"Quality over quantity": How we're changing the way we travel post-COP26
Joram and I are having lots of discussions in the wake of Cop26, about how the climate crisis is going to have a big impact on something we truly adore – travel.
I know lots of friends and family are having similar discussions.
Although it seems cruel in the wake of a pandemic spent sheltering at home, it’s fairly clear that how we travel has to change. The days of regular weekend EasyJet jaunts to Europe are over, for all but the most obtuse of us.
Yet most of us (Joram and I included) are deeply unhappy at the idea of a future with no travel at all. Of course, there are always things to see in your own backyard, public transport options to take advantage of (including some new, exciting options) and generally different types of travel (we’re very inspired by slow travel at the moment). But sometimes those options don’t fully scratch the itch to see somewhere you’ve always dreamed of or fulfil the buzz of exploring a culture totally different from your own.
We’ve decided to move forward with a mantra of ‘quality over quantity’.
Which seems fairly sensible, if pedestrian, advice. But what does it mean in practicality?
For us, it links back to the reason we set up Deliberate Travel in the first place.
We’ve found that (in short) the more you know about a country before, the better. When you’ve focused on a country, learned about it, explored its outlines before you arrive, you make different choices, have different experiences and remember things differently.
Every time we’ve taken the time the learn about a country beforehand, whether it’s Cuba, New Zealand or Russia, it has dramatically enriched our experiences, from the conversations we can have with locals to the museums and monuments we decide to visit.
Of course, it’s difficult to find the time to read 10 different history books, cook several national dishes or explore different musical cultures. That’s if you even know where to begin. For most of us, our pre-trip knowledge consists of half remembered facts and the limited ‘cultural bit’ at the back of a Lonely Planet guide.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.
The travel that we’ve chosen to undertake is that kind of travel. Deliberate travel, in fact. From now on we’re aiming to plan our travel more consciously, to make our travel last longer than the trip itself by investing time beforehand and making what we learn mean something in the aftermath.
Lots of us are so used to travel that it becomes a shortened, almost pedestrian experience. It jumps upon us and leaves quickly afterwards with the travel itself a whirlwind of experiences divorced from context.
Our solution is to make more conscious choices about travel, to educate ourselves in advance, as an opportunity to savour the experience beyond the trip itself.
In the grand scheme of things, that’s also what we aspire to do for kids through our workbooks. We want kids to appreciate the value of all the countries of the world, and to recognize that there’s plenty more to learn about every country beyond the stereotypes and basic information.
Researching the workbooks helps us wet our travel whistle as well, and we hope it will do the same for kids and parents who are stuck at home in the latest lockdown (or coming lockdown depending where you are…).