There’s an inevitable moment which occurs every time I meet a new person and explain what I do for a living. “Oh, that’s interesting!” they always say, followed by the slightly-jealous “It must be so nice to travel all the time.” Let’s be clear here, I love traveling, and I am so lucky to have this as part of my job, but that’s what it is: a job.
The Evolution of Travel
Business travel is vastly different from vacation or personal travel. My days are filled with itineraries, plans, calls, interviews, notes, and hunting for wi-fi signals. No matter what city I visit, I’m more likely to familiarize myself with the local Starbucks than the shops or museums. When you’re an online publisher and face competition with literally millions of articles coming out per day, you realize quickly that downtime is a thing of the past.
For example, last time I was travelling through Portland, Oregon, I was approaching a deadline and facing an imminent deadline, while battling a dead laptop battery. While coffeehouses pretty much litter the streets in Portland, there wasn’t time to waste driving around trying to find the most convenient location in a navigable proximity which would offer wi-fi, cheap service, and little to no chance of singer-songwriters in the corner. (An incredibly tall order.) In past decade, I would have been forced to use trial-and-error, hopping from site to site like Goldilocks changing beds. Fortunately, I live in the digital age, where a quick search on Yelp and a few buttons on my rental car’s on-board navigator, and I had found my ideal temporary office. Efficient, yes, but not exactly the kind of soulful wandering normally associated with traveling through the Pacific Northwest.
This got me wondering. Is it actually true? Has the digital age eliminated the concept of free time, and have our devices ruined the fun of “business trips?”
Was this just a myth to begin with?
To find out, I turned to Dalene Heck, a former corporate-world professional who traveled for business, and is now a full-time professional world traveler and writer, as the co-founder of Hecktic Travels. We got a chance to talk about getting lost, technology, and the value of a good “digital detox”.
Dalene Heck shares some pre-social media business travel tricks that still work
Q: Before social media, Yelp reviews, and Facebook recommendations, what was your preferred method of finding ways to kill time in a new town?
A: “An awful lot of aimless wandering! Or recommendations from locals when time was short but I wanted to see the highlights. I’m perpetually bad at planning, so I still do that now!”
Q: What invention/technical development has improved your traveling the most over the past twenty years?
A: “Google Maps are invaluable. Many will hark that “getting lost is part of the fun”, but that is not always the case. It’s raining, my stomach is growling – I just want to find where I’m going! Google Maps have made traveling so much easier.”
Q: Conversely, is there anything that was an essential part of travel in days gone by which has gone away, and you wish would come back?
A: “Sometimes I need to force myself into a digital detox in order to just absorb what is going on around me. Traveling without devices was a simpler and less distracted time. I don’t always get a new sim card for my phone when I get to a new country which enables me to be more disconnected and really enjoy my explorations more.”
Q: When you were working and traveling as part of the corporate world, what did you do to make those separations in your mind between “work in a new place” and “fun in a new place?” What did you do to keep business travel seem fun and not like a chore?
A: “I tried as much as possible to scope out interesting restaurants to visit. I couldn’t control what I did during my day (work was a chore!), but everyone has to eat, so that was my way to explore the new places I visited.”
Q: What are the best places you were ever sent to go for work, as opposed to picking the destination yourself?
A: “My work travel never took me anywhere exotic, but was mostly just small towns across the US and Canada that housed specific manufacturing plants. It rarely took me to towns I had ever heard of before! So when I got to go somewhere fun like Chicago or Vancouver, those were my favorite trips.”
Q: Your primary travel partner is your husband. What do you think are the biggest differences between traveling as a couple and travel as a single woman?
A: “Because my husband and I have been traveling together for so long, we have very defined “roles” on the road. He takes care of money, I am a better navigator, etc. And now I find that I absolutely rely on him for certain things, so when I do travel alone, I struggle to handle everything I need to. Traveling can be a lot of work! It helps to have a partner to split the tasks.”
Q: On a long drive, what’s your plan of attack music-wise? Do you have carefully curated “road trip” playlists, or do you just trust shuffle mode, or even rely on CDs or the radio?
A: “Usually, it’s shuffle mode, or my husband and I just take turn picking songs based on our mood. Music is such an essential part of a road trip, we want to be sure both our needs are covered!”
A More Simple Itinerary
Dalene’s experiences traveling through the ‘90s, ‘00s, and today gave me a lot to think about and compare to my own life. While I complain sometimes about the constant bombardment and digital overload I experience when on the road, I also have the great fortune to know that I will never be truly lost, unless I want to be. What this comes down to is a freedom of choice.
DROP THAT PHONE. Lost your sense of adventure in business travel? Go on a digital detox. Resist the Google search before walking into an establishment.
After all, there’s nothing really stopping me from putting myself into a mini-time warp, an era without distractions. All I really need to do is step outside my hotel room and just turn my phone off. Oh, except if I see something cool, then I have to put it on Twitter and Instagram. Oh, and I’ll need to check-in at the restaurant and tell all my friends I’m here. And of course I’ll have to review it for my fellow travelers, and…. Okay, this is going to be harder than I thought.
Do you have some thoughts on the difference between travels today and from days gone by? Leave your stories and opinions in the comments below, and one contestant will win a business travel prize pack from National Car Rental valued at over $400! The winner will be selected via RaffleCopter.
The package includes:
- eleven techtrap
- zoom energy pack re-chargeable battery
- leather luggage tag, camelback groove stainless
- $100 AMEX card, $50Starbucks gift card
- knitting charge!
