Airbnb’s newest campaign talks about the power of travel and how it can transform our perceptions of the world and our place in it. We asked 15 bloggers to share their own tranformative travel experiences. Bobby Christian from Vagabond3 Travel Blog shares his below:
Travel is the feelings I have two weeks after I get back home. Muscles back to normal, jet lag gone, photos filed away in some catacomb of my mac, the time when shades of the trip burrow into who I am and how I see the world; feeling small and fleeting in Zion Canyon, feeling big and overwhelmed in Anne Frank’s attic, feeling in awe at the world’s first theater. Feelings, our emotions, are how we understand the world and the ways in which we define ourselves.
So, when the zip line is over and my skin is dry from the surf, travel lingers in small ways, making me who I am, or in this case, who we are.
It’s important to know where this started—a bit off. It was a few weeks before our first wedding anniversary. My wife was in the thick of planning our anniversary trip, and I was in the thick of trying to persuade her to pass up a trip and settle on a nice dinner out. To be clear, this was not just any dinner out, as I put it, this would be “a really, really nice dinner out.”
To me there was no difference between coupling a massage with a great dinner and taking a weekend trip to Ojai. Beyond that, neither possibility really got me too excited, so I vastly preferred the more simple option, but no matter how “really, really, really nice” I made the dinner sound, I couldn’t get out of at least one night away. This one night became my wife’s Alamo. She took it on her shoulders to so overwhelmingly blow my mind that from this trip onward, when our anniversary approached, I would unflinchingly charge into full on international lover mode. This trip would be the trip that would make me excited to get away, no matter what.
On the day of our departure, I didn’t get any details except an address for Google Maps, but had a template growing in my head – Jacuzzi tub, king sized bed, swim up bar— you know the cookie cutter escape. I was shocked when we finally arrived at the place she had decided was the best choice to lay it all on the line.
Within an hour from our house, we had parked in a wooded clearing and found our home for the night, an odd little cabin with a vibe similar to my much sought after ‘writer’s retreat’ designed by Thoreau and Oscar Wilde. I knew she was onto something. She’d taken my love of the magical and unusual and found a place that drew out my imagination and satisfied her wanderlust, a place that gave a tone and mood to the trip. I loved it and hated that I had decided to leave all my usual creative-type brick-a-brack (paper and pen, guitar, camera) at home, but this wasn’t about me creating— this was supposed to be about us.
Inside, the cabin was a mish-mash of styles combined for the most efficient use of space. The cozy quarters and unique set-up of the cabin became the focus of our stay. Sure, we explored the area, a mix of eclectic shops and beautiful coastline, but at night there was only us and the sounds of the forest.
Do you have a travel story that tranformed your life? Share your story using hashtag #AirbnbViews. See the campaign and find your next adventure Airbnb.com/Views
It’s funny the things you talk about when there is nothing to talk about and fascinating how the absence of input can squeeze out who you really are. Left by ourselves for a night, in this place that seemed on the edge of some “Alice in Wonderland” world, we were at once both inspired and connected. Getting away to such a different place let us discover new things about ourselves. The Alamo was lost—or won, depending on who’s side you were on, I’ve always been a Davey Crockett fan.
After we returned, I looked at our relationship in a different light. Being in that cozy getaway had made me feel important and loved, and having felt that, from that point on, it became part of who I am. In a more clear-cut way, only a few weeks later, I was itching to escape again, something my wife takes infinite joy in rubbing in my face.
In partnership with Airbnb. “Book a home. Get a unique view of the world.” Watch the Airbnb Views video here.