Experimental Travel - The what’s, why's and how's

Experimental travel has become a buzz word in recent times. The millennials live a fast-paced life and love living to the fullest. They believe in ‘work hard and party harder’ concept and favour quality over quantity. In recent times, young people are more fascinated with travel. They are not typical tourists but loves visiting a place based on an experiment. The goal is to make a deeper connection with the destination and include elements of chance and serendipity. Thus, experimental tourism is an approach where visitors enjoy experimenting with their travel ideas.

What is Experimental Travel?

Experimental travel became a trend in itself after Lonely Planet has published an ultimate guide to experimental travel. This is basically unconventional travelling, a mix of art, science and fun. The idea was led by a French journalist, Joel Henry in 1990 who transformed travel into a game. He suggests experiencing the chosen destination in a unique way that would remain etched in the memory forever. There are various approaches to experimental tourism that travellers can experiment with.

1. Aerotourism
This is the concept of exploring the local airport and coming back.

2. Alphatourism
Alphatourism is interesting where visitors find the first and last street on a map and draws a straight line in between. Finally, they walk through the path between these points.

3. Blindfolded tourism
It is the kind of experimental travel where visitors are blindfolded and escorted with the help of a guide.

4. Contretourism
Travellers visit popular tourist attractions but turn their back and take a picture of the sight from that particular direction.

5. Erotourism
Erotourism is particularly concerned with couples who travel to the same city separately and then try finding one another.

6. Monopolytourism
The travellers carry a local monopoly board and explore only those places that are determined by the rolling of the dice.

7. Nyctalotourism
This is the kind of tourism where travellers visit key attractions only between dusk and dawn.

8. Sagittatourism
It is a concept where visitors throw an arrow on a map and explores the destination that the arrow hits.

Why should you be an experimental traveller?

If you are the kind of traveller who enjoys exploring new things, experimental travel is something that you must try. The vague style of travelling where the journey is clear but the destination is unknown really intrigues many. It not only relaxes you but also opens you up to new ideas and solutions.

1. It makes you familiar with unfamiliar situations
When you are trying new adventures on a vacation, you become more flexible. While experimenting with your travels, you tend to develop new skills and expansive concepts. Thus, it makes you familiar in unfamiliar circumstances and that way you can deal with various problems of life.

2. Understanding the true purpose
Experimenting with your ideas and interests lets you understand the true meaning of life. You know what you like and you have a strong opinion about it. Thus, experimental travel gives a major boost to your self-confidence so that you can head in the right direction.

3. Experiencing serendipity
Experimental travel will let you understand the fact that pleasant things are not looked for. It is just a matter of sheer luck. And you never know this serendipity might lead to the synchronicity of mind and body. The series of events will appear meaningful in the long-run.

4. It gives you great memories
Experimental travel might give you some of the craziest memories that will eventually become exciting stories to tell others. Thus, when you grow old and look back, you would be happy to realize that you had immense travel experiences. And that is more than enough to satisfy your wanderlust soul for the rest of your life.

How to experiment with travel?

There are a number of ways to experiment with travel. It can be funny or weird at times, but you will never get bored of it. Here are a few ways, how you can use your creative ideas and travel around the world.

1. Travel to a destination as quickly as possible but while returning take the slowest form of transportation. This will allow you to savour the      surrounding in the best possible way
2. Travel using a fixed number, say 10. Take a bus that departs at 10 o’clock, get off at the 10th stop and start exploring the places that are on the 10th street
3. Explore every Christian country in the world and compare the faith-based on geographic region
4. Travel with no money and engage in odd jobs to earn a living while travelling
5. Travel only to historical places around the world and appreciate the architectural grandeur
6. Whenever you visit a country, take a cooking lesson and learn to cook the national delicacy
7. Go meditate in every holy place around
8. Visit the movie sets of all your favourite movies, starting from Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings and many more
9. Live with different tribes on the earth and get a closer look at their culture
10. Be a vegan and visit every village possible
11. Wander through the deserts in the world
12. Try collecting as many magazines as possible from various countries across the globe
13. Travel with your camera and take pictures of old people from every corner of the planet
14. Interact with prisoners in different jails and compare the conditions
15. Attend religious festivals from one place to the next

Experimental travel can often be described as a path to self-discovery. You can either copy other ideas or make up your own. But if you are really into experimenting with travel plans, this is something you should consider.