I class myself as a vaguely experienced traveller in Europe. Packing the rucksack is a bit of an art, knowing when to book flights and where to look for good value hotels are all part of the game. However, I am no-where near as experienced as my Father, my current travelling companion who must average 4 flights a week and has mastered the Ryanair system to a tee. When to queue, where to stand and which end of the plane to get on, it’s all a quick routine.
But we’re not alone; in the past the only way to travel would have been through organised tours and yet the freedom of low-cost carriers and the internet for booking accommodation has made us, the individual, the travel agent. That’s made things easier over the last five days: having a car has meant we could travel as we pleased and saved time (and money) on local transport.
And there are various tools in the modern traveller’s armour: the smartphone for those web checks of maps, emails from the airline and telephoning the hotel. The sat nav as a way of getting easily from place to place. For me, my mini-laptop to write read, check details and locations as well as using social media to share experiences and get recommendations via the free wifi.
Yet, some argue there’s something lost, there’s a sanitisation, a westernisation of the whole travel process. We spend less time with our eyes looking outwards to the new world we are visiting and more downwards to contact the world we come from. I don’t agree. Using the technology empowers me to travel: to walk through areas and see things that I might not have done. It allows me the time to stand and think when I want to rather than when stuck or lost.
Travelling to see and learn is important but just because we can be “connected” back home doesn’t mean that I am not connecting with the world I am visiting. In the end, the modern independent traveller is just that: using the technology at hand to see the world around him without support from ‘professionals’. Modern, independent, travel.
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