I have been asked, why I love to travel.  Traveling, to me, is anytime I leave my home environment and venture out to what’s going on in the world outside my comfort zone of family and my local community.

What I have learned:  When I’m open to what’s before me, I become curious.  When I’m curious, I learn happiness and joy are experienced in the heart not through where or how we live. 

There is an opportunity when traveling to engage with other people who are different, in that they may be a different culture and/or live in an environment with which I’m not familiar. 

When traveling, be an observer as well as a participant.  Find out where the locals eat, buy their groceries, and hang out with their friends.  Watch the interactions of families and friends, and when given the chance, engage in conversation. Take local public transportation.  Ask questions about how to purchase tickets and use the transportation system.

The Internet is an amazing tool to do some research prior to your traveling to learn about what local festivities are happening while you’re visiting.  

Ask the hotel or accommodation hosts for suggestions of where the locals “hang out.”  Sit at the bar at a restaurant and talk with the bartender.  Talk to the people at the bar.  (People who sit at the bar are open to conversation.) Get tips from the other patrons on what to do and see while you’re in town. 

Travel expands our horizon.  We are able to see through travel that there are other ways to live and be happy.

Be open to the unknown, and traveling becomes an adventure which brings you years of joy reminiscing and looking at the photos of your travels.