The Wonders of Travel

I’ve been reading a great book recently, called Do this Before Bed, by Oliver Nino (I could write, and probably will write, a whole post about this book). There was one part where he wrote about remembering what you loved doing as a child. I thought he was going to go on to say simply so do more of what you loved as a child. But, instead, he took the example of imaginative play - something I loved doing - and focused in on exploring what you loved about it. So, rather than: you loved imaginative play, join a drama group (because how else do you do more of this?) actually look at what it was about the imaginative play you loved.

As a child I loved making up games - my favourite one was a game in which my cousins and I were detectives, but not just regular detectives. Oh no, each of us had a spirit animal that we could turn into. So, as you can imagine we could solve a whole host of crimes and get access to anything!

We would play this game repeatedly for, what felt like hours - in reality I have no idea how long we would play it for, but we were definitely in that ‘flow state’.

So what was it about those games that I loved? Was it the connection, creativity or magic of those games - don’t get me wrong, those were all great - but for me it was the possibility, the sense of adventure and wonder that anything could happen. The game could go anywhere and it was never exactly the same, even when we played it loads, it never became routine.

This was a lightbulb moment for me. Through having coaching of my own, I know that adventure, connection and community are my top three values - and two of these are met though holidays. But having the knowledge that it’s the open-ended non-repetitive nature of adventure has helped understand why this is such an important value to me (post on values coming soon).

I’ve thought for a while - of course everyone loves holidays, right? Duh! But it’s really helped me gain self-awareness into why I love holidays so much. I’m less keen on all-inclusive hotels - there’s something routine and predictable, repetitive even (don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy them), but my fave type of holidays are the ones that involve hiring a car.

There are so many things I love about a road-trip holiday, or even a holiday where you stay in one place and hire a car.

We recently flew to Alicante for the Easter holidays (much cheaper than May half term) and stayed at my in-laws villa in Pinoso. Having a car meant that on the one day the weather wasn’t so good we could drive to a zoo. We also managed to squeeze in a mini-break within the holiday by driving to Valencia and staying in a hotel for the night.

As a family of five, there are so many practical advantages of having a car. You can stick your own time schedules, choosing when to set off and head home. You can fill the car with snacks and a picnic - yes there’s still never enough snacks, but it helps loads on longer journeys. And the kids can also listen to music, draw or watch iPads/play Nintendo.

There’s a sense of adventure driving brings and no, it doesn’t always go to plan. But maybe that’s part of the adventure? The unpredictability. Or maybe I’m just writing this because I feel guilty that when we make a wrong turn it’s usually my fault. When we landed at Alicante we managed to drive 45 minutes in the wrong direction due to my dire navigation skills - yes I get the irony, I love driving holidays as a passenger who’s not great/very confident at map reading…but it makes for a funny story afterwards!

Plus, driving on holiday is a really nice reflection of mindfulness, as the journeys to the beach or a new town become part of the joy rather than a hassle. Seeing the country and scenery whizzing past the windows. Even driving to the supermarket becomes an adventure!

On this holiday some of the highlights seen through our car windows were; a huge rainbow, lightning - as we drove through a storm - a quarry and huge square blocks of stone (a treat for our Minecraft-loving son), olive and lemon groves and several giant sculptures.

Ultimately, I love the freedom and possibility having a car gave us - it meant that no two days were exactly the same. And the feelings of wonder and excitement reminded me of those imaginative games I would play as a child. Holidays with travel within the holiday feel so aligned with my values, my authentic self and I feel the child version of me approves.

What did you love as a child and why did you love it? Are there ways to bring elements - aspects or similar feelings back into your life?

[originally published on Debs' substack - https://deborahpryn.substack.com/p/the-wonders-of-travel]