Why should we even have to discuss how to keep entertained while traveling? Shouldn't we hope that travel itself will be so new, so full of unique experiences, so soul sating that it provides the entertainment we are seeking? Unfortunately, that hope is only partially met on any trip.I have ever taken. Long hours stuffed into the economy seat of an overseas flight, interminable layovers in airports, boring ground transportation, stuffy hotel room without the promised ocean view, long wait lines for celebrated restaurants, need I go on? Sorry if I discouraged you from planning your next trip! Maybe we can salvage it by exploring how to stay entertained while traveling.
You may be of an age to remember when the decision of how many and which books to pack for an upcoming trip was as crucial as deciding how many pairs of shoes to take. (I remember once packing a library book which I promptly left behind in the bedroom of a Spanish parador and had to pay $30.00 to our local library upon return.) As much as I still enjoy reading a physical book, I'm glad those days are behind us.
Nowadays, a Kindle reader and an iPhone are my go to sources of quick entertainment. Waiting somewhere in an office? Check e-mail. A friend late for lunch date? Click on Facebook. Bored at your local coffee shop? See what Flipboard has to offer. Ready to sit and rest for a minute? Get one more language lesson done on Duolingo.
Our first concern is to make sure electronic devices will still function at our travel destination. Kindle solved that problem by making the ability to download books internationally available. However the same type of books I read at home are not the ones I want to read on the road. No heavy Linguistics titles, emotional war stories, or self-help books for me abroad! I choose books for pure entertainment value. Downloading a few easy reading books before leaving gives me a feeling of security that I can bury myself in a book under almost any circumstances.
The cell phone, however, is another matter. I wish I were technologically "woke" enough to employ adventurous solutions like buying and installing a SIM card when arriving in a foreign country. That not being the case, I succumb to the expensive solution of purchasing an international phone plan from my cell phone provider. Choosing a plan is anxiety producing enough to begin with, not to mention trying to understand just how much data is required to send a picture of the Irish countryside to a friend in the US.
And I have a cautionary tales about using international cell phone plans. "Just use WiFi " is the common advice given. But finding reliable and secure WiFi at the moment you need it is not always the case. Example: My husband and I were staying in the small Swiss town of Chur. Free WiFi was one of the perks of the hotel. What we didn't realize was that the signal was erratic, so we used up our cell service data allotment very quickly and found ourselves owing hundreds of dollars two days into a fifteen day trip. Now we are plotting strategies for cell phone use for our next trip.
But something is very wrong with spending one's time trying to make an electronic device work on a trip. Shouldn't we be reading about and discussing the places we will visit, doing a bit of language study, and figuring out how to pack for two weeks in one carry on luggage?
Which leads me to my final point. How about concentrating on our surroundings, wherever our trip takes us? How about having a conversation, however brief, with a native of the country? How about chatting with travel companions about what we are seeing and doing? And even reading the headlines of a local newspaper may provide not only entertainment but a new perspective.
Would making a pact with travel companions to go cold turkey from electronic devices be the solution? (Pretty drastic, huh?) We might find ourselves enjoying the travel experience even more when it is filtered through our own eyes, ears, taste buds and noses rather than our beloved electronics.
