Adopting a Travel Lifestyle; The Mindset to Travel is the Key to Getting Great Deals! (by Darrell Potts)
Mar 15, 2022
Our youngest daughter will graduate in the summer of 2029! A couple years ago, when discussing resuming our passion for world travel, I started to say “after Channing graduates...” I stopped before finishing the sentence. We realized at that moment; we can’t wait until it’s convenient to start traveling again. There’s too much to see! We can’t wait until money is no object. We can’t wait until the weather is perfect. We can’t wait until there are not reports of terrorism anywhere in the world. We can’t even wait until our kids college expenses are planned for. We’ve made “seeing the world” a priority in our lives. As such, that sometimes means we’re going to make do with the couch and loveseat combo in the living room for another year - and use that money to book flights to Milan. Table the couch and chairs...we’re going to Italy!
Right after that conversation, I got on Expedia, figured out where the fares were cheap, and immediately booked flights to Belize (in the hot season). We’d never been to Belize. We’d never talked to anybody who had been to Belize. We weren’t even exactly sure where it was on the map. But, fares were showing up under $300 from XNA... and the need to just “go” was greater than the need to plan. Belize was awesome!
Now, a couple of adventures later, I’ve been contacted by several friends wanting more information about traveling / travel photography / finding deals... Rather than continue to try to cobble mediocre answers together in short messages, I thought it would be more helpful to compile things on a common page. That’s where wanted to this little Facebook group to start: A simple page for friends who like to travel, might appreciate photographing their travel moments, and might benefit from our insights, mistakes, and experiences. Teena and I wouldn’t consider ourselves extremely experienced world travelers, but that’s something we hope to get closer to every year.
So, if you’ve asked me “how do you find such good deals on trips,” the answer isn’t as easy as “I saw it on Expedia.” The answer, first, is just adopting a mindset or an attitude about seeing the world. When “seeing the world” is your goal - it’s pretty easy to find some amazing and affordable opportunities within that framework! Here are the keys to seeing the world affordably (in our experience).
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It’s a lifestyle, not a destination! I have a list of about 150 places I want to go on my PC. I know about half of those wouldn’t be on Teena’s list, and some of them would admittedly involve special circumstances to be able to pull off - but the list is there. It grows more than it shrinks. It’s not some sort of “bucket list,” but just a growing list of places I’ve seen on shows, read about in stories, seen in photo magazines, seen on travel sights, or have just always wanted to see. The list (or at least accepting that there are thousands of amazing places and things to see), is the most important start to cheap travel. If your travel goals are something like “I want to visit the Eiffel Tower on July the 12th,” or “Our first trip really needs to be a spa vacation in Dubai - in December” then I’m not going to be much help. If those were our goals, we would’ve missed out on our last dozen trips. Start compiling an “Adventure List.” It’s fun! It’s educational. It’s a great way to use “bookmarks” on your favorite browser. Look for photos of your favorite destinations and save them! This list should be a catalog of places you dream of seeing! Then, when a fare pops up - you’re mentally ready to book it!
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It’s an Adventure...not a checklist of activities! If our trips were well-planned, we would’ve missed out on all these experiences; A brief encounter with Prince Charles at a theater near Shakespeare’s grave (Teena shook Charles’ hand), an accidental afternoon experience listening to the Vienna Boys Choir at their home chapel in Vienna, happening upon a performance of the Pope’s Choir in Cathedral Di Milano, ducking out of a thunderstorm on the Italian Riviera only to emerge from a cave to the most beautiful rocky beach we’d ever seen, getting lost on a highway in Italy that led us to Lake Como! Travel, at its best, happens. Put yourself in a new place, open your eyes and ears, and just see.
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Don’t wait for circumstances, create them! If we waited until we’d saved enough money, already had childcare figured out, thought nothing important would be going on at work, tried to plan around the kids’ sports and musical schedule, and saw a good deal that worked perfectly with all of the above - we’d never go anywhere. Try it our way: See the amazing airfare to a destination on our list (or not on our list), book two tickets (non refundable), and then watch how incredible you can be at figuring out all those other things.
So, that’s how the idea for Adventure Fares got started. I’ll follow up soon with some internet resources to finding great rates - now that you’ve decided time and place are secondary to that adventurous travel attitude you’re going to need!
