travel for singles: one for the road

Out there...you dont have to stay all alone    Photo: Izzet Keribar/ Lonely Planet

This is the title and photo from a story I just read in The Sydney Morning Herald: Traveller pages. The ideas were too good not to pass on ...so...if you are curious or have a friend who might like some travel tips before they set off on solo travel enter  www.smh.com.au/travel/traveller-tips/travel-for-singles-one-for-the-road     Take a peek at  ourexplorer.com (an australian organisation) that connects you with local guides in distant destinations to walk and talk you through a new city or place...just one of the sites mentioned.

IF YOU HAVE ANY GREAT LiNKS TO SIMILAR IDEAS PLEASE EMAIL IF YOU WISH TO SHARE THEM!

At  www.oxfordmuse.com there is interesting discussion ongoing about how travel, through hotels and cultural enterprises, could significantly enhance the value and experience of travel for individuals. The Oxford Muse is a foundation set up on Oxford, UK, to stimulate courage and invention in personal, professional and cultural life. Behind this foundation is the extraordinary Theodore Zeldin who's short biography can be found if you open Muse Ideas on this website...with references to his long career as an academic, writer and currently catalyst for some amazingly rich and soulful thinking about co-creating the future. A few years ago I watched a 2 hour webcast of a lecture he gave at the Tate Modern on thinking around work as we move into the future. I also have explored his  brilliant concept  titled Muse conversation dinners.

Some of you may be wondering how a photo of a woman sitting on a jetty and an article on solo travel leads me to the Oxford Muse. I am very interested in going beyond the "travel for consumers" experience in the same way  I'm very interested in the multitude of ways of people find for animating their working lives and everyday circumstances.

Saturated with packaged options for living,eating, spending, travelling 24/7 (that we may or may not be able to afford)...... it can sometimes take quite a random lightening bolt to break habits and traditions and stuck thinking about our priorities and choices.I love the way Zeldin's books and the Oxford Muse quietly explore the most radical rethinking of the everyday with reason and curiosity. Travel becomes an opportunity for so much more than a pile of snaps and sunburn. The School of Life (CLICK ON MY BLOG LIST) is similarly re-exploring these kinds of things.

If you have heard of nostalgia for the future...then I think that is what I often feel...excited that people out there are awake and enthusiastic to address the everyday world by creating things of all kinds that function better in multiple ways...ideas that can reach the greatest number due to affordability or inclusiveness, ideas that can profoundly enhance lives, increase wellbeing and not just for the 10% of the world's population who can afford most things.

PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH ANY LINKS TO PROJECTS YOU ARE INVOLVED IN OR KNOW ABOUT THAT ARE SIMILARLY FOCUSED. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!