out of your comfort zone.

We all draw our own concentric circles on the target of comfort. There’s the bullseye of the places, languages, activities and cultures you know. But unlike archery, there’s greater rewards when you hit outside of the circle of familiarity. Travel helps you realize that life is about experiencing these exciting moments on the edge. Take goals out of your comfort zone and match them with attributes unique to your destination. These attributes can be linguistic, geographical, cultural, and beyond. Quebec is a predominantly French speaking place, so I challenged myself to become more proficient in the language. If you’re comfortable in the big city lifestyle, try bungee jumping, rafting, or camping in Algonquin. By pushing your own limits by taking advantage of your surroundings, you’ll be rewarded with a local, diverse, and exciting travel experience. Small things like trying crickets and local cheeses, seeing contemporary street art, or biking somewhere unfamiliar challenged my limits. Trying something new broadens your perspectives and makes you a more adventurous, creative individual.

Travelling is a combination of hustling, creativity, spontaneity, and a never-ending carpe diem attitude. Don’t forget the narrative you build along the way - take photos, journal, collect items so you can reflect on your adventure. Travel taught me the value of going on spontaneous adventures, meeting cool people, and trying new things - not only when travelling, but every single day.