To be honest, I was pretty worried. I was gearing up for my month-long Germany trip but unlike my other travels, I was going to spend most of my time living in one city: Berlin.
I had heard all the benefits of long-term travelling vs. backpack travelling but I still had millions of doubts. How am I going to make friends without staying in hostels? How will I fill my days if I’m not constantly jumping from city to city? Will I spend every day aimlessly wandering the lonely streets of Germany only to return to an even lonelier apartment?
So I asked my friend Lindsay, a fellow traveller I met in Thailand who was living there for a few months. She promised me I’d have nothing to worry about, and then said:
“One thing I have learned is I CANNOT stay in a place long without having a purpose. I hit a miss moment at LubDee [Bangkok hostel], because I hadn’t really found that. But now I’m working on my own fashion line and an art gallery exhibit…I have something that makes me happy, that I can focus my time on.”
And you know what? She was completely right. From that moment on, I decided to give myself a travel purpose for my time in Germany – and then I went on to have one of the most amazing months of my life. If you’re going to travel, especially longer-term travel, you should have a purpose and here’s why:
Make Your Trip a Productive One
Travel isn’t the same thing as taking a vacation. Instead of taking a break from your life, why don’t you use your trip to add to your life? C’mon, there’s got to be something you’ve always wanted to learn but never had the time for (or a good excuse for). Cooking? Scuba diving? Rugby? Well your next trip is the perfect opportunity to check that off the list.
For me, it was learning a foreign language (German) and how to breakdance. Author Tim Ferris suggests you choose one activity for your mind and one for your body. This combination worked great for me, challenging me and forcing me to grow in multiple ways. And not only did I sleep like a baby every night, but I went to bed knowing that I had taken one step closer towards accomplishing my goals. That kind of satisfaction is just priceless.
But please, there’s way more important reasons to have a purpose…
Make Your Trip a Social One
I don’t know about you, but more than the temples I’ve seen or the exotic foods I’ve eaten, it’s the people I meet and my experiences with them that make my travels. In a new country where you don’t know anyone, having a travel purpose almost makes it too easy to build a social life for many reasons.
You’re surrounding yourself with people who share your interests. When you first meet someone, what do you do? You usually spend the first few minutes trying to make some sort of connection with them (“No way, I love puppies and ice cream too!”) Shared interests are one of the basic building blocks of forming a friendship.
Well, let’s say you’re taking hip hop classes in Berlin. Guess what? Every other person in that frickin building shares a huge similar interest as you: they all love hip hop and dancing. Before you even strike up your first conversation, you already have something in common. Your chances of making friends here, as opposed to the streets of Berlin, is much, much higher. And then once people find out you’re a traveller, it’s game over. You’ll be invited out to go clubbing and be a backup dancer in dance battle music videos in no time (hey, it happened to me).
You’re seeing these people on a regular basis. Let’s not forget this crucial aspect to building friendships. Most of our friendships have come from just seeing people often and on the regular: classmates and co-workers, for example. By simply showing up for your cooking classes or soccer games a few times a week, you’ll automatically start building a social network whether you want to or not.
Even if you’re not taking a class, your purpose can help you connect. While travelling, one of the first things people will ask you is, “What are you doing here?” Instead of just saying “travelling”, share your travel purpose with them. Not only will it lead to more interesting conversations, but if they share the same interests, you immediately have an excuse to hang out.
For example, I’ve been in Medellin, Colombia now for almost two weeks and my closest friends here – a Dutch blues guitarist, a Brazilian guitarist, and a Colombian electronic music producer – all connected with my purpose to create music. We always have a reason to hang out and bonds are formed way stronger when they’re over a shared interest, like playing music, rather then just going to bars.
Don’t Lose Yourself
When you’re travelling long-term, it can be downright dangerous to not have a purpose. Lindsay went through this in Thailand. My friend Sean just struggled with this in Colombia. As a traveller, you’d think that just living in another country would be enough to fill your days and make you happy. And at first, it probably will be. But eventually, you’ll start to feel empty.
Without having a purpose or goal, you can easily lose yourself and slip into a funk. As human beings, all of us have the need to move forward, grow, progress in some way. This applies whether you’re living at home or travelling a million miles from it. Give yourself a purpose so you don’t lose your way.
Experience The Culture On a Deeper Level
If you can, I highly suggest you make your travel purpose rooted in the culture of your destination. Interested in music? If you’re in Colombia, try learning to play vallenato songs. Dancing? Get your salsa or cumbia on. And don’t forget about learning some Spanish either. Learning the native language or cultural arts is an amazing way to experience the country on a much deeper level. Not that there’s anything wrong with drinking and sightseeing, but that’s only a part of the picture. Your travel purpose can help you explore the rest.
There’s really no right or wrong way to travel, but personally, travelling with a purpose has brought so much value and enrichment to my trips – I could never travel without it. Give it a shot and you just might return from your travels with so much more than souvenirs and pictures.
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The picture above is from my salsa dance lesson today, one of my travel purposes for this trip. These Colombian girls came in and snapped a million pictures of me dancing. They’ve never seen an Asian guy dancing salsa before!
Speaking of bonding over a travel purpose…tomorrow, me, my guitarist buddies, and some of our Colombian friends are going to the local universidad to play guitar on campus. If it doesn’t rain, the lucky students of Universidad UPB are gonna get to hear our samba version of Wonderwall.
And the day after that, I’m laying down some vocals on an electro track that me and my Colombian friend produced. He says he’s got some amigos in Bogota who want me to make a Reggaeton song with them. Ridiculous, but I’m so down.
