Travel vs. Experience

When you're planning a trip, have you ever stopped to ask yourself what experiences you actually want to live?

Travel vs. experience: what's the difference?

Of course the trip itself is already an experience, and I'll go further: how you experience a trip is deeply personal. A place that was incredible for me might be terrible for you.

A lot of things shape your experience during a trip. Who you travel with, who you meet, the people at the hostel or hotel where you stay, the tours you take, and much more. Your perception of a place is yours alone.

But that's not really what I want to talk about here.

There's a different kind of experience I want to point to — one that can only be lived in a specific place. The northern lights, for example. You can go to parties anywhere in the world, but you can only see the aurora in a handful of places, at certain times of year.

My northern lights

That's how I decided to give myself the northern lights as a birthday gift. I never imagined it would be this special.

First of all, when you start the 'hunt', they warn you upfront that you might not see anything at all — and that made me super anxious, full of butterflies in my stomach.

At the first stop we already caught a small glimpse of it, and stayed a while there. Our guide lit a bonfire, and we roasted marshmallows while drinking hot chocolate. Honestly, I felt like I was inside a movie. The aurora had already been thrilling, and suddenly there I was with my little stick and my marshmallow, speaking English, laughing with people from the tour, in a scene straight out of a film. That moment stayed with me.

But I didn't even know the best was still to come. We kept hunting to a second spot, and that's where something I never expected happened. The sky was clear, and there were several auroras dancing at once. Our guide said it was rare to see that much activity. And that's when I cried. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the universe, and I'll never forget that moment.

It was a night when I fulfilled a dream, earned an experience I'd always wanted, and lived another one I wasn't even expecting. I'm so glad I decided to see the northern lights, and not just travel to Norway.

The problem is we forgot to look for this

These days, with social media, a lot of people worry more about taking a photo somewhere and showing they've been to certain countries than about seeking out unique things to actually live.

That's why this post is meant to get you thinking about travel in a different way — one that goes beyond a photo at a tourist spot.

My invitation to you

Here's my recommendation: create two different bucket lists for your life, and try to check off at least one from each every year.

In the first list, put the places you want to see. In the second, put the experiences you want to live. Here's a list of experiences I've already lived and recommend:

• See the northern lights
• Watch whales
• Learn to make pizza in Italy
• Drive a snowmobile
• Drink Tuscan wine, in Tuscany
• Roast marshmallows over a bonfire
• Live a movie-perfect Halloween (USA or Canada)
• Float in the Dead Sea
• Sleep in the desert with the Bedouins
• Watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon
• Go to a rave at the pyramids in Egypt
• Hike the Grand Canyon
• Hike the Andes
• Dance / learn salsa in Colombia
• Ride the Tren a las Nubes, in Argentina

So, have you stopped to think about which experiences you want to live, not just which places you want to see?

Follow along here, I'll be sharing more adventures and experiences I've lived. I want to inspire you to create your own lists.