Travel Conundrum: What to Do When You Stay at Home

Gather the memories

Rummaging through old photos is the best way to bring back memories. Ever since the advent of digital photography these memories have been hiding somewhere on a memory card (and were occasionally maybe even erased from existence by mistake). You can spend time at home by making a photo album or your very own travel diary that won’t contain only photos but also venue tickets, plane tickets, notes, memories and anecdotes. You’ll certainly relive your trips when making the album or diary, and in 10 or 20 years it will undoubtedly become the most beautiful memory of your travel adventures!

Run a movie marathon

What’s your favourite country? Which one do you want to visit in the future, but don’t know much about? Films, documentaries and TV series can take you across the world for at least a few hours and they’ll most likely inspire one of your future adventures, too. Want to travel South America? Then I recommend The Motorcycle Diaries, a film that made me fall in love with the country many years ago. So, when you stay at home, you can easily turn on the TV or your computer without feeling guilty and discover rice fields, explore the African steppes, or join a picnic with penguins in the Antarctic.

Plan a culinary month

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. And trying out new food when travelling can probably count as one of the best travel experiences. But what if you could treat your taste buds to flavours of the world in your very own kitchen? Make a list of your 10 favourite dishes (or the ones you’d like to try out), head to the shop (or an online one) to get the more exotic ingredients, and visit a new part of the world each weekend!

Create a travel atmosphere at home

Why not bring a piece of the world to your very home? Rearranging your home every now and then is said to have a positive effect on your health, and even when you stay at home you can travel each time you enter your living room, just by using a bit of your imagination. You can create a travel atmosphere simply by putting up maps and pictures on the walls, or by using travel themed decorative cushions and bedding. Or you can even go a step further and turn your bathroom into a Japanese zen space, redecorate your kitchen in a Mexican style, or create a Middle Eastern atmosphere in your living room with rugs, lamps and decor.

Do a puzzle!

Puzzles aren’t only for children. They promote creativity, boost cognitive abilities and are relaxing. And there are plenty that are travel themed to choose from – that way you can learn the names of all countries or explore the attractions of the USA as well as natural wonders while working on the puzzle. But if puzzles aren’t your thing, you can also take up painting, or perhaps colouring travel themed mandalas.

Make a playlist of songs from your favourite country

Do you know any songs from your favourite parts of the world? Make a playlist and listen to it when going on your next trip is still out of the question. It’s alright if your ears usually start to hurt when you hear Mexican mariachi or the sounds of Bali that just seem to go on and on, or if you feel nostalgia while listening to Indian hits – after all, listening to music is one of the best ways to relive the most beautiful moments from your trips.

Create your own bucket list

Maybe we don’t really want to start carefully planning our trip in times when we’re not even sure when we’ll be able to get back to travelling. But one can always dream, right? A traveller’s bucket list usually only gets longer the more they travel, and now’s the perfect time to write down all those kilometres you’ve put behind you. Create a list of your top 50 travel wishes (not a list of countries, but a list of places or things you want to experience there!), embellish it with photos, and add an approximate date by which you want your wish to be fulfilled. Your list will grow into a true travel plan and the only thing left will be for you to cross one of your wishes off the list on your next trip.

You can find even more inspiration for activities that are perfect for travellers who are stuck at home in the article titled 27 Ways to Fuel Your Wanderlust Without Leaving Home.