London - This is a great year for travel. And, based on the principle that it’s much easier to prescribe resolutions for others than to keep one’s own, allow me to offer you 10.
1 Check your passport expiry date now. If there is less than six months remaining you could have problems getting into certain countries.
2 See the world with eyes and ears open. Put down your camera or smartphone, take off your headphones and let your senses download the surroundings: the colours, the faces, the architecture, the sky and the natural soundtrack.
3 Don’t feel obliged to pay for an allocated seat. Some airlines imply that if you don’t pay, you’ll end up being seated apart from your family or friends.
In my experience, carriers will do their best to keep you together. If you are travelling with children under 12, they must be seated with you. If you end up awkwardly placed, just ask other passengers to switch seats.
4 Never text while you are crossing a road in a foreign country. Or your own country.
5 Ask the most outdoors-y person you know to name their favourite walk, and walk it.
6 Don’t drink and then think it’s a smart idea to rent a scooter or go for a swim.
7 Figure out where you spent your main holiday when you were half your present age. Return there to see how it has changed - and discover not only how you have changed, but how time filters memory. (Don’t try this if it was somewhere like Homs in Syria.)
In my case it was a hitch-hiking holiday in Poland: see you in Wroclaw, which happily is one of the two European Capitals of Culture this year. The other is San Sebastian, which I feel obliged to visit for completeness.
Dig out your old photographs so you can visit those backdrops and take some comedy replacements.
8 Pack less. I contend that any able-bodied adult going on holiday to a non-extreme destination can easily get everything they need into a modest 10kg cabin baggage allowance. If this is not your customary practice, try it. You will feel liberated, more mobile and better off (given that most airlines charge for checked baggage). You also reduce to zero the risk of your luggage being sent to LOS (Lagos) while you are flying to LAX (Los Angeles).
9 Next time you are in a strange land, go to a sporting event: baseball in the US or Cuba; pelota in Mexico; rugby in Wales. Your rewards will be a new dimension and lots of fun.
10 Step out of your comfort zone. You are getting older. The older you get, the more precious is your time and the greater the need to acquire new experiences.
Think of the place where you feel most comfortable, and do the opposite.
If your ‘happy place’ is, say, a waterside taverna on a Greek island, get yourself off to the Iranian desert (with a good adventure tour operator).
If you are most content kayaking off Vancouver Island or hiking New Zealand’s South Island, try a package in Benidorm, Spain. The Independent