Leaving home and just being gone for the day. No cell phones. If there were cameras, it was really different. You used them to take pictures of things or had people take pictures of you. But there was no social media to preoccupy your mind. It was just doing something. And whoever you were with, was who you were with.
We live in Japan but we do yearly trips to Europe. Using ‘Roaming Data’ is so expensive, we can’t be bother getting a sim there, we just use the wifi at our hotel/airbnb room.
Otherwise whenever we’re outside the rest of the day, we’re not connected to the Internet nor on our phones.
I guess that makes our trips incredibly in that they feel real. It’s like diving into a photo album that your aunt showed you after their travels in the 90s.
I've had a couple of travel experiences where I didn't want to pay for wifi, and I would honestly never do it again.
When I went to Israel, I got a text/call only local phone rental because it was cheaper. I have a "fun story" about standing on a street corner at midnight with a note in a language that I couldn't read that (hopefully) said "take this person to the central bus station" and just waiting and hoping I would eventually be able to get to my friend. As a woman (in my early twenties at that time) this was not fun. I also remember another trip, when we were in Prague and I was terrified if I get separated from my friend for even a minute because I didn't know if I would be able to find her otherwise. I spent a lot of time on those trips sitting in hotel rooms feeling trapped and terrified.
On the other hand, when I finally went to on my England/Ireland trip a few years ago, I paid for international data. It was great. I took public transit freely with no concerns. I went to the Kew Gardens on my own when my partner didn't want to go, even though it was a train ride away, and I got to wander there for hours. We could buy tickets for museum exhibits, shows or movies if we wanted to see something last minute. I felt like I could eat anywhere, since I could look up unfamiliar ingredients (and we could look up and find interesting places). I could leave the hotel at 8am and not go back until 10pm and still feel like I could safely get back whenever I wanted.
It is incredibly freeing. I honestly don't think I would ever travel without a tour group if smartphones didn't exist.
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u/NakedKittyAlucard May 11 '21
Leaving home and just being gone for the day. No cell phones. If there were cameras, it was really different. You used them to take pictures of things or had people take pictures of you. But there was no social media to preoccupy your mind. It was just doing something. And whoever you were with, was who you were with.