Chances are, you have a traveling itch that needs to be scratched right now. You were either planning on taking a trip, or you’re missing the different locales and destinations you’ve visited in the past. Even if you’re not hopping on a plane or going on a road trip anytime soon, you can still enhance your travel experience for future trips by reliving your past trips.
Reminiscing about your past trips can put you back in the mindset of your more enjoyable journeys and remind you of all the fun you had and challenges you faced. It’s a great time for storytelling and sharing your experiences with others.
Lonely Planet recently published an article about “Why reliving our best ever trips can feed the soul,” and we couldn’t agree more.
If you’d consider the possibilities of embarking on a virtual trip down travel memory lane, here are five helpful reminders for you. So whip up your favorite food from that destination, sit down with friends and family from the trip, and relive some of these memories.
1. What you wear matters
Sometimes people wear certain outfits and clothing items when they travel, or they bought something to remind them of the trip. Start your at-home journey by wearing what you wore on your trip, or pick out or buy similar clothes that will remind you of your time. Of course, if you’re reliving your winter ski trip to the mountains in the middle of summer, that might be a problem. But see if you can find something that makes you feel like you’re back there again.
2. Listen to the music
Music can really make a trip interesting, especially if you remember the music from a trip overseas. Maybe there was a Parisian cafe, or a Nashville country bar, or a Mexico City restaurant playing norteño music.
Create a playlist of the songs, or at least the genre, of music you discovered on the trip. Build it on Spotify, Pandora, or even YouTube Music, and listen while you get dressed, eat, and look at your old photos and videos.
3. Create a slideshow of your photos
If you’re like most people, you took plenty of photos on your trip, and posted a few to your social media accounts. Pull out your phone or laptop and sort through the photos. Delete the bad ones and the repeats, and create a folder of your best photos.
Imagine looking at those mountains you saw on your trip to Colorado last December, or reliving the African safari two years ago. Place those in a folder on iCloud or Google Photos and then stream them to your smart TV, Apple TV, or Google Chromecast device, and watch the slideshow while your music plays.
Take it a step further and create a scrapbook or even a coffee table book from your favorite videos. Then you can leaf through the pages whenever you want to remember something from your time.
4. Share with your friends
Themed dinners, regional playlists, and photo slideshows are all great, but sometimes it’s just better to share our experiences with other people, and to hear about theirs. There are different ways you can share your trips with others and help others experience the amazing time that you had.
Invite some friends over for a dinner party or have a private Zoom gathering and take 15 minutes to talk about your favorite vacation. Give other people time to do the same thing as well. Share the meaning and story behind a souvenir you brought home. Share a recipe for your favorite dish from the city you visited. Share the playlist of the music you’ve been listening to.
By sharing pieces of the places you visited, you can create an experience for someone else as well, and they can do the same for you, giving you some ideas for your next trip.
5. Plan a future an itinerary
We’re not going to be at home forever. We will travel again and see other parts of the world. And that means you can make more memories. So start making plans for another trip, whether it’s back to your favorite destination or an entirely new one. Pick the things you loved and try to do them again; figure out the things that went wrong or you didn’t enjoy and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes.
Maybe it’s the canal tour you took, or ziplining over a river, or a walking tour of the arts district, or a national museum. Remembering those past details will help you plan your next trip and make this one as enjoyable as the last one.
What are some of your favorite past trips and memories? Is there a magical time that really stands out or you’d like to relive again? Have you relived past trips already? Tell us all about it on our Facebook page, or on our Twitter stream. You can also find us on our Instagram page at @TravelproIntl.
Photo credit: LuisValiente (PXHere.com, Creative Commons 0)