The Novice Perspective: identifying my travel style

Shipra is my fiancée and the first of contributors at the blog. She has worked with one of the largest airline conglomerates in the world, and is now based in Mumbai. Shipra has lived, worked and travelled across 4 continents. We travel often enough, together and separately. These are her perspectives, as she gets used to the world of business and leisure travel and our hobby!

As I settle myself in the couch at the JW Marriott in Bengaluru, glancing the expansive view of the Cubbon park and sip my morning green tea, I think to myself how different am I when I get out of my comfort zone and travel. At home, everything works by the clock as it should be but when I am out occasionally a different person emerges. For example I am fussy about a turndown service and while it’s not something that ever happens at home, i do get upset if a hotel does not do a turn down service for my room.

Collapse Invalid request error occurred. So, today’s writing is about identifying with travel style. I have been a backpacker in Europe, an explorer in Africa and indulged in the luxury of Aman in India. Over the years my travel style had evolved around 3 aspects primarily.

The story of my bag and baggage: There was a time I only boarded an aircraft with a hand purse. Lugging a cabin bag was a hassle for me and honestly my stuff would never fit into a hand bag. Over time, waiting until eternity at baggage belts and having limited time in a city has forced me to start using a rollaboard that I don’t have to check in. My red Victorinox rollaboard has survived with me well through my last 4 vacation travels and I have learnt that I only need to pack a few essentials for every vacation. So, from packing matching shoes with every dress I have progressed to a minimalist and a smart travel style where I pack things which can be used over and over.
Cover the world bit by bit: I have learnt that there is never a grey line here. Either one likes to travel on multiple short weekend getaways all through the year or one plans one or two big itineraries in the year. I also know of people who even when on a Europe trip have spent a week just exploring just France or the Netherlands. As for me, on one of my Europe trips I only explored Barcelona, on another one walked through the streets of Paris. I am the person who enjoys trotting the globe in multiple breaks and will not be happy travelling a round the world in 80 days.
Indulge indulge indulge: While I have stayed at a 100 year old Portuguese villa in Goa, I still enjoy the private beach at the Park Hyatt. I wouldn’t mind paying a little more for that extra legroom on a long haul flight and I will never refrain from pampering myself at the resort spas. Honestly, while there is always some budgeting that goes around every trip, I always build in a buffer for my last minute indulgences.

So, over the years I’ve evolved into the person who travels light weight, enjoy taking numerous short trips through out the year and while I do work on budgets I don’t hesitate to pamper myself.

For you, readers, if you had to describe your travel style in 3 sentences what would those be?

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