Or, how to “travel” without leaving your home during the pandemic?
Suddenly everyone found themselves in a strange and difficult situation. First we laughed, then we were surprised and now we are closed in our houses. But don’t worry, this will also pass. But, what to do at home when bored? If you like to travel and the pandemic has even ruined your plans for your next trip, we have prepared a list of the 10 best things, related to trips, you can do from home.
Here is the complete list of 10 best things you can do at home. Keep reading to see the ideas in detail.
- Arrange your album or the photo book
- Try to cook something international
- Travel related board games
- Take an online travel photography course
- Explore new destinations for your next adventure
- Organize your souvenirs from past trips
- Start studying a new language
- Make yourself a bucket list
- Paint the world map on the wall and hang the photos
- Plan your next trip and help us save tourism
1) Arrange your album or the photo book
Honestly, how long have you not developed any photos of your trip? Or maybe you didn’t even put them in an album or in the computer … And what was your excuse? Lack of time, right? We are (almost) all the same. But now, if we have time and doing this will allow you to travel again and relive all the experiences.
Here are the steps you want to take so that you have something to show once this crisis is over:
- Don’t try to fix all your photos at once, you will never finish it. Start with one journey, the journey you would most like to remember. Once you finish, you will continue to the next one. That is, if the quarantine doesn’t end earlier.
- Once you choose the trip, it is time to choose the best photos. In this step we recommend that you know what album size you want to order. We know that it is difficult to choose just a few photos, but if the album is too long, it will lose its charm (and will be expensive). For the week-long trip we recommend choosing about 50 photos.
- Now is the time to create your album. If you like working with your hands more and are creative, just print the photos or send them to develop and create an album by drawing, writing or pasting what you want – tickets, airfare and even some small souvenirs like dried flowers, pebbles and more.
- The other option is to create a photo book. As we are on time try to do it on your own. The vast majority of providers offer very easy programs that allow you to play with the photos, move them around and really create the ideal photo book. One, accessible in all countries, is Google Photo which now offers the possibility to create and order photo books.
What do you think? See if this quarantine will be long enough to arrange all your photos.
2) Try to cook something international
Yes, we already know that the amount of food and access to stores are somewhat limited at the moment. But even so, there are easy recipes that you can make and they will take you to countries that you have already visited and others that are still waiting for you.
And there are thousands of recipes all over the internet. How to choose the best, the most authentic? First of all, don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you are missing some species, just do not use them, try without, play around … And the next time the stores open, you can make everything perfect and be the star of the party. Even coffee can bre prepared in many different ways!
We, as we are a specialized travel agency in Slovenia, Croatia and the rest of the Balkans, will be giving you ideas and recipes of the typical dishes of the area. This is how you prepare for Balkan food before you visit us.
What to do at home when bored?
Cook something delicious!
A couple of the richest recipes with tips on how to prepare them, will be published every week until the end of this crisis on our Instagram and Facebook profile – so follow us and you will no longer be wondering what to do at home when bored. Instead of getting bored, you will be discovering new places with your mouth.
3) Travel related board games
There are several travel related board games. Here we leave you a couple of our favorites:
- Pandemic – obviously this is the number one game at the moment. It is a game of cooperation between countries in which you try to stop the pandemic that is spreading.
- Monopoly – the classic board game, but we recommend you find the version that you can modify yourself – choose the names of the stops, print your photos for them.
- Cards with photos of the places you visited – they exist all over the world and with them you can play many different games. If you don’t have them at home, get some.
- BrainBox – this is a memory game that surely will also teach you something about the planet we live on. They are perfect for playing with children, but there are also versions for adults. If you do not believe us, try it, it is more difficult than it seems and will leave you entertained for days. We would recommend the BrainBox “Around the World” or “Cities of the World”.
- Ticket to Ride or in Spanish Avantureros al tren – is a perfect board game for those who like traveling by train. To make it even more fun – every time you build a new train track, look at what country you built it in and try to say something interesting about that country.
- Country crossword puzzles – if you want to use your time for educational purposes, find yourself a country crossword puzzle online and go ahead and fill it out.
- Make one up – we want to encourage you to make a brand new, your own board game. Especially if you are home with children. This way you will really use the time you have with them, you will create something new and you can use it later as well.
4) Take an online travel photography course
We have been talking a lot about photography already, but it is one thing that each of us does, even more now in the age of smartphones. But don’t think you need a professional camera to enhance your photos or that your phone will do all the work for you.
There are easy compositions, light and photo shooting tricks, which will help you take photos faster and make them look even better. Ever heard of the golden ratio or the golden hour? If the answer is no, it is time to find you an online photography course.
But not just any photography course, find yourself a travel photography course. The biggest difference is that, in classic photography you will usually have a lot of time to organize yourself, to plan everything, to adjust the light, composition, to retake the photo thousands of times, until it is perfect. In travel photography none of that is possible. You have to react quickly, take advantage of every moment, every time. Expect the unexpected and be prepared for everything. Even for a global pandemic 😉
To start practicing – take a photo from your window, of people, sky, neighbors … If any of them look nice, show them to the world and to us on Facebook or Instagram.
5) Explore new destinations for your next adventure
Do you think you already know the whole world, you know all the destinations, all the places you want to visit? Well no …
Every year, on different tourist fairs around the world, there is still someone who asks us: “Hey, how about security in Yugoslavia, is there still a war?” Well no, we have lived in peace for almost 30 years. In fact, Slovenia, for example, is one of the safest and most prosperous countries in the world.
We all know Dubrovnik. But did you know, that on a daily visit from there, without a problem you can also visit the beaches of Montenegro and Medjugorje, the pilgrimage center in Bosnia?
That and many other interesting things, you can learn about the Balkan countries directly from our blog, so once the borders are released and the virus is beaten, you will know where to travel. Help us save tourism.
6) Organize your souvenirs from past trips
Every spring many people decide to do the cleaning of the house. And this year, we actually have enough time to get it done right. Rearrange everything, make it more alive, more fun. Fill the shelves with your favorite memories, clean the dust from the others. Wouldn’t doing that, the house will look nicer?
Organizing your memories, will fill you with positive energy that we all need these days.
With each ‘’memory’’ that you are going to clean or give it a new little place in your house, you will remember when you bought or received it, as you felt back then.
7) Start learning a new language
In our agency, all travel agents speak at least 5 languages. We like it, it fascinates us and makes it easier for us to travel ourselves. And believe us, even if you don’t speak a language perfectly well, a few words are enough, to make you feel more accepted, relaxed and safe in a foreign country.
Today there are several ways to learn. You have courses, online courses and app-s that can help you. Our favorite is Duolingo, but there are several more. With just a few minutes a day, you will learn at least how to say hello, thank you to someone or ask for directions – and maybe even understand what they are saying ; )
8) Make yourself a bucket list
Generally everyone has many desires, many things that they want to fulfill in life. Writing them down will help you follow and fulfill them. And this is also valid for trips and all kinds of experiences.
Now, when you are wondering what to do at home when bored and you have time, you can make a booklet with your personalized list of things you want to do, adding some that you already accomplished – for the positive spirit and once you can go out again, you will know very well where to start.
And how satisfying it will be, to mark each of the things as done.
As specialists in trips to the Balkans, here are a couple of our proposals, to make it easier for you to start:
⃝ Enjoy dinner, made by the best female chef in the world in Slovenia.
⃝ Find the prestigious white truffle in the Croatian Istria.
⃝ Observe the brown bear in the Slovenian nature.
⃝ Take your picture in The Iron Throne at the original King’s Landing – Dubrovnik.
⃝ Enjoy dinner in 3 countries – the starter in Slovenia, the second course in Italy, the main course in Austria and the dessert again in Slovenia.
⃝ I slept in a Slovenian glamping resort.
If you decide to travel with us, this step does not need to be done, the most special bucket list, we are preparing it and is waiting for you when you start your journey 🙂
9) Show children the world through games
It is very difficult to remember what to do at home when bored, but it is even more difficult to keep children entertained for so long. Here are 5 easy activities, which will help you better understand this planet on which we live:
- Secret place: close your eyes and stick a sticker on the map. Open them and investigate the country or the place, where your sticker has landed. Look at the photos on the internet or take a simulated trip.
- Simulated trip: build an airplane, a car or a boat – you don’t need much, it could be a chair or a box – if the children are going to paint it, the experience will be even better. Then plan your trip around the world. What countries are you going to visit? What languages do they speak there?
- Animals of the world: What animals live in your country? But where would you find a lion or a giraffe? What animals live in Europe, in the Mediterranean Sea?
- Food Detectives: Much of our food today, comes from abroad, it can be a fun game and useful conversation to start by looking in the kitchen and finding on the map, how far your food has traveled.
- Language Explorers: Choose a country and learn how to say “hello” in their language. Some countries have several different official languages, while Spanish is spoken in many different countries.
10) Plan your next trip and help us save tourism
One of the things we will learn from this global pandemic is that, you never know what can happen. So you have to live life to the fullest, enjoy every moment.
However, the pandemic will pass, just like everything bad in our lives, and then it will be time to enjoy again. To make new memories, live new experiences, explore this planet so huge, so curious and so surprising. On our web page you will find plenty of ideas.
If you already have a booked trip, with any agency, don’t cancel it, modify the date. Help us save tourism and the global economy. Let’s not let the virus defeat us …
