Travelling is a great way to expand your horizons and see more of the world, but there is space for home comforts while exploring. Just because you are away from home doesn’t mean you have to stop doing the things you love the most.
Hobbies help define us and we don’t stop loving them when we are in a different place. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your skills honed regardless of where you might be. Discover how to keep practicing some of the most popular hobbies in the world while travelling, no matter if it’s for pleasure or business.
Keeping your gym gains
If you are staying in a hotel make sure to enquire if there is a gym and how to access the facilities that are there. You may also find that local gyms offer day or week passes which will allow you to fulfil your workout program without forcing you to join.
A third option is bodyweight or callisthenics workouts. These require no equipment but still involve some lifting and resistance, which is vital for increasing muscle mass.
However, given that you will be only lifting your body weight, it’s really a way to maintain what you have got until you can get back into the gym. You can increase the workload on your body by introducing resistance bands that don’t take up much real estate in your luggage.
Get creative with your craft
Arts and crafts come in many different forms, some of which are not practical for travelling. Just imagine trying to pack up your easel, canvases, and paints for a backpacking trip across Asia! Nevertheless, you can get creative and try alternative methods of your craft so that you don’t just give it up cold turkey.
For instance, if painting is your hobby, experiment with using pastels and a sketchbook. Considering you may be travelling to somewhere exotic there should be plenty of drawing inspiration all around you. Keeping an illustrated travel journal is a great way to remember where you went and what you did when looking back.
Perhaps you love making ceramics but there’s no way your kiln and potter’s wheel are fitting in your suitcase. A small pack of non-setting modelling clay will allow you to keep making creations throughout your vacation or work trip.
Other crafts, like cross-stitch, needlepoint, crocheting, or macrame, can be brought on your travels so you don’t have to pause your project and forget where you got to.
Staying on top of your golf game
It can be tricky to play a regular game of golf on your travels, especially if you don’t want to lug your golf bag everywhere you go. If you are away on business you might not have time to get a round of golf in or, when you do, it’s dark and the course is closed.
Fortunately, there are still ways to play golf, even when the sun goes down. Alternatives like driving ranges and golf simulators allow keen golfers on their travels to maintain their swing and feel for hitting the ball. Driving ranges and golf shops often have simulators that allow you to play a virtual round of golf.
If you don’t think you will have the time for even that, perhaps you are on a whistle-stop tour of several locations, there are other practice aids. Golf exercise tools like Gravity Fit allow you to practise your swing and strengthen your core using resistance. You can practise your swing from the comfort of your hotel room without worrying about breaking anything as you don’t need a club in your hands.
Maintaining hand-eye coordination
If you love playing ball sports as a hobby then you’ll need to have good hand-eye coordination. A simple tennis ball packed into your luggage can provide plenty of entertainment plus it will increase your technical skills. If soccer is your sport you can practise juggling the tennis ball using your feet, or create a trash can target across your room and aim for it.
Thanks to their bouncy nature, tennis balls are ideal for working on ball-handling skills in basketball, or for simple catching practice off the walls. Just make sure to avoid slamming tennis balls against the wall in the middle of the night, other guests are probably going to complain.
Book an Airbnb to stay sharp in the kitchen
Airbnb has changed the way we travel, making it more affordable for people who can’t justify spending a packet on a hotel room. Airbnb isn’t just for travelling, though; it can also be great for those who are working away from home.
You can rent a room in someone’s home for a few days, a week, or some offer even longer stays. The benefit of renting a room in a home is that you can enjoy many of the home comforts you are used to. Like access to a kitchen or garden to chill out in.
For instance, if you love to unwind after work by experimenting in the kitchen, you can still do that in your home away from home. As you are more likely to be shacked up in a residential area rather than a commercial one you will be able to stop at a large grocery store and stock up.
Make friends with the locals
There is no real substitute for meeting up with friends and enjoying mutual hobbies, whatever they may be. However, when travelling we can’t rely on our social circle to always be there to hang out with.
Fortunately, there are like-minded people all around the world but how do you get in touch with them? Local concierge services put you in touch with people who live where you are travelling. They know all of the best places to eat, how much a taxi fare really costs, and how to help you maintain your hobbies.
That might be getting a game at a local tennis club, going for a swim, or meeting up with people to play board games. You can always use social media as a way to find events going on near where you are staying too. Searching relevant hashtags could lead you to a major event right on your temporary doorstep!
