As Jennifer Hudson would say, I am changing.
A follow-up to 3 ways I'll travel differently in 2024.
In 2024, I was blessed to continue my travel adventures, galavanting to destinations old and new! That travel season came to a triumphant end as I deplaned my last flight of the year on Dec 20, 2024.
10 cities, 2 countries, 11 trips with breaks only in May and June. I'm grateful for the resources, flexibility, and covering to get to and fro so many times safely. But, as with each passing year, I learn new things about myself and identify changes that could benefit my travel experience the following year. I'll apply those lessons in 2025 by traveling in groups, traveling for outdoor recreation, and using trains and buses more than planes.
I know, this one shocked me too.
For most of my adult life, I've notoriously been the solo travel girly. In the last year or so, I have been (solo) traveling to visit friends, but still staying in my own accommodations and having my own itinerary.
In the future, I foresee me embracing something I never thought I would: traveling with strangers in organized groups.
The how behind this change is clear. But the why, not so much. My hypothesis is that I'm just tired. According to my Notion Board, I've planned and gone on 33 trips since Dec 2021 – nearly a trip a month for three years straight. Y'all don't know how many brain cells that took, how many hours of research, how much focus and attention it took to put those trips together, not to mention actually executing them in real time. Maybe my interest is changing because I'm a bit burnt out from pulling off the kind of trips I really enjoy with solely the strength of my own neurons (and sometimes those of my friends! you know who you are <3) While there are a number of ways I can combat this, my first experimentation will be with group travel.
What's scary about it to me isn't the staying with strangers part, it's the fact that for organized group trips, I'll be relinquishing control over logistics, planning, and details. The only thing I control is my flights. Everything else, from lodging to activities to dining, is organized by someone else after I hand them my money and trust that they can plan a trip better than I would. And for some, I'm sure just handing over the money and getting on a plane is a welcome reprieve. But for me, this will be a deep shift for me considering I have planned or co-planned nearly every trip I've been on as an adult.
Now, I'm more open to the idea of just paying my money (even though I'm confident I could've found a better deal on something), showing up, making friends, and following the trip organizers’ lead (gasp). I'm challenging myself to relax and relinquish the control I have always held onto so tightly. I don't have to do all the work and I need to see that as an opportunity to enjoy travel in a way I never have before. To test out these approaches of traveling for outdoor recreation (more on that in a bit) and traveling in groups of strangers, I’m joining the BLK Hiking Club for one of their international hiking trips next year! I’ll be sure to report back on how that goes!
Younger Thalia often anchored her travels on live music (current Thalia still does a bit of that, but not nearly as much lol). But my interests are shifting, and so are my priorities.
I've got a new anchor: exploring the outdoors! I wanna hike, I wanna swim, I wanna kayak, I wanna climb, I maybe even wanna start trail running??? I wanna do it all and there's so much opportunity to do that right here in the beautiful American South, mostly in places I've never taken the time to see!
I've been an outdoors girly for a long time (y'all better ask bout me!), but ever since I started working out outside 4x/week (#LiatheTriathlete) and making friends with other nature enthusiasts, I've taken my passion for the outdoors more seriously. So instead of only hitting the beautiful, gorgeous state parks in my little corner of North Georgia or kayaking the same bit of the Chattahoochee that I do every season, this year I'm planning to go on kayaking trips with the Georgia River Network, join the Atlanta chapter of the Ladies Climbing Coalition for some outdoor bouldering trips, and hike a new Georgia State Park every month w/ my bestie and/or sister.
I'm not going to say that the recent changes at the FAA have affected my taste for plane travel, but what I am saying is that ever since my trip to Milwaukee last fall, I've been obsessed with taking Amtrak. I made a friend in line, it was so easy to just hop on and off, and the wifi worked perfectly! Compared to its European equivalents, it's quite inefficient, time-consuming, and costly. But my ability to bounce from city to city without a car or a jet outweighs its severe, but not disastrous shortcomings.
And as my taste grows for exploration of the South but weakens for the act of driving, I've considered more seriously taking a bus to places like Durham, Norfolk, New Orleans, Nashville, or even parts of Florida. I used to bust out 400 miles a week by myself like it was nothing during my time at South Carolina, but my desire to drive a vehicle these days has truly taken a turn towards...trains, buses, or the passenger seat of my sisters' or friends' vehicles.
This travel season is going to be different. I’m in a different place than I have been for the past 3 travel seasons. I’ve got different interests, different preferences, and different responsibilities. And instead of being upset about parts of my past travel habits that I’m letting go, I’m excited to embrace this next adventure, wherever it’ll take me.
