Travel Styles

Just like clothing, hair, and home decor, people have different styles of travel.  There are so many ways we could break this down. Here are a few styles that may resonate with you, or someone you know.  I’ve broken then into 5 categories and 12 subcategories to help make sense of the styles. Different ones may appeal to you at different times of your life or for different trips.

Speed: how fast or slow you like to travel

Maximizers

Maximizers are people who want to see and experience as much as possible on their trip.  They’re usually people with limited vacation time (e.g. Americans) and want to see everything they can before heading back home.  They also often don’t expect to ever return to their destination. The trip is a “once in a lifetime” experience, so they want to see it all now.  They often feel the fear of missing out (FOMO), so this approach quells

Sponges

Sponges are people who want to experience everything they can about one, or a few places.  They really like to soak up what a limited number of places have to offer. These people don’t feel much, if any, FOMO.  If they feel any FOMO, it’s that they missed out on something special while they were somewhere. These travelers usually take a slow, steady approach.  They’re often people on sabbatical, a gap year, or slow moving digital nomads. They have both time and finances on their side to pace themselves.

Location: what kind of destinations attract you

Outdoorsy

Outdoorsy travelers like to experience nature and often find themselves in environments that test them physically and mentally.  They may be scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, surfing in Hawaii, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, or white water rafting through the Grand Canyon.  Or maybe they’re doing yoga in 100 degree heat at Angkor Wat. For this type, travel is an excuse to break out the gear and get their hearts pumping in new, remote locations.

Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan travelers can’t get enough of the big city.  The restaurants, shopping, theater, broad avenues, architecture, winding old city quarters, and people watching are the draw.  This type will scope out the best that each city has to offer, book their tickets, make their reservations, and plot their footpaths.  Like maximizers, they’re often very busy and always on the go.

Comfort: the level of familiarity or novelty you seek

Familiar

Familiar travelers often go to the same one or few places.  They found places they like. They always stay at the same hotel or guesthouse.  They always eat at the same restaurants in town. They may even be friends with people at their destination.  For them, the trip is a home away from home. They feel comfortable in familiar surrounds and that brings them joy.

Exotic

Exotic travelers are seeking new experiences.  They like to feel like a fish out of water. They like the challenge of trying to do something basic, like order a coffee, in a new language.  Being the one who is different energizes them. The more foreign everything feels, the better the experience.

Tempo: the speed of the places you enjoy visiting

Chaotic

Chaotic travelers want everything to be busy, messy, crazy, and all over the place.  They feel some comfort in the frenzy of rush hour traffic where cars, buses, taxis, bicycles, trams, rickshaws, pedestrians, and people on rollerblades are all zooming around.  They love having a thousand options available at any given moment. They find the frenzy freeing- it means they can go anywhere and do anything.

Tranquil

Tranquil travelers love the peace and quiet.  They’re the ones on a remote beach or a house on  a mountain where maybe the only other person you’ll see is a sheep herder.  Or they’re in a lazy town where you can do something, if you want. Or you can just sleep all afternoon.  No one will judge. It’s all about the go-at-your-own-pace style… or no pace at all.

Interest: activities that attract you to a place

History

History travelers are ones who enjoy the richness of the past.  These travelers love to read and watch documentaries about bygone eras.  The purpose of their trip is to see the places they’re heard so much about firsthand.

Food

Food travelers are led to places by their stomachs.  These people are typically foodies. After eating at all the best restaurants near where they live and befriending some families from those places too for some home cooked meals, they realize they just have to have the real thing.  Then they go home and nothing is as good.

Art

Like history travelers, art travelers go to soak up the art scene.  Whether it’s historical art in a museum or current artists showing in galleries and studios, art lovers go to take in local creativity.

Culture

Culture travelers are mini-anthropologists.  They travel to experience a new culture. You’ll find them at language classes, cooking lessons, living with host families, and doing some heavy people watching.  They travel to see how differently societies can be organized, and people relate to one another and their surroundings. They love to test their pre-set ideas of how life ought to be.

Which do you think you are?

Are there more styles you’d add?  What are they?