It is possible to enjoy travel from the comfort of your home

There’s no getting around it, we are all staying inside way more than normal. No one would blame you if cabin fever is setting in. Are you going stir-crazy unable to leave your home, let alone hop on a plane and jet-set off to a new and exotic locale? You’re not alone. Thankfully, there are things you can do to help keep your travel bug at bay. Check out these ideas for some inspiration on how to enjoy travel from home.

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Tips on Enjoying Travel From Home:

Edit previous vacation photos

Now is the ideal time to practise your photo editing skills. Adobe Creative Cloud offers free trials. Lightroom is their photo editing app that can take a blah photo and turn it into something amazing. If you’re new to editing, try using presets to create visually-stunning photos with just one click. This is what I’ve done below with my picture of the Grand Canyon. Once you’ve done this, take your epic vacation photos and move on to the next idea.

Create a Photobook

If you love to take pictures during your vacations, but they never seem to leave your phone, now is the time to do something about that. Whether or not you decide to edit your photos first, creating a Photobook is the perfect way to re-live your trips.

There are a lot of different programs available online that you can use. My two personal favourites are Picaboo and Shutterfly, although my mom swears by Snapfish. Whichever one you choose, the process of creating a Photobook allows us to reminisce about the trips we have taken. They also keep those memories at our fingertips when used as coffee table books. These make for great conversation starters.

Plan your next trip

After losing my corporate job I flew to Europe on a whim. While it was an amazing trip, I later discovered that I was 20 minutes away from a castle that was on my Bucketlist. Since I didn’t do any research or planning, I drove right by it. Doh! There has never been a better time to plan your next trip than now.

The planning process gets you excited for the day you get to book your trip. Plus it will virtually take you around the world as you research and look at pictures of where you want to visit next. Being a visual person, I love using Pinterest to plan my trips. If you need some inspiration, check out my Dream Destinations board on Pinterest. You’ll find tons of amazing destinations pinned to that board.

Read travel magazines and books

These are a great source of inspiration for future travels. Reading also encourages us to use our imagination because it has the ability to transport us to other times and places. It really can help us enjoy travel from home and curb our wanderlust.

Watch travel-related shows

The two that come to mind immediately are Parts Unknown, Anthony Bourdain’s travel and food show, and the movie Eat, Pray, Love. If we can’t physically travel to another place, we can always live vicariously through others in tv shows and movies.

They don’t call it ‘armchair travel’ for nothing. I watched the first episode of Emily in Paris on Netflix and was immediately hooked! It instantly transported me back to my days of living in Paris. I have a few armchair travel-related posts on here. You can check them out here.

FaceTime friends abroad

If you have friends or family living abroad, set up a video chat to see the world through their eyes. Not only will you be able to catch up with them, but you could also get to see their neighbourhood. Going for a drive is perfectly acceptable social distancing behaviour. If you both drive to a local park, beach, or lookout point, you can video chat with a different view. Don’t know anyone abroad? No problem, use Google’s street view to virtually check out different parts of the world.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas on how to pass the time at home in ways that help you enjoy travel and take it beyond the trip itself. Researching and planning are just as much a part of any trip as going on the actual trip itself. The same as reminiscing, telling stories and looking at photographs are also part of each and every trip. Let’s take a moment to enjoy all aspects of travel from the comfort of our homes.

If you want some ideas for how to staycation like a boss, check out my post on 5 Ways to Make a Staycation an Amazing Vacation. I am a huge believer in staycations.

I recently added another way you can enjoy travel from home and also display previous travel photos. Check out my post on turning travel photos into canvas prints.