Personal Growth And Development Travel
If you want the best personal growth and development from travel, you have to get off those all-inclusive resort vacations. Those resorts are nice as I’ve been to a few of them but they are catered to tourists who want to stick to familiarity with a beach and pool. Pretty well all the people you will be interacting with are other tourists rather than locals.
For those who want more out of their travels, you have to get ready to go to places where there will be more locals than tourists. The destinations with the least amount of tourists always offer the best personal growth and development opportunities because not only do you get to interact with more locals and really immerse in their cultures, but you also get to visit places that are not flooded with tourist commercialism.
Advance Research Is Required
Of course it’s always a bit scary to go on trips where there are more unknowns compared to an all-inclusive resort where everything is catered to you. For more adventure travel, you have to figure out where to stay, where to eat, what to see, how to get there and around and even safety concerns.
The only way to be prepared is to do lots of advance research. For most places that you would probably want to visit, somebody has already been there and there should be written travel reports. With the internet, accessing this type of information is easier than ever.
Not only are there many travel websites, but just by doing a Google search with the destination plus keywords ‘travel report’ should get you started. There are also forums where you can post your questions directly.
Offline, you can visit travel agents that specialize in the destinations that you are interested in. You might even find information at the destination’s consulate office.
For my trip to Cuba, I used all of these options to do my own advance research as I wanted to scuba dive in one of the top areas for that but knowing that I would probably have to travel off the main tourist spots. I knew that my own personal growth and development would be much higher than if I stayed at a tourist resort for the entire stay.
So the key for a successful travel excursion for the most personal growth and development, is to do lots of advance research and preparation. It also helps to put together a cheat sheet of the main useful phrases in the destination’s local language as well.
My video report for this particular trip where I ended up going to a recognized biosphere was documented on an episode of Motivational WebTV. If you missed it, see it at Rural Cuban Adventure.
