7 Reasons Why You Should Travel In Your Own Country

This post was written during the height of COVID-19 to inspire people to travel around their home country. Despite the outdated content, many of the reasons I mentioned here still apply, which is why I left the post up, so enjoy the article!

As COVID-19 continues to ravage in 2020, it is time to think about what travel will look like after all this is over, if it will ever be, because the virus is not going to magically disappear anytime soon as one particular president of a certain country claimed 😉.

We have to face the reality that the virus will still be around for many years to come and that the travel style we used to engage in, such as flying on a jam-packed plane or taking a multi-day cruise ship, will no longer be viable in the post-COVID-19 world.

Not to mention the fact that every country you want to visit may or may not be opening their borders to outsiders, and even if they do, you might be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. Would you still travel abroad if you had to be in quarantine for that long? Very unlikely.

That said, the world has to move on, as the economy can no longer sustain the worldwide freeze-out any longer, and most countries will be desperate to ramp up the economy somehow.

Table of Contents

What Travel Will Look Like After This Pandemic?
Why Are We Not Traveling in Our Own Country More?
Why You Should Travel In Your Own Country?
Further Reading for Inspiration

What Travel Will Look Like After This Pandemic?

My prediction for what is to come for the future of the travel industry, an industry that was first to be hit and will likely be the last to recover, is that countries will start to open up a bit more in the upcoming months but only regionally at first or to those countries that were not as affected by this pandemic.

The travel industry is an industry that was first to be hit by the pandemic and will likely be the last to recover.

The process will be gradual and will likely take a year or two for the ban to be entirely lifted, as the infection numbers plummet, given that we can maintain the second and third waves in the summer and fall.

Given that prospect, traveling freely as we used to will not be possible for many months to come, which is why I decided to write this article. Traveling, whether it be short or long distance, is ultimately better than not traveling at all. And since international travels will be closed off, for the most part, it is time for us to look into traveling in our own country.

Why Are We Not Traveling in Our Own Country More?

Have you ever traveled abroad somewhere and asked a local where to go in their country, only to find them struggling to find an answer? Well, I was one of those locals who could recommend places to visit in countries on the opposite side of the world, and yet I struggled to recommend hidden gems in my home country, Thailand.

Why is that the case? You see, in Southeast Asia at least, we tend to romanticize developed countries like France, Japan, and the US. And when it comes to going on vacations, we often prioritize visiting these places over traveling in our own country.

Even if you are not from Asia, you probably think that you can visit your country anytime, as it will always be there, even when you are old. So, like us Asians, you prioritize traveling abroad more.

Or, if we decide to travel within our own country, more often than not, we will opt for the easiest way to travel as possible, such as driving up to a resort and staying there for 2 days before returning home.

We barely interact with the local community when we travel like that, and that is likely why we are unable to provide travelers with useful information when it comes to places to go in our own country, unless, of course, you are looking for the hippest cafes or beautifully decorated, overpriced restaurants where we often find ourselves when we travel in our own country.

That all changed for me when I decided to fly to Phitsanulok in late 2019 and make my way up to Chiang Mai through Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet, Lampang, and Lamphun, backpacking style.

Looking for a complete travel guide to Sukhothai?A Complete Backpacking Guide To Sukhothai

Why You Should Travel In Your Own Country?

That experience completely changed my perspective of my home country. I used to wonder why travelers from all over the world would want to visit Thailand. I knew we had beautiful beaches and islands, and that was all I thought we had to offer to travelers. However, Thailand is so much more than that, as I had come to realize during my backpacking trip in Northern Thailand.

In December 2019, I arrived in Phitsanulok and accidentally stumbled upon a local temple's fair (Ngan Wat, as we called it in Thai). As the local band was performing on the stage, normally, I would ignore it as Thai traditional music didn't align with my self-proclaimed sophisticated "taste" in music. However, since I am a traveler, I decided to be a little more open-minded and watched as they danced the night away.

Five minutes turned into half an hour, and two hours later, I found myself still there, completely mesmerized by the performances of these young talented local musicians. From then on, I have a newfound respect for Thai local talents that I never really cared for before.

And that is what travel does to us and why we love it so much. It opens our minds in a way that we never thought we could, and it has the same effect even on our own culture that we thought we knew all about.

Thankfully, that trip ended before COVID-19 hit, and as we prepare for the new reality of limited travel, I am here to convince you to start exploring your own country while we wait for the world to revive itself from this pandemic.

Instead of longing for the good old days of traveling freely, now is a great time to start looking inward and travel in your home country the way we would abroad. It will keep our wanderlust in check while we also play a part in ramping up the local economy, which will need all the help it can get when this pandemic blows over.

Need more convincing? Here are the reasons why traveling locally backpacking-style is awesome, and why you should start doing it too:

1. It Will Open Your Mind to New Old Experiences

One of the most profound things I learned from traveling in my own country is how much I took my own culture and traditions for granted. We usually do not look at our own culture with fascination like travelers do.

It only took me 7 years of traveling, experiencing different cultures around the world, and looking back into Thailand with fresh eyes to really see how beautiful and diverse our culture is. I learned that the old experiences that used to bore me become new when I look at them with fascination as a regular traveler would when we travel somewhere new.

Traditional music, which used to sound repetitive and boring, suddenly became fun and interesting. Instead of dining in well-established restaurants, I found myself going to night markets every night to try the variety of street food we have in Thailand.

Seeing Machu Picchu in Peru was an amazing experience, but my god, isn't Sukhothai one breathtaking historical park? Can you imagine, I never once set foot on it in the past 30 years until now?

When the lockdown is over, try to go backpacking in your home country, and you might be surprised at how beautiful your country really is and how much you missed out on when you took your own country for granted, as I did.

2. Interaction with the Locals Are More Meaningful

I've been to many places and have had many chances to hang out with people from all walks of life, but nothing connects people more than when we speak the same language and have the same background.

Usually, when we travel, there is often a language barrier that hinders our ability to connect with one another in a meaningful way. However, when we travel in our own country, that problem doesn't exist anymore.

Friendship can flourish when we are relatable to one another. When I traveled in my own country, I found it easier to befriend the locals, especially when I started speaking Thai to them. They often mistook me for a Chinese/Japanese tourist. 😅

Not just that, but when we travel in our own country, we will see how genuinely lovely and friendly our countrymen and women are, which, again, is something we might have been taking for granted before.

To give you an example, I was traveling in Lampang when I met a local family who ran a cafe near my hostel. I visited their cafe one day, and we started talking with all the family members. They shared various tips about Lampang and also gave insights into their lives out there.

Soon enough, I found myself talking to them every day for almost a week, with most days ending late at night. Before I knew it, they were feeding me home-cooked food free of charge and taking me to places that I would never have seen if I hadn't met them.

My Lampang trip turned into one of the best and most genuine travel experiences ever, and all because we were able to connect with each other without having to deal with the language barrier, unlike when traveling in other countries. I still keep in contact with the family even today. They seem to be faring better in Lampang during this pandemic than here in Bangkok 😅.

Looking for a complete travel guide to Lampang?A Complete Backpacking Guide To Lampang

3. You Will Learn More About the History of Your Country

How much do you remember the things you learned from your history classes in school? Not much, I presume. Heck, you might even know more about the history of other countries than your own.

Traveling in our own country will give us a chance to get back to our roots and learn who we are as a country and where we came from. I was never interested in Thai history until I read about it in a chronicle written by the West when they first arrived in Siam (the name of my country before it was renamed to Thailand in 1939), and that piqued my curiosity so much that I decided to buy a Thai history book and started traveling to these ancient sites around the country to see them with my own eyes.

During my trip to Thailand in late 2019, I visited Phitsanulok, the old capital of Siam, Sukhothai, the first established Thai kingdom, Kamphaeng Phet, an important defensive outpost, and Chiang Mai, the old capital of the Lanna Kingdom. While doing so, I read about these kingdoms and expanded my knowledge of Thailand even further by visiting the local museums.

By doing that, I gave myself a reason to go out of my way to travel in my own country and be immersed in the experience in a way that I would not be able to if I visited these places without knowing anything about them. Plus, it is also fun to read about the folk legends and stories of these places. It makes history more relatable as I was able to see some of the places mentioned in the book with my own eyes.

4. You Will Become More Flexible

If you are the type of traveler who finds planning trips abroad stressful, here is your chance to let loose a little and start getting used to stress-free planning.

There is a slew of things you need to plan when you are traveling abroad, such as your passport, visa, exchanging cash, etc. But you do not have to worry about any of that when you are traveling in your own country. All you have to do is just show up and enjoy your trip.

Without much planning required, you can give yourself some room to be flexible and do things on a whim in a safer environment, which I truly believe is one of the best ways to experience traveling.

5. It Will Let You See Your Country from Outside of Your Bubble

I have to admit, being in Bangkok for so long, it feels like living in a bubble where all I see are skyscrapers and life being lived at full speed. The news about the suffering of the people outside of Bangkok becomes harder and harder to relate to the longer I live in this city.

"Drought hitting the north of Thailand hard? What drought? Bangkok is fine. I am fine!" With the illusion of comfort, the suffering of anyone else but myself becomes more and more unrelatable. Only when I started traveling in my own country did I see the reality of the world around me as it actually is, outside my bubble.

Big cities tend to create an illusion that the "majority" of the country is doing great, but in reality, people in the capital are, in fact, the minority. Most people outside the cities are living day-to-day, trying to find ways to create whatever income they can make to put food on their plates.

I saw this firsthand when I was in Si Satchanalai, a town 40 km from Sukhothai, and I asked the owner of a bike rental place why they were charging more for bikes than in Sukhothai. They said they rarely see tourists out here, and the fact that they have only 3 bikes available to rent is telling.

As always, travel opens our minds in surprising ways, the good, the bad, and the in-between, and that's what makes traveling in our own country so important. To understand our own country, we need perspectives from both ends of the spectrum, and by seeing the world outside our bubble, we can finally see through the illusion and perceive the world as what it is.

Looking for a complete travel guide to Si Satchanali?A Complete Backpacking Guide To Si Satchanalai

6. It Will Help Support the Local's Economy

And that leads to my next point. Traveling in our own country is also a great way to help ramp up the local tourism economy, which will undoubtedly need all the help it can get when the lockdown is over.

By seeing firsthand how difficult it is for people out in the countryside to live their lives and combining that with the unprecedented effect of the pandemic, supporting the locals is one of the few things travelers like us can do to help the world.

The big companies will be alright after the pandemic is over, but it's the small businesses in rural areas that will need our help the most. The best thing we can do is to do our parts, buy from the locals, and get the economy going again.

7. You Will You Save Money

And best of all, traveling in our own country is often cheaper than when we have to pay for a roundtrip flight to go somewhere abroad. You can also save even more if you travel around with local transportation, as I did in Thailand.

I took a lot of Song Taew (Thailand's shared public transportation) between these provinces that I visited, and a ride would cost me only a few bucks. Whereas, when I am abroad, especially when I do not know the safety and norms of that country yet, I might have to spend a ton of money on taxis or a rented vehicle.

In the end, I believe that people will continue to travel after this pandemic is over, but in a very different way. Traveling will most likely be limited to within one's country at first, and then it will become regional before returning to what it used to be before COVID-19.

So, do not give up on traveling! There is a lot waiting for you to explore out there, and it might even be right in your backyard. So, adapt and start dreaming of your next trip, traveling in your own country.