The best holidays are all about the experience. But what about the ultimate trip, the ultimate fantasy travel experience?
Might it just be a journey with no destination, a trip where you don’t know where you’re going, because what’s important is not where you are but how you feel? London-based luxury travel company Brown & Hudson certainly believes so.
They will create a trip based on your motivations and ambitions, your strengths and personal development goals, and how you want to feel on your return, gleaned from ongoing conversations with you. A trip full of insightful, memorable and rare experiences focused on what makes you tick. They’ll find out what you’re seeking from travel, what motivates you, where you’ve already been, how daring and intrepid you are and plan it all. The rest will be a surprise.
It’s a novel and brilliant idea. Rather than focusing on the hardware of travel, the hotels and destinations, for the ultimate trip focus on the software – the outcomes or change that you want to achieve through travel. A journey where you don’t know where you’re going is about as exciting as it gets – especially when you know it’s exactly tailored to your wants and needs. Because it’s not about the where, it’s about what you like doing – then an unknown journey will bring incredible rewards.
Imagine your passion is photography, and then being whisked off to join a well-known street photographer in the slums of Bangkok, for example. Or you have a deep love of food and suddenly you find yourself in the South African bush preparing meals with rangers or a township with local cooks. Or it’s physical challenges that leave you invigorated and you end up exploring the depths of the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest and even outer space aboard the Virgin Galactic.
It’s a beautiful concept – because perhaps what truly makes an unknown journey the ultimate fantasy trip is the chance to gain new perspectives on life and take opportunities for reflection that upon your return give you a refreshed appreciation for the complex place you call home.
First published in AMag 85 Oct/Nov 2016
