Júlia Albertoni

Probably one of the first things we do before traveling is to look for information about the place we are heading to. Talking to people that have been there, watching to YouTube videos, scrolling the Instagram feed or reading blog posts, it doesn’t matter the way, the important is to write down tips, collect details and seek for guidance. Everything helps to construct a perfect travel experience. But what if we could forget all that when we are actually traveling? 

As we live in a digital “era of experiences”, most travel agencies, bloggers or whatever you may seek before traveling, sell experiences. I know it sounds weird, but I genuinely concluded that a good travel cannot be based by others experiences. Yes, you could buy the incredible surf classes in the Maui island or meet the gorillas of Uganda, but if you arrive to the place attached to what others said or felt, you have a big chance of ruining your own experience without even notice. Because your experience will be rooted in the information you collected, heard, saw, from others, not your own. It will become kind of a fake experience and most important, not in the present moment.

I moved from Brazil to Italy in the beginning of the year. Before I came, I talked to dozens of people. My friend Valentina hated Italy, she could just repeat the word “bambina” and make ugly faces. My friend Lara seemed to look at a waterfall when she talked about Italy. My language course italian classmates could just talk about pizza and Toscana. I noticed that if I followed all my friends judgments when I arrived here, I wouldn’t be able to feel Italy for myself. Not just from my point of view, but from what life brought me during this months here.

Well, maybe it is not possible to forget all we heard and read about our destination, but it is possible to connect to our true desires while we are traveling. For me, intuition is the most powerful tool to have a perfect travel experience. I truly believe that if your favorite Youtuber told you about the most amazing viewpoint of a particular place and, while you are heading to it, you feel inside your gut you rather be in your hotel watching local television or in that lovely coffee shop talking to the clerk, do not hesitate. Do what your instinct says. Do not be attached to google maps, Instagram tips or any blog advice. Feel free to feel the city, the place, the country and really connect to where you are.

So, when you travel, maybe you should ask yourself if is it worth to follow others tips or how attached to others experiences you are. I mean, you still could read articles, watch movies, talk to experts about the place you are going to visit, but you could also create that sacred space to your intuition guide which restaurant enter, which street cross or which feeling have. It is not because “everybody falls in love in Paris” that you should push yourself to feel love while in Paris. It is ok to feel anger in Paris and love in São Paulo. Be opened to the adventure…