How to choose experiential travel for your next holiday

Choose experiential travel for life’s vital relief

As you take your coffee break and contemplate your current lifestyle you may find your inner-self coping with or deflecting the social decline or politics of the day, intrusive marketing and noise at every turn, not to overlook confusion where technology rules. Should you be braving a permanent state of discontent there is always hope.

The good news is people are turning to experiential travel for inner relief, in so doing venturing beyond the food and accommodation selection. They are seeking a deeper emotional and personal connection to humanity, nature, places, people and cultures that are real.

Bucket list and packaged travel sold on discounts and buzz words will decline at the will of a discerning mind. So lets consider the process and values of becoming an experiential traveller.

What is experiential travel?

By definition the experiential traveller seeks an immersive connection at a personal and emotional level. An inner awareness of wellbeing and growth, a restorative re-connect with primal values despite the stressful world.

A discerning traveller is one who is guided by good judgement, who is selective, enlightened and perceptive – in essence an experiential traveller.

What is your holiday dollar really buying?

You might start by questioning the dollar invested in your next holiday:

Are your decisions influenced by a discount obsessed society?
Does your time poor lifestyle hasten an impulse response to clever marketing, where calls to action have little regard for the real life experience?
Will you derive inner wellbeing from the holiday investment or is short term entertainment your preferred if not limited experience?
Will the holiday deliver an enduring lifetime experience or simply a fading memory?

How are you influenced by others?

Given you are uniquely you and you have only one life to fulfil, discernment is vital to your decision making?

Do you need to cut through the buzzwords and advertising spin, untruths in messaging and presentations to discover the deeper relevance to you?
Is the experience on offer contrived or orchestrated by a corporate enterprise packaging tourism and thrills for profit?
Or will your experience be natural and free, centred around the mind, body and soul, long lasting and beneficial, even a redirection for your everyday life?
Do you recognise  joy and vitality in others engaged in experiential travel or the cognitive stimulation flowing from a small group of like-minded souls exploring the bounds of life?

A discerning discovery

Along the path toward experiential travel you will discover that food and wine, cocktail bars, resort indulgences and pampering have only a minor place in the deeper emotional and personal connection you are seeking.

These indulgences are worthy of a place on the fringe of your experiences rather than being a dominant influence over your travel decision.

Ask a seasoned experiential traveller if these indulgences have much to do with the deeper connection to humanity, nature, place, people and culture.

Start looking beyond what you see

To draw upon one real life Nature Bound Australia observaton, imagine you have arrived at a large arid national park, once a thriving pastoral holding where fortunes were made and families lived off the land.

The park promotional material delivers the broad facts about historic significance, dedication of the reserve itself, endangered or unique species you might by chance see.

A tour guide alerts you to the obvious features and indicates you have a few minutes to assimilate it all before moving on to another bucket list feature up the track.

At this moment you are moved by a deep desire, to step beyond the “window-dressing”, to walk a while and open up to personal discovery, to pause in solitude and allow nature to present itself.

You might wonder if this arid land, still adorned with machinery and evidence from an abandoned enterprise could have been something completely different but for the impact of man in the pursuit of fortunes.

Your discerning mind starts to explore.

Typically the questions flow.

What lesson does the history of this place convey? Is there a value or meaning I can take from this moment?

Does the arid landscape I see bear witness to historic land management or conservation issues concerning the world today?

Where are the locals with their valued story? Does nature have a story?

Was this arid place once a land of plenty for the First Nation people, their generations and culture?

Is there a deeper story the brochures are glossing over, even by intent?

Is this experience opening greater wisdom in me? What can I learn about myself by being here?

Is experiential travel all about the reality of place, good and bad, of participation beyond simply observation?

At this point you have arrived at the inner realm of experiential travel.

This is why Nature Bound Australia facilitates comfortable small group journeys into remote Australia where the connection with nature, people, history and culture nurtures our guest’s inner journey. Choose from the Destinations and Experiences on offer.

Feel free to add your thoughts by emailing us.

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