10 New Year’s Resolutions For Travellers
“Travel more” is a well-worn new year’s resolution, but it’s a good one. As the saying goes, travelling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. We here at AWOL have pulled together our ten new year’s resolutions that surround the idea of travel. Hopefully some of them will work for you too.
#1 New horizons
We resolve to go somewhere new this year, whether it’s a new continent, a new country or even a new local campsite or day trip to a swimming hole.
#2 Embrace the selfie stick
In 2015, we will stop making fun of the selfie stick and embrace it for what it is – a masterpiece of engineering that captures a wider panorama (and our faces, of course) of whichever exotic location we find ourselves in.
#3 Do it sustainably
This year (and all of the years after) we will do all that we can to reduce our carbon footprint on the earth, because our grandkids have as much of a right to see it all as we do.
#4 Cultural sensitivity
We will respect local customs in cultures, even if they don’t make sense to us. We won’t climb the rock, we won’t take photos where we’re requested not to and we’ll learn the words for “please” and “thank you” in advance for each place we visit.
#5 Eat it all
We resolve to try all foods that cross our plates when travelling the world, whether it be grasshoppers, raw horse meat or a fresh cobra’s heart served in a shot of vodka.
#6 Leave some leg room
This year, we won’t push our aeroplane seats back on short-haul daytime flights.
#7 Minimise bragging
In 2015, we’ll only post one Instagram photo per day when on holidays. There are only so many snaps of us on top of mountains or bathing in waterfalls that the average follower can handle.
#8 Feels like home
We will try a staycation. We’ll put aside some cash for a fancy hotel and hyped dinner in our hometowns and spend a weekend exploring a different side to the place we base ourselves.
#9 Hostel etiquette
This year, we vow to not be the guy who arrives home to the 12-bed hostel dorm at 2am and trips on his backpack strap and bellyflops on the floor, rousing a bunch of tired travellers from their slumber.
#10 Make it happen
We resolve to make travel happen for ourselves – not just to daydream and wish but to plan and book, because booking is the hardest part. Once the trip is booked, it’s happening. The other aspects of our lives will dutifully arrange themselves around the adventure and we’ll be all the richer for it.
(Lead image: Justin Li/Flickr)
