Traveling is often portrayed as being constant fun and excitement – amazing sights, meeting new people and doing different things. However, any seasoned traveller knows that there are also bits which are less exciting – these are the bits where you are on a train, a bus, a boat or coach and you need some way to pass the time. Here are some tips on how to keep yourself amused on long journeys.
Read a book
A book is an excellent option when you are traveling. They’re easy to carry around (unless you’ve decided on War and Peace), not noisy and, most importantly, they don’t require charging to work. All you need to do is get your book out and get reading. When you are really into a book, it can transport you away from where you are into a whole different world. There are also so many different books available – fiction, non-fiction and a whole variety of genres. If you want to read teenage vampire fiction on a plane to Thailand, then you can. If you want to read a book about the decline of the Ottoman Empire on a bus in Switzerland, then you can do that, too.
Win money
Why not make some money out of your long trip? If you’ve got a long train or bus journey then there’s plenty of time for you to play games using your smartphone. You could win hundreds of millions on the lottery. Think of all of the things that you could pay for if you won that much money – no more worrying about rent or your mortgage, you could pay off your debts and you wouldn’t need to worry about medical bills or college tuition fees. Also, you can play the lotto just using your smartphone. Your prayers could be answered by an online lottery service – these services also give you tips on how to win the lotto.
Listen to something
If you don’t fancy reading a book then you could listen to one instead. There are various platforms that host audiobooks of all kinds, read by all sorts of famous and not-so-famous people. Audiobooks beat out normal books when you are lacking light and when you feel like being lazy. As well as audiobooks, there are also plenty of podcasts available to listen to that discuss everything you might be interested in, from films and TV to politics and history.
You can also listen to good old-fashioned music but you could try and do things differently from just listening to your favourites. Try picking out some albums that you’ve always meant to listen to beforehand and make yourself listen to them on your journey to help expand your music tastes. You could even look up some popular artists from the country you are traveling to so that you can really get into the right mood.
Try out your language skills
If you’ve made some attempt to learn the language of the place you are going to then you could try and practice them on fellow travelers. Of course, not everyone wants a random foreigner talking to them in a broken language but you could have a short chat about something simple like where they would recommend visiting. Talking to locals is the best way of cementing and developing your language skills and a great way of utilizing time spent sitting on a train or bus.
Watch something
There’s a reason why long-haul flights show you movies. The average length of a movie is about 130 minutes so if you watch a couple then you will probably knock out most of your trip without even thinking about it, depending on how engrossed you are. Platforms like Prime Video and Netflix offer you both a large selection of films and hour upon hour of your favorite show to gorge upon. Just think of the number of episodes that you could watch on a long flight and all you need is your phone, tablet or laptop.
Write a journal
Travel writing has been around for as long as there has been something portable to write on. Writing is a great way for you to articulate your experiences and will help you remember the things that happened on your travels. It is also a relaxing way of passing the time if you don’t want to stare at a screen. Of course, writing isn’t always possible when traveling – you might be on choppy waters or a particularly bumpy road.
