5 Reasons Not to Waste Your Money on a Boring Instagram Vacation

Kyoto is so much more than temples packed with tourists

Have you ever gone skinny dipping at night? The ‘wow’ moment is always the same — when you plunge into the cold water and surface to meet the gaze of the stars while totally naked. Both shocking and thrilling, it’s an electric experience.

You don’t go somewhere exotic to be a tourist — you go there to have an out-of-this world journey, to escape from the monotony of everyday life. You go to break your routine and see incredible new things. You go for the love of adventure — not the hotel with the best mini-fridge snacks.

Still peeling from your pool-side sunburn, you could be showing off stereotypical selfies of you and a Pina Colada (in a coconut) on some resort in Bali… or you could passionately tell the story of how you trekked through a forest in Vietnam and became friends with a village Elder over a bowl of spicy noodles.

1. You’ll push past your comfort zone without even realizing it

Dave and Deb from The Planet D go whitewater rafting on Ottawa River where you can find some of the worlds biggest rapids! Read the full story.

If you are stuck in a rut at home, work or both, adventure is your cure.

Let’s face it, humans are as lazy as we think we can get away with. We languish in our comfort zones, happy to complain about gaining weight while scoffing down an entire pizza every Friday (it’s a carb-free base I swear).

Venturing outside your comfort zone is, by nature, uncomfortable. But there’s a secret method to push past this initial discomfort; it’s called distraction.

You don’t have time to feel tired while white-water rafting down rapids in the Grand Canyon — you’re too busy paddling! It’s a scientific fact that your physical and mental limits are almost double what you expect them to be.

Imagine how great you’ll feel when you realize that you’ve conquered fears and achieved goals you thought you were never capable of!

2. You learn language and culture on a deeper level

You can read guidebooks and listen to language podcasts, but until you’ve ventured away from the tourist spots, you’ll only get a fraction of the story. Authenticity doesn’t even deserve an honorable mention around guided tours and the usual landmarks. All you’ll get is the same regurgitated tale, a boring selfie on Instagram, and an overpriced lunch.

Ignore the designated tourist path and begin to learn through pure immersion. You’ll meet locals who don’t speak a lick of English and have better things to do than exploit your hard-earned cash. If you are well behaved, you might even be invited to someone’s house for dinner. When it’s one-on-one, you’ll discover communication through universal sign language is indeed possible.

3. You connect with incredible people

The man who makes a living fishing in the lake near his home and cares for his aging father. The child who sneaks up to you to get a closer look at your strange nose. The single mother who supports her children by creating delicate pottery. Far from the mess of major cities, the local people you meet will become the cornerstone of your journey.

You’ll experience life at a different pace and learn more about happiness and fulfillment than any motivational blog post claims to teach you.

When other travelers cross your path, they won’t be the annoying ‘party party Thailand backpacker’ type; they’ll be interesting like you.

4. You get to enjoy freedom in its purest form

This is a freedom jump. Freedom jumps are awesome.

Between the routine of daily life, the routine of work and the routine of your social circle, there’s not much time left to do something new. If you Google everything you are uncertain of and plan things down to the minute, it’s time for a break.

You can still be informed. You can still Google. You can still book everything in advance. But when you venture away from the well-traveled paths, spontaneous stuff just happens!

You don’t have the time to find a ‘how to’ guide when faced with wild deer on a hike and your TripAdvisor-approved restaurant gets abandoned for the cheerful bar you stumbled across when you went down the wrong street. These unplanned moments inject passion back into your life and remind you that you are free to change your mind.

Like every surfer ever says ‘Go with the flow, dude.’

5. You learn why hippies rave about ‘being in the now’

You can’t think about your tax returns while hanging onto the sail of a windsurfer. Your entire body and mind are working together desperately trying to keep you upright and moving forward. When something demands your full, deep attention, you are deposited in the magical place of ‘now’.

Yogis say you can enter this magic zone with practice and meditation. I’ll practice when I’m at home thank you very much, when I’m on vacation, I want to have fun.

Perfection is great for spreadsheets but boring for vacations

This is no hotel pool. You can almost smell the fresh pine trees. Is that snow off in the distance?

Pictures of professional Instagramers on sponsored vacations look great, but let’s be honest, you can only sit next to so many pools and beaches before you’ve seen them all. Don’t waste your money feeling bored. Choose to escape the crush of tourist traps and venture into the unknown.

You’ll see things no one has seen before, make meaningful connections with people, and have an awesome time.

Working a full-time job and dealing with daily dramas slowly empties your emotional bucket — adventure fills it right back up. Refreshed and rejuvenated, you can go home satisfied that your money was well spent.

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